Magma guys -- anyone running 4 cards on a newer G5?

[ybiggs]

I'm running Logic on a G5 Dual 2.0. I've been holding off on picking up a UAD-1 because of all the problems people seem to be having with the new dual G5's. It seems like a Magma chassis helps matters a lot. I was wondering -- is anyone running 4 cards successfully on a newer G5 with a Magma? A Studio Pak, 3 Project Paks, and a used Magma chassis would still be under $2500, which seems like a hell of a deal for quite a bit of juice.

If someone is running a setup like this, I'd love some input. Are the cards running near their theoretical limits? And what is the hit to native plug in performance? I guess the stability thing kind of has me spooked. If I pick up a 4-card UAD-1 setup, I'll have close to 6 grand in hardware. Which will be a bargain assuming everything works, but if I'm pulling my hair out all the time and seeing 50 or 60% performance, I'll be kicking myself. I'm hoping to have a super-juiced setup -- it seems like with all the native power plus 4 UAD-1's, I'd have a Pro Tools HD2 or HD3 level of power. Is anybody living this dream?

Again, any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dragon_Huang]

Yes,,I got that dream...

Ha,,but My dream will be add 4 more TC poco with 4 UAD ....

which means totally 8 DSP cards, (This should kill PTHD stuff :twisted: )

Now , I am just running G4 dual 1.25 with Magma, 2 UAD, 2 Poco.

I am pretty happy with this setup, so, Can't find a good reason to

upgrade to G5 (of coz, for that money issue)....

 

[giles117]

Of course you can upgrade your MDD to a Dual 1.42 now That's what I will be doing .

For you it is not as significant, but I am running a Dual 867 so I will see a diff.

 

[MPC]

I don't have 4, but 3 cards. I actually got the third today and should install it in the next couple of days in the magma. Two was really plenty for 90% of the projects I've done. But, I traded in some gear for the 3rd UAD 1 and can't imagine need much more power than that. I'll post on how things go.

 

[ybiggs]

Thanks for posting, guys. MPC, I'd love to hear how your machine handles 3 cards. Are you on a G5?

 

[MPC]

I installed the 3rd card this weekend. I have D2.5 w/3.5gigRAM, MOTU2408MK3/Clocked to Apogee TraK2, w/a MAGMA 7 Slot Chassis.

Things work really well so far. I get about 1/3 more plugins, as far as I can tell, with the added card. The UAD Meter still goes into the mid 90's% before the the host processor spikes and goes into clicks and stuttering.

Oh, I've also got a TC Powercore card as well. So, 3 UAD and 1 PoCo in Magma. 1 Magma host card in furthest slot from the AGP card and the MOTU 424 card closest to the AGP slot.

On a Dual 867 you may get even better results, avoiding the G5 issues altogether, even though the Magma seems to void some of those issues at least a little....

 

[ybiggs]

Thanks, MPC. Do you see a heavy hit to the amount of native stuff you can run? I've heard some say that adding multiple DSP cards has degraded native performance to the point where it's almost an either/or (DSP/native) proposition. Has that been your experience?

 

[MPC]

It doesn't seem to have an effect in my case. If it does it must be marginal because I don't notice it. UAD doesn't take any host CPU until the very top of it's range as far as I can tell. At about 90% usage I notice the Host CPU meter creep to about the 5% range. I've posted it about it before, but I often mix about 36 to 48 tracks of audio with UAD and host plugins and I don't have any complaints. My workflow is never interupted by the sort of conflicts you mention. I currently work mostly in NUENDO 2 or DP 4.5 to a lesser extent. I can't really speak to issues that relate to other DAWs.

 

[ybiggs]

Nice one, MPC. That's exactly the sort of info I was looking for. Much appreciated.