how does ram affect cakewalk's preformance?

[r0cker]

thanks fro reading this, anyway, i have been suffering from slow performance from my computer as it is on its last legs before i get my new model in a month or so. anyway, i got an extra 64mb or ram (to add to my huge 32mb) to try and help my computer along before it finally goes to computer heaven.
i was just wondering specifically how ram affects cakewalks performance., for example will it only give me more tracks or more plug ins or just make it run faster? does it help one specific thing or will it just make a general improvement?
if anyone can help i would be very appreciative.
thanks again
alistair

 

[UncleThumpy]

More Ram

In your case, where you only have 32 meg installed, adding 64 will be an improvement. Adding enough memory so that the operating system does not use "virtual" memory (the hard drive) will help a lot. If you're trying to record audio (to hard disk) and the system is running with virtual memory (the hard disk), there are conflicts for disk access that will seriously degrade your performance. More memory is the right thing up to a point, then its faster disk access (faster drives) then CPU power. This is a generalization, but I believe it is correct in the case where you only have 32 megs of memory.

If you ask around you will find that many of the users here have 128+ meg RAM in their systems. SDRAM memory (which I assume you use) is so cheap right now, you shouold probably stock up...

...unless of course your new machine (when you get it) doesn't use SDRAM.

-L

 

[r0cker]

i have noticed an improvement

thanks for your reply. just to let you know, i have noticed a big difference in the speed the screen re-draws itself when i move backwards and forwards and cwlk seems to be dropping out less and taking less time to start. not a huge differnece i mean i cant run twice as many plug ins but at least the computer isnt dropping out every 5 minutes.
cheers
alistair

 

[crosstudio]

RAM upgrade vs. CPU upgrade

the memory allows more pages (geek speak) of the cakewalk & plug-in applications to reside in a place where the cpu can access them when requested. so having more memory is good because more of your .wrk file can reside in memory.

L1 cache: is the fastest and is on dye (on the cpu)
L2 cache: is 2nd fastest and is on dye (on the cpu)
L3 cache: is on the motherboard
RAM: is the memory you are use to refering to
Virtual memory: is your hard drive

so when you upgrade, make sure to pay close attention to the size of the cache and the levels of cache on the CPU as well as the motherboard. the faster the cpu and the more cache you have on dye and on the motherboard, the more tracks and plug-ins you'll be able to use.

interesting thing to note:
although people swear that pentium 2's outperform the amd k6, the pentium 2's setup had the memory structured to go from L1 to L3 to L2. they've since corrected that, but my personal opinion based on the research i've been doing over the last 2 weeks is that the AMD athlon is the beast at the moment.

 

[r0cker]

thanks

thanks for your reply, i'm looking at getting an athlon thunderbird 1.2 ghz and building a system to eventually use with a digi 001. do you know the difference between simm and rimm ram?
thanks again

 

[tubedude]

Mem

Simm, single inline memory module
Dimm, Dual inline memory module
Rimm, Rambus, subjectively best
DDR, Double data rate Dimm, subjectively best

Your options with the 1.2ghz Athlon is Dimms (sdram) and DDR.
DDR consistently equals or outperforms Rambus, which is only available, at last check, for Intel Cpu's.
I have an ASUS a7m266 mobo with a 1.2ghz Athlon, 256mgs of DDR.
DDR right now can be had for $100 for 256mgs.
Rambus is twice the money, about the same performance, less reliability.
Pentium 3's max out at 133mhz system bus, whereas the 1.2 ghz Athlon has a front side bus of 266mhz when using pc2100 DDR. The 1.2 athlon is cheaper than the 1ghz Pentium.
Important note: If you use the Athlon, DO NOT buy a motherboard with the AMD 750 chipset or VIA chipsets. You will be more likely to experinece hardware problems.
DO, however, buy the AMD 760 chipset.
Also, avoid Hewlett Packard Pavilions if you intend to buy a computer off the street. Even Digidesign lists them as non compatable with the Digi001, which is the only brand of computer listed as non compatable. I have one, and its junk, and its fairly new. Crappy mobo's for easy-to-get-over-on consumers.
Enjoy!

 

[tubedude]

another note...

As of yet, digi001 doesnt support AMD Athlons either, but I look for them to pretty soon. There are thousands of people using the digi001 with AMD's and the 760 chipset and getting great performance. The chipset is hugely important.