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  4. Choices for Slaves/How hard are we running these machines?

  • Choices for Slaves/How hard are we running these machines?

    J
    J
    Hey all,

    I know that someone came out with stress tests for VI (maybe it was Herb or Maya...or Paul??), but I'm wondering something...

    I've got 3 machines attempting to run essentially a full orchestra:


    Master: G5 Dual 2.7-strings and brass (and some perc)
    Slave: mac mini duo (intel): Woodwinds (in Logic)
    Slave: G5 Single 1.8: Harp and Percussion (in Digital Performer)

    G5 Dual is doing ok, mac mini has been giving me NO problems, and G5 single has been the biggest pain in the butt EVER!!!! Am I correct that the 1.8 single processor is just TOO slow for VI??...in otherwords, can I get someone to second that or perhaps suggest where I could help utilize my equipment better?

    Also of note: all samples are sitting on external hard drives (except for brass, which are SATA on an extra drive inside my master G5)...that is Firewire 800 for everything but mac mini (400 only..1 ext. drive).

    Thoughts? I'm even having some issues just running harp or just vibes and glock alone on my G5 single 1.8.

    It sounds like most of the users on this forum (including quite a few VSL people) are mainly running PCs for slaves...comparisons??? again, I know stress tests were published, but curious about what's going on in the field.

    Josh
  • J
    J
    I'm curious about how the single 1.8 has been a problem? I'm running a dual 1.8 and it's been really underwhelming... When I load up a large template even a single instrument barely plays; pops, clicks, error messages. [:(]

    hmmm...

    ----------------

    okay, I've just unloaded a bunch of instruments and it's much better. It plays fine now, but I've had to sacrifice a good chunk of my template... It seems to be related to memory. I'm going to see how much RAM I can address and still have it play properly. I didn't actually check earlier whether it was paging out, but that would certainly do it as well.

    J.

    In case anyone's in a similar boat:

    G5 dual 1.8 GHz
    4 GB RAM
    samples on 250 GB Seagate SATA (16 MB cache)
    Mac OS X 10.4.7
    Logic Pro 7.2.1
    RME DIGI 96/8 PAD
  • J
    J
    J.

    In my experience, even unloading instruments has been a problem. Now, perhaps after loading everything up, then uloading, my computer still needs a reboot to reset ram and all that...but my biggest problem is that I have 4 gigs of RAM and I'm not even nearly half-using it before I'm full!!! I'm suspect of the bus of the computer...? thoughts? Again, I really hate that a tower like this isn't very useful. I mean, I'm considering just running harps on the bloody thing!...what a waste of a G5 tower it seems to me.

    Josh
  • J
    J
    Waste of hardware. Good point, J.

    Sorry to hear about your bump in the road-- I'm right with you-- sort of. I've set aside networking for the moment because of this very issue. If you are using DP5.x, there are new features (Prime Seconds, Work Quanta, and Max Work Percent) which help to optimize the CPU performance. Raise your buffers a notch and, if possible, use CueMix for direct monitoring.

    This brings me to a question I've asked before, but no one can seem to answer:

    Back in January, 2005 when VSL was at NAMM I attended a VSL clinic given at a local music store. One of the tech heads kept saying that they were going to speak of using an X-Serve setup to deliver the goods on CPU intensive DAWs.

    I've heard nothing of it since, but does anyone have any idea about this notion of using an X-Serve array for the purpose of using VSL-VI?

    J-- I admire that 2.7 Dual and am radically torn about what to do about a VI farm. PC is out of the question. Minis sound like an interim solution on the surface, but from the sound of things they beat the 1.8's!! I don't understand. Intel feels too green, and I just don't want to beta test hardware at my expense, not yet.

    Maybe as the Intel towers are relased, a wall of 2.7s (falling prices) might be the way to go?
  • J
    J
    JWL,

    I think it's a misunderstanding to say "Intels are green". Yes, for Apple, but really there's nothing so terribly "Apple" about the Intel Macs, beyond the case and the OS. Basically, the Intel Mac is a PC in a pretty case that runs OS X. I really think there must be some low-level programming and optimization that heavily favors the x86 architecture when running VIs; my PC does much better than my Mac (a single P4 2.8 GHz and a dual G5 1.8 GHz). Of course, it's probably also got a lot to do with raw clock speed, since the P4 is a solid 1 GHz faster, clock-for-clock. I'm probably going to pick up a MacBook in the next couple of weeks to take some of the load off my G5. I'll run a few VIs on the G5, along with the sequencer (Logic or Sibelius), then put the rest of the VIs on the PC and the MacBook. But yes, it's very strange to see the consumer-level Intel Macs beating the pants off a "Pro" machine like the dual G5...

    JJ,

    I'm pretty bummed out about memory, too. I upgraded to 4 GB when I ordered the VIs and I'm finding there's no real point in having it now, since I hit the wall on playback performance long before my RAM is full. Anyway, live and learn, I suppose. I'm crossing my fingers on the MacBook doing the trick. And just in case anybody's wondering "why a MacBook?" Well, I figure it's pretty much the same machine as the Mini, but in laptop format, which I could really use for other things.

    cheers,

    J.