Ideal amount and configuration of Ram for Native Pro Tools on Mac PRo

[RWhite]

The title basicaly says it all except for that I am asking the question and not answering it.

I use M-Powered Pro Tools with all (of course) RTAS plug-ins and (with the exception of Strike for drums) I really don't use any samplers. I have a 2.6 Mac Pro with 1Gb in it and I can't say that it lives up to my expectations just yet.

Have other Mac Pro users noted a big boost in native performance with more Ram being added? If so, how much do you think is ideal, how much is overkill, and what configuration have you found works best to feed all four cores.

Thanks for your input, the stuff's expensive for the Mac Pros so it's hard to just buy a bunch and see if it works better.

[jdjustice]

i am on a G5 but in my experience 4GB is optimal, more than that possibly overkill.
RAM should be in pairs so if you currently have 1GB is it configured as 2x512MB?
you should have 8 slots for RAM so i would go with a 2x1GB upgrade.
3GB total should boost your performance and it may be all you need.


cheers.
~j.d.

[nikki-k]

Hi!
For the Mac Pro, populating the first two slots in BOTH risers is best. Stock is the top riser with 2 512M sticks. Grab two more sticks- 512M each, 1G each or 2G each. Put them in the first two slots on the bottom riser, and walla! Top memory performance, regardles of you "needing" extra memory/RAM for any app. It is the architecture of the Mac Pro that makes this so.

Pro Tools with no virtual instruments does not (usually) make high RAM demands, certainly 1G would suffice. But, as I said- architecture.

Hit OWC and grab Apple approved RAM from them is my suggestion. I'd grab 2 1G sticks. Enjoy the smile the first time you fire that Mac Pro up after installing them...