performance meter/possible upgrade question

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Level 3

534 points

performance meter/possible upgrade question

So I'm looking at the performance meter in Logic, and it is my understanding that one of the two meters shows CPU and one shows RAM. Which is which?

I'm also looking to possible upgrade my system performance without spending a whole lot. Obviously, I can't really upgrade my Powerbook G4 very much, and I'm not sure that increasing my RAM from 768 to 1 GB will make a huge difference, so I was thinking of buying a mac mini to run as a node. Are there any pros/cons I should be aware of? If I bought the lower end mini (dual 1.66 ghz), do you think that would be enough to run, for example, a string orchestra piece with 25 garritan instruments and one instance of space designer? Would it run better if I used the mini as the main system and my Powerbook as the node?

Currently, my audio meter peaks out with projects such as the one mentioned above, but the disk I/O meter rarely shows any activity. Thanks.

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.6), Logic 7.1

Posted on Jul 3, 2007 8:09 AM

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Answer 1

jdredge Author

Level 3

534 points

Jul 4, 2007 4:28 PM in response to jdredge

Anyone?

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Answer 2

jdredge Author

Level 3

534 points

Jul 5, 2007 5:37 AM in response to jdredge

...

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Answer 3

stootka

Level 2

280 points

Jul 5, 2007 6:11 AM in response to jdredge

The Right meter is your processor usage, the left is your disk i/o. To see your memory usage go to options/song information.

The only problem with using the mini or the PB as a node is that the PB would have to have a gigabit Ethernet port for it to work well. With sufficient RAM (at least 2gigs) the mini should be able to play the setup you requested but not as a node. Logic will only node it's own plug ins. You would have to run Garritan as a stand alone app on the mini and set it up as an external instrument. Not a hard task at all. nHope this helps.

Stootka

17" MBP, G4 DP 1.25, G4 ibook 1ghz, Logic Pro 7.2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.10) 2gig ram

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Answer 4

Bee Jay

Level 6

10,900 points

Jul 5, 2007 6:16 AM in response to jdredge

Ram will help, but it depends on how much ram you are using now - it will only help performance if you computer is regularly paging to disk, as with more ram it won't have to do this as much. But you're right, going from 758 to 1g is that a big leap.

You can run another machine to be a node, but you should read the manual on what you can and can't do with nodes. You can only node Logic plugins and instruments, but not the EXS24 or any third party instruments. If you have just one third-party plug in the insert chain, I think you will no longer be able to assign that channel to a node.

So it's use is limited - it won't help you with your orchestra. I don't think effects on busses can be noded either.

So basically, to get better performance without much hassle, I recommend your save your money and don't buy a MacMini (which look to be phased out soon anyway), save up a bit longer and replace your Powerbook with a Macbook or Macbook Pro - much better performance for everything, and no hassle... 🙂

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Answer 5

jdredge Author

Level 3

534 points

Jul 5, 2007 4:34 PM in response to stootka

Hmm. On my meter, disk I/O is on the right, and audio is on the left.

I'm not sure I fully understand what disk I/O is. If that were peaking out, what kind of upgrading would help? As it is, the audio meter is the one that is peaking on my more demanding projects. So, is that my processor?

So, if I were to reverse the setup and have the mini run logic and the PB act as the node, I could handle the GPO instruments on there, right?

Thanks for your help.

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Answer 6

jdredge Author

Level 3

534 points

Jul 5, 2007 4:51 PM in response to Bee Jay

Thanks for the advice. I didn't realize how limited the node capabilities are. I reread the manual info and it makes a lot more sense to me now.

I guess I just have to wait now, I doubt I'll have that kind of money to spend any time soo. Sigh.

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Answer 7

iSchwartz

Level 5

4,321 points

Jul 5, 2007 5:15 PM in response to jdredge

My opinion is that increasing your RAM from 768 to 1G (2G would be much better) would definitely increase your performance.

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Answer 8

jdredge Author

Level 3

534 points

Jul 6, 2007 6:30 PM in response to iSchwartz

Well, obviously more RAM is better, but given my relatively low processor speed, I'm not sure that a RAM boost is going to make much difference. Or, I guess I'm asking if it will. The vast majority of the time I get core audio overload it is the "audio" meter that has peaked, this is my cpu meter, right? I'm still confused about that bit.

Also, I don't think my PB can handle more than the 1 GB plus 256 MB built in.

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Answer 9

resineux

Level 1

10 points

Jul 6, 2007 6:52 PM in response to jdredge

If you want a more detailed state of your CPU/disk/RAM usage, maybe use "Activity Monitor", in Applications/Utilities...

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Answer 10

Jul 6, 2007 10:00 PM in response to jdredge

For now,why not just bounce more tracks down to audio tracks to relieve pressure off the CPU & Ram. Audio does not take much of anything to playback... i think.

Mac G5 dual2 Mac OS X (10.4.6) SX3 I Logic 7.2.3 I Metric Halo I/O I MTP-AV I UAD-1 I TC Powercore

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Answer 11

stootka

Level 2

280 points

Jul 7, 2007 8:04 PM in response to jdredge

opps you're correct. My bad. Man that's twice in the past day I got something backwards on this forum. I must be cixelsyd. Either that or I have to stop posting while I'm at work.

aktoots

17" MBP, G4 DP 1.25, G4 ibook 1ghz, Logic Pro 7.2.3 Mac OS X (10.4.10) 2gig ram

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Answer 12

Jul 8, 2007 3:11 AM in response to jdredge

On my powerbook setup (which also has a maximum of 1gb of ram capacity) I found upgrading to 1gb helped a lot when running lots of plugins and effects e.g. atmosphere/stylus rmx - it helped but didn't make them zoom...

what really helped for me was to run samples/sample instruments and Logic projects from a fast external hard disk. That really has cut out a lot of the core audio errors and enabled me to run more audio tracks and audio instrument tracks than before.

For extra ram I'd recommend crucial memory - very easy selection process for your specific machine & i installed it myself and it was quite easy....as for external hard disks - well that's a whole new question and depends very much on your budget.

Hope that helps

Rounik

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Answer 13

jdredge Author

Level 3

534 points

Jul 8, 2007 5:35 AM in response to rounik music

Thanks rounik. I was concerned that with my processor being as slow as it is, that a RAM bump wouldn't help that much. But now having gotten that specific recommendation from both you and iSchwartz, I'm sold.

I have checked out crucial memory and will likely go that route. I remember a fairly recent thread that discussed third party RAM dealers where another web site was mentioned. Anyone remember what that was, or know of any other such web sites?

Thanks.

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