Bumping RAM from 3GB to 4GB. Any improvement?

[enharmonic]

I currently have a Dual 2.0 G5 Rev A (4 Ram slots). I have 3GB of RAM, but am considering going to 4GB. Will there be any benefit when running Cubase and assorted plugs, or will the difference be negligible?

[Hammer v2]

Negligible. Keep your cash and start putting it towards a macpro.

[enharmonic]

Right on. Thanks!

I've been thinking about Macpro for a while now, but the G5 is healthy and doing everything I need to do for the moment. I'd probably make the jump to Logic when I ultimately go Macpro too. Cubase is alright, but Logic should really start being the shizzle before too long if Apple has a clue.

[n8tron]

do you find you run out of processing power first or is there plenty of room and that department but when you load up samples it chugs along?

Why not put in more than just 1 gig?

[Tui]

There is a free app called MemoryStick, which keeps track of your RAM and virtual memory usage. Very useful. And at unsanity.com you can get another free app called Cee Pee You, which sits in your menu bar and monitors your, erm, CPU.

With those two apps you can get an indication of what might be slowing down your system.

[enharmonic]

Originally Posted by n8tron

do you find you run out of processing power first or is there plenty of room and that department but when you load up samples it chugs along?

Why not put in more than just 1 gig?

I have a rev A machine, which max's out at 4GB. I see CPU spikes when I use certain apps...like Absynth 3.

I haven't been using many samples to this point, but that's about to change. I'll be running instances of all the Spectrosonics plugs, Absynth, Reason, and Scarbee Vintage Keys...thought that the extra gig might come in handy, but intead I'll just use the freeze and try to work smarter

Tui, thanks for the tip on the free apps.

[dannycurtean@yah]

I just wrote an article explaining the importance of having everything balanced. It doesnt matter if you have 10 gb of ram if your CPU isnt fast, and your chipset is inefficient and your harddrives are slow you wont see any improvement. Memory is for large apps. If you are not running large apps, then you dont need it. For DAWs and well balanced system running a Core 2 Duo, 2 or 3 GB of DDR II or III ram and a 10,000 RPM harddrive will run fine and allot better than a quad core with crappy ram and a 5400 rpm harddrive. So balance my friend, balance.

BTW I would not reccomend any of these freeware monitoring apps. Most are infected with crap and use valuable system resources unwisely. I would not recomend anybody using anything like that. Most DAWs have plenty hardware monitoring.

Considering a high end PC build? READ!

[Solar]

Originally Posted by dannycurtean@yah

I just wrote an article explaining the importance of having everything balanced. It doesnt matter if you have 10 gb of ram if your CPU isnt fast, and your chipset is inefficient and your harddrives are slow you wont see any improvement. Memory is for large apps. If you are not running large apps, then you dont need it. For DAWs and well balanced system running a Core 2 Duo, 2 or 3 GB of DDR II or III ram and a 10,000 RPM harddrive will run fine and allot better than a quad core with crappy ram and a 5400 rpm harddrive. So balance my friend, balance.

BTW I would not reccomend any of these freeware monitoring apps. Most are infected with crap and use valuable system resources unwisely. I would not recomend anybody using anything like that. Most DAWs have plenty hardware monitoring.

Considering a high end PC build? READ!

Very intresting Danny! Will for sure read your thread. Quick and serious question for you. Regarding Vista weither it's Vista 32 or 64. I wanna know if it is now safe to take the plunge and build an Audio System with VISTA considering compatibilities with Audio soundcards and VSTI and of course plugins? I know that almost now everybody is having a vista installer etc...

Also, let's imagine you get a system with Vista 64 with 8 gig of ram, everything as you mentioned well balanced, meaning that the MOBO is able to run and respond to the 8gig, and lets say you install Cubase 4, will you be able to run all those 8 gig or lets say 7 gig or feel the big difference?

Because i'm looking forward to build a new system and i'm still debating if to go with Vista or Xp Pro sp3. And in the other side, my questioning is i'm worry that Vista won't last too long cuz we all know from the sources that Windows 7 is on it's development...

So is it SAFE to build a Vista 64 system for Audio Solid recording system in this period of time or better not risk it?

Thanx in advance for your time and answer!!

Cheers!