
Ben Logan
New member
Ford Van said:If the "more RAM= more plugins" were true, then I little test I ran a while back just wouldn't have made sense!
I have a project that was running at around 85% (average) cpu usage with 512 or RAM installed.
I pulled out one of the 256 chips of RAM, and went back and ran the project again. Guess what? It ran with 85% (average) cpu usage.
This was a project in Sonar, with about 29X 24bit 44.1KHz files running. The plugins were a bunch of different things, RoomVerb2, PSP Lexicon PCM 42, several instances of Sonitus Multiband, several compressors, an amp emulator. 23 plugins in all.
The only difference I noted between 256 and 512 of RAM on a DAW is that the response time of open/closing windows, opening applications, etc...was slower with less RAM, and that could be expected.
I don't think that plugins even use 1mb of RAM each. I can assure you that you will LONG run out of cpu power before plugins start to drain your RAM to the point of them not running.
You need MORE CPU. More RAM might certainly help your work flow, but it really isn't going to gain you any more plugin instances.
A UAD-1 card would be great!![]()
Thanks for chiming in FordVan. I appreciate the RAM vs. CPU primer I'm getting here. I'm more concerned about plugin power than workflow, so your test seems to suggest RAM wont help move me significantly closer in the right direction.
Re: UAD-1. Got one. Love it! If the "forget the RAM" camp wins out, I may put my RAM money toward the 1176 LN, since I only have the SE version so far.
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