KVR Audio

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 5:08 am

GPU memory is it really useful, used and managed for Mao.

It really brings a plus for use in a daw and others?

Where does GPU memory make sense only for video applications and not useful for Mao?

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 9:38 am

GPU memory is exclusively for the GPU. Some graphics cards use main memory, so less is available for your apps. Note: makes a diff mainly with games. DAWs are not so GPU demanding.

I don't understand what Mao the Great Chinese Leader has to do with this. I'm reading KvrAudio for nearly 2 decades, even no mention of him in HPC.

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 10:09 am

Thank you for your reply.

Mao ====> Computer Aided Music.

I was talking about the GPU compared to the Mac Mini / Studio M1 and M2.

So, when you buy a Mac M1 or M2, for music use, you don't need to have a lot of GPU memory as you understand it.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:15 am

Trancer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 10:09 am Mao ====> Computer Aided Music.

So, actually 'MAO,' then, since its an acronym. That, and the fact that its a French acronym are probably what's caused the confusion. Disambiguation is good.

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:23 am

Yes absolutely, French acronym.

I will never have spoken of Mao here.

So, I confirm to avoid any confusion.

Mao ====> Computer Aided Music.

Nothing other than that.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:27 am

Trancer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:23 am Yes absolutely, French acronym.

I will never have spoken of Mao here.

So, I confirm to avoid any confusion.

Mao ====> Computer Aided Music.

Nothing other than that.

As I say, it should actually be 'MAO', fully capitalised, because its an acronym. Musique Assistée par Ordinateur.

MAO ====> Computer Aided Music.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_a ... ordinateur

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:48 am

As now we know what I meant.

No need to quibble and look for the correct spelling.

Is it possible to have an answer to my question?

MAO like that everyone is happy.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:56 am

Trancer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:48 am Is it possible to have an answer to my question?

Absolutely. Video/GPU memory is only important to MAO if you're using a MAO application which requires video/GPU memory.

That would probably be predicated on whether that MAO application is based on eg the kind of AI tech being used in current AI tools such as Dall-E.

A more specific answer would probably be dependent on knowing which MAO applications you were specifically talking about.

foosnark · Post by **foosnark** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:59 am

More GPU RAM just means you can have higher resolution frame buffers, more/higher resolution textures, and bigger meshes in your GPU, rather than having to transfer from system RAM across the I/O bus.

Having more GPU RAM is unlikely to help at all in a DAW. It can help for video games running at high resolutions.

Even if you're using GPU audio (which, if in doubt, you're not) I doubt that RAM is not going to be any sort of bottleneck for it.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 12:06 pm

foosnark wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:59 am More GPU RAM just means you can have higher resolution frame buffers, more/higher resolution textures, and bigger meshes in your GPU, rather than having to transfer from system RAM across the I/O bus.

Yes, if the GPU is being used for graphics.
But GPU memory also dictates what you can do with a GPU-based AI algorithm. You cant generate more than about 512x512 images with Stable Diffusion if you have less than 12Gb of VRAM, for example.
And 'MAO' could potentially be AI dependent.

Trancer · Post by **Trancer** » Fri Feb 03, 2023 3:49 pm

Thank you for your responses and opinions.

Even if AI is taking up more and more space and is making great strides, there is not yet an optimal utility for our musical applications.

Since I don't play video games, etc...

Use only computer-assisted music, it doesn't really matter for my use.

There is still margin and time, before an optimization to be able to make the most of it.

So, if you understand correctly, when buying a Mac Studio, you might as well take the basic configuration with the GPU memory offered?

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:19 am

Trancer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 03, 2023 3:49 pm
So, if you understand correctly, when buying a Mac Studio, you might as well take the basic configuration with the GPU memory offered?

Just looking at the Apple store, that's:

Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory

Yeah, I reckon that would be fine, the extra 8 GPU cores for $200 or so wouldnt get much usage.

Memory GPU and Mao