CPU overloading

[Che_Guitarra]

I've got some PT sessions generally consisting of around 10 audio tracks and 2 MIDI tracks (Strike and Velvet) On each of the audio tracks i'm running a channel strip plug-in... but I have a query

My computer is often presenting a dialog box saying the CPU is overloading - having had a lot of problems with this computer before I was wondering if this seems about right or if it seems a bit unusual. My computer is an iMac 2.33 core 2 duo CPU w/ 2Gig RAM and I record to an external HD... a pretty fast ol' machine by any standards. I used to be able to record a lot more tracks with plug-ins on my old PC (although I used Cubase at the time), so i'm wondering if maybe there's still a bug to fix in my machine?

I'm asking this as I want to expand PT with the add-on that brings up the track count... but if i'm maxing using PT LE at half of it's capacity I don't see the point. I only ever really use 2 plug-ins - the Nomad Factory SC226 channel strip and the Line6 Gearbox, so it's not like each track has 5 different plug-ins going at once, usually 1 - 2 max.

I'm not sure what I should be expecting as far as CPU capacity is concerned, but I didn't think i'd be hitting the ceiling so easily.

Any thoughts?

[sunburst79]

I can't tell you about Gear Box but Strike and Velvet are known to be HUGE CPU hogs.

[albee1952]

I would try doubling your RAM.

[Che_Guitarra]

Really, more RAM? I already have 2 Gig RAM and was told i'd be unlikely to use it all... that sucks!

Are there any other tips? I'm currently bouncing in groups then 'de-activating' tracks, but surely there has to be better options than this? I did notice after de-activating Strike tracks the CPU load almost halved though!