Well, that kind of settles it about the 64-bit builds, go buy an nVidia card

[Starship Krupa]

All of that crap, the arguments with the troll, the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the forum, it all came down to the stupid video card I was using.

When I was putting together a DAW system a few years ago, a friend had donated his old ATI 5770 card, which we thought was better for what I was doing, given that it had two DVI outs on it and wasn't that far off from having been a decent 3-D sled.

I never do any 3-D gaming. What I do with my computer is all 2-D. Photo editing, video editing, DAW work with Mixcraft. So we thought the ATI would if anything be overkill.

Now I recently upgraded from a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz system with 8G of RAM, which was fartsville with 64-bit Mixcraft, to an i7 3.4GHz system which was still....fartsville with 64-bit Mixcraft.

Smelling a...rat, I threw my ancient nVidia Quadro FX3400 card into the system, and while Windows gives it a measly 2.0 rating to the ATI's 7.2, Mixcraft goes like a bat out of hell with the thing, and not only that, everything on the screen is easier to read and looks better. And no more audio tearing with the 64-bit build, even with a project full of 32-bit plug-ins.

I repeat, no more audio tearing in the 64-bit build. Just because I switched out an ATI video card for a comparatively ancient nVidia card. Right now I am playing a project that would go brAAAAAPPP at 8ms latency, and I have my interface set at 2ms latency and it is as smooth as silk. I don't know if I want to jump for joy or punch a wall or what.

[Acoustica Greg]

Hi,

Wow, that's interesting. It turned out to be the video after all.

This is why I'm always recommending gaming computers to people who are looking for a new PC.

Greg

[Starship Krupa]

Thing is, the video card I had was a hand-me-down from what had been a halfway decent gaming system.

And the common wisdom is that for DAW work, the weakest 3-D card is overkill for 2-D work, but I am starting to think that that is not true.

My new belief is that nVidia, with their Quadro stuff aimed specifically at the workstation market, is better at 2-D performance than other manufacturers, specifically AMD.

Also, even with the antique that I have in here, plug-ins that I had to strain to see the details on are crystal clear with the older nVidia card vs. the 4-year newer ATI 3-D gaming card.

Anyway, I just ordered a fanless nVidia Quadro NVS300 card, which was originally designed for heavy duty workstation and digital signage use. $15 shipped from eBay, and I will report on how it plays with Mixcraft.

If you want an AMD 3-D card for performance testing I know where you can get one for free!

I'm an nVidia man for the foreseeable future, as I was before this friend gave me his swoopy hand-me-down 3-D card.

(dang, everything is so CLEAR with this old thing in here, too)

[KStech]

That swoopy hand-me-down card that was given for free, was probably just that..."swoopy" as in defective, and was free to get rid of it. I use an ATI 5770 in my main system for years and it out-performs anything else i've used.
Mixcraft blazes on it, and i see no reason to change it, for now.
I am curious however on your report on the Quadro NVS300 card.

[Ian Craig]

I bought a cheap nVidia GeForce GT710 on the strength of this. It's crap. Maybe the old cards are better. They'd need to be.

[Starship Krupa]

I bought a cheap nVidia GeForce GT710 on the strength of this. It's crap. Maybe the old cards are better. They'd need to be.

My apologies, then. Seems I had a lemon ATI card, or just a bad driver installation, or heaven knows what, but switching over to an nVidia card really did cure the latency ills I had been having.

Same story with the NVS300. Although I now suspect that a good AMD card would also have cured the problem.