Media Manager Memory Usage -ACID Product Family - MAGIX Community Forums Archive

Subject:Media Manager Memory Usage Posted by: danika Date:12/27/2004 9:10:18 PM I took a look at Windows Task Manager after I fired up Media Manager and was amazed to see that Microsoft Desktop SQL Server was using 253 MB of memory. It has always struck me that using SQL Server as a database manager for Media Manager is kind of heavy handed. Even if you have several thousand loops, Microsoft Access should be able to handle that just fine with a lot less overhead. I have 1 GB of memory and Media Manager seems to slow everything down to a crawl while Windows tries to figure out how to deal with overallocated memory. Anybody else having trouble with Media Manager being a resource hog?
Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage Reply by: billybk Date:12/28/2004 5:31:48 AM Hmmm.....according to the Windows Task Manager, when I first boot up ACID 5 Pro, with Media Manager activated, I have only 69MB, being allocated to the SQL Server and another 92MB of memory, for ACID itself. Using a nice little background utility, called FreeMem Pro (monitors CPU & memory usage from the taskbar and when prompted, free's up unused RAM, from memory hogging apps), I was able to free up even more additional RAM from both the SQL Server & ACID Pro, so they are now only using 52MB & 84MB respectively. But, irregardless of the FreeMem utility, when I first boot up and start ACID, I am only using 69MB of RAM for the SQL Manager. I don't know how you have your computer configuration setup, but I have a dedicated (4) year old desktop DAW (PIII 1Ghz/512MB/XP sp1a) and I have a dedicated external 120MB firewire drive that I use to store my 35GB (38,000 loops) loop library. So even with an old system (albeit a dedicated DAW beast) I am easily using the Media Manager with only 512MB of RAM and except for the few seconds longer it takes to initially start up ACID, with Media Manager activated, A5 is just as responsive, as when I have it turned off. I am not sure why your system insists on using 253MB out of 1GB RAM available, but it really does sound excessive and if it did it on my machine I would not be able to use the Media Manager, because I would run out of RAM very quickly. Out of curiousity, I did the same RAM check on my laptop DAW (P4 2.4Ghz/1GB/XP sp1a), and the results are nearly the same as my desktop. With the Media Manager activated, when I first open ACID 5 Pro, the SQL Server is using 65MB and ACID 82MB of RAM respectively. But this time, when I used the FreeMem utility to free up RAM, the SQL Server stayed @ 65MB, but ACID had dropped like a rock to only 29MB usage. WOW! :) Of course, this was with an empty workspace and no projects loaded, but still. You may want to try out FreeMem Pro. It's only $19.95 and this award winning little memory management optimizer provides nice realtime CPU & RAM usage indicators on your toolbar, for easily monitoring and managing your memory. I would not want my DAW's to be without it. I install it on all my computers. http://www.3bsoftware.com/products/freemem.html Billy Buck
Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage Reply by: Iacobus Date:12/28/2004 10:05:33 AM I must be on a roll. According to the Task Manager, ACID Pro 5 is using 12 MB and the SQL Server is using 37 MB. That's without tweaking. Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid Pre-order Instant ACID mD at ACIDplanet Guitars 4 Kids
Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage Reply by: jwf Date:12/28/2004 2:34:52 PM Over time the SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) will use more memory for index and record caching as we make queries to it so examining it right after ACID starts is probably not a true measure. There is an option in the Media Manager options dialog to automatically stop the MSDE service when ACID exits. This is not enabled by default for 5.0. The trade off is basically longer startup time vs. resources used after ACID exits.
Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage Reply by: danika Date:12/28/2004 2:46:37 PM I think I found the culprit. I started Acid with Media Manager enabled and SQL Server was at 22 MB. I opened Media Manager and it jumped to 25 MB. Then I switched to the Sony Loops and Samples Reference Library and SQL Server immediately jumped to 218 MB. I rebooted, opened Acid, created a new media library and then imported all the files on the content CD that comes with Acid. SQL Server went up to 40K. So the good news is that you can still use the reference library for tagging without too much of a penalty for memory. Just don't open it.

Subject:Media Manager Memory Usage

Posted by: danika

Date:12/27/2004 9:10:18 PM

I took a look at Windows Task Manager after I fired up Media Manager and was amazed to see that Microsoft Desktop SQL Server was using 253 MB of memory. It has always struck me that using SQL Server as a database manager for Media Manager is kind of heavy handed. Even if you have several thousand loops, Microsoft Access should be able to handle that just fine with a lot less overhead. I have 1 GB of memory and Media Manager seems to slow everything down to a crawl while Windows tries to figure out how to deal with overallocated memory. Anybody else having trouble with Media Manager being a resource hog?

Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage

Reply by: billybk

Date:12/28/2004 5:31:48 AM

Hmmm.....according to the Windows Task Manager, when I first boot up ACID 5 Pro, with Media Manager activated, I have only 69MB, being allocated to the SQL Server and another 92MB of memory, for ACID itself. Using a nice little background utility, called FreeMem Pro (monitors CPU & memory usage from the taskbar and when prompted, free's up unused RAM, from memory hogging apps), I was able to free up even more additional RAM from both the SQL Server & ACID Pro, so they are now only using 52MB & 84MB respectively. But, irregardless of the FreeMem utility, when I first boot up and start ACID, I am only using 69MB of RAM for the SQL Manager. I don't know how you have your computer configuration setup, but I have a dedicated (4) year old desktop DAW (PIII 1Ghz/512MB/XP sp1a) and I have a dedicated external 120MB firewire drive that I use to store my 35GB (38,000 loops) loop library.
So even with an old system (albeit a dedicated DAW beast) I am easily using the Media Manager with only 512MB of RAM and except for the few seconds longer it takes to initially start up ACID, with Media Manager activated, A5 is just as responsive, as when I have it turned off. I am not sure why your system insists on using 253MB out of 1GB RAM available, but it really does sound excessive and if it did it on my machine I would not be able to use the Media Manager, because I would run out of RAM very quickly.

Out of curiousity, I did the same RAM check on my laptop DAW (P4 2.4Ghz/1GB/XP sp1a), and the results are nearly the same as my desktop.
With the Media Manager activated, when I first open ACID 5 Pro, the SQL Server is using 65MB and ACID 82MB of RAM respectively. But this time, when I used the FreeMem utility to free up RAM, the SQL Server stayed @ 65MB, but ACID had dropped like a rock to only 29MB usage. WOW! :)
Of course, this was with an empty workspace and no projects loaded, but still.

You may want to try out FreeMem Pro. It's only $19.95 and this award winning little memory management optimizer provides nice realtime CPU & RAM usage indicators on your toolbar, for easily monitoring and managing your memory. I would not want my DAW's to be without it. I install it on all my computers.

http://www.3bsoftware.com/products/freemem.html

Billy Buck

Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:12/28/2004 10:05:33 AM

I must be on a roll. According to the Task Manager, ACID Pro 5 is using 12 MB and the SQL Server is using 37 MB. That's without tweaking.

Iacobus
-------
RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid
Pre-order Instant ACID
mD at ACIDplanet
Guitars 4 Kids

Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage

Reply by: jwf

Date:12/28/2004 2:34:52 PM

Over time the SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE) will use more memory for index and record caching as we make queries to it so examining it right after ACID starts is probably not a true measure.

There is an option in the Media Manager options dialog to automatically stop the MSDE service when ACID exits. This is not enabled by default for 5.0. The trade off is basically longer startup time vs. resources used after ACID exits.

Subject:RE: Media Manager Memory Usage

Reply by: danika

Date:12/28/2004 2:46:37 PM

I think I found the culprit. I started Acid with Media Manager enabled and SQL Server was at 22 MB. I opened Media Manager and it jumped to 25 MB. Then I switched to the Sony Loops and Samples Reference Library and SQL Server immediately jumped to 218 MB. I rebooted, opened Acid, created a new media library and then imported all the files on the content CD that comes with Acid. SQL Server went up to 40K. So the good news is that you can still use the reference library for tagging without too much of a penalty for memory. Just don't open it.