Anyone using 1 gig of ram?

[ursatz]

So - is anyone running win98se or WinMe with a gig of ram, or is 768 meg effectively the limit?

[lex]

Hi,

I have 1Gb of RAM, Athlon 800,and win 98..
I load as much instruments as I want now, and my RAM usage never goes over 50%...
I do have occasional cliks and pops that are driving me nuts, but I don\'t think they have to do with RAM...

[SOD213]

I have 1Gb of RAM, Athlon 800,and win 98..
I load as much instruments as I want now, and my RAM usage never goes over 50%...
I do have occasional cliks and pops that are driving me nuts, but I don\'t think they have to do with RAM...
-------------------------------------------

Take out half of the ram, see if the probs go away with only 512mb installed.

[stmikkel]

I went from 512mb to 1gb and didn\'t notice any performance problems. However no matter how much RAM you have, Gigastudio seems to load instruments extremely slowly when you get about 3-400mb....
---------------------------

Strange. I only have 512 mb, but I use up to 75% of the ram, and I\'ve never had this problem. I used 756 mb before, when I had my a7v mainboard. Didn\'t have the problem then either.

[Simon Ravn]

Are you sure? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif) It just says zzzzzzzzzzzzz.... at some point it starts getting real slow. I had the problem on another mobo with 768 mb ram so I\'d say it\'s a general problem. I am not the first to report it either.

[Simon Ravn]

Are you sure? http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/smile.gif) It just says zzzzzzzzzzzzz.... at some point it starts getting real slow. I had the problem on another mobo with 768 mb ram so I\'d say it\'s a general problem. I am not the first to report it either.

[lex]

I have the slow loading problem as well, ussualy I just start loading the performance file and go make a coffe and return in about 10-15 minutes...that\'s how long it takes..

[lex]

I have the slow loading problem as well, ussualy I just start loading the performance file and go make a coffe and return in about 10-15 minutes...that\'s how long it takes..

[Lucas]

Maybe it\'s because your computer is doing everything twice. (joke)

[clueless]

I have a P3-800 with VIA chip set and 768Mb memory. It loads at \"full speed\" -- don\'t notice any slowing. When I heard that some people were experiencing a slowdown after 50 percent, I thought it was maybe 10 or 20 percent change, not tens of minutes.

BTW, I have virtual memory completely turned off and video set for no acceleration.

clueless

[Simon Ravn]

I went from 512mb to 1gb and didn\'t notice any performance problems. However no matter how much RAM you have, Gigastudio seems to load instruments extremely slowly when you get about 3-400mb....

[Simon Ravn]

Video acceleration on/off isn´t a factor here. I have virtual memory off as well. And my feeling is that the loading maybe goes down to 10-20% speed at some point.

[clueless]

Is the slow down influenced by motherboard, harddrive, software settings, or some other variable?

clueless

[Bruce Mitchell]

My P3 800 was getting bogged down with 576meg Ram.I changed the system from \"server\" to \"desktop\" and now it loads up to 90% memory quickly. Go figure.

[Simon Ravn]

Clueless, I have no idea what causes this. I am pretty sure its a software issue though. If it was mobo, HD, whatever the problem would be there all the time, from 0% mem and up....

[cobra7]

Bruce:

The Server setting changes the task priority so that background tasks are given higher priority than foreground tasks (loading a GS instrument would be a foreground task, as would anything you are interacting with onscreen). By changing the setting to desktop, you changed the OS\'s tasking priority to favor foreground tasks over background tasks, which is why your performance improved when loading GS instruments.

Just in case you wanted to know...

[psi]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Simon Ravn:
Clueless, I have no idea what causes this. I am pretty sure its a software issue though. If it was mobo, HD, whatever the problem would be there all the time, from 0% mem and up....<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sounds like a software issue to me too. I\'m thinking it could have to do with the disk cache (unless you have set a fixed vcache size). At first as you are loading GIGs, windows keeps enlarging the cache (given that you have so much RAM available). But after a certain point, the cache has grown so much that it must be shrunk to make memory available for each additional GIG; then loading slows because shrinking the cache probably requires more work than enlarging it.

I\'d recommend running the windows accessory \"system monitor\" and add \"disk cache size\" to the items being monitored--then watch this while loading your setup. If the decrease in loading speed begins at the same time as the cache starts shrinking, then this is indeed the problem. The solution would be to set a max vcache size such that the cache never grows so big in the first place. (On the other hand, for setups with fewer instruments it might be nice to have the big cache for improved polyphony, so it depends on your preference.)

Of course this could have nothing to do with your loading speed issue. It\'s just a thought I had. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif

psi

[Simon Ravn]

Thanks for the suggestion, psi. However I have a fixed VCache setting - actually if you have no vcache setting and 1gb ram, Windows98se won\'t boot at all - this is documented on MicroSoft\'s homepage too.

[Neal Acree]

I have an Athlon 800 and when I recently tried to add a 512meg chip to my 2 256 chips, it crashed every time I loaded a decent sized performance. I even tried 2 different brands of ram. Any thoughts?

[Bruce A. Richardson]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Neal Acree:
I have an Athlon 800 and when I recently tried to add a 512meg chip to my 2 256 chips, it crashed every time I loaded a decent sized performance. I even tried 2 different brands of ram. Any thoughts?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Potentially, your MOBO may be unable to deal with the asymmetrical RAM array. That\'s a question for more serious hardware experts than me.

I have a general question for the group, hopefully someone has the experience. My Giga machine currently has an ABIT BM-6 mobo. Does anyone know what the largest RAM size is that this MOBO will accept. ABIT\'s documentation is dated and doesn\'t even deal with the issue.

I would actually like to put four 512 MB sticks of RAM into the machine if it will work. At the very least I\'d like to replace my three 128 MB sticks with four 256 MB sticks, to get 1 GB of RAM in the system.

I run out of RAM far before I run out of ports/slots/polyphony. The larger orchestral libraries now hitting the market can eat RAM like it\'s candy. Loading Dan Dean\'s Trumpet NV sustain and staccato, and the NV sustain versions of horn, t-bone, euphonium, and tuba bring my RAM usage to 97%. Clearly, not enough room for anything else, even though I\'m far from tapping maximum polyphony in that setting.

Anyone?

Thanks,
Bruce

[killerbobjr]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>
Neal Acree:
I have an Athlon 800 and when I recently tried to add a 512meg chip to my 2 256 chips, it crashed every time I loaded a decent sized performance. I even tried 2 different brands of ram.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There are two potential problem areas:

A. You don\'t have Min/MaxFileCache set. Open up the file SYSTEM.INI (in your \\Windows directory) in NOTEPAD and add the lines (if they\'re not already there):

[vcache]
MinFileCache=16384
MaxFileCache=16384
ChunkSize=512

If you use a lot of small sample sets (ones with short sample lengths) and get pops and clicks, you can change the 16384 to a larger value all the ways up to 524288.

B. Your VIO voltage is too low. Reboot and go into your BIOS, look for where you can change your bus frequency -- that usually is where both CPU and VIO voltage settings can be found -- and bump up the I/O voltage setting until you stop crashing.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><HR>
Bruce A. Richardson:
My Giga machine currently has an ABIT BM-6 mobo. Does anyone know what the largest RAM size is that this MOBO will accept.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The BM6 is based on the BX chipset. The BX chipset can address up to 512MB regular memory or 1024MB registered memory, but since your board only has three SIMM slots, you max out at 768MB (three 256MB sticks). BTW, registered = more expensive & slightly slower memory.

[SteveHanlon]

killerbobjr. how are you figuring out what number to put for MinFileCache and MaxFileCache, as well as ChunkSize?

[killerbobjr]

The Min/MaxFilecache and Chunksize values are in kilobytes. MinFilecache is the value for the smallest acceptable cache size, MaxFilecache is the value for the largest, and Chunksize is how big a chunk to read in per disk read. In a normal desktop enviroment, these values don\'t really need to be set since the Windows OS has a generically optimized file caching system to handle apps like word processors, web browsers, and the like. Windows can use up to all of the physical memory for cache. Since most people only have 64MB or 128MB in their computers these days, mucking around with these settings doesn\'t yield much improvement over the default settings. HOWEVER, in the specialized world of DAWs and GS machines, these settings become much more critical. Ordinarily, Windows will read the requested file section off the hard drive, then read a little more and cache it in memory, ready for the next file read request. GS relies heavily on the ability of the hard drive to quickly move from one section of the disk to another. Anything that interferes with that, such as Windows reading and caching the part of the file that comes AFTER what was actually requested, will slow down the GS disk reads. A gigasample can have hundreds of wavs and loading several gigasamples means you can have thousands of wavs spread across the disk, waiting to be read.

Ideally, you would set Min/MaxFilecache to zero so that Windows would read ONLY what GS requested. On a dedicated GS machine, this is the best choice. However, some machines aren\'t fast enough, and one can compromise by setting a large value of Min/MaxFilecache if you use samples that can be entirely loaded in memory (short samples), OR you are playing mostly short duration notes. Most of the wavs will be accessed from the cache instead of the hard drive, reducing pops and clicks.

On a machine that is not dedicated to GS, setting Min/MaxFilecache to a value larger than zero but less than half the size of physical memory, gives the best compromise between regular apps and GS. My general rule of thumb is: set both Min/MaxFilecache no larger than 1/8 the size of your physical memory, up to 32MB. Anything larger than that will give you diminishing returns. I like to set the values as low as possible. On my current system, 16MB (16384) seems to give the best tradeoff in performance between GS and Cakewalk. You\'ll have to experiment to find out the best value for your system. Set both the Min/MaxFilecache values the same to minimize memory fragmentation and use a value that is a power of 2 (2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, etc.). Chunksize isn\'t as critical and can be rather arbitray; 64, 128, 256, or 512 all work fine. The minimal size should be no smaller than the size of your gigasample drive\'s clusters.