Is 8GB RAM enough?

[rubez]

Vital synth, is this a CPU intensive VST? (I wouldn't have thought so)

I am getting lots of clicks and pops, I am set to High Performance in Windows settings, usually that helps but not with this VST.

I had 16GB RAM but one stick died and I have been working fine with half the memory for ages.

What is a good place to buy UK memory? I have Z97MX motherboard. Is it bas practice to mix and match RAM sticks? So I should buy 2 new sticks?

Is 16GB these days considered paltry even?
Thanks/

[hitherepeople]

Really not sure if more ram will help, but actually, 8GB can be enough depending on how many VSTI's you use. I have an old first gen i7 with 8GB and it preforms rather well when I need it. My main machine is 16GB which is more than enough for me

I think you'll find that if your going to do deeper stuff like a lot of Kontact or Orchestral stuff, you may want to go 32GB or maybe more.

Also it would be helpful to know more about your system, like CPU/desk/lap/DAW and tell if the meter in your DAW spikes at all?

[rafa1981]

For DSP-only processes i'd guess that RAM is worthless. For DSP cache performance and size is more important that RAM, so you needed to upgrade the CPU. DSP is not that memory intensive unless you use a lot of samples/samplers.

[tony10000]

8GB is usually fine if you don't use a lot of samples.

[h66]

All modern Wavetable Synths are hungry.
(Not so at "simple" Wavetables in Hybrid 3 or W.A. Babylon.)

[thecontrolcentre]

8gb is just about enough, but more is better. FYI I had a studio laptop built 5 - 6 years ago and that has 24gb ... still going strong.

[kingozrecords]

12 gb is just enough. 14 better and the two extra gigabytes of 16 (rather than 14) seems less utilized strangely enough.
I will have 16gb in My new build, and like in the way of hard drive write speed it seems that benchmark and optimal threshold is never reached realistically. But of course we see those crazy expensive machines on youtube that seem to be able to use all possible speed and memory available. I look forward to learning all of those tricks and secrets to do that.

I know in the way of usb, that by selecting power to not be regulated by the laptop (or tower), means that it can have better write speed overall, but for other devices; like memory I don't know how to use that extra 2 gb .

[legendCNCD]

What been already said, I'd start from 16GB, though I usually put all the samples to RAM on this machine, been using around 12GB on Ableton 10. That said too, I dont keep browser or ssh to irssi etc. open, only notepad++ to keep concentrated on music.

If I'd keep browser and all the normal stuff up I'd already go over the 16GB then. My next machine will start from 32GB or maybe 64GB. Also then one can use memory as RAMDisk:

[jancivil]

For DSP-only processes i'd guess that RAM is worthless. DSP is not that memory intensive unless you use a lot of samples/samplers.

the second statement proves the first isn't necessarily true. very bold claim, tho
/*which* DSP?

If this machine, bought it ~13 mos ago, held 128GB that's what I'd have, but it maxes out at 64. There is no general truism available here, it depends. I tend to doubt anyone's going for a 128MB machine today, probably worth more than nothing per se.

[arkmabat]

8gb is just about enough, but more is better. FYI I had a studio laptop built 5 - 6 years ago and that has 24gb ... still going strong.

Yeah, I've found that I hardly ever use over around 11, which is annoying since the units usually go in 4s. 16 gigs is a safe bet, imo.

[rafa1981]

For DSP-only processes i'd guess that RAM is worthless. DSP is not that memory intensive unless you use a lot of samples/samplers.

the second statement proves the first isn't necessarily true. very bold claim, tho
/*which* DSP?

If this machine, bought it ~13 mos ago, held 128GB that's what I'd have, but it maxes out at 64. There is no general truism available here, it depends. I tend to doubt anyone's going for a 128MB machine today, probably worth more than nothing per se.

Do you realize that the OP is asking about buying RAM for the Vital software synth?

[rafa1981]

The most memory intensive DSP processes are these having delay lines like reverbs and echoes and pretty often they only store up to 5 seconds of audio. Around 14000 samples for each channel at 48kHz. If this is stored as float32 it is less than 56KB for each channel.

Then maybe some plugin goes crazy with some MB of lookup tables, but it won't happen often if the dev knows what he's doing.

[Old Nick]

Any advice is meaningless without knowing what cpu the op is using. Although the Z97 is quite old, so a weak cpu may be the problem.
Loads of RAM is only necessary for sample libraries, little processing actually takes place in RAM.
If you don't use sample libs, even 4 gigabytes will probably suffice.
Me? I have 32, mainly because I use a lot of sample libs, and do some video work, too.

To answer another of the op's questions, it's a bad idea to mix and match RAM sticks.

I notice that this is a common answer, but I haven't seen it here, so... Have you tried Reaper?

[rubez]

Any advice is meaningless without knowing what cpu the op is using. Although the Z97 is quite old, so a weak cpu may be the problem.
Loads of RAM is only necessary for sample libraries, little processing actually takes place in RAM.
If you don't use sample libs, even 4 gigabytes will probably suffice.
Me? I have 32, mainly because I use a lot of sample libs, and do some video work, too.

To answer another of the op's questions, it's a bad idea to mix and match RAM sticks.

I notice that this is a common answer, but I haven't seen it here, so... Have you tried Reaper?

CPU is i7 4790k 4GHz.

Could the problem be cause I'm using integrated graphics? On the task manager the graphics shows 50%-60% use, then when I close Vital it drops to 0% basically.

[Old Nick]

...

CPU is i7 4790k 4GHz.

Could the problem be cause I'm using integrated graphics? On the task manager the graphics shows 50%-60% use, then when I close Vital it drops to 0% basically.

Same chip as me. I wouldn't waste my time with the 4790 graphics, you'd be better off getting a cheap graphics card. But I doubt that would affect your audio.
What audio interface do you use? And what's the size of your buffer? I use an RME AIO set to 512, which is way to high for performance, but since I don't perform, it's not a problem. If this buffer is set too low, you'll get pops etc. With this I can have 4 instances of HALion, Kontakt Player with about 12 instruments loaded, EastWest Play with several libs loaded, along with 6-8 instances of R4 reverb, and a whole bunch of eqs, compressors, everywhere. The asio meter in Cubase rarely goes above 70%.
There's a whole bunch of system tweaks you could try, too. The web is replete with them.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+speed+ ... ldi&ia=web