# How do I apply more CPU power to an application



## Jamehud (Sep 15, 2006)

Hi

I have a G4 1.42Ghz dual processor desktop powermac running OSX 10.4.7.

The only really CPU hungry thing I use it for is to make music using Pro Tools LE 7.

Recently I have recieved a few messages telling me that I am running out of CPU power & I should assign more CPU power to Pro Tools.

Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Thanks, James.


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## michaelsanford (Sep 15, 2006)

Easily, you use a scheduling tool called 'nice' in the terminal.

&#8226; Open a terminal window.
&#8226; type *ps ax | grep pro | grep -v grep* and should get some output like this:
4898  ??  S      0:10.75 /Applications/Pro Tools
&#8226; Now take that first number, in the terminal, and type *sudo renice -5 4898* and enter your password when asked. This assumes you have administrative access to that machine.

Your pre-emptive kernel is now giving that program (or more specicially, that process and its threads) more processing time. If that second &#8226; doesn't get you the number, try different ways to spell "pro" (because grep looks for that string in the list of all programs running, and if it doesn't match properly it'll return nothing, just try different capitalizations, spellings, part of the name, etc).


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## Jamehud (Sep 16, 2006)

Hi, 

thanks for getting back.

I'm afraid some of what you said is lost on me. Could you please tell me what you mean by a "Terminal Window" & a "Pre-emptive Kernal".

How do I open a "Terminal Window"?

I'm unfamiliar with these terms.

Thanks again, James.


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## bobw (Sep 16, 2006)

Terminal is an application located in your Utility folder.

Some info;

Pre-emptive Kernal


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## Mikuro (Sep 16, 2006)

You might want to look into some simple programs made to make renicing easier. Check out BeNicer or any of several other renice programs. They all use the same system tools; they just provide easy interfaces for them.

However, I don't think that'll do a whole lot. Niceness only really comes into play when multiple processes are competing for CPU time. If you're doing work in Pro Tools while running a lot of background tasks, then renicing will help, but otherwise, Pro Tools will probably be getting nearly all of your CPU time anyway.


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## michaelsanford (Sep 16, 2006)

Mikuro is right; I had, however, assumed that you were running other background processes as well as you asked to apply more CPU power (implying that it was already sharing it).


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## Jamehud (Sep 16, 2006)

Hi & thanks to you all for the info.

A dialogue box in pro tools told me that I was running out of CPU power & that I must assign more to the application.

I never perform other tasks while I'm working in Pro Tools that is why I found this message so strange.

I mean OK my MAC is a couple of years old & by todays standards isn't THAT powerful but it's still a Dual 1.42 ghz processor Powermac.

I would have thought it could handle a few Audio/Midi tracks & plug ins especially when there is nothing else running at the same time.

There are a couple of other things I will try within Pro Tools itself like increasing the hardware buffer size but just to clarify now that I hope i've explained myself better.
In my circumstances this "nice" thing in terminal probably won't make any real difference.

Am I right?

Thanks, James.


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## DeltaMac (Sep 16, 2006)

Jamehud said:


> A dialogue box in pro tools told me that I was running out of CPU power & that I must assign more to the application.
> 
> I never perform other tasks while I'm working in Pro Tools that is why I found this message so strange.
> 
> I mean OK my MAC is a couple of years old & by todays standards isn't THAT powerful but it's still a Dual 1.42 ghz processor Powermac.



James, you haven't posted how much memory you have installed in your PowerMac.
But, according to this support note at digidesign support site: 'Please be advised that even with additional RAM added to a Power Mac G4, maximum track count with these options is not supported.'
Digidesign now recommends a G5 dual 2GHz, or Intel Mac DuoProcessor if you want maximum number of tracks with ProTools LE 7
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=54&langid=100&categoryid=35&itemid=22853


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## MacGizmo (Sep 17, 2006)

I think DeltaMac is on the right track. Without enough RAM, OSX uses the hard drive as RAM (swap files) - and that takes processing power. More RAM **might** fix the issue.

Of course, a new MacPro would fix it faster! ;-)


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## Viro (Sep 17, 2006)

I'm surprised that some suggest renicing processes. I've always thought it would be a bad idea, as it would cause system sluggishness, as you have one application hogging most (all depending on nice level) the computing power. Since Mac OS X is a multi tasking OS and loads of things go on in the background this could be detrimental to performance.

Perhaps my intuition is wrong in this instance..


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## Jamehud (Sep 17, 2006)

Hi & thanks,

I have 1gb of ram installed

Interesting digedesign link.

That explains quite a bit.

I had hoped to get another year out of my current G4 & then upgrade to a G5 Intel Mac beastie (funds allowing) once all the inevitable compatability issues are ironed out.

This is the problem, as far as i'm aware there are quite a lot of applications that are still not compatible with the new intel mac pro.

I 'd rather wait a while anyway until this got straightened out. I don't think I could handle a situation where Pro Tools might work on my computer but not some of my third party plug ins within Pro Tools itself. I think that would push me over the edge.

So just to clarify, even if I increased my RAM there is a fair chance that it would still not be enough to get the most out of Pro Tools LE 7.

Oh well, looks like i'm gonna have to put in for some overtime.

Thanks, James.


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## Viro (Sep 17, 2006)

Jamehud said:


> This is the problem, as far as i'm aware there are quite a lot of applications that are still not compatible with the new intel mac pro.



Even if the apps aren't made into Universal Binaries, they will still run under Rosetta. This is an emulation environment that allows you to run older PPC code. Usually, emulation is something to stay away from, but since the G4s are so much slower than the current Intel chips, you will actually notice a slight speed up on some applications -_-.

I currently run Matlab via Rosetta since there is no Universal Binary of Matlab yet. On my macbook 2Ghz, Matlab is running faster than it did on my Powerbook 12". Granted, it's not much faster, but this is impressive, considering it is emulation.


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