I just received my new mac pro (2.8 octo, 2600xt) in the mail, i've installed a hitachi ultrastar 750gb drive to use as my photography drive. I only have the stock 2gb of ram right now. Aperture struggles quite a bit. i have 450 gigs of photos indexed in there, but it struggles all the time. I have ordered 4gb of ram from OWC, but im just waiting for those to arrive. Anything else i can do to speed up the program?
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What's the best way to speed up aperture?
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ram is by far the best way of speeding aperture up. Also has aperture finished its thumbnail generation yet cos that can hit it pretty hard
ram is by far the best way of speeding aperture up. Also has aperture finished its thumbnail generation yet cos that can hit it pretty hard
You should get the Nvidia 8800 if you're going to do a lot of Aperture work. It is very reliant on the GPU and the 8800 should provide a significant jump in performance.
The most important, by far, is RAM. Aperture is a memory pig.
Aperture also makes extensive use of GPU hardware acceleration, so an upgraded-from-stock graphics card is a must. Assuming you didn't configure your Mac Pro with the Quadro when you bought it, that basically leaves you with only one choice, the X1900 for Woodcrest/Clovertown MP's and the 8800GT for the new Penryn MP's (and, if we're lucky, soon the older MP's as well).
Aperture also makes extensive use of GPU hardware acceleration, so an upgraded-from-stock graphics card is a must. Assuming you didn't configure your Mac Pro with the Quadro when you bought it, that basically leaves you with only one choice, the X1900 for Woodcrest/Clovertown MP's and the 8800GT for the new Penryn MP's (and, if we're lucky, soon the older MP's as well).
Until previews are done, it will be a pig - check the aperture task list to see if they're done.
You will see a huge improvement going to 4gb of ram - do it today. After that, going to 8 gb is a small improvement, but not as dramatic as going from 2 to 4.
No sense at all with a machine like that to slow it down by skimping on RAM.
You will see a huge improvement going to 4gb of ram - do it today. After that, going to 8 gb is a small improvement, but not as dramatic as going from 2 to 4.
No sense at all with a machine like that to slow it down by skimping on RAM.
yes, RAID 0 helps.
I presume a SSD would help more. or a RAID 0 array of SSDs!
RAM first, then GPU, then striped HDDs
too bad my mac pro with 6gb of RAM and striped HDDs can't have an 8800gt...
blah.
I presume a SSD would help more. or a RAID 0 array of SSDs!
RAM first, then GPU, then striped HDDs
too bad my mac pro with 6gb of RAM and striped HDDs can't have an 8800gt...
blah.
I've been using Aperture very heavily for a year now with a MacBook (high end), and it's been an incredible pain... MacPro on its way 
I've gone for the 8800 Graphics Card, and will be upping the ram to 6GB.
I use Aperture on a daily basis, heavily. Do you think I'll be ok with this setup? I'm terrified of all this RAID business, at every turn there's a doomsayer. I don't know who to believe, or where to start!
I've gone for the 8800 Graphics Card, and will be upping the ram to 6GB.
I use Aperture on a daily basis, heavily. Do you think I'll be ok with this setup? I'm terrified of all this RAID business, at every turn there's a doomsayer. I don't know who to believe, or where to start!
I've been using Aperture very heavily for a year now with a MacBook (high end), and it's been an incredible pain... MacPro on its way
I've gone for the 8800 Graphics Card, and will be upping the ram to 6GB.
I use Aperture on a daily basis, heavily. Do you think I'll be ok with this setup? I'm terrified of all this RAID business, at every turn there's a doomsayer. I don't know who to believe, or where to start!
You'll be well more than just OK. Aperture runs very nicely on my lower-spec'd MP (2.66Ghz Woodcrest, 6GB RAM, X1900XT).
I'm sure Aperture 2.0 (if and when) will improve upon 1.5.6 performance-wise.
As a side note, I find it almost laughable that Aperture is offered as a BTO installation on the new MacBook Air.
Sorry didn't mean to scare you! Your rig will be more than fine especially with the extra RAM. I've only got 2GB of RAM so it gets a bit tight, hence why I stuck RAID in there as I could do that cheaply for a bit of extra speed.