I'm using Cubase on Vista Home Premium (32-bit) and I have 4GB of RAM. Which is nice, except that I'm getting constant out of memory warnings from both Cubase and Reason. Task Manager tells me Cubase is using a private working set of roughly 1.6 GB while Reason's is negligible (the two are connected via Rewire, which - for those who don't know - enables Cubase to host Reason like something along the lines of a plugin - although the technology is different -, so the two can be thought of as one entity). Regarding Windows - I know I'll never be able to access the whole 4 GB, but right now the total memory used by the system is something like 2.5GB, which should leave another few hundred MB for picks. This is VERY annoying because the primary problem I'm having is exporting my track, which is finished - I simply can't get both of the programs to play ball long enough, apparently because of memory issues (even though the project is loaded properly and I can even play it back if I work some black magic). The biggest issue is with freezing the VST's, which generates audio bloackouts for individual tracks (also something that happens when there isn't enough memory to render a track properly at the speed at which Cubase does it - it's like it goes too fast and notes get skipped). However, in this case I'm not even blaming Cubase and Rason, but Vista, which is performing really poorly IMO. Any advice how to beat some sense into it?

Quote: Original post by irreversible

Any advice how to beat some sense into it?

Get 64-bit versions of OS and application.

This type of applications is likely to use custom memory managers which play it safe by restricting maximum allocation size, since playing on the edge the edge of 32-bit (commonly 31 bits) address space is iffy.

Windows, like virtually every other OS, splits the address space of each process into two pieces, one for the app and one for the kernel. By default, for 32-bit, the app will get the first 2GB of room to play in while the kernel gets the rest. The amount of physical RAM you have is irrelevant here.

You may be able to help things along using the /3GB switch. However the app has to be written to explicitely take advantage of this feature. You might also be able to switch to a 64-bit OS; however, if the app is 32-bit you'll likely run into the same problems.

I don't know how much you know about physical memory vs virtual address space. Basically you are hitting the limit of what a 32-bit environment can do. There's not much the OS can do if the app isn't willing to take such limits into account.

Upgrading to 64 bits is optimal, but short of that there are some tweeks you can employ. YMMV. Here are a few places to begin your search for information on doing that.

4-Gigabyte Tuning
Memory Limits for Windows Releases
/3GB
How to use the /userva switch with the /3GB switch to tune the User-mode space to a value between 2 GB and 3 GB

Also consult the various cubase and reason forums on the www for tips and tricks and the like.

Actually I have my Cubase 5 upgrade (which is 64 bit) already ordered, but it takes time to get here. I wasn't planning to upgrade my Windows, though (it's 32-bit because it's OEM).

My main qualm is with the way Windows doesn't take advantage of a fantastic ability it has - to page stuff on the hard drive. I won't get into detail about it, but I'm more than certain that stuff would still run and not crash/hang every time I try to do pretty much anything. The freeze (rendering individual tracks as wave files for direct playback) function is in Cubase for a reason - to bypass exorbitant CPU and memory requirements -, but it's proving pretty useless at this point.

In the words of one of the irradiate teenage ninja turtles: blah.

You cannot run 64-bit applications on 32-bit Windows.

Thank you nypyren - I know that: what I meant was that C5 comes in two flavors :)

PS - thanks for the links LessBread and Mike - I'll look into them!

Quote: Original post by irreversible
My main qualm is with the way Windows doesn't take advantage of a fantastic ability it has - to page stuff on the hard drive.

Windows does this all the time. People usually complain that it does it to much.

The problem is that you've only got a 2GB box - you can't squeeze any more than that in there no matter what you do. You need to make the box bigger. Both the 3GB stuff and 64-bit do this. There are also even more esoteric options available. However, taking advantage of any of this requires effort on the part of the app, it doesn't (and can't) come for free.

Again, the amount of physical RAM you have is pretty much irrelevant to this discussion. More RAM just makes things faster because you don't have to page as much. In particular more RAM doesn't make the box any bigger and has little bearing on when you start getting out of "memory" errors because the "memory" being talked about isn't actually "memory", it's address space.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you're absolutely right. Guess I'll be going 64-bit anyway.

Quote: Original post by irreversible
I wasn't planning to upgrade my Windows, though (it's 32-bit because it's OEM).

I think you should be able to just install Vista x64 using the same key, if you can get hold of an x64 install disk. I know it works for regular keys. I'm pretty sure this should work for at least 2 out of the 3 different kinds of OEM keys.