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"For optimum performance, we recommend 4 GB RAM"

Toon Theuwis

The SDL website states that the minimum requirements for Studio 2017 is 2 GB. It also says that "for optimum performance, we recommend 4 GB RAM". Does that mean that more than 4 GB (lets say 32 GB) of memory will not have an influence on performance?
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  • 0
    Hi Toon,

    More RAM never hurts as this will help you with running multiple applications together on a 64-bit system. Studio can't use more than windows will allocate to a 32-bit system anyway so it's not going to make a difference you can see. The best gain as far as Studio is concerned is in access times, and this is best achieved through installing an SSD drive, or purchasing a machine with one installed already.

    People like can lecture you chapter and verse on the benefits of this!

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Thank you all,

     

    I'm planning on buying a new computer this year. I'm so much in love with my Mac environment, but I'm weighing options to maybe move back to Windows.

    The reason I'm asking is because I'd like to figure out for example if using a 6GB TM in a project (or even several of those) would benefit from this. At the moment I'm using 4GB, SSD and 2,6 GHZ Intel I5 on a Macbook Pro. (8GB in total with 4GB assigned to the windows process). I realize we're only dealing with text, but lots of it can create heavy files.

    It would be interesting to know if Studio loads the TM's into memory or if it needs to access the TM from the SSD for every individual call. A tool like TMLookup by Andras Farkas is extremely fast, and running a search in a multi-GB TMX file just takes a fraction of a second. I guess it must load everything into its memory, although I do not really know how it works.
  • 0 in reply to Toon Theuwis
    Honestly and really only my opinion: running Windows on Mac is like putting a Trabbi engine into a Ferrari. I wouldn't expect any performance boosts or whatsoever when using Mac. In the end of the day you run Windows on an average PC then.
    I have bought my main PC last year. It is a Dell XPS with i7 6700k and 24 GB RAM. Windows is installed on a SSD (256 GB, factory mounted). This PC also has a "usual" spinning HDD (Seagate desktop, 2 TB). I have used to have my TMs and TBs there, until Studio 2017 came out. As the performance wasn't over average, I have installed a Kingston HyperX 240 GB SSD and put all TMs/TBs there. The performance boost was huge.
    Of course you can only use as much RAM with Windows 64bit, so I wouldn't install anything else than Win64 Pro. In my case this is Win10 64bit Pro and I am really satisfied with both the PC and OS-

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  • 0 in reply to Jerzy Czopik
    Thank you Jerzy, what is the benefit of the PRO version of Wind10 in this case?
  • 0 in reply to Toon Theuwis
    In my case the possibility to switch the GUI language to Polish or English (instead of German) in case of necessity.
    And I have bought my machine already with Win Pro. I can really recommend Dell OptiPlex or XPS machines - good performance, very good manufacturing quality and good support.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Toon Theuwis
    Hi Toon,

    I can talk about my experiences with very large files and the interaction between Studio and Dragon.

    I just did a motherboard upgrade to speed up processing of very large files in Studio 2017.

    I am now running an i7-7700k processor at close to 5 GHz, with 32 GB of fast ram and an SSD on Windows 10.

    This is overkill for smaller files, but when dealing with very large files (40,000 to 100,000 segments) the CPU is the limiting factor. Since Studio generally runs a single thread, it only maxes out one of the 8 threads provided by the quad core processor when processing very large files.

    As expected, since the upgrade almost doubled my CPU speed (3 to 5 GHz), I am finding that processing very large files now takes half the time. What used to take half an hour now takes around a quarter of an hour.

    If Studio were rewritten to be multi-threaded, it could realise the ultimate goal of TM translation tools, namely processing very large documents with ease (even with the current UI design, which appears to be quite inefficient).

    Another reason for my upgrade was the interaction between Studio and Dragon. The KnowBrainer forums indicate that Dragon can run poorly if there is not enough RAM, so since Studio was causing problems for Dragon on my previous 3 GHz computer with 18 GB, I decided to increase the RAM to 32 GB.

    Studio's user interface still definitely causes problems with Dragon. This is particularly the case when I restart Studio because it has become sluggish responding to Dragon macros or because it has simply frozen. (Studio behaves properly when Dragon is not running and Dragon behaves properly when Studio is not running.)

    Nevertheless, Studio is thankfully having fewer problems with slowdowns, freezing and crashing and is more responsive, and Dragon is now freezing much less frequently due to problems with the Studio UI, so the upgrade was also worthwhile for this reason.

    And if you are thinking of moving to Windows, I think the Windows 10 user interface is an improvement over Windows 7 (in spite of all the wailing about Windows 10). And for customizing, if you look at the Control Panel, quite a bit is similar to Windows 7 or an improvement.

    Like Jerzy, I also recommend the Pro version, as it is much more customizable than the Home version. (And most serious Windows computers are now 64 bit, due to the memory constraints of 32 bit Windows.)

    Regards,
    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
  • 0 in reply to Bruce Campbell
    Hi Bruce,

    Thanks for sharing that information. That sounds like a killer machine you're working with. So I went to the local PC store and asked about this brand new i7-7700K, 32GB, SSD, etc... Not a cheap machine. Prices start around €2,500 (2,700 USD), easily going towards €3,500.

    At least I'm convinced I need to work on a Windows desktop in the near future as the iMac, no matter how much I love it, will slow things down.

    The shop owner told me there'd be no real need to work with Windows 10 Pro, as the Home version is also 64bit. He said you only really need it if you work in a network environment. Could you explain how you need the features of the Pro version; what did you need to customize for example?
  • 0 in reply to Toon Theuwis
    Sorry if this may sound rude, but this is typical for IT guys - they mean we translator do not need professional setup, we deal "just with text". So we also won't need a networking solution like remote desktop to access a PC from the laptop or the other way round. And I am not certain, how far the Home will limit creating a network at home. I for one do have one main PC, two laptops with remote desktop configuration to be accessible from the main PC and then a bunch of NAS servers at home. Not certain, if all that would work with Home.
    If you can wait a week or two, there should be Dell XPS configurable again. I did pay around 1800 EUR for a XPS when the i6 6700k appeared. So I would expect it to cost similar now with the next gen of Intel processors. A PC with above specs shouldn't exceed 2000 EUR IMO.

    _________________________________________________________

    When asking for help here, please be as accurate as possible. Please always remember to give the exact version of product used and all possible error messages received. The better you describe your problem, the better help you will get.

    Want to learn more about Trados Studio? Visit the Community Hub. Have a good idea to make Trados Studio better? Publish it here.

  • 0 in reply to Toon Theuwis
    Hi Toon,

    I upgraded my system motherboard, CPU and RAM myself.

    I got tired of being locked into brand name computers that don't let you do any modifications, so last time I needed a new computer I built my own with the fastest components I could find at the time.

    The problems of Studio being slow in processing very large files finally convinced me it was time for a new CPU and motherboard. The new Kaby Lake processors and Z270 motherboards that came out recently allowed me to essentially double my processing power.

    Total cost for an i7-7700k CPU, Z270 motherboard, 32 GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro (OEM) and a new cooler for overclocking was around CAD 1250 (EUR 900), so I think Jerzy is accurate that you should be able to get a pre-built PC for around twice that amount.

    (I think the main difference between Jerzy's 6700k and the 7700k is that the 7700k is a bit faster, does not generate as much heat and can be overclocked a bit more. The Z270 motherboards are also pretty similar to the previous Z170 motherboards.)

    As far as the differences between Home and Pro, I just remember buying a computer with Home once (there was no option to get Pro) and being frustrated when I tried to modify things. I would find instructions for changes on the Internet and then discover I could not do them on Home. The RAM limit was also lower on Home.

    I did a quick Google to see whether the situation is the same with Windows 10 and it looks like things aren't quite as bad. Home allows you to have 128 GB of RAM, which is more than sufficient. Home does *not* give you access to group policies, which might make some modifications difficult. For example, one of the first things I did was use group policies to turn off Cortana. I also changed one of the Windows Update policies to notify me of updates rather than automatically install them and restart my computer. (yikes!!)

    But otherwise Jerzy once again appears to be correct (no surprise :-)

    Other than group policies, it looks like the main differences are in networking and remote desktop.

    If the files you are handling are not huge and you are not using Dragon voice-to-text then you probably do not need a killer computer.

    But I hate waiting for that little hourglass to disappear when I am translating a large file, or waiting for Studio and Dragon to work out their differences and play together nicely.

    So I decided to pay a little more now and hopefully spend less time waiting on the hourglass, and less time restarting and repairing programs that crash :-)

    Good luck with the purchase!

    Bruce Campbell
    ASAP Language Services
  • 0 in reply to Bruce Campbell

    Thank you for these specs, Bruce. As I am now searching the net for relevant information, I came across the following somewhat absurd idea:

    "Creating a RAM disk. What this does is assign a drive letter to certain amount of RAM that you've allocated and then you can use it as a hard drive. It is much faster than even the fastest SSD. You could install your CPU intensive programs and games to this RAM disk and enjoy whizzing fast speeds and increased performance. There will be no lags whatsoever. " 

    "The one major drawback  to a RAM disk is that once you power off the computer the content of the RAM disk is lost, but you can configure it such that it's content is transferred into a disk image and then saved to your hard drive and loaded every time you turn on your computer."