Just a quick post on my RAM upgrade experiments

Leee wrote on 4/1/2012, 4:07 PM
If you have read a few of my other posts about my ongoing experiments to minimize the amount of crashing within Vegas 11, you'll know that I first upgraded my graphics card and then added more RAM. I doubled my RAM from 8GB to 16GB, based on my assumption that there is some sort of memory leak issue.

So I did another "acid test" (pushing the software to the limit) and here are the results for VEGAS PRO 11 with the latest drivers (64-bit):

New graphics card -NVIDIA GeForce GTX-580- didn't help much in decreasing crashes when using third party plugins.

RAM: 16GB (4x4GB) PC10600 DDR3 1333, Non-ECC, Dual Channel - Doubling the amount of RAM I had from 8GB to 16GB has probably been the most effective thing I've done so far in helping stabilize Vegas 11.

Last night I spent almost two hours using Boris FX - BCC 8 -and- RED, combining the two sets of plugins in different configurations, adjusting parameters, rendering, tweaking some more, re-rendering, etc. The results: NOT ONE SINGLE BLESSED CRASH OR "STOP WORKING" MESSAGE! Truly an amazing breakthrough for me personally!!!

However, my original (and formerly favorite) set of third party plugins from NewBlueFX, have refused to work AT ALL. Ever since I put the new graphics card in and updated to NewBlueFX version 3.0 OpenGL plugins, I have not gotten them to work on my desktop PC at all. One click after opening the plugin causes an immediate white-screen "Stopped Working". However the plugins DO work on my laptop. I haven't tackled that one yet, but I'm guessing this is an UNRELATED problem and doesn't have anything to do with RAM or memory leaks.

But anyway, I thought this might be helpful to the certain percentage of folks that are having similar type crashes using 3rd party plugins. After having crashes occur EVERY TIME after 15 or 20 minutes of use, to be able to go a couple of hours (perhaps indefinitely) without any crashes is nothing short of a minor miracle. And again, I would suggest Sony look into the memory leak problem, because I think that might be one of the big problems we have been encountering.

I tend to be a little long-winded when typing posts (it's the writer in me) and I apologize for repeating what I basically said in several other posts, but I wanted to put it all together in one condensed easy-to-read post....for your convenience, of course.

I'll continue with my testing and experiments here in Leee's evil laboratory and see if I can figure out why my NewBlueFX are not working. But I'm VERY happy with the result so far for Boris FX plugins!!!

Comments

PeterDuke wrote on 4/1/2012, 8:42 PM
Interesting theory and glad that you are finding something that helps.
Steve Mann wrote on 4/1/2012, 10:13 PM
"based on my assumption that there is some sort of memory leak issue"

I doubt that you have a memory leak. Those are pretty easy to find - just run the Resource Monitor (resmon.exe) and watch the Commit column in the Memory tab. If it only goes up as you use Vegas (or any other program), then you have a leak.

By having more free memory, Windows doesn't have to share memory (I.E., "Manage") between tasks.
Leee wrote on 4/1/2012, 11:36 PM
No, I didn't mean that my computer has a memory leak, I meant that the Vegas software code is causing a memory leak.

From Wikipedia:
A memory leak occurs when a computer program consumes memory but is unable to release it back to the operating system. In object-oriented programming, a memory leak happens when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code. A memory leak has symptoms similar to a number of other problems and generally can only be diagnosed by a programmer with access to the program source code ; however, many people refer to any unwanted increase in memory usage as a memory leak, though this is not strictly accurate from a technical perspective.

A memory leak can diminish the performance of the computer by reducing the amount of available memory. Eventually, in the worst case, too much of the available memory may become allocated and all or part of the system or device stops working correctly, the application fails, or the system slows down unacceptably due to thrashing.
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And without knowing any of this when I made my original assumptions, I based the memory leak theory on the fact 1 - that these crashes occurred after a certain period of time of intense activity (in my case, using lots of effects and changing parameters) and 2 - these crashes stopped as soon as I increased my RAM capacity. And finally, all other programs I use, some a lot more memory intensive than Vegas, worked perfectly without any crashes.
rmack350 wrote on 4/2/2012, 1:41 AM
Well, Steve is right that a leak would be characterized by ever increasing memory usage, but there are other things that vegas could be doing with memory.

I wonder what would happen if you pulled the older memory and just ran with the newer sticks?

Rob
Leee wrote on 4/2/2012, 4:52 AM
I did completely swap out the old memory:
OLD: 4 x 2GB with
NEW: 4 x 4GB

And as I said in my other post in a different thread, I doubt that everyone experiencing this type of problem all had bad memory sticks.

And yes, if you were to run a utility to check memory usage, you would see a slowly increasing amount of usage when running Vegas. But the problem is software related, not hardware or the memory sticks.
rmack350 wrote on 4/2/2012, 9:51 AM
But the problem is software related, not hardware or the memory sticks.

My assumption is that Vegas is suffering from more than one problem related to memory. All of it is software, but I don't rule out the idea that Vegas' problems sometimes expose a problem in less than perfect RAM.

It's interesting that installing more than 8GB solved your problems. No argument.

Rob
Laurence wrote on 4/2/2012, 10:03 AM
My computer has 16GB of RAM in it and it still crashes regularly with V11. I really don't think that's it.
Leee wrote on 4/2/2012, 10:51 AM
Yeah I know guys, there are so many variables involved. Awhile back I thought the answer was to create a second Windows User login (which worked better for awhile). But I have no doubt the solution in reducing crashes for me is not going to be the answer for everyone, but I just wanted to report on this in case it DID help other people out.

I wouldn't have made such a big deal about adding more ram if the results (again, for me) weren't so successful.
rmack350 wrote on 4/2/2012, 11:56 AM
It's frustrating that there seem to be so many issues but it's interesting that >8GB is solving your problems. If I can find a few moments I ought to go back through your messages to see what your problems were.

I think Steve's point about Windows needing to swap less data from disk to RAM is something worth considering. I wonder if some of Vegas' problems are timing issues where it doesn't get some element of data in the time Vegas has allowed and then just moves on without it. Seems far-fetched but it's the sort of thing I've been picturing regarding black frames.

Other issues seem like database/data table issues where Vegas maybe gets a record mixed up and pops the wrong clip onto the timeline or into a bin (I had problems back in Vegas 5 where I'd find the wrong clips in bins).

Anyway, I'd be curious to hear how things go over a longer timeframe.
dxdy wrote on 4/2/2012, 12:26 PM
I have very few problems, and I have 12 GB of RAM. It would be interesting to know if your problems return when you run 8 GB of your new RAM.
Steve Mann wrote on 4/2/2012, 1:29 PM
"My assumption is that Vegas is suffering from more than one problem related to memory."
It's easy to blame Vegas, but that's just the parent program in a very long chain of processes, drivers and Windows services. Any of them can be the source of the memory leak problem.
Leee wrote on 4/2/2012, 2:59 PM
It's easy to blame Vegas, but that's just the parent program in a very long chain of processes, drivers and Windows services. Any of them can be the source of the memory leak problem.
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Yes Vegas is part of a long chain, but what's that saying about the weakest link in the chain? LOL!

VidMus wrote on 4/2/2012, 7:42 PM
rmack350 saya, "...but it's interesting that >8GB is solving your problems."

I do not think the >8GB solved the problems. I am using 6GB of ram and have no problems at all with Vegas. As for third party stuff such as New Blue, I do not use those as I can get what I want without them.

Better quality ram and/or better timings can make a big diffirence!

The ram I have is rated for a faster speed than what I use it for. Sure would be nice if the faster speed could be used but if I try it my system will eventually crash and do other strange things in Vegas and less frequently with other apps.

Seems the harder one pushes a system the more balanced it needs to be. Also higher quality components are required.

Some say they use Adobe with no problems. Is Adobe easier on a system? A Kill-O-Watt might help one see how much power is being used with Adobe VS. Vegas 11.

When I push Vegas 11 my system gulps power and my computer room gets hot! I did not have that with Vegas 10.

Anyway, just some thoughts that hopefully might help.