Arturia Pigments 7

[chk071]

I received answer from the support: we are looking into it (both RAM issue and speed of loading)

Translation: "We are aware of it. But, it's low priority."

[DiodeLadder]

About the memory usage, GPUs integrated with CPUs will use system RAM for graphics in Windows, and likely use more resources than running a dedicated GPU card.

I have a super old i7 2600k overclocked to 4.2GHz with 32 GB RAM, but use a more recent GPU, an RX6700XT. A Pig7 instance use about 500MB of RAM with the init patch, and loads in 5 seconds or so. Windows 10 Pro here.

[hcv242]

It's running an i7 3770k with 8 gigs of RAM and old onboard Intel HD 4000 graphics. Although the OS is on a small SSD the plugins are on a spinning HDD.

may i ask how long does this machine takes to load other contemporary plugins? like serum 2 or similar.

[Teksonik]

may i ask how long does this machine takes to load other contemporary plugins? like serum 2 or similar.

I don't own Serum but Dune 3 took 4 seconds. Zebra 3 took 30 seconds on first load then 4 seconds on subsequent loads. It must be scanning the database on first load.

Again this system is old technology. On my studio system load times are very fast.

[hcv242]

I don't own Serum but Dune 3 took 4 seconds. Zebra 3 took 30 seconds on first load then 4 seconds on subsequent loads. It must be scanning the database on first load.

Again this system is old technology. On my studio system load times are very fast.

4 s seconds on average is a long way from pigment's 1 minute and 7 seconds

[Teksonik]

About the memory usage, GPUs integrated with CPUs will use system RAM for graphics in Windows, and likely use more resources than running a dedicated GPU card.

I have a super old i7 2600k overclocked to 4.2GHz with 32 GB RAM, but use a more recent GPU, an RX6700XT. A Pig7 instance use about 500MB of RAM with the init patch, and loads in 5 seconds or so. Windows 10 Pro here.

The Win 11 system where I got these test results:

Jup-8-V4 317 megs
SQ-80V 371 megs.
That compares to Pigments: 2.3 Gigs.

Has a dedicated GPU card, a Geforce RTX 4060ti which benchmarks fairly closely to your RX6700XT so that wouldn't be the reason for the large difference in RAM usage.

Are you using Win 10's Task Manager to measure or your DAW's meter?

[Teksonik]

I don't own Serum but Dune 3 took 4 seconds. Zebra 3 took 30 seconds on first load then 4 seconds on subsequent loads. It must be scanning the database on first load.
Again this system is old technology. On my studio system load times are very fast.

4 s seconds on average is a long way from pigment's 1 minute and 7 seconds

It is indeed. I'm not trying to say my tests are scientific in any way. So many factors can influence results.

It's probably not fair to give results from an old system but it's the only Windows 10 system I have left that runs audio software and I'm trying to see if Windows version makes a difference between 10 and 11.

I'm just reporting things as they happen here. I do really like Pigments and on my studio system it performs acceptably so it's not like I'd uninstall it over these issues. I have no desire or motivation to skew the results against Pigments but if there are issues that need to be addressed then data will help Arturia solve them....if they're motivated.

I just ran the memory test on the i7 3700k and got this in a new project with no other plugins:

Pigments.png

About 200 megs more than the studio system but this system has onboard GPU. Both engines were changed to Analog and all FX were removed from the Default patch. So just about as "empty' as you can get.

[bjm4tt]

In February I have tested with 3 different discrete GPUs, no difference:

nVidia 1050 GTX
nVidia RTX 5060
Radeon RX 7600XT

Win11, multiple DAWs. Even tested it on linux with yabridge, same result.

[DiodeLadder]

About the memory usage, GPUs integrated with CPUs will use system RAM for graphics in Windows, and likely use more resources than running a dedicated GPU card.

I have a super old i7 2600k overclocked to 4.2GHz with 32 GB RAM, but use a more recent GPU, an RX6700XT. A Pig7 instance use about 500MB of RAM with the init patch, and loads in 5 seconds or so. Windows 10 Pro here.

The Win 11 system where I got these test results:

Jup-8-V4 317 megs
SQ-80V 371 megs.
That compares to Pigments: 2.3 Gigs.

Has a dedicated GPU card, a Geforce RTX 4060ti which benchmarks fairly closely to your RX6700XT so that wouldn't be the reason for the large difference in RAM usage.

Are you using Win 10's Task Manager to measure or your DAW's meter?

I was looking at Task Manager while an instance was loaded in Cantabile. I had forgotten about the fact that one instance was loaded in the VEP7 template which I use with Cubase, though (I did the test between projects), and perhaps the instance I loaded in Cantabile was lighter because one instance was already loaded in the background.

I'll have to do the test properly with nothing in the background, and will report back.

[DiodeLadder]

So, I did a test with a clean state :

Cantabile empty projrct = 57 MB
Cantabile + 1 Pig7 instance = 2073 MB
Cantabile + 2 Pig7 instances = 2601 MB

So the first instance taking up 2 GB RAM is true here as well, and sorry about my earlier post. Looks like the second instance is significantly lighter. Loading time is still consistently around 5 seconds here, though.

[sqigls]

the initial GUI load of v7 takes at least 20 seconds on my M1 macbook pro.

FWIW it's about 2-3 seconds on my M2 macbook (non pro), Sonoma, V7.

about the same on my M4 pro mini (about 3 seconds), but it has far less wavetables and presets installed. I wonder if that makes any difference?
There's obviously going to be a performance increase from M1 to M4, but it's a base level M4 pro with 24GB memory, the M1 is 16GB... not a massive difference.
273GB memory bandwidth compared to 200. Both machines opening the plugin in empty projects.

I installed all presets and wavetables into my M4 machine, the initial instance of Pigments loads in the same time as before. I would say that means Pigments 7 is not loading the entire folder of wavetables upon initial instantiation.

[DrGonzo]

I received answer from the support: we are looking into it (both RAM issue and speed of loading)

Translation: "We are aware of it. But, it's low priority."

Ugh... as much as I love Arturias synths and stuff - user reports go straight to their trash folder. I've been promised "We're looking into it" since Pigments v3.

[Igro]

They have the worst bug resolving support. They don't have their own developers, as far as I understand. Critical stuff can be resolved fast, but the rest.. it can take years...

As their support usually says: "Rest assured, we are aware of the problem." Useless.