Is this typical performance?

[nst7]

Something's definitely going on there, because the system usage shouldn't be near 62% with that few tracks. Running that on my 2007 Imac doesn't come anywhere near that.

[TurboD]

Again, thanks for your replies chaps.

The computer came installed with 3GB in 6x 512k cards. I then augmented them with a pair of 2GB cards from Crucial. The 2GB cards occupy slots 1&2 on the first riser.

The internal drive is a nice idea, but like I say, on my old G5 I can stream sessions of 80+ tracks without a problem with hard drive speed so I'm hesitant to say that it might be part of the issue.

My playback dialogue settings are:

H/W Buffer Size: 1024 samples
Host Processors: 4 Processors (maximum)
CPU Usage limit: 95%
Delay Compensation: Long
DAE Buffer Size: Level 2
Cache Size: Normal
Plug-in Streaming: Optimized for streaming content from audio drives

As I say, the computer itself is rather sluggish for what should be a fairly well-specced machine. It is not the newest, but the G5 boots up more quickly and takes less time to launch programs. There are also occasional graphics glitches.

The graphics card has been upgraded by the previous owner. Any chance that it might be hogging CPU and causing the problems?

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by carlone

Better yet, just make sure it's set to an odd number or at least 1 less than the total number you have.

Try what Carlone said. Take it back to 3 processors.

Carl

[Darney]

Originally Posted by TurboD

Again, thanks for your replies chaps.


H/W Buffer Size: 1024 samples
Host Processors: 4 Processors (maximum)
CPU Usage limit: 95%
Delay Compensation: Long
DAE Buffer Size: Level 2
Cache Size: Normal
Plug-in Streaming: Optimized for streaming content from audio drives

As I say, the computer itself is rather sluggish for what should be a fairly well-specced machine. It is not the newest, but the G5 boots up more quickly and takes less time to launch programs. There are also occasional graphics glitches.

The graphics card has been upgraded by the previous owner. Any chance that it might be hogging CPU and causing the problems?

Turn off streaming content.
Using a larger Plug-In Streaming Buffer Size leaves less system memory for other tasks. The default setting of 250 ms (Level 2) is recommended unless you are experiencing problems with the reliability of streaming playback from disk. Unless you're using Structure, make is as low as you can.

[LanceK]

Again : 10.6.7 is NOT qualified by Avid. Bring it back to 10.6.6

[TurboD]

OK, thanks for all your ideas, much appreciated!

Any thoughts on why the computer itself might be slow outside of Pro Tools? Like I say, the boot-up on it is arduously slow, slower than my G5 and nowhere near the same as the Mac Pros at the studio.

[basslik]

Originally Posted by TurboD

OK, thanks for all your ideas, much appreciated!

Any thoughts on why the computer itself might be slow outside of Pro Tools? Like I say, the boot-up on it is arduously slow, slower than my G5 and nowhere near the same as the Mac Pros at the studio.

I would first change the video card, especially if it's glitching like you mentioned. Then only use matching ram, then reinstall.

[Darney]

Originally Posted by TurboD

OK, thanks for all your ideas, much appreciated!

Any thoughts on why the computer itself might be slow outside of Pro Tools? Like I say, the boot-up on it is arduously slow, slower than my G5 and nowhere near the same as the Mac Pros at the studio.

I suspect strongly that your home Mac has some apps running in the background. My old G5 is exactly the same machine as the G5 I use at work, and the one at home boots about 5x quicker than my work machine as I have Entourage, Spotlight, etc. running on it.
I'd check to see what apps are installed/running at startup. Have you checked Activity Monitor?

[TurboD]

Activity Monitor is showing nothing running other than the tiniest of scripts. 0.8% of CPU in action when nothing is running.

I have taken out all of the 512mb sticks of RAM and PT is now a lot happier! Many thanks to those who suggested it. Looks like I'll be getting rid of these!

[Siddhant Bhatia]

How can the computer boot up be real slow? Funny that is ... definitely something to do with RAM there ....

Also ... all my machines work fine with 10.6.7 ...