Hi all, ok, this is probably as much a computer question as an Avid question, but I didn't know where else to go, and I know many of you are computer whizzes.  The question is: if I double my RAM from 16gb to 32gb, will it half my rendering and importing times, or at least significantly reduce them?  Thanks in advance for the help and Happy, Peaceful Holidays to all!

bushfilm:

...will it half my rendering and importing times, or at least significantly reduce them?

Short answer?  No.

Rendering speed is more dependent on raw CPU power than anything else, apparently, and even then, the number of cores utlized is dependent on a number of factors.

If you shave a little off the head and open up the ports a bit...

Got it, will try that.  Seriously,  what WOULD doubling RAM accomplish, other than reducing balance in checkbook?

bushfilm:

what WOULD doubling RAM accomplish

I'd consider an SSD for boot and render drives...there are no magic single potions. I can say from experience, all things being equal, higher CPU clock speeds produce the most tanngible incremental benefits.

Also, a clean software environment that is not burdened by unnessary processes stealing resources is key.

Hi TVJohn, I do have an SSD for boot drive, and just installed a 2TB SATA III drive for all media. Am hoping this may speed things up. I do have another computer I could use for everyday stuff then I could strip everything out of my editing computer except what is needed for editing. I may give this a try, but when I have attempted this in the past, it always came back to bite me. Such as needing Photoshop for quick fixes on pics before importing them into Avid, people emailing me photos for import, things like that.  Sometimes it's just easier not to have to put stuff on a thumb drive, move it into edit machine, etc.  So I guess I will just live with current render speed, which isn't that terrible (have 16gb RAM) but when you're in a hurry, some renders can take forever.  Thanks to all for help/advice.  Happy Holidays and Peace to All!

B.T.W.  What unnecessary processes are you mentioning?

Listing your system specs would help...

Ok, here goes:

ASUS P8 motherboard

i7 Intel Quad Core processor

128gb SSD boot drive

2TB SATA III media storage

16gb RAM (Ripjaws)

Windows 7 Pro (64bit)

Avid MC 5.0.4

I can't think of anything else to list.  I also use a couple of outboard Hard Drive docks, but mostly just for photos, music, etc. Do you think buying another 2TB drive and creating a RAID array would speed things up a bit?  

Thanks!

On my 2008 mac pro, I upgraded from the stock gpu (8800 gt) that had 512 megs of ram to a GTX 670 that had 2gigs and  good core speeds and my AMA conversion times decreased significantly.  So you may want to take that into consideration as well.

Interesting. It has been stated that GPU aceleration does not happen on the mac platform.

bushfilm:

Avid MC 5.0.4

... is a 32 bit application.

 While the OS and 64 bit apps can utilize more memory you are limited to 4GB of usable memory for that application. More RAM will not reduce your render time in this instance.

Thanks, so if I were to upgrade to another version of MC, like 7.0 or 8.0, would these be 64 bit?

bushfilm:

Thanks, so if I were to upgrade to another version of MC, like 7.0 or 8.0, would these be 64 bit?

Starting with version 6.0, Media Composer is a 64 bit application. Be aware that it requires new plugins (64 bit version). Your older plugins such as Boris CC are not compatible. It can also affect older hardware. For example, Avid Mojo (SD and SDI) and Adrenaline are not supported with MC 6.0 or newer.

Regarding the original topic... the only way more RAM is going to increase your render speed is if your system is utilizing virtual memory during renders. This means the lack of RAM forces the computer to use one of the local drives (usually the OS drive) as RAM. You can imagine how this can slow down any process since a typical HDD is about 100 MB/s. In comparison DDR3 is measured in Gigabytes. Even consumer SSDs are only about 300-600 MB/s. But if your memory usage is below your physical RAM, then additional RAM is not going to help you.