Source
r/editors•
Doglog56

M1 Max AVID Media Composer RAM Recommendations

Technical

Sorry for the absolutely misery of a title, but I'm looking at getting an M1 Max Macbook pro to be used as my new daily driver for media composer editing.

I'm currently using an m1 mac mini and I love it except I can see in my activity monitor that my ram usage in AVID is through the roof at times, and when it spikes my whole computer kinda grinds to a halt.

The machine I'm currently eyeballing has 32gb of ram, but the price is too good to pass up at $1500.

Is 32gb of RAM on an M1 Max not good enough for media composer? Especially for a large scale feature film?

Posted Apr 27, 2023, 9:39 PM UTC · edited

617
WhatTheFDR_V12_Final_FINAL_2•

Get as much as you can afford since you can't add more later

12
KichigaiMinneapolis - AE/Online/Avid Mechanic - MC7/2018, PPro, Resolve•

And because system RAM and video RAM are shared.

2
Mamonimoni•

32 is the minimum you should get. 64 if you are going to use it for years to come.

8
greenysmacLead Mod; Consultant/educator/editor. I <3 your favorite NLE•

Get the 64gb version.

6
Doglog56OP•

Oh this is super helpful thank you!

3
pieman3141•

For most editing software or really, any media creation software, the more the better, IMO. Max out as much as you can.

3
pieman3141•

Even Youtube channels - albeit the larger ones - are using at least 64 or 128 GB for their stations, and they're not producing feature length stuff. Everything's RAM hungry these days.

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[deleted]•

[removed]

1
Meatball132•

Based on your description, you're regularly using pretty much the whole 32 GB of RAM, and if that's the case 32 GB is just not enough for you. You can upgrade the rest of your computer all you want, but if you're running out of RAM you specifically need more RAM.

1
Doglog56OP•

Oh yeah I should have clarified, my mac mini only has 16gb of ram and that's clearly not enough. But the sentiment seems to be 64gb is the way to go at the minimum.

2
Meatball132•

Oh I somehow misread that you already had 32 GB. Well, in that case it really depends on how much you're doing, but I would indeed go as high as you can especially since Apple is silly and won't let you upgrade later.

1
normalpeaces•

I have the M1 Max with 32gb and for me I have zero issues with performance whatsoever, though most of my work are commercials. If you’ll be cutting features or other long form items I would probably get the 64gb just to be sure.

1
Anonymograph•

Qualified Apple Mac Systems for Media Composer December 2022

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/sfc/servlet.shepherd/document/download/0696e00000SgmjjAAB?operationContext=S1

1
MrSnrubsAssistant•

I’m using an M1 Max Mac Studio with 32GB, have worked on two full tv series back to back without any major hiccups or performance issues. This is using DNxLB mxf files primarily, just FYI.

If your budget allows 64GB I would go that way because you’ll get a longer life out of your device and you can’t upgrade later on down the track, but the 32GB machine has been probably the most reliable Avid systems I’ve ever used.

1
inthecanvasNarrative Features, Docs, Commercials•

Hey there - I think I remember you giving me some really helpful advice on using Avid with the new M1 chips a while back. (So thanks you for that!)

Personally I have not managed to find a very stable combination for using Avid with an M1 chip (Mac Studio) plus an I/O card. Although the setup you suggested helped a lot and at least got things almost working well-ish.

The avid video forums are now humming with M1 Mac users who are super annoyed that (2+ years after the M1 release) they also can’t find a stable Avid setup. Avid says they are aware of the bugs and are finally “working on it” but, 6 months after I started my current feature there’s still no fix apparently.

I seem to have tried every combination of OS, Avid, I/O device and it’s almost stable ish but still a lot of beach balls and crashes and sound drop outs and unclickable bins and render issues and error messages. And this is using just standard DNxHR and no titles and no Linked media

I am wishing I bought a refurbished iMac pro for $2k to wait out the next couple of years until avid maybe finally gets its shit together

1
SeeYouLaterTrashcanEditor / LA / Avid MC•

I was given a m2 Mac mini with only 8gb of ram. It still works alright. I chalk up the occasional playback stop to the low ram, but the moral of the story is that it’s fine. If you have access to a cheap 32 gb ram mac Id say go for it.

1
twstwr20•

The new apple chips use ram in a different way. I’ve got a M2 Max MacbookPro with 32g and I’m editing native 4K without issue. This was explained to me by the Apple Store guy who said I didn’t need 64g.

0