How much RAM is too much RAM?

[Mark Gringo]

ok… one last question

can i do this 512MBx2 and 1gigx2 for a total of 3 gigs of RAM.

thanks again for all the help!

[Richard Martz]

Yes you can but I would recommend that you run at least 4 Gb of total memory since that seems to be what everyone in our situations are doing.

[Jerry Hofmann]

mmmmmmm…. I’ve been OK with 2.5 gigs, but not working at all in HDV (my experience here is near nada, but getting ready to really have to deal with it at the school), which is what the poster intends to do… Does HDV use a lot more than say DVCPRO100 or Uncompressed HD?

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Phillip Van west]

Just one more piece of advice: Always buy RAM with a LIFETIME guarantee. Then you can sleep a little better at night instead of wondering if you got TOO good a deal…

PVW

Phil Van West
Terra Nova Productions LLC
Denver, CO
Video Production/Post-Production

G5 DP 2.5GHz / 4.5 GB RAM / 2x250GB SATA / OS 10.4.2 / FCP 5.0.3 / QT 7.0.3

[Mitchji]

[MataAtlantica] “can i do this 512MBx2 and 1gigx2 for a total of 3 gigs of RAM.”

Hi,

Yes but you use up more slots with the 512MBx2.

Get your RAM at Crucial.com.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Rhendrickson]

We have 4 FCP5 systems here at A-B. We maxed out at 8GB of RAM on 3 work stations, and 4GB on our laptop. Haven’t run into any problems, except for, of course, getting projects done faster. But hey, that’s not really a problem, is it?

[Richard Martz]

HDV is not as big a memory hog as even DV. The DVCPROHD submits much larger file sizes and therefore uses much larger memory. HDV because of it’s “improved” codec actually uses less space than even DVC Pro or DV Cam. I refer to it’s improved Codec because it is a huge compromise a a lot of levels. HDV uses a Long GOP compression scheme. GOP stands for Group of Pictures. The system basically works by looking at a group of frames and then “records” only the differences in those frames. Everything that stays basically the same is not recorded. There is a lot more to the scheme than that but that is kind of the layman’s version. So not unexpectedly HDV may have compression artifacts in scenes where everything is changing. Imagine a scene where the sun is reflecting on water in the late evening and you are shooting only the water. Because water is a fluid medium (duh) nearly everything will be changing in the picture from frame to frame. That is a perfect situation where HDV may have a bit of problem. Shooting a NASCAR race in HDV is not something I recommend.