Hi guys...

I have a Dual Xeon 3.2 machine running 2gigs of RAM and tons of External Hard-Drive storage...
The system is running windowsXP pro and I am not doing much on it while running Vegas.

I just got a project converting alot HDV tapes to a few wmvHD formats...

I am using Vegas 7 (and soon Vegas 8) to drop a watermark on the video, edit a few small parts out and then render out to wmvHD formats.

In your pro opinions... Will my Overall editing/rendering time be lowered if I double my RAM to 4 gigs?

Is there anything I can do to speed up my overall project time?

thanks guys!

Upgrading from 2 to 4 GB will help somewhat, but....

why invest in additional memory now when you are using relatively old CPU's? You may need to upgrade to newer CPU's (quad core Harpertown's) in the near future to get any sizable performance gain and chances are you cannot use your current memory sticks.

Just something to consider.

XP Pro will only let you use 3GB.

2- I doubt Vegas will benefit from the RAM increase... chances are your money is best spent upgrading the processor (though usually this entails getting a new computer and seeing which of your old parts you can cannibalize).

3- Running multiple instances of Vegas, networking rendering might also be other options to look into. (Network rendering has its own gotchas though.)

Upgrading from 2 to 4 GB will help somewhat, but....

why invest in additional memory now when you are using relatively old CPU's? You may need to upgrade to newer CPU's (quad core Harpertown's) in the near future to get any sizable performance gain and chances are you cannot use your current memory sticks.

Just something to consider.


This is a very good point... You are right.

Thanks.

XP Pro will only let you use 3GB.

Really? I thought it understood and used up to 4GB.

I can't remember the exact reason but Windows XP SP2 might only let you use 3GB. I'm sure the exact details can be found on Google.

Windows XP 32 can address up to 4GB, (2^32) but the PCI slots are addressed with the same system, so the more PCI buses you have, the more RAM that is unaddressable. Usually 2.75-3.5GB is visible to Windows.
OF THAT, only 2GB total is alloted to applications, the rest is for the OS, unless the /3G boot switch is used, which can increase the application memory to 3GB, but doesn't work well with certain programs.

I am told Vista32 is even worse in this regard, but a 64bit OS (XP or Vista), will not have this limitation. But and 32 bit app in 64bit OS can only address 4GB (2^32) of Ram. For example, if I have a station with 16GB, using PPro and AE: in 64 bit each gets a separate (up to) 4GB chunk of memory, but with 32bit they SHARE 2GB (or 3GB) total. A 64bit app in a 64bit OS, gets as much memory as is available if it needs it.

I have a dell P-4 2.8Ghz machine. I installed 4 gigs of RAM. The system never recognizes more than 3 gigs. Wasted money on RAM not used. When I have the $$ I will upgrade to a 64 bit dual or quad machine.

Render times with Vegas are largely dictated by processor speed / architecture. RAM has little or no effect on them; what it helps with is real-time preview.

I have an almost identical system (dual 3.2Ghz, 2GB, XP32) and finally ordered a replacement this week. The Core2 architecture that Intel released last year was a major advance, besides the fact that it doubled or quadrupled the core count. I have the systems at work and have made the tests and comparisons. I only made the jump to Woodcrest for now because I found a great deal, but it should still at least double my performance, and allow me to upgrade the CPUs to Clovertown quad cores in the future if I find it necessary. The newest Harpertown systems will be even faster, but honestly, on a budget, a consumer Core2Quad system will beat our old dual Xeon systems 9 times out of 10.

Oh, and my earlier post missed an important detail: upgrading above 2GB of RAM isn't going to do jack for your WM9 render times, even with the /3G switch.

Bye the Bye: A quick way to see if you are bound by CPU cycles vs. some IO bottleneck is to start the task manager before starting a render, and move to the "performance" tab. If the CPU utilization is above 90% when the render is underway, nothing in the IO path, including insufficient RAM is amiss.

Task manager is started by simultaneous Control/Alt/Delete. For those of you who knew old MS-DOS, no the machine will not instantly shut down!

Really? I thought it understood and used up to 4GB.

Depends what you are talking about.

XP will use all the RAM up to 4GB but only half is available to applications, the rest is used by the OS for drivers etc.

3GB is available if you run Windows with the /3GB boot option *and* applications are written to take advantage of the extra 1GB *and* you don't have any drivers that will crash.

Basically, an extra 1GB will help but not much.

Little unknown fact: by default, 64-bit applications on 64-bit Vista will still only be able to use 2GB - unless they are written especially to use more (up to 128GB in the case of Vista Ultimate). So, let's say Sony or Adobe just blindly recompile their software for 64-bit and don't add any extra code, it will still have all the same limitations as the 32-bit. Like I say, little known fact.