Advice on M2 Studio Specs Needed

[Cayce]

I’ve just installed an Apple M2 Studio and I’m already thinking I should have gone for more unified memory. As it is, I went with 64gb and I have no way of knowing if that’s going to be enough. What I want is to never again see a CPU overload error in Pro Tools and I’m wondering if the 800.00 difference between 64 and 128gb is worth it. I'm still in the return window on this one and Id like to hear from any and all who’ve had this new system in hand to help me make a decision on this.

Thanks.

[Darryl Ramm]

How can anybody else here guess how much memory your system needs, or guess what past/current CPU errors you might have are related to memory or something else?

Much of what you need here to help yourself has been covered in DUC in the past by myself and others and is findable with google search.

Do not assume/rely on theories of magically needing less memory on Apple silicon vs. Intel systems. In the lack of any other info assume you will need as much memory as on the Intel system. The question then is how much memory was actually needed on the Intel system, and it may well not have been the size of installed memory, and is likely also not that size of installed memory - "free memory".

Working out how much memory a system is actually using/needs can be non-trivial on demand paged OSes like macOS, metrics like free memory are not telling you very useful info. This can require testing, including deconfiguring memory on the computer and seeing how it behaves. I have described this in more detail before.

If you want to avoid potential memory problems, and you have not done any planning/testing to work out how much memory you really need then the safest option is to buy a system with at least the same amount of physical memory. But that of course does not guarantee you won't run into problems, including CPU errors. And many of those are typically caused by plugin software issues, not lack of memory, and from your other thread, it seem to already have a plugin and software setup mess to sort out. You should be starting over, on a new clean macOS image, doing an entirely clean setup reinstalling all apps, plugins and drivers from their latest installers.

[climber]

Originally Posted by Cayce

I’ve just installed an Apple M2 Studio and I’m already thinking I should have gone for more unified memory. As it is, I went with 64gb and I have no way of knowing if that’s going to be enough. What I want is to never again see a CPU overload error in Pro Tools and I’m wondering if the 800.00 difference between 64 and 128gb is worth it. I'm still in the return window on this one and Id like to hear from any and all who’ve had this new system in hand to help me make a decision on this.

Thanks.

you should go onto gearspace and see what folks are saying who have actually bought your config and are saying. from what I see and hear, a MAX with 64gb and a 2 tb ssd are the sweet spot. but as Darryl says, who knows what the future will bring? FWIW this is the system I'm buying after a couple more gigs $$...

[Bob Olhsson]

This is really a whole new ballgame. I suspect that extra memory will buy us a lot less than in the past when storage was much, much slower.

[daeron80]

If your main gig is composing to film with hybrid orchestral templates involving multiple libraries and hundreds of instrument tracks, and you don't want to have to run VSL on a networked machine, you might need 128 GB. Otherwise, 64 is fine. More memory shouldn't have any effect on CPU overload. Those messages will be due to bugs or instabilities in your interface connection.

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by Cayce

I’ve just installed an Apple M2 Studio and I’m already thinking I should have gone for more unified memory. As it is, I went with 64gb and I have no way of knowing if that’s going to be enough. What I want is to never again see a CPU overload error in Pro Tools and I’m wondering if the 800.00 difference between 64 and 128gb is worth it. I'm still in the return window on this one and Id like to hear from any and all who’ve had this new system in hand to help me make a decision on this.

Thanks.

Just because you have more RAM doesn’t mean you won’t see a random CPU error from time to time. Even if you maxed out your RAM.

The issues you are having are most likely related to the shortcuts you did in installing or migrating your software.

You had 32GB of RAM in you 2015 iMac. There’s absolutely no reason to think or even consider 64GB not being enough if you’ve run with 32GB for 8 years. Clean install everything on your new system. Then, if you’re still having issues or doubts, report back your findings.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by Cayce

I’ve just installed an Apple M2 Studio and I’m already thinking I should have gone for more unified memory. As it is, I went with 64gb and I have no way of knowing if that’s going to be enough. What I want is to never again see a CPU overload error in Pro Tools and I’m wondering if the 800.00 difference between 64 and 128gb is worth it. I'm still in the return window on this one and Id like to hear from any and all who’ve had this new system in hand to help me make a decision on this.

Thanks.

What everyone here has said so far is true. Generally speaking (not specifically M2-related) more memory will not guarantee an end to CPU errors. Over the years, I have chased the most powerful machines in the hope of finally putting an end to CPU overloads. Because of that, I bought an i9 13900k Windows machine that's an absolute beast, but I've still encountered CPU errors due to various factors... plugins, licensing, OS errors, etc, but never because the machine couldn't handle PT's session load. Also, never because of insufficient memory (unless maybe you have bad RAM). With all things in place as they should be I probably have 3-4x more CPU power than I should ever need, but I've experienced issues that have brought my CPU down to its knees.

As was said before, unless you are running massive scores with lots of CPU-intensive VIs and terabytes of concurrent orchestral samples, 64 GB of RAM should be more than adequate.

PT's problems with CPU spikes seem to be much worse than that of many other popular DAWs, due to a multitude of factors, but rest assured that the most powerful computer on earth will not put an end to those issues. Having a powerful computer with more memory than you actually need is great, but with PT, CPU errors can still happen along the way, and the solution would be to tackle whatever the cause is, at any given time.

[Brettster]

Originally Posted by lesbrunn

Over the years, I have chased the most powerful machines in the hope of finally putting an end to CPU overloads. Because of that, I bought an i9 13900k Windows machine that's an absolute beast, but I've still encountered CPU errors due to various factors... plugins, licensing, OS errors, etc, but never because the machine couldn't handle PT's session load.

Any process or advice you have on defeating these factors?

[take77]

Originally Posted by Cayce

As it is, I went with 64gb and I have no way of knowing if that’s going to be enough. What I want is to never again see a CPU overload error in Pro Tools and I’m wondering if the 800.00 difference between 64 and 128gb is worth it.

Thanks.

Pro Tools will give a low memory alert when you are approaching insufficient memory (usually around the 75% point) as opposed to a CPU overload error. You can acknowledge the alert and keep working but should be advised not to increase usage at that point.

If you don't already have an idea of how many VI's you will be using you probably will be alright with 64GB.
But if you know that you'll be going full on with all your VI's & mix plug-ins at once then calculate your needs based on your session objectives & VI/mix plug-in requirements.

Remember such features as Freeze and Commit that will enable you to regain memory after completing individual instrument tracks for example.

You also have the Disk Cache Playback Settings that you can work with.
Lower values reduce memory usage and higher values improve disk performance as needed.

You should have some good disk cache options with 64GB that you can avail yourself of when needed if at all.

See what you can get by with before spending money on more RAM.
If you regularly get the low memory alerts, then that's your cue.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by Brettster

Any process or advice you have on defeating these factors?

It totally depends on what the issue is. The DUC is one of the best forums on earth when it comes to the sheer amount of knowledge and great advice that's shared here. Just state your issue and watch what happens...