PT-HD - HD Process Cards VS HD Accel Cards

True North · 27th December 2005

Does anyone know how powerful the HD Process cards are relative to the HD Accel Cards. (i.e. 2 x's more powerful etc..)?

Thanks.

jwh1192 · 27th December 2005

just a small piece of info for you ... if you did not already know ...

the accel cards have 2 different types of chips like the mix cards ... some for reverbs/ FX and some for EQ's/comps ...

HD process cards all have the same chips ... and so does the HD Core

i can open a session on my HD3 system that i cannot open on an HD3 accel system due to the lack of certain chips on the Accel cards (the plugs which i think it was 2 or 3 that would not open were disabled)...

of course i cannot open any plugs that use Accel cards but this session in question does not have any of those plugs ...

so i think it is relative to say one is more powerful than the other ... it cannot be that clear cut ... depends on your session and your plugins ....

peace john

azwun25 · 27th December 2005

they are approx 2x more powerful

True North · 27th December 2005

Hi John,

Thanks for the information, I was not aware of the difference in Accel cards. If I understood you correctly, you could not open a session on your accel rig that you were able to open on HD3 rig.

Is this because you had tapped out the DSP resources from one of your Accel cards, lets say it was the Reverb Card. I am not sure I am understanding why and that is the only reason I could think of.

If we were comparing apples to apples and we were only using EQ and Comp plugs on an HD Accel EQ & Comp 'optimized card' (for lack of a better term) what would the performance differences be, relatively speaking of course, thanks.

**Geert van den Berg** · 27th December 2005

Accel has different chips. I don't think that they're for EQ/comps or reverbs specific. It's just that certain plugins are coded for these chips and those plugins won't run on a regular HD system.

True North · 27th December 2005

I think I am understanding this a little better. It's not that there are different Accel cards with different chipsets. If I understand correctly there are two different types of DSP chips on an Accel card where on a Process cards there is only one type of DSP Chip.

Problems arise when certain plugs have code written to interact with DSP chips only found on the Accel cards and not the Process Card DSP's - Sound Right?

In John's case, there may have been a couple of plugs that were written to work on HD Process cards only and did not recognize or interact the DSP chips on his Accel system - yeesh what a mess!!

Wouldn't software manufacturers make their stuff backwards compatible with either system or this a common problem?

**Geert van den Berg** · 27th December 2005

PT sessions are backwards compatible to even v4. But at some points manufacturers need to make advancements and do sacrifices.

I think you can run the accel session, but certain plugins won't load and will be grayed out, which you could substitute for another plugin.

If there were more problems, I think you would still be able to import those tracks in a new session and work from there. it's quite flexible.

True North · 27th December 2005

I knew that the PT session were backward compatible but it seems that some of the plugs are not as flexible in that regard. Is there any list of plugs which are not compatible with HD Process cards (Accel only)?

Thanks for the information guys

**Geert van den Berg** · 28th December 2005

Maybe there isn't any signifant change in the code, I think those new plugs just require more dsp power.

For example checkout Revibe on the Digi site.

Dutchmuzik · 28th December 2005

Accel Cards have a total of 9 chips, 2 of those chips are the same as on the HD Core and Process Cards, 4 of the chips are the "real" Accel Chips with on-board ram and 3 are Accel chips with no on-board ram. The 4 chips are the only chips that can run ReVibe, Impact and the long TL Space, you can not run "ram based" plug-ins like delays on those 3 Accel chips.

Some of the "old" plug-ins like Soundblender were never optimized for Accel so they do not benefit from an Accel Card at all, actually you can only run 7 on an Accel Card and 9 on a Process.

But... plug-ins like McDSP, Sony, URS that are optimized and do plug-in sharing can double and even triple plug-in count on the 7 Accel chips.

True North · 28th December 2005

Thanks for the updates, I think I understand the issues a little better. Great information, some of which I wasn't even aware of, cheers!

27th December 2005	#1
True North Lives for gear Joined: Sep 2005 Location: Richmond Hill, Ontario (Canada) Posts: 3,213 Thread Starter	PT-HD - HD Process Cards VS HD Accel Cards Does anyone know how powerful the HD Process cards are relative to the HD Accel Cards. (i.e. 2 x's more powerful etc..)? Thanks. __________________ "In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey" - Beck, Loser "I do use compressors/limiters but not for controlling dynamics, I use EQ for that!" Jp22 (damn I miss him) "Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -- Will Durant, historian (1885-1981) "I try to get a boom out of the bass drum, in one of my albums, my CD, boom, I try to get that big boom, I could not get a big boom, I paid bucks, and could not get the boom" - Recording Expert, Tad Donley

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27th December 2005	#2
jwh1192 Lives for gear Joined: Jun 2002 Location: los angeles Posts: 866 1 Review written	just a small piece of info for you ... if you did not already know ... the accel cards have 2 different types of chips like the mix cards ... some for reverbs/ FX and some for EQ's/comps ... HD process cards all have the same chips ... and so does the HD Core i can open a session on my HD3 system that i cannot open on an HD3 accel system due to the lack of certain chips on the Accel cards (the plugs which i think it was 2 or 3 that would not open were disabled)... of course i cannot open any plugs that use Accel cards but this session in question does not have any of those plugs ... so i think it is relative to say one is more powerful than the other ... it cannot be that clear cut ... depends on your session and your plugins .... peace john

27th December 2005	#3
azwun25 Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2004 Location: The Roman Empire State Posts: 1,632	they are approx 2x more powerful

27th December 2005	#5
Geert van den Berg Mac Moderator Joined: May 2003 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 3,454	Accel has different chips. I don't think that they're for EQ/comps or reverbs specific. It's just that certain plugins are coded for these chips and those plugins won't run on a regular HD system.

28th December 2005	#9
Geert van den Berg Mac Moderator Joined: May 2003 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 3,454	Maybe there isn't any signifant change in the code, I think those new plugs just require more dsp power. For example checkout Revibe on the Digi site.

28th December 2005	#10
Dutchmuzik Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2003 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 580	Accel Cards have a total of 9 chips, 2 of those chips are the same as on the HD Core and Process Cards, 4 of the chips are the "real" Accel Chips with on-board ram and 3 are Accel chips with no on-board ram. The 4 chips are the only chips that can run ReVibe, Impact and the long TL Space, you can not run "ram based" plug-ins like delays on those 3 Accel chips. Some of the "old" plug-ins like Soundblender were never optimized for Accel so they do not benefit from an Accel Card at all, actually you can only run 7 on an Accel Card and 9 on a Process. But... plug-ins like McDSP, Sony, URS that are optimized and do plug-in sharing can double and even triple plug-in count on the 7 Accel chips.