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I have the following at my disposal:
Music/video machine - i9-9900k with 64gb ram
Gaming machine - i5-11400 with 32gb ram
Macbook Pro - i5-3210m with 16gb ram
Work machine - i5-3550 with 16gb ram
Work laptop - i5-1135G7 with 8gb ram
Mac Mini - i5-4278u with 8gb ram
As technology advances, the overall need for ram will likely decrease. From my experience so far with an M1 Macbook with 8gb of ram, I was able to edit an entire video in Davinci Resolve with fewer performance issues than with my 9900k and 64gb ram - part of that as I understand it is because of the efficiency and better memory management of ARM vs x86, and part is due to increased storage speed (the SSD in my 9900k is 1900/1700mb per sec read/write vs the Macbook at 2600/2200, minimal difference in this case).
Last edited by Simon - PG Music; 06/24/22 09:35 AM.
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eddie1261
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I have 16GBs as well. I find it's sufficient for what I need it for! Yep. This conversation is deeply relative to your own usage. The only time I have issues is when I am rendering a video in Vegas Pro or running FOSCAM's live video monitoring. That almost takes 100% of the CPU by itself. The need for speed has always baffled me. If something takes 30 seconds longer to execute I am hard pressed to express how little I care about it. Outside of a few heavy hitters here I just don't get the complaints about how long a song takes to render and all the other stuff I hear. Nobody here has a label breathing down their neck for tracks. I liken this to the Jeep Renegade forum where one of the users was complaining because when his cruise control is set to 75 he is only seeing 74 on the speedometer. I mean, "OH NO!! SELL THE CAR!!!" That and one complained because when she used the bluetooth for phone calls people could hear her calls through the speakers. Well, turn the bluetooth off. That's not the car's fault. A lot of people actively look for reasons to complain and be unhappy. On another forum (non music) somebody was griping, saying that if she closes a program and then later opens it again it loads much faster, and why it doesn't load that fast the first time. I replied "Look up the terms CACHE and TERMINATE STAY READY." and left it at that. She never posted again. LOL!!
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PG Music Staff
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I have 16GBs as well. I find it's sufficient for what I need it for! Yep. This conversation is deeply relative to your own usage. Yes, I find that for myself it's more than enough. When I go my PC 16GB was seen as being excessive at the time — even for being a gaming computer. I've done some upgrades since then, but I don't find myself wanting in particular for additional RAM, but I understand where those might want the extra wiggle room.
Cheers,
Ember
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eddie1261
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Many times a performance issue can be remedied with a better graphics card. I have an Nvidia Gforce with 2GB of RAM and it's too slow. Right now just viewing a TV stream and being on the web I am using 67% of the GPU. If I open another window I will be sharing that with yet another task and all 3 will run with jitters.
My problem is that I need 4 HDMI outputs and a card to fit into a PCIe slot that won't cost me more than my car did.
Simon, you are a good "hardware nerd" source! I really need a better graphics card but it's tough finding anything that meets what I laid out above. I run 3 monitors so I need HDMI ports for them. And at least 16GB of RAM. And fit into that PCIe slot. That combination is hard to find.
Last edited by eddie1261; 06/25/22 05:28 AM.
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Another consideration Eddie is case space. Often those nicer cards are large too. 2 to 3 slots wide and a foot long. You'll have to give up some performance if you need it to be a smaller card. I do run 4 screens off my EVGA card and it's 24 Gig. EVGA Card
 Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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eddie1261
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This is what I have now, and this is the slot I need to use. 
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So is the ASUS card screenshot the replacement for the NVIDIA GFORCE on your previous post? Looks like it would be a good fit.
Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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Many times a performance issue can be remedied with a better graphics card. I have an Nvidia Gforce with 2GB of RAM and it's too slow. Right now just viewing a TV stream and being on the web I am using 67% of the GPU. If I open another window I will be sharing that with yet another task and all 3 will run with jitters.
My problem is that I need 4 HDMI outputs and a card to fit into a PCIe slot that won't cost me more than my car did.
Simon, you are a good "hardware nerd" source! I really need a better graphics card but it's tough finding anything that meets what I laid out above. I run 3 monitors so I need HDMI ports for them. And at least 16GB of RAM. And fit into that PCIe slot. That combination is hard to find. Good luck! Ok ok, I'll try! What exact model of video card do you have right now? And from the pic you shared is the important part that it's a low-profile card or that the PCIe slot is a short single-lane slot? The fastest low-profile video card I can find is an Nvidia GT 1030 with 2gb vram, and none of those have more than two outputs. One thing to keep in mind is that a 2gb card is fine for most desktop use, and what you're seeing as "67% of the GPU" is likely the actual graphics processor, not the graphics memory. With any video card, if you run out of video memory the computer will start to use system memory, which is still pretty fast. With a single-lane slot, that's severely restricting the bandwidth to and from the card. The interesting thing about those types of PCIe slots is that you can technically put a full-size card in them, if you cut away the plastic part of the slot that stops the card from fitting (and there aren't other components next to the slot that would interfere) - this actually works, though it forces the video card to use only one PCIe lane (or however many the slot has), so it's typically not a high-performance solution. In this case, I'd replace the motherboard with one that can take a full x16 card.
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With a single-lane slot, that's severely restricting the bandwidth to and from the card. The interesting thing about those types of PCIe slots is that you can technically put a full-size card in them, if you cut away the plastic part of the slot that stops the card from fitting (and there aren't other components next to the slot that would interfere) - this actually works, though it forces the video card to use only one PCIe lane (or however many the slot has), so it's typically not a high-performance solution. In this case, I'd replace the motherboard with one that can take a full x16 card.
Choosing a motherboard became a more time consuming process for me at the point that I realized that using all of your available expansion slots can quite often change the number of lanes available to your video card. I spend much more time now analyzing what various configurations of cards are going to do to my number of available lanes before I make a MB choice.
Keith
2026 Audiophile Windows 11 RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,SONAR,3 Raven Mtis
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eddie1261
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eddie1261
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The multiple HDMI requirement is what's giving me problems. I may have to use this is a reason to buy a better daily driver computer. When I got that computer, and judging by the files in the system folder that was 12-7-2019, I didn't have all these monitors. With one monitor the onboard video was fine. I only see issues when I run the program to run my outdoor video camera monitor program but that slows my display down to the 60s when people were doing The Robot. Like if I am also watching TV both screens start doing that dance. And if I have anything open on the 3rd screen they all freeze. I should add that for JUST the music apps everything is fine. Here's what the system info says about it. So I guess I have 2GB of RAM.  As to slots available, this PC has no cards in it. USB audio interface and everything else is on a 7 port USB dock, but nothing but the video is inside the case.
Last edited by eddie1261; 06/29/22 04:02 AM.
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eddie1261
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eddie1261
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So is the ASUS card screenshot the replacement for the NVIDIA GFORCE on your previous post? Looks like it would be a good fit. No. That was just to show you the slot I have to use for video.
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Thanks. Another consideration is that you can get adapters for ports too. For example you may see a card with a mix of HDMI/Display Port/DVI/VGA ports, you can usually get the correct adapter to make them all HDMI. Good luck on your continued search.
Steve BIAB/RB 2022, Pro Tools 2020, Korg N5, JBL LSR 4328 Powered Monitors, AKG/Shure Mics.
PC: Win11 PRO, 4 TB M2 SSD, 2 TB HD, 128 GB Memory
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The machine I'm currently typing on is just 8Gig. It's a W7 machine and doesn't need the huge amounts just to burble along.
My recording machine - W10 - uses 16 with no memory issues.
Most of my recording involves live tracks by me & others with lots of takes on my part plus the battery of RealTracks I use to set up the demo run of each song. Up to 42 tracks with not issues - mind you I don't use any hungry VSTs.
Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
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