Not able to access all 12gb Sonar x64 i7

Im running an I7 system with 12gb of RAM. Ive noticed that my system will only let me access around 7gb before it starts causing major problems and Sonar crashes.

On a case project, where my memory is at 6.97gb

In task manager my Physical Memory stats look like so:

Total 12285
Cached 5161
Available 5135
Free 3

Is this to do with the cache holding more than it should or just a the limits of the system? Apologies if this is an obvious question,

The Kiosk Project

What are you loading in your project to take you over the 7Gb? This might be the problem and not neccesarily the addressable memory.

+1

Also, just because your system has 12 gig doesn't mean that sonar can use it all. The operating system and other apps / drivers need RAM too. You may need to check what else is acquiring system memory.

jack I got the same system as you. i7, 12 gig of RAM. On a fresh boot, how many running processes do you see in task manager and how much ram is being used? Mine boots up with 38 running processes and 1.40 gig of ram being used at idle. When I run Sonar with large projects in both Sonar 32 and Sonar 64, I've never seen anything more than 5gigs of RAM in use and I've had no problems working on my projects. No sure what the problem could be. I'd definitely check to see how much RAM is being used pre-Sonar load though just to make sure it's not something the OS or additional services may be doing.

kevo


Some samplers stream samples from disk.
You'll want to be certain you have your samples on a fast drive, and defrag the drive.

and +1 to kevo, thats a lot of samples and streaming, do you have a separate disk(s) for your samples and audio? Your bottleneck could be right there. You can also tweak Kontakt to control the amount of streaming etc.
 
Additionally, have you run a memory check? You dont say which 64-bit OS you are using, if its Windows 7, there is a built in utility to check the memory on a next boot or forced boot. Just type "memory" in the start box and the "diagnose your computers memory problems" option will appear in the menu above, it will then invite you to reboot there and then and perform 2 passes of a complete memory check from the BIOS level before rebooting Windows, and report the results in Windows 7 after it has booted. It is possible that there may be a memory fault in one of the higher addressable memory cards that you are not finding until, of course, your combined usage reaches it.
 

These number do NOT reflect what we all want them to mean.

Click on resource meter and then the memory tab:

And there you will find even more confusion.

The cached level will change as needed.

Several good points.

Since it is 64 bit, Sonar should not be a bottleneck in terms of ram it could address.

If you are running large sample projects it is strongly suggested that you put all your samples on at least one separate hard drive, and depending on the types of libraries used, multiple drives.  Also, according to some, placing VSL and EWQL samples on the same drive is non-optimal.  Based on what you are running having two or even three sample drives would be good.  It would also allow you higher voice counts, as samples would be streaming from two or three different drives.  It is very possible that your bottleneck is available streaming bandwidth.  If you are keeping audio and samples on the same drive, available bandwidth could be somewhat restricted.

Generally, when using large sample templates: one drive for programs and o/s, one drive for audio, and (if possible)multiple drives for samples, but at least one.

Another possible suggestion: long-term when running very large sample templates, having a separate slave computer dedicated strictly for samples is a very common viable option.  The slave gets the ram, the i7 processor, etc.  If running only Sonar on the other computer, running it on an older XP 32 bit system is very workable, as the heavy streaming/work is done by the slave.

To others asking about why so much ram: to cite one example: it is not unknown for heavy VSL users to have anywhere from 24 to even 48 gigs of ram if running a full template in MIR.