So I put together an MC machine about 6 months ago and got an HP xw8400.  Seeing that HP wanted over $700 for the 4GB of RAM I opted for no RAM from them and bought 4GB from Crucial.  Now I have a MASSIVE project on there and the AVID is R-E-A-L-L-Y S-L-O-W!  Like I said I understand that this project is huge and it is taking up almost half of my unity, but I wondering if the RAM is affecting it.

Anyone know if the HP RAM has superior performance to the Crucial?

Also, my editors have complained that the machine slows to a crawl once the memory indicator, at the top of the project window, reaches 35-40%.

I doubt it's the RAM.  Crucial is very reliable.  It's probably just a "normal" Avid memory leak.  Do you have lots of effects?  How long is the timeline?

Yeah, that is what I was thinking.  This is a project that is 5x1 hour timelines with tons of effects, Saphire effects, moving picture, etc.  It has hundreds of hours of footage, thousands of pictures and hundreds of music tracks.  Thus the fact that they are using over half of my unity!  So the slowness doesn't surprise me, just wanted to make sure it wasn't a RAM issue or see if I can do anything to improve performance.

Break the timeline up into acts or whatever else makes sense, and put each segment into it's own Bin.  Keep all Bins closed that are not being used.  Also, you can remove any effects you're not actually using from the AVX Plugins folder(s).

Right On!

Thanks!

You might consider using this document to optimize XP.  These settings are listed as being for the xw8000 and xw8200 but they are really just xp settings and work fine on the xw8400 too.  Search the forums or the knowledge base for WinXP_Tuning_2005.zip.  This has a registry file that make alot of settings for you and lists what setting changes you need to make manually.  Here is a link:

http://avidtechnology.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/avidtechnology.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=71298&p_created=1112224108&p_sid=7B7xQAaj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PWRmbHQ6MSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9MCZwX2NhdHM9MCZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9V2luZG93cyBYUCBPcHRpbWl6YXRpb25zIGZvciBIUA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Keith

Yet another posting that demonstrates Avid has to seriously address mem issues. Lots of folks doing longform are running into trouble, Clear Bin Mem, does not free up enough mem, systems with low mem slow down enormously.

You could switch to Vista and  then install 16 or 32 gigs of Ram.....sorta kidding with that actually..

Doing mixdowns of your most effects + graphics heavy sections and nesting the original tracks underneath might help.As always, trashing/rebuilding your databases helps too.