Ram within the Mac system at DVinfo.net

Simon Denny · September 30th, 2008, 02:45 AM

Does FCS- 6 use all its available Ram within the Mac system. Or rather, is the operating system limited like XP where it will only see or use 2 – 3 gig of Ram?

Still thinking about getting the Mac Book Pro 17” as my main editing system but if the system is limited to the amount of Ram like a PC I might re – think things.

Simon

Andy Mees · September 30th, 2008, 05:42 AM

at present FCP is still only a (carbon based) 32 bit application, so no, it can't address all the physical RAM in your system ... long overdue for a cocoa rewrite.

Terry Lee · September 30th, 2008, 06:40 AM

So what would be the amount of RAM necessary for MacPro with FCS 2?

William Hohauser · September 30th, 2008, 09:03 AM

FCP can only address 4 GBs of RAM so more will not help. Apple recommends 4 GB for uncompressed HD but to run Motion or Color properly you'll need specific video cards that have their own RAM. So 4 GB should be fine.

Bill Pryor · September 30th, 2008, 09:07 AM

I have 4 and FCP run everything fine. You can get by fine with 2 gigs, but may have some trouble in certain areas. Everybody recommends 4 gigs for HD.

Loren Simons · September 30th, 2008, 09:57 AM

does anyone not recommend mixing apple brand ram, and 3rd party ram in the same computer?

Louis Maddalena · September 30th, 2008, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loren Simons

does anyone not recommend mixing apple brand ram, and 3rd party ram in the same computer?

I mixed 2gb of apple ram with 10gb of third party ram and all works fine.

Jim Cancil · October 1st, 2008, 10:11 AM

Mixed also .. four different Macs without a problem. ..that I could see?!

Jim

Mike Bisom · October 1st, 2008, 10:53 PM

It's true that FCP (or any 32-bit application) can only "see" 4GB of RAM however how often is FCP the ONLY app you have running? How about Motion and FCP.... now you can benefit from 8GB of RAM (and that doesn't take into account the OS itself). OS X is pretty good at memory management! 2GB was where I started, 4GB was the first sweet spot. 8GB was the 2nd sweet spot.... meaning I saw marked improvements at those points.

Mike

Dick Campbell · October 2nd, 2008, 08:37 AM

so on a related note, can anyone recommend a reliable source for third pary RAM?

Nick Gordon · October 2nd, 2008, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dick Campbell

so on a related note, can anyone recommend a reliable source for third pary RAM?

Based on personal experience, I'd happily recommend Crucial (Memory upgrades, flash media, and usb storage at Crucial.com). I have been told that Kingston are good too.

All the upgrade memory in my Macs (2 x iMac, 1 x MacBook Pro 17") has come from Crucial

Steve Oakley · October 4th, 2008, 12:48 AM

FCP will only use about 2.5G of ram, period. it has some weird limitations. I had major problems rendering today with out of memory errors on a 8core machine with 12G of ram. FCP is crap. it was rendering random frames of other clips today too. had to re rerender a bunch of stuff before I finally got it right.

adobe apps OTH can use all the ram you have by launching additional instances ( render nodes if you like ) onto all the procs in a machine.going that route, you can actually use all the ram you have, at least on a 8 core machine.

on a 8 core machine, bare minimum is 8G of ram, ideally 16G. 4G and the machine will just barely run once you get into render / ram intensive work.

September 30th, 2008, 02:45 AM	#1
Simon Denny Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,409	Ram within the Mac system Does FCS- 6 use all its available Ram within the Mac system. Or rather, is the operating system limited like XP where it will only see or use 2 – 3 gig of Ram? Still thinking about getting the Mac Book Pro 17” as my main editing system but if the system is limited to the amount of Ram like a PC I might re – think things. Simon

September 30th, 2008, 06:40 AM	#3
Terry Lee Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Louisville, KY Posts: 691	So what would be the amount of RAM necessary for MacPro with FCS 2? __________________ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=38313004

September 30th, 2008, 09:03 AM	#4
William Hohauser Inner Circle Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: New York City Posts: 2,650	FCP can only address 4 GBs of RAM so more will not help. Apple recommends 4 GB for uncompressed HD but to run Motion or Color properly you'll need specific video cards that have their own RAM. So 4 GB should be fine. __________________ William Hohauser - New York City Producer/Edit/Camera/Animation

September 30th, 2008, 09:57 AM	#6
Loren Simons Major Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 288	does anyone not recommend mixing apple brand ram, and 3rd party ram in the same computer? __________________ Loren Simons

September 30th, 2008, 05:42 AM	#2
Andy Mees Major Player Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Posts: 645	at present FCP is still only a (carbon based) 32 bit application, so no, it can't address all the physical RAM in your system ... long overdue for a cocoa rewrite.

September 30th, 2008, 09:07 AM	#5
Bill Pryor Contributor Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 4,449	I have 4 and FCP run everything fine. You can get by fine with 2 gigs, but may have some trouble in certain areas. Everybody recommends 4 gigs for HD.

October 1st, 2008, 10:11 AM	#8
Jim Cancil Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Salisbury Maryland Posts: 161	Mixed also .. four different Macs without a problem. ..that I could see?! Jim

October 1st, 2008, 10:53 PM	#9
Mike Bisom Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Kenosha WI Posts: 65	It's true that FCP (or any 32-bit application) can only "see" 4GB of RAM however how often is FCP the ONLY app you have running? How about Motion and FCP.... now you can benefit from 8GB of RAM (and that doesn't take into account the OS itself). OS X is pretty good at memory management! 2GB was where I started, 4GB was the first sweet spot. 8GB was the 2nd sweet spot.... meaning I saw marked improvements at those points. Mike

October 2nd, 2008, 08:37 AM	#10
Dick Campbell Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 117	so on a related note, can anyone recommend a reliable source for third pary RAM?

October 4th, 2008, 12:48 AM	#12
Steve Oakley Trustee Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: United States Posts: 1,158	FCP will only use about 2.5G of ram, period. it has some weird limitations. I had major problems rendering today with out of memory errors on a 8core machine with 12G of ram. FCP is crap. it was rendering random frames of other clips today too. had to re rerender a bunch of stuff before I finally got it right. adobe apps OTH can use all the ram you have by launching additional instances ( render nodes if you like ) onto all the procs in a machine.going that route, you can actually use all the ram you have, at least on a 8 core machine. on a 8 core machine, bare minimum is 8G of ram, ideally 16G. 4G and the machine will just barely run once you get into render / ram intensive work.