It can?!? Why am I reading all about how there is a maximum..? Oh jeez, I'm sorry David. I guess Everything you read on the internet should be taken with a grain of salt, unless it's one of Rounik's posts, of course. Thanks Rounik! Jamie

Hey Jamie, Perhaps I've been a little hasty then with my definitive tone on this... but could you post a link or two to where you've read that Logic 9.1 running in 64-bit mode reaches a limit when trying to address more than 4GB of ram per 3rd party plugin (which is of course 64-bit compatible). I'd be interested to read these reports. Cheers :) Rounik

Oh gosh... I've started RAM wars. It sounds like a Star Wars sequel! Does Steve H have any info on this maybe? David

David, Steve H's free tutorial: [url]http://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/logic107[/url] explains that Logic in 64-bit mode can address a 'virtually' unlimited amount of ram... But the plug-ins need to be 64-bit optimized! In regards to your 'which Mac' question: It's a difficult decision to make... Can you tell me what kind of performance you are experiencing now with your current iMac and what you hope to achieve? How many instances of your instruments in a typical project? DSP plugins? How many tracks does a typical project you create require? Are you a fan of freezing/bouncing tracks? I should mention at this point, that afaik older iMacs with 2 firewire ports actually ran them both on a single firewire bus internally anyway. So, having one FW800 port is not a biggie for most people. External hard drives are pretty cheap and even more convenient than extra drives within a Mac Pro - so that doesn't have to be an issue either... If money is no object, there is no doubt I would get a fully decked out Mac Pro. It's great value when you consider you'll probably have it as your main Mac for 5 years or more. It will have a good re-sale value should you wish to upgrade earlier. Otherwise, for my fairly modest needs without needing extra PCI cards the top-end iMac is very tempting indeed. However, I'd prefer a matte screen. At the end of the day it's a decision you've got to be happy with. I always find these decisions easier to make by seeing the choice in front of me. Why not pop along to your local Apple Store or Retailer and check out the iMac and Mac Pro. You should also be able to load up Logic on both and try them out (albeit without 3rd party plugins). By the way, while I've got your attention ;) any chance you would like to do our Logic Benchmark test I've posted in the sticky at the top of the thread. Would be interesting to see what you get now and what you get on your new iMac/Mac Pro. [url]http://www.macprovideo.com/forum/logic/logic-pro-express&id=24140[/url] Cheers Rounik

Absolutely, Rounik! I'll get right on it. I actually called Apple Tech Support and the Logic specialist (which I didn't know they had) said that Apple hasn't even benchmarked Logic while running in 64-bit mode with any of the quad core machines. In other words, he didn't know how capable the program was under the new conditions. [url]http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11068147&#11068147 [/url] [url]http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10779548&#10779548[/url] Those are good to start with. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding the big long 5-page thread where I found the info about only 25% being used. I'll search this weekend. Jamie

Thanks Jamie! Yes, I haven't come across any benchmarks done by Apple for Logic yet... it's too early as Logic is still be fine-tuned during the transition to 64-bit. Thanks for the links. What the links are referring to is Hyper threading and making maximum use of more than a Quad-core machine. So you're quit right this has still to be fine tuned. However, this does not affect Logic's ability to optimally use 16GB of Ram. This is a separate issue and one that Logic can now successfully do when launched in 64-bit mode. :) Rounik

Rounik, I found that other thread on the Apple boards. Here is the link: [url]http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2210479&start=0&tstart=0[/url] The "Mike Connolly" character seems to have run some benchmarks of his own, and the reference to the 25% I made earlier was from his comments on the very bottom of the first page of the thread. Again, they are talking about hyperthreading, with very little mention of RAM usage. The info about Logic's use of processing power seems to be solid. Sorry again about the confusion. I try to help out as much as I can by reporting things I read, considering I do so much research before actually buying anything of this size. Hope I didn't create any more confusion than already seems to exist over on the Apple boards! Jamie

Ok guys. So I went to the apple store today and ran a test on their mac pro that was in the store. It was an intel xeon processor running 2.66GHz on 3MB RAM. I made a video of the event and posted it on YouTube. My screen name over there is JGS007. Feel free to search for me over there and watch for yourself. In short, I was able to load an amazing 161 tracks of an EXS drum loop over 8 bars. It didn't fail once, but the video does show one of the cores hitting the red consistently. I also show the CPU usage in the activity monitor as well as the % in the main window. Enjoy! Jamie

I'm going to run some benchmark tests on my current system tomorrow with the files set up via Rounik... But - looking at what you did yesterday Jamie.. When the core hit red - did it make any difference? From what you are both saying, is logic using HT practically yet? Are we any nearer figuring out the right way to go? I'm not technically minded enough to really understand the "under the hood" bits of what makes the core processors work as they do, so i don't know whether a 4 core i7 with 16 gig of RAM will be a long term mistake, or whether I should get an 8 core macpro and load the RAM over time. I don't know if i can afford to get the macpro quite as i want it, but the future proofing nature of the macpro is appealing. David

Well David.... I know what I saw on the mac pro today, and I'm pretty sure either machine will ba able to handle anything you throw at it. This was 161 tracks of the EXS running at the same time on 3GB of RAM and it had NO problem whatsoever. An i7 will have the same if not better results. At 16 GB RAM, you'll be able to run anything you want and you'd never have an interruption. Watch the video and remember this is using ONLY 3GB on a quad core machine. It was amazing to watch. Jamie