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Mac Pro Memory upgrade to 128GB

amadeus1 said:
Hey guys,

Has anyone noticed improvement in their Daw performance when upgrading from 64GB to 128 GB on a Mac Pro? Any unexpected benefits?

Thanks,

Bill
Click to expand...
Speed might actually be affected in a negative way. For example, using more than 64 gigs in the trashcan drops memory speed to 1066 Mhz so CPU performance drops.
 
Sovereign said:
Speed might actually be affected in a negative way. For example, using more than 64 gigs in the trashcan drops memory speed to 1066 Mhz so CPU performance drops.
Click to expand...
I've seen certain aspects, based on raw hardware performance tests, of increased and decreased performance, but that doesn't address the effect of the system under a memory load.
 
The Mac Pro (4,1 & 5,1 I am assuming you are talking about) uses triple channel RAM, so the RAM gets its fastest speed if you put it in in banks of 3. However, the motherboard has two sets of 4 slots, so if you put in 4 modules rather than 3 into each bank, the RAM will run slightly slower - though probably not so much as you'd notice in the real world, at least in the way most people here use their machines.

What it will enable you to do is load far more samples into memory. I have always thought of RAM in this way:

The amount of RAM won't ever speed up your computer, but if you do not have enough of it, your computer will slow down, and sometimes dramatically so.

If you run low on RAM, the computer will start writing temp files to disk, which is an order of magnitude slower than have that data in RAM.
 
Michael Antrum said:
The Mac Pro (4,1 & 5,1 I am assuming you are talking about) uses triple channel RAM, so the RAM gets its fastest speed if you put it in in banks of 3. However, the motherboard has two sets of 4 slots, so if you put in 4 modules rather than 3 into each bank, the RAM will run slightly slower - though probably not so much as you'd notice in the real world, at least in the way most people here use their machines.

What it will enable you to do is load far more samples into memory. I have always thought of RAM in this way:

The amount of RAM won't ever speed up your computer, but if you do not have enough of it, your computer will slow down, and sometimes dramatically so.

If you run low on RAM, the computer will start writing temp files to disk, which is an order of magnitude slower than have that data in RAM.
Click to expand...
Yes, on the Mac Pro, I learned that if memory is in pairs of 3, chunks of memory are 512 bit per chunk, whereas with pairs of 2 chunks of memory are at 226 bits per chunk. Dual vs Triple. So 96GB might be best for performance.
 
amadeus1 said:
Yes, on the Mac Pro, I learned that if memory is in pairs of 3, chunks of memory are 512 bit per chunk, whereas with pairs of 2 chunks of memory are at 226 bits per chunk. Dual vs Triple. So 96GB might be best for performance.
Click to expand...

Can you explain this a little more, I wasn't aware of this. I recently upgraded my 5,1 MacPro from 64 to 128. I did not perceive any loss or gain of performance. Frankly I didn't really need to do it, I am not even close to using it all, but the memory used in the 5,1 MacPro is getting to be affordable now, so I just did it. At least I know I can run monster templates on my single machine if I want to. Or leave VEP running and minimized even if I'm not using it for days... Personally I think 64gb is probably plenty... I don't think its going to make any difference to performance.
 
The Mac Pro's chipset has a triple-channel DDR3 memory controller, which will get full bandwidth only if you have just three modules in there and leave the fourth slot empty. The controller will run in dual-channel mode if you use all four slots, so you'll lose a third of your theoretical bandwidth.

It's rare for your memory bandwidth to be fully saturated though, so in reality it doesn't make that much difference.

https://barefeats.com/nehal02.html
 
I am running a reflashed MacPro 5,1 with 128GB of RAM.

The only thing it allows me to do is to load more samples and run multiple apps in parallel (not just Logic). But no performance for the DAW itself.
The dual 3.46 made a difference though from the single 2.66 processor I had.
 
wow, I am SOO glad to hear they are delivering a tower! The new display looks amazing too. I don't wanna know the price.
 
it will take a long time to load that much data into memory. In practical terms I don't think most people will do that.
 
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