Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) — Pro Tools|HD Requirements

For Pro Tools|HD 1, HD 2 Accel, and HD 3 Accel Systems with Pro Tools 6.2 for Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar"

Apple G4 (AGP Graphics) Computers Supported:

Single Processor

  

Dual Processor
733 MHz Power Mac G4 QS   Dual 800 MHz Power Mac G4 QS
800 MHz Power Mac G4 QS   Dual 867 MHz Power Mac G4 MDD
867 MHz Power Mac G4 QS   Dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 QS
933 MHz Power Mac G4 QS   Dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 MDD
1 GHz Power Mac G4 FW800   Dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4 MDD
1.25 GHz Power Mac G4 MDD   Dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4 FW800
    Dual 1.42 GHz Power Mac G4 FW800

Legend:
QS = "Quicksilver" models from 2001-2002
MDD = "Mirrored Drive Doors" models from 2002
FW800 = FireWire 800 models from 2003

Not Tested or Recommended for Systems With Accel Cards:

  • 350 MHz Power Mac G4
  • Dual 450 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 400 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 450 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 466 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 533 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 500 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 667 MHz Power Mac G4
  • 733 MHz Power Mac G4 *

*Early "Digital Audio" 733 with level 3 cache

Not Compatible With Systems Using Accel Cards

  • Dual 500 MHz Power Mac G4
  • Dual 533 MHz Power Mac G4

For all Pro Tools|HD Cards, testing on the Apple Power Mac G4 MDD & FW800 models was performed with the HD Core card in the lowest numbered PCI slot. This requires re-bending the TDM cable. This was adopted as the supported configuration as it follows the established conventional PCI slot order for Digidesign cards: HD Core card in the lowest number PCI slot, HD Accel, then HD Process cards in higher slot numbers.

Note: PowerMac G4 867 MHz or faster required for AVoption|XL for Mac OS X

Additional Information

See also: Pro Tools 6 documents in the Support > Tech Support > Technical Document Library and included with new systems and Pro Tools 6 upgrade CDs.

Additional Requirements

Mac OS 10.2.6 or 10.2.8 Required for Pro Tools 6.2

Supported Expansion Chassis

Storage Requirements

SCSI Accelerator Cards

For maximum track count, Pro Tools|HD systems require the use of a qualified SCSI HBA card. The following SCSI HBA cards are qualified with the PowerMac G4 models listed at the top of this page.

MIDI Interface — USB Only

Dual Monitor AGP Graphics Cards

  • NVIDIA GeForce4 MX (as shipped from Apple — standard on the 933 MHz & Dual 1 GHz "Quicksilver" and Dual 867 MHZ Power Mac G4 "mirrored drive doors" models)
  • ATI Radeon 7500 (as shipped from Apple — standard on the 800 MHz Power Mac G4)
  • ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (as shipped from Apple — standard on the Dual 1 GHz & Dual 1.25 GHz Power Mac G4 "mirrored drive doors" models)

Note: The NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium built-to-order option from Apple not tested.

All single or dual monitor cards which ship as standard equipment with qualified Apple Power Mac G4 models at the top of this page are supported with Pro Tools 6.2.

AVoption|XL Requirements for Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" — Summary

AVXL with Pro Tools 6.2 for Mac OS X 10.2.8

  • Mac OS X 10.2.8
  • Supported Power Mac G4 models: 867 MHz or faster
  • G5 Not Supported with AVXL on OS X 10.2
  • Minimum System RAM 512 MB, 1 GB or higher recommended
  • Hardware Buffer Size set to 1096
  • Audio SCSI HBA installed in the CPU, not the chassis
  • ATTO SCSI Driver v1.0.2f1

For more information, expansion chassis slot order, and supported CPUs and chassis models, see the AVoption|XL for Mac OS X requirements page.

Known Issues:

Other Digidesign PCI cards are not compatible with Pro Tools|HD Systems

Previous Digidesign PCI cards are incompatible with Pro Tools|HD systems. You cannot combine Pro Tools|HD and these PCI cards, either in the CPU or an expansion chassis. Doing so will cause crashes, or the CPU will simply fail to boot. The following Digidesign cards are not compatible with Pro Tools|HD systems for Mac OS X:

  • MIX Core card
  • MIX Farm card
  • MIX I/O card
  • d24 card (Pro Tools|24 core card)
  • DSP Farm card (Pro Tools III/Pro Tools|24)
  • Digi 001
  • Audiomedia III
  • Pro Tools III Disk I/O
  • Pro Tools Project card
  • Project II card
  • SampleCell II cards

The following Digidesign hardware is also not compatible with Pro Tools|HD systems:

  • Universal Slave Driver
  • Video Slave Driver
  • SMPTE Slave Driver
  • SampleCell II TDM Module
  • 882 I/O
  • 888 I/O

Additional Known Compatibility Issues

  • The Movie Offset feature affects both the QT Movie output to DV and the Onscreen movie
  • If users want to use Japanese fonts in their sessions, they will not be able to use HFS (standard) drives – only HFS+
  • Use of "Continuous Scroll with Playhead" with LCD monitors may result in a flickering gray area located to the left of the session start point
  • Sometimes when opening a session that was based on a PT 3.2 format session, the following error may occur when Restoring IO paths: Time type mismatch occurred in "Time_Typed.cpp" line 370. A reboot may be necessary if this occurs
  • After dragging an AudioSuite process window to the second monitor, then closing it, opening another audiosuite process window may result in that window going "white" on the second monitor
  • System instabilities and performance issues can occur when using MIDI control surfaces in conjunction with PT 6.1 and 3rd party MIDI interfaces. For best multiport MIDI performance, we recommend using Digidesign's MIDI I/O.

MachineControl & PowerMac G4 "FW800" Models

When using a Power Mac "FW800", MachineControl requires a third party USB Card for use with Keyspan USB serial adaptors. With this configuration, the Keyboard/Mouse should also be connected to the third-party USB card. The following USB PCI cards are qualified for use with the Keyspan USB-to-serial adapter* and MachineControl on Power Mac "FW800" computers:

  • SIIG 2 port USB card
  • D-Link DU 520 (5 ports-4 external 1 internal)
  • Keyspan USB 1 card (UPCI-2)

For more information, see MachineControl 2.0 with Pro Tools 6

* Requires Keyspan USB Serial Adapter X Software Version 1.8 for Mac OS X compatibility. This device is only qualified by Digidesign for use with MachineControl 2.0 software. Neither USB-to-serial or modem-to-serial adapters are supported for MIDI devices with Pro Tools 6.0 and higher on Mac OS X.

Additional Information:

Digidesign Compatibility Documents Index