Running VI's in PT8 on a MacPro

[hosea88]

I am thinking of getting one of the new MacPro's with tons of RAM (16GB) for running PT8 LE. I'm looking to run mostly VI's for all of my tracks (Guitar, Drums, Bass, etc...) and be able to keep the buffer size as low as possible without getting error messages. If possible, I'd prefer to mix with the VI's still running without having to bounce out tracks. My main questions are:

Will I be able to utilize all that RAM when running multiple VI's or does it cap out at some point?

Is 16GB overkill, or not enough?

I'm looking to run VI's like East/West PLAY stuff, Strike, Structure, Velvet, plus some GTR and Bass VI's that use the Kontakt engine.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thx

[hosea88]

Anyone?????

[flommer]

there is a 4GB per process limit. Some plugins are hosted in the ProTools process and some can be independent. I don't know which are which..

My system, 1st gen MacPro quad with 6GB ram, easily runs 10 + VIs.. I've never really tested that to failure..

16GB is probably overkill, but it won't hurt. I hope you are planning on buying 3rd party RAM, Apple RAM is way overpriced..

The new MacPros use 3 channel memory busses (or whatever the correct terminology is), so the ideal configuration is actually 3 matched pairs (12GB, for example)

The apple forums for the MacPro have more grist for that mill....

[nod25]

Originally Posted by hosea88

Anyone?????

It's not possible with RTAS in it's current state

You could have 164GB of RAM and you'd still get HW Buffer errors

0.2

[nod25]

Originally Posted by flommer

My system, 1st gen MacPro quad with 6GB ram, easily runs 10 + VIs.. I've never really tested that to failure..

Me too, but I have 2GB RAM.

10(ish) VI's is 'possible' for me but the errors and DigiDance make it frustratingly useless and a real PITA.

People with newer Mac Pro's and 8+GB RAM are not experiencing much more performance than me from what I've read on the DUC.

Apple are the only winners here.

PT8 is nice to look at and the MIDI improvements are fantastic though.

YMMV.

[hosea88]

Thanks. This is helpful.

[Keybeeetsss]

Originally Posted by nod25

Me too, but I have 2GB RAM.

10(ish) VI's is 'possible' for me but the errors and DigiDance make it frustratingly useless and a real PITA.

the 2g could possibly be y the errors plague u... I'm a VI-Reason-VSL running SOB all the time & don't get errors unless there's an NI VI open & of course the ALL TIME GREAT "Play/Pause" piece

[nod25]

Originally Posted by Keybeeetsss

the 2g could possibly be y the errors plague u... I'm a VI-Reason-VSL running SOB all the time & don't get errors unless there's an NI VI open & of course the ALL TIME GREAT "Play/Pause" piece

I considered that until I read guys using 4, 8, 16GB and not fairing much better than me. I'd be a little more 'whatever' if it was third party RTAS VI's, but out of the box AIR RTAS VI's makes me

[Keybeeetsss]

^^^I feel ya; well(knocking on wood) I'm pretty error free for the most part & the old guys around will tell u that I realllllly push my LE rig like no other... I'm on the other side of the fence though(letz just say technically I'm in the wrong forum side)

[futz]

I think you'll enjoy your new rig very much.

Until you install the Play engine. Expect great difficulties thereafter. At least until a version of PT and/or Play makes them compatible with one another. As of now they don't get along that well...