192 vs. 256 MB RAM & SINGLE vs. DUAL

[naman]

I have the recommended 192 MB now, but I notice a lot of people have 256. Will that extra RAM get me any extra performance out of PT?

And in regards to the Dual Processor, what are supposed to be the advantages over the single? Is it 'dual' fast... more plug-ins.... or...?

Thanks!

[Doc]

Naman, did you purchase your system with 192 Meg or did you add more. I'm running 128 Megs ram at the moment and am wondering where I will notice the difference if I add another 64 or 128 Meg.

What do I need to add a second processor to my G4 400 (AGP graphics, ide HDD's)? I'm assuming this will mean a new motherboard.
I've heard mention of different motherboard types, how do I determine which one I have?

[naman]

Doc -

I got my system with 128, and added the extra 64. I never ran PT with 128, so I don't know the difference. But that was my original question regarding 256.... anyone experienced it?

[zavijah]

naman-

Extra RAM won't buy you any more processing power. So you won't be able to run more plug-ins at once. You will be able to load more _types_ of plug-ins by giving DAE more memory. So if you own a large number of plug-ins and are getting errors saying "DAE may be out of memory" bumping to 256MB will solve the problem.

At this point a dual-processor machine also won't provide much, if any, additional processing power for PT because programs must be written to specifically take advantage of parallel processing, and as far as I know, PT currently isn't. Some OS tasks may be farmed out to the second processor, freeing a few cycles on PT's chip, but I wouldn't expect much of a speed boost.

On OS X I believe Pro Tools may get a bit of a speed bump for free, since the OS is more inherently threaded, and the windowing/graphic update system can be run in its own space. Still, the maximum benefits of parallel processing won't be seen until PT is designed to specifically take advantage of it. This is all AFAIK, of course...

[johnnyd]

The dual G4's, if you can find one is currently being tested by digidesign for compatiblity issues...so far, from the post's i've read, people who actually have them or claim to have them are having some real problems launching the protools LE software...you might want to check the digidesign page for more compatibility questions...