What are the advantages, disadvantages and problems in upgrading to Vista for MC 3.0?

I've been trying to get clarity on that as well.

What I've been able to find out:

Vista B64 will make more RAM available to the app, since the XP limitation no longer applies. I'm still not sure how much more RAM can be assigned to the app, but there's definitely a gain there.

MacDrive does not seem to work on Vista B64 (at least, so someone on this forum mentioned), and maybe some more third party apps you need. There was some doubt whether or not Sony had released XDCAM drivers for Vista. Not sure if all AVX plugins will work

Also not sure if the general reluctancy towards Vista is substantiated by actual performance on an NLE.

Job ter Burg:

I've been trying to get clarity on that as well.

...So have we. So far, the reviews of MC 3.0 & Vista are fairly mixed, therefore we backed off our intended Vista Biz 64 upgrade in favor of stability with our only power laptop PC running Win XP Pro Service Pack 2 (Still waiting to hear if Service Pack 3 is OK to use).

MacDrive 7.2.2 supports Vista 64.  A 32-bit application, runjing in a 64-bit space, "should" have up  4GB availanble.  This would require more than 4GB total RAM.

In terms of RAM, Windows XP only supports a maximum of 4 gigs of ram - some of that ram is used by the system, so you only see like 3 1/2 available.  If you use XP 64 (not supported by Avid) or Vista 64 then, I think, the sky is the limit for RAM - certainly you can use 8 gigs.  Or so I am told.

So go ahead and install it and tell us all what happened:)

-Spencer

Ssnygg:

the sky is the limit for RAM

I have been told that a 32bit application - like Avid - on a 64bit OS, can claim up to 4GB, but not more. You need more than 4GB of RAM in total, 4GB for the app, then some for the OS. On 32bit XP, you can have a max of 2GB for a 32bit application, or maximum 2500-2800 with stuff like the 3GBapp.

Job ter Burg:

Ssnygg:

the sky is the limit for RAM

I have been told that a 32bit application - like Avid - on a 64bit OS, can claim up to 4GB, but not more. You need more than 4GB of RAM in total, 4GB for the app, then some for the OS. On 32bit XP, you can have a max of 2GB for a 32bit application, or maximum 2500-2800 with stuff like the 3GBapp.

This is what I've been told by Avid. I've also read (don't remember the source now) that 32bit XP limits you to 2GB for all open applications - so they're all fighting over the same ram. Can anyone validate that?

I'll be able to respond better to the original post in a week or so when our new HP8600 configured with Vista64bit and MC3.0 arrives.  I'll let you know what I learn.