Increase in PT performance going from 32GB RAM to 64?

[Eric Lambert]

As the title suggests, I'm trying to decide if there will be an appreciable boost in performance/speed if I jump from 32GB to 64 using Mojave. I very rarely see a "running low on RAM" message, but I understand that the OS can operate more freely if there's an abundance of available RAM. What I don't know is if 32GB is generally considered enough freedom, or if I'd feel a boost going to 64GB. Enquiring minds want to know.

[LizziF]

I may be wrong (I actually am sometimes) but I think it depends on how many VI's and FXs you are using. PT runs fine on my 32 GB RAM computer and actually does okay on my 16 GB RAM laptop if Iimit the VIs and FXs.

I still bought a 64 GB RAM computer on sale recently because I'm starting to get into orchestration and that does need a lot more RAM to run.

[Darryl Ramm]

If you already have your disk cache configured large enough to fully cache your sessions and are not seeing issues when running VIs and not getting other errors it is not likely to make any difference (except taking longer to POST ).

Extra memory won't really hurt... but what else can you spend that money on, I'd sure be looking at installing PCIe/NVMe boot/system drives on older Mac Pros for example (requires Mojave/recent Boot ROM image). I think you have a Mac Pro Cheesegrater right?

Extra memory can also help if you dont have DRAM DIMMs spread across the memory channels already. But again, if you are not seeing errors today, you likely wont' notice a real world difference.

[Eric Lambert]

ProTools has the necessary breathing room. I suppose what I was getting after was: if I increase RAM and the OS is entirely free to operate without constriction, would that in any way translate back into ProTools? Is there some type of slow-down -- of any sort, systemwide -- due to the fact that I have 32GB instead of 64?

I've been thinking through this and don't actually see an issue, nor do I predict or expect an increase, but I don't know all the ins and outs, hence the question.

I remember back a couple of decades when I first learned about swap files/disk caching and realized how much performance I was losing by having only 4MB RAM when I should have been using 8MB. My 133MHz Pentium 1 thanked me for that $400 upgrade.

So I'm generally just trying to take off any governors, wherever they may be. If I can spend a couple hundo and avoid a roadblock a few months down the road when I'm in the middle of a big project (because that's when these things happen), then I'm interested.

[Darryl Ramm]

Unlikely to make any difference.... and modern OSes are a little complex to understand how their memory systems work.... like if you add more memory they may show they are using it... but often its never just getting rid of crap it does not don't need anymore.

Again if I did not have a PCIe/NVMe boot/system SSD I'd be working to get that. Or PCIe/NVMe SSDs for everything else.

[garnoil]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

If you already have your disk cache configured large enough to fully cache your sessions and are not seeing issues when running VIs and not getting other errors it is not likely to make any difference (except taking longer to POST ).

Extra memory won't really hurt... but what else can you spend that money on, I'd sure be looking at installing PCIe/NVMe boot/system drives on older Mac Pros for example (requires Mojave/recent Boot ROM image). I think you have a Mac Pro Cheesegrater right?

Extra memory can also help if you dont have DRAM DIMMs spread across the memory channels already. But again, if you are not seeing errors today, you likely wont' notice a real world difference.

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 with 96 gigs of RAM. I have my cash set to 32 gigs so I load the entire sound post project into the RAM and still have 64 gig of RAM for whatever else the computer needs to do. So...even after reading the entire project from RAM I still get: "Could not get from drive fast enough' errors. My video is reading from an internal SSD and the audio is reading from the RAM but it resides in an external LaCie USB 3. So...somehow, Pro Tools still gives this error when it is not even reading fort the drive!

[arche3]

I didn't think pcie nvme ssd would work in the 5:1 cheese grater. I have to research this.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by arche3

I didn't think pcie nvme ssd would work in the 5:1 cheese grater. I have to research this.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Yes it will work or I would not have mentioned it. NVMe boot support requires Mojave and the Mojave included Boot ROM upgrade. No other hacks required anymore to get that to work.

[arche3]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Yes it will work or I would not have mentioned it. NVMe boot support requires Mojave and the Mojave included Boot ROM upgrade. No other hacks required anymore to get that to work.

This is madness. My 5:1 keeps going and going.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Darryl Ramm]

Well Apple has tried to rain on that parade by saying no support for macOS Catalina. But who knows what might happen, or what people can hack to get running.