I was asked by the VSL people to check on some memory related things as they have already had several questions from VI users about this. I still have a couple of things to go through but here are at least some guidelines as a start that covers the most basic setups.
If you encounter problems with low load limits with VI or if you are migrating your GigaStudio machine into a VI machine this text is for you.
Machine previously used for GigaStudio
If you have been using the “memory tweaks” on the machine to be able to load more samples in GigaStudio the tweaks need to be removed. This can be done in a number of ways, but these are simple and fail-safe and therefore recommended:
Using the GigaStudio Memory configuration utility
1. Start the GigaStudio memory configuration utility.
2. Apply memory preset #1 (Windows XP default).
3. Reboot the machine.
Using the Memory Load Optimizer for GigaStudio
1. Download and run the small utility from http://www.musikbanken.se/gigastudio/memopt.htm
2. If you like you can check your current settings by pressing the “Get current settings” button.
3. Run the utility and press the button “Revert to default settings”.
4. Reboot the machine.
New machine or machine previously used for other purposes
Normally you shouldn’t need to change anything to the memory configuration on a machine that hasn’t been tweaked specifically for GigaStudio. As always there are exceptions to this rule so if you experience problems with unreasonably low load limits in VI it can be well worth performing this check:
1. Download the Memory Load Optimizer for GigaStudio utility from http://www.musikbanken.se/gigastudio/memopt.htm
2. Run the utility and press the button “Get current settings”.
3. If the values you're seeing in the four boxes are anything but zeros you may be affected by this. If you like to be on the safe side of things write down the 4 numbers.
4. Press “Revert to default settings”.
5. Reboot the machine.
I have more than 2 GB RAM, how can I use more of it for VI?
The answer is there is a way, but no gain without some pain... There has been some talk on these forums about Large Address Aware-support and some tests have been made at least by myself and probably most of all our forum friend DG. I thought it would fit nicely into this post so here are the details...
Description
There has been some talk on these forums about Large Address Aware-support and some tests have been made at least by myself and most of all our friend DG. In order for you to be able to load more streaming buffers than about 1.7GB you need to enable something called /3GB mode on your machine. Using this mode you can load up to near 3GB worth of streaming buffers on a 4GB machine which is quite a substantial difference! The /3GB mode shifts the focus of memory allocations over to user-mode applications rather than the default even split between user-mode and kernel-mode applications. Due to this fact do not engage the setting on your GigaStudio machine. You will not be happy with the performance in GigaStudio when the /3G switch is set.
The catch
The catch is that you need to use a host application for VI that is LAA (Large Address Aware). This is something that the host vendors decide to enable when compiling the application. The other "dirty" way is to enable this yourself and this can be done on any application, but there is no guarantee the application will work as expected and there's no way you would get support for it... It can be done though. Current state-of-the-art tells us the following regarding hosts:
Cakewalk Sonar: Not LAA. No problems when edited to be LAA according to Cakewalk.
Cubase SX 3 and Nuendo 3: Supposedly LAA but there are doubts about this however...
Brainspawn Forte: Not LAA. Will be LAA from the next update 1.6.
Steinberg VStack: Not LAA.
Fx-Max FXTeleport: Not LAA. An LAA enabled version is tested as we speak.
There are many more hosts so if someone have details let me know and I'll update the list.
The preferred way is definitely to push the host application developers to add LAA support natively as they are the only ones knowing they have followed the coding rules needed! The other way would be to patch the exe-file from the outside using a small utility editbin which comes with some development packages. Down at the bottom of this post you'll find a description of the process.
To set the /3GB switch
The /3GB switch is an option you have to add in your boot.ini file. You can access this file by opening the Properties dialog on "My Computer". Under the Advanced tab and Startup and Recovery press settings. In the startup and recovery dialog press the edit button. This should open a text file with about the following content:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
First of all!! If you destroy this boot.ini file your computer won't be very happy when starting up so take all precautions and medications. You're doing this at your own risk. If you screw up however there is a way out... http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184/en-us is recommended reading if needed.
Anyway, to be safe COPY the last line and edit it by adding the /3GB switch. Also change the name on the changed line. In my case it would look like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin /3GB
Save the file and restart the machine. When you start the machine now you will get an option to start either one of the now two OS configurations on your computer. By doing it this way you can easily go back to a configuration without the /3GB switch engaged if needed. There could be cases when a driver (most probably video driver) fails to load due to setting the 3GB switch since the amount of kernel-mode memory in the system is too low. If that happens it's good to know that you have an option to specifically specify the relationship between user-mode and kernel-mode memory by adding another switch in the boot.ini file called /userva. Setting this to 2.5GB in the example above would look like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin /3GB /userva=2500
Conclusion
If you're planning to add more than 2GB of RAM to your system, this is well worth an investigation. Bug your host vendor to add official support for LAA. You can patch the host yourself, but it will definitely leave you without support.
Ok, ok, ok I've read every disclaimer and recommendation in here and despite common sense I'm convinced I want to hack the exe myself
Here is the description of the process. You need a utility called editbin.exe. This utility comes with Microsofts Visual Studio product, but you can also download an assembler development package from http://www.masm32.com which contains the utility as well.
1. Make a backup of the exe file you want to patch.
2. Copy the exe to the utility directory.
3. Open a command prompt in the directory and run the command editbin /LARGEADDRESSAWARE yourexe.exe.
4. Copy the patched file back to the original application directory.
5. You're done.
/Mattias
-
[PC] Memory configuration and VI...
-
Hi Matthias
I bought myself another 2 gb of ram for the main VSL machine in order
to try and utilize the /3GB switch.
I setup the switch in boot.ini - but alas not a single byte more available
to application - the roof is still 2 gb. The OS reports 4 gb of physical memory allright (In the computer management tool), but the application space is still only 2 gb - and it says only 2 gb in the computer properties
I tried to push the VI's memory consumption in order to see if it was just the memory indication not taking the extra ram into account - but no it hit the ceiling right away and stalled the machine.
Have you been working with the switch yet?
My setup is Win XP sp2 and 4 gb ram. Asus mobo and AMD X2.
best regards
Bjarne
-
@Sapkiller said:
Hi Matthias
I bought myself another 2 gb of ram for the main VSL machine in order
to try and utilize the /3GB switch.
I setup the switch in boot.ini - but alas not a single byte more available
to application - the roof is still 2 gb. The OS reports 4 gb of physical memory allright (In the computer management tool), but the application space is still only 2 gb - and it says only 2 gb in the computer properties
I tried to push the VI's memory consumption in order to see if it was just the memory indication not taking the extra ram into account - but no it hit the ceiling right away and stalled the machine.
Have you been working with the switch yet?
My setup is Win XP sp2 and 4 gb ram. Asus mobo and AMD X2.
best regards
Bjarne
What host are you using?
DG
-
Hi DG
I'm using Sonar 5 - but I think its WinXp itself still counting just 2 Gb
of application space ( says 2 Gb in properties of My Computer - but
4 gb physical memory in admin tools )
What are your results with the switch?
I might have made an error in the setup, though it seems straight forward.
-
@Sapkiller said:
Hi DG
I'm using Sonar 5 - but I think its WinXp itself still counting just 2 Gb
of application space ( says 2 Gb in properties of My Computer - but
4 gb physical memory in admin tools )
What are your results with the switch?
I might have made an error in the setup, though it seems straight forward.
Have a look at the thread that I posted this morning [H]
DG
-
Hey Guys.. Been looking into this myself.
My main concerns..will the 3GB switch work on XP home as well..? Some say only XP Pro.
Also will the editbin hack work on with a host that uses the WIBU CM stick i.e Samplitude/Sequioa. Some say as soon as you tampler with the Samp.exe to dongle will not work.. and Samp will not start...
Anyone try any test like this?
Best , Rich
-
Hey Guys.. Been looking into this myself.
My main concerns..will the 3GB switch work on XP home as well..? Some say only XP Pro.
Also will the editbin hack work on with a host that uses the WIBU CM stick i.e Samplitude/Sequioa. Some say as soon as you tampler with the Samp.exe to dongle will not work.. and Samp will not start...
Anyone try any test like this?
Best , Rich
AFAIK /3Gig switch should work with both flavours of XP. I don't know about Samplitude, but why not try it? As long as everything is backed up and you save a copy of the exe file elsewhere you can always replace it.
D
-
What DG said. Unfortunately I don't have Samp myself so I can't test it. I have tested a couple of other hosts and haven't seen any problems though. I really doubt it would affect the dongle connection as you're just changing a single bit in the file header...
If you haven't used editbin before you might want to get my small Windows-based utility I wrote just some weeks ago which does the same thing with some additional features for LAA status checking. I'm currently updating my web site with information about it, but I haven't finished yet so it's not online... If you want it let me know and I'll send it to you.
/Mattias
-
Thanks for the replies guys ! The main reason i havent checked it is cause i dont really want to shell out for the 2 extra gigs if it doesnt work [:D]
Yea, i dont really want to use edit.bin as im not comepletly tweek savy either, but maybe i should try your util Mattias when i get the down time to experiment on my system (should be soon).. my email is vertigosound@sympatico.ca [:)]
Thanks again..Best , Rich
-
Thanks for the replies guys ! The main reason i havent checked it is cause i dont really want to shell out for the 2 extra gigs if it doesnt work [:D]
Yea, i dont really want to use edit.bin as im not comepletly tweek savy either, but maybe i should try your util Mattias when i get the down time to experiment on my system (should be soon).. my email is vertigosound@sympatico.ca [:)]
Thanks again..Best , Rich
Rich please be aware that it might not be an extra 2 gigs. In order to run 3gigs I had to replace 2 sticks and to run 4 gigs I had to replace all 4, so I now have loads of 512Mb RAM sticks hanging around waiting for a good home!!
DG
-
Hi DG,
Hmm. well it should be o.k here i think.. using the GA-K8NS ultra 939. Which can take 4 -1 gb sticks. Right now i have 2- 1 GB sticks Corsair DDR-400 twinX. Do they all have to be matching pairs or something?
Rich
It depends on various things. You should be OK with your set-up, but only time will tell!!
DG
-
In my case .. 'various ' meaning what ? [[;)]] Prepare me for the worst !! [:P] Rich
Chipset, BIOS, drivers, weather, whatever... [:)] As one example my MSI Neo2 Ultra (also 939) refuse to work with 4 equal 1GB TwinMos sticks. 2 TwinMos and 2 Selectra works great though, go figure.
/Mattias
-
In my case .. 'various ' meaning what ? [[;)]] Prepare me for the worst !! [:P] Rich
Chipset, BIOS, drivers, weather, whatever... [:)] As one example my MSI Neo2 Ultra (also 939) refuse to work with 4 equal 1GB TwinMos sticks. 2 TwinMos and 2 Selectra works great though, go figure.
/Mattias
Hmm. sounds like it may be one of those quirky.."I mayget it to work one day senerios" !
Thanks Alot for the "Util" Mattias ! I just got it...i may have some questions come tweeking time..Thanks alot guys.. Best, Rich
-
In my case .. 'various ' meaning what ? [[;)]] Prepare me for the worst !! [:P] Rich
Chipset, BIOS, drivers, weather, whatever... [:)] As one example my MSI Neo2 Ultra (also 939) refuse to work with 4 equal 1GB TwinMos sticks. 2 TwinMos and 2 Selectra works great though, go figure.
/Mattias
Hmm. sounds like it may be one of those quirky.."I mayget it to work one day senerios" !
Thanks Alot for the "Util" Mattias ! I just got it...i may have some questions come tweeking time..Thanks alot guys.. Best, Rich
One last thought. If you get your RAM from a dealer such a Crucial you might be able to return it within a certain period of time if it turns out not to be suitable.
DG
-
-
Hi... Anyone tried this on a 3 or 3,5 GB system? Any significant difference in what can be loaded?
-
@Christian Marcussen said:
Hi... Anyone tried this on a 3 or 3,5 GB system? Any significant difference in what can be loaded?
I haven't tried 3.5GB, but I guess that it would be the same as 4GB. Between 3 and 4GB there is approximately a difference of 100MB when it comes to sample loading.
DG
-
Sweet... becuase most of my slaves have 4x512mb. If I can do with 3,5GB taking out one 512 and a single 2GB ram peice would be enough.