imac ram question with logic pro

[preppyclubguy]

so i found 2 x 4gb ram modules for my new imac for fairly cheap i was going to purchase this cause i use allot of intense cpu plugins, my question is someone from sweetwater said dont waste your money on the extra ram cause logic is only 32bit and can only access 4gb at a time is that true

 

[joe.cavers]

As far as I'm aware, Logic as a program itself can only access up to 4gb but EXS24 (and possibly other instruments within Logic) can definitely access more if your system has it.

Do some googling to find more information on this, I can't remember where I read it.

JC

 

[ChrisA]

so i found 2 x 4gb ram modules for my new imac for fairly cheap i was going to purchase this cause i use allot of intense cpu plugins, my question is someone from sweetwater said dont waste your money on the extra ram cause logic is only 32bit and can only access 4gb at a time is that true

He would be correct only if you were running Logic alone without also running an operating system. Every 32-bit process can access up to 4GB and you are likely running a dozen 32-bit processes even if the only active window is Logic.

Mac OS X will put any extra RAM you give it to good use as a disk cache. 8GB is not unreasonable.

The best way to decide if you need more RAM is to look at Activity Monitor and watch the count os swap outs. You want this number to be very low, say 100 times lower than swap ins.

 

[deej999]

As far as I'm aware, Logic as a program itself can only access up to 4gb but EXS24 (and possibly other instruments within Logic) can definitely access more if your system has it.

Do some googling to find more information on this, I can't remember where I read it.

JC

Joe is correct. Logic can access up to 4GB. EXS24 is not included in that 4GB. OSX can access more ram.

It's not unreasonable to think now with Snow Leopard Logic will one day (soon?) become 64bit.

 

[joe.cavers]

It's not unreasonable to think now with Snow Leopard Logic will one day (soon?) become 64bit.

That'll be the catalyst for me upgrading when the time comes. I'm also a big user of Live though, and it's still 32-bit as well.

JC