Do I Need HD2? (Process HD vs Access cards)

[gsilbers]

I want to see how much is the processing difference between an acel card vs the old processing card HD. this is for a mac G5 dual 2.5ghz/8gbram pci-x
so its in addition of a HD core card

or if an HD 1 is enough. but everyone tells me that to take good advantage of pro tools i need HD2, and im heading that direction but just want to know the difference between
an HD2 using an HD card versus HD2 using an accell card.

[derF]

Hello,

For the money the Process card is brilliant. You can pick them up cheap secondhand and it'll give you a load more power. This is how I got my HD3 over the years. I recently got one Accel card and it does give you more power (and access to some different plugs like Filterfreak in stereo, Waves API 560 in TDM for eg)

If you want to expand and have more power without breaking the bank I'd check out Process cards. If your expanding and buying new plugins I'd look at Accel cards. I think one of each is pretty nice! I'm saving pennies for another Accel one day....

I run my system on a Dual 2.5 G5.

Hope this helps

[DrFord]

If the question was more spiritual in nature, then yes you will find yourself quite limited and very quickly loosing inspiration by the lower power of a HD1 vs HD2 especially when it comes to track count. Everyone seems to think Pro Tools HD means unlimited tracks! (Clients I mean) but the truth is every RTAS plug in take 2 voices to run mono, and wastes more when you chain plug ins badly between Rtas and TDM. You will find your track count going down substantially when you try and track at 96. I pretty constantly have 96 channels at 96k and have inssues with Not enough DSP to bring output to Master. And I'm running a pretty sweet machine, but I only have HD 2. One Core and 1 accell. So I will soon find myself upgrading to HD3 with another Accell card (or process card - Good look derF by the way)

HTH

[smfelton]

I'm in the same boat, looking for a process card to increase track/voice count, just missed 3 on ebay that went for £120 ea, bargains !! most are still around £450 on ebay which is too much for me at the moment. I'm thinking about getting rid of my 003+ Rack to release some funds and get a process card, maybe also a virtualvia case then I can still go mobile when needed.

[crizdee]

Originally Posted by gsilbers

I want to see how much is the processing difference between an acel card vs the old processing card HD. this is for a mac G5 dual 2.5ghz/8gbram pci-x
so its in addition of a HD core card

or if an HD 1 is enough. but everyone tells me that to take good advantage of pro tools i need HD2, and im heading that direction but just want to know the difference between
an HD2 using an HD card versus HD2 using an accell card.

Hi,

A quick answer...

lots of plugs are optimized for accel and will give you almost double the plugin count.

Some plugins will only run on accel cards! especially at 96k

[gsilbers]

cool thanks.