Wasting the processing power?

thebookofbob

Ok so I recently upgraded my Dual Core studio PC for the fastest Quad Core Intel I could get my hands on with 8GB Ram and large SATA2 drives.. as I was starting to Max out the CPU of the other system on some of the more complex work I do in Cubase 4.

So I've no bother with the new system.. It's bloody Fast, it should be , but has 8GB ram.. only 3GB of which is being used since I'm running Windows XP 32bit.. and Windows can't see any more ( the top 1GB seems to be reserved for internal hardware addressing )

Without going into the Mac/PC debate.. I have this machine now so..

I'm wondering on whether running 64Bit XP will show a marked improvement in things.. ?? has anyone gone this way?

I pretty much know how to tweak a PC for studio use.. this thing has no networking & about 8 XP control services running in total but I'm thinking if I can just squeeze another 10%.. or get x more running before having to freeze tracks or bounce them to audio.

thoughts that came to me :

if Cubase is a 32 bit application there's overhead there.. VSTs are 32 bit , there's overhead converting to native 64bit there..

does this conversion from 32Bit -> 64bit & visa versa outweigh the benifit of having windows see the 8GB and being to upgrade into silly Ram terratory like 16GB.. and if I did.. would cubase be able to use this extra stuff..

if anyone has gone through a similar mind melt or knows of any links of anyone that has, I'd love to know..

Regards

Rob

frobisher

Are you trying to fix a problem with your music making or are you trying to use all your RAM?!

Anima

RAM is always better than having a faster CPU, ALWAYS. When the CPU has to look to the harddrive for data, its like wating for a year before it can use it. The fact you are wasting 4.5 gigs of RAM because you are using a 32 bit OS is sacrilage. Don't use 64bit XP btw, 64bit Vista is much better and will only continue to get better as it is updated.

does this conversion from 32Bit -> 64bit & visa versa outweigh the benifit of having windows see the 8GB and being to upgrade into silly Ram terratory like 16GB

It doesn't work that way and no its doesn't outweigh it at all. Running a 32bit OS on a 64bit processor won't make that much of difference compared to the old processor, if it was dual core beforehand, it was probably 64bit anyway.

Just get a 64bit OS so you can take advantage of that massive amount of RAM. CPUs are ridiculously fast these days and with that RAM you'd have a great system there.

You were saying that you were maxing the system out, what exactly were you doing? I can't think of many things that would require more resources than the system you are describing. Perhaps it can be streamlined better, made more efficient for the CPU?

Helix

xp64 is only an option if all your devices have 64 bit drivers

otherwise, its pretty pointless

you might havemore joy with vista ultimate driver-wise these days, but be prepared to sacrifice a gig of ram over to the OS

thebookofbob

just to clarify the situation.. I'm not trying to fix anything as such.. Just try to make the setup as effecient as possible. For example, the mobile setup I use is a bog standard Dell Duo core.. cheap and cheerful.. With all the crap that gets bundled with it, putting cubase 4 on it without formatting it and tweaking is a waste of time. I found over the past couple of years that disabling anything that isn't being used may mean the difference between being able to add the Reverb , Delay of whatever before things start stuttering or not..
Yes you can freeze tracks, yes you can mess around but I don't really want to be wasting this time when I sit down for a session as my time is very limited.. Same with the Quad core.. I bought the machine to give myself some headroom.. It does introduce a tad of lazyness if your not carefull due to the extra processing.. E.G. during drum programming I knew there was sounds saved in a second NI "Battery" kit I had stored away & instead of pulling it into the kit I had , I opened another instance of Battery just for the 4 or so sounds.. Slap, bad boy..

In all though what I'm trying to see is what is the safest , most efficient method of using the processing power I have available & wanted to see if anyone has come by the same thoughts and how they approached it

red_ice

hey rob, the only thing that will improve is your windows performance when you swap to 64bit. The above 32bit apps wont improve in performance however switching between them will - making multitasking a bit more efficient! Im not an xp64 fan myself, but im pretty sure you will get a performance increase, the only problem is your hardware drivers. If your using anything specific that is, it might be a tad hard to get 64 drivers for it.

Now, im just breezing over your(and others) posts here. I saw you saying you have a bog "standard dell coreduo". Thats like me asking you "what car do you drive" and you responding with "a car". Pretty vague. <edit> to add to that, dell laptops are total anal seepage. You could have a terrible processor in that machine, but because it says core duo most people will think its fast.</edit>

What are the actual specs of the machine? I recall you saying your on XP - thats good, afaik on vista your machine wont show above 2gigs of memory. Your best bet is to double check your services. You said its not a networked machine, so completely turn everything network related off in your services, turn anything off that wont be of use to you.

As far a bouncing a track goes, theres no real 'performance' tweak for real time