AMD k-6 II user in trouble...

[lalo]

Hi there!

First of all, i want to say that this and the other forums have been an invaluable source of knowledge and help. But i'm only human, so here i am:
My PC:
- AMD K-6 II / 400 Mhz
- HD 20 gig. Quantum Fireball (C: drive)
- HD 2 gig (D: drive, only backup)
- Sound Balster Live! Value
- CD rom 24x
- Video 8megs. on motherboard
- Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0
Until yesterday i had 96 megs. of RAM, and i was getting around 6 tracks w/inserts (compression, delay, chorus) and some 4 midi tracks. I thought this was because my lack of RAM, but today i installed another 128Mg. So now i have 216 (224-8megs for video), and i am still getting the same!!
WHY!WHY!WHY!!!! the CPU meter is around 80-95% (w/inserts) and the disk meter is 10-25%. I've done some testing and found that i can run like 20 audio tracks without any effect, 10 with EQ on all inserts, and 5 or 4 with compresion, eq, and an aux reverb. My virtual memory is fixed (at twice my RAM).
So what is wrong? Ihave read that some people using the same processor are getting at least twice the number of tracks with inserts that i am getting. Could this be because im using the same drive for everything? Would i be better using the 2 gig (slower) drive for system and software and the 20 gig drive for audio only?
Can you help me figure this out??


THANKS

LALO

 

[RWhite]

As I just put in another post, the K6 chip is very weak in what is called "floating-point" math. These are exactly the type of calculations made when using a plug-in, as well as recording software in general. You could have 1 gig of memory and this will not change. The K6 is actually slower than a Pentium "1" chip of the same clock speed in this regard. The K7 chip and Pentium III are a much better fit for what you are trying to do.

 

[lalo]

hi
thanks for answering.
I thought the k6 II was like a pentium II. It is MMX enabled, but tell me if this has nothing to do with floating point math. As i said, i remember reading posts from people using the same chip and gettin more power!!

Anyway will i have to upgrade my processor?

Would an Athlon 1gig. be good enough?
I have also read of the big concerns about motherboards. Wich one would be a good one?

Thanks

LALO

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Those numbers sound right for the K6-2. The K6 series of processors was pathetic and weak. I hated AMD for a good long time because of the K6, K6-2, and K6-3. They were only equivalent to Pentium processors in business grade applications.

You might want to ensure that your hard drive is operating in DMA mode, otherwise disk operations will suck a lot of CPU power. Doesn't quite sound like this is the case with your system though.

Ditch your processor. Not a lot of Athlon reports in, but people are having success with them. Asus seems to make the best Athlon boards (and intel boards for that matter). Take a look at the A7V133. I upgraded my girlfriend's machine with one recently and am impressed...I was going to stick my crap into that box and test it out for recording but never got around to it...

Slackmaster 2000

 

[RWhite]

To answer your question, MMX and floating point are two different things. K6 chips do not literally have MMX as this is an Intel invention. They have what is called "3D-Now" which was AMDs answer to MMX. While the K6 was similar to the PII in so-called "Integer math" it was weaking in floating point. It was a fine chip for things like using MS Word and the like but not great for multi-media. In any event it is an obsolete chip now.

An Athlon 1 gig is powerful enough for virtually anything. There have been compatability questions with some audio hardware, not due to the cpu itself but with some of the motherboards. Do a search and you will find plenty of opinion.