RAM question

[Nigel O’neill]

[Darren Campbell] “Just about to upgrade from 6 GB of RAM to 12 GB, will I have to change anything in Vegas so that it takes advantage of that extra RAM?

No

[Darren Campbell] “Also.. my motherboard (intel x58) has different coloured sockets for RAM, Black and Red. The Red sockets are occupied by my current 6 GB of RAM (2GB sticks), how different are the Black sockets and would I be able to add the 12 GB of RAM to the Black sockets to coexist with my 6 GB of RAM?”

It depends on your motherboard make and model, which will provide information on how you can populate your memory slots. It is also not a good idea to mix RAM of different brands and speeds as they can destabilise your system.

My system specs: Intel i7 970, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10e (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Jeff Schroeder]

You won’t have to change anything in Vegas, as long as you are using the 64 bit version.

Your MB wants your RAM populated in a specific pattern. If you currently have 6GB it is probably (this is a guess) triple channel. Most MB’s must be populated in a pattern, see your MB manual. It sounds like you are using 2GB modules and putting them into 6 slots. I don’t think you can go wrong here.

Jeff

Windows 7 64-bit, ASUS P6X58D, i7 960 3.20GHz, 24.0GB DDR3, 12TB connected storage

[Darren Campbell]

Thanks for replies, it is triple channel yeah.

[Steve Rhoden]

You also will see an increase in Vegas’s Dynamic Ram Preview…

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
1-876-832-4956

[Darren Campbell]

Oh yeah, forgot about that feature, thank you (:

[Dave Haynie]

[Darren Campbell] “Also.. my motherboard (intel x58) has different coloured sockets for RAM, Black and Red. The Red sockets are occupied by my current 6 GB of RAM (2GB sticks), how different are the Black sockets and would I be able to add the 12 GB of RAM to the Black sockets to coexist with my 6 GB of RAM?”

The sockets are color keyed to identify banks vs. channels. You have an i7 motherboard, so you have three DRAM channels — the CPU grabs from three modules at the same time. Each of those channels has two banks: one red, one black. For best performance (whether or not your memory controller supports other configurations), you want the same kind of memory for each channel of the same bank. So you have 2GB modules, presumably the same kind, on you red bank. You might be able to put 4GB or 1GB modules in the black bank, depending on the MB, that would be fine, as long as all three are the same.

There are problems with mixing slightly different modules. MBs pretty much expect the three modules in a bank to the same across each channel, so they may not actually check (they should). If you had a slower module in the first channel and faster in the next two, it’s probably not a problem. But flip that around, and it might run faster, but flakey. This is also the kind of problem folks run into in overclocking memory. Each module has a ROM that describes what it is, but MBs don’t always check every module.

Since you’re buying new, it’s easy enough to find a set of three. That’s also a better indication they’re intended for i7 motherboards. Going one better, you can usually find your MB listed on major memory supplier sites (Crucial, for example, the retail DRAM brand from Micron, the USA’s last remaining DRAM maker.. they also own Lexar, the flash retailer), and get a pre-tested match.

-Dave

[Darren Campbell]

Alright gotcha, loud and clear! Thanks for explaining that Dave!