(Be warned, I'm not the most technical person out there)
I've been interested in starting a YouTube channel, and have been wondering about all the technical stuff I would need to do. I've pretty much figured out what I need to do, but was wondering how much RAM would be needed to record.
I currently have an 11in. MacBook Air (I know it doesn't have the greatest reputation for gaming). From what I've read about MacBook Airs is that they have 2GB RAM, and to record that you need at least 4GB RAM, is this true?
To wrap this up, my questions are really how much RAM is needed and is it even possible to record on a MacBook Air?
There's a lot of factors that will need to be considered. For example, what are you going to record with, at what quality are you going to record, if Minecraft are you running OptiFine (very helpful for recording), etc. My laptop has 4 GB of RAM and 2 GB of dedicated graphics, and to record Minecraft, I need OptiFine with rather low graphics settings (short view distance, smooth lighting off).
Just fool around with different settings and programs and whatnot. For Mac, I'd suggest recording with Screenflow.
"Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence." C. S. Lewis
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
2/1/2012
Posts:
773
Member Details
RAM is only a minor factor in recording ( I was easily able to record minecraft on PC with only 2 GB -however- there are things you need to consider):
- As was mentioned CPU and GPU are rather important, you want a good clock speed on the CPU and Multicore is very useful too (generally speaking, you want 2.5Ghz+ and at least 2 cores...) - as far as GPU/Video card goes, you should be able to play at your target framerate +30% (if not +50%) at the low end - so about 40-60 FPS in
- Harddrive Read/write - this is a MAJOR chokepoint on laptops unless they use SSDs (and recording to SSDs will burn them out a lot faster than normal) - because many laptops utilize 5400 rpm drives... which are lower power consumption, but notably 'slow' when it comes to read/write. Generally speaking, it is almost always best practice to run at least dual HDDs (program drive and record to drive)
- Optifine and MagicLauncher are your friends (Optifine for streamlining resource usage and MagicLauncher for window size and ram usage controls - to limit how 'munchy' minecraft can be with your resources)
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
4/29/2013
Posts:
174
Minecraft:
The_Xseption
Member Details
To make it simple no. 2 gigs isn't enough even if everything else is top notch(it probably won't be). If you upgraded it to 4 gigs then you should be able to record something, but it will be laggy(very laggy). Most laptop computers aren't made to be able to handle things like recording gameplay. I would recommend either trying to find a cheap desktop computer, because most are equipped to run modern games if they were made within the last 3-4yrs or so. The video recorded off it may still be laggy, but it would be much better than recording off the MacBook pro(even upgraded to 4gb).
My computer sucks, but I can record videos just fine with almost no noticable difference in the lag. I don't think it really matters as long as your computer doesn't give you lower than 10 FPS.
Recording is more about CPU and HDD speed than RAM. For whatever reason everyone seems to think that RAM is the only part that matters, even though it is one of the least important.
Recording is more about CPU and HDD speed than RAM. For whatever reason everyone seems to think that RAM is the only part that matters, even though it is one of the least important.
Well everyone generally speaks about how good a computer is in terms of RAM. Just like weight lifters compare each other using bench press, and nutritionists use calories. These are just general measurements that don't fully reflect anything, but help to give some sort of explanation. If you only have 2 gigs RAM on your computer then you probably aren't going to have the best CPU, GPU, HDD speed, or whatever else, and likewise if you are shopping for a new computer most people recognize RAM while they may not know how powerful the other parts are. Most likely the computer at the store with more RAM will have better parts as well to compliment each other. So while you are right, most people wouldn't know what to look for with the other parts and would be confused if you tried to explain it. Also even with a good CPU and HDD write speed, I don't think 2 gigs of RAM would cut it for recording a game like minecraft which requires a lot of memory to run without dropping frames, maybe other games on lower settings but it's still not ideal.
Well everyone generally speaks about how good a computer is in terms of RAM. Just like weight lifters compare each other using bench press, and nutritionists use calories. These are just general measurements that don't fully reflect anything, but help to give some sort of explanation. If you only have 2 gigs RAM on your computer then you probably aren't going to have the best CPU, GPU, HDD speed, or whatever else, and likewise if you are shopping for a new computer most people recognize RAM while they may not know how powerful the other parts are. Most likely the computer at the store with more RAM will have better parts as well to compliment each other. So while you are right, most people wouldn't know what to look for with the other parts and would be confused if you tried to explain it. Also even with a good CPU and HDD write speed, I don't think 2 gigs of RAM would cut it for recording a game like minecraft which requires a lot of memory to run without dropping frames, maybe other games on lower settings but it's still not ideal.
Spoken like a true mac user.
As has been stated, the performance you achieve during gameplay and recording is most heavily dependant on the CPU.
If you have custom shaders you'll need a powerful GPU as well, but it's not as important for an unmodded client.
I have a state of the art CPU but an outdated and shabby GPU, I get 1-2 thousand frames per second on normal draw distance, 3 thousand on the lowest settings in debug mode.
Your amount of RAM solely dictates the amount of tasks your computer can think about at once, or how large a single task can grow.
As I'm sure you know, the longer a video file is, the larger its filesize will be, right?
So while you're recording a video, its filesize will steadily grow larger.
Since the video channel is actively loaded in your RAM while you record, you will steadily consume more and more free memory as time goes on (however, more modern and sophisticated video capture software can often circumvent this obstical)
In my opinion, 2gb of RAM is just enough to run minecraft itself, so no, I wouldn't recommend you try recording, though it can be done with the right software and configuration, providing you have the overall processing power to pull it off.
(Be warned, I'm not the most technical person out there)
I've been interested in starting a YouTube channel, and have been wondering about all the technical stuff I would need to do. I've pretty much figured out what I need to do, but was wondering how much RAM would be needed to record.
I currently have an 11in. MacBook Air (I know it doesn't have the greatest reputation for gaming). From what I've read about MacBook Airs is that they have 2GB RAM, and to record that you need at least 4GB RAM, is this true?
To wrap this up, my questions are really how much RAM is needed and is it even possible to record on a MacBook Air?
Thanks in advance for your answers!
Honestly it's more about your graphics card.
Just fool around with different settings and programs and whatnot. For Mac, I'd suggest recording with Screenflow.
"Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence." C. S. Lewis
- As was mentioned CPU and GPU are rather important, you want a good clock speed on the CPU and Multicore is very useful too (generally speaking, you want 2.5Ghz+ and at least 2 cores...) - as far as GPU/Video card goes, you should be able to play at your target framerate +30% (if not +50%) at the low end - so about 40-60 FPS in
- Harddrive Read/write - this is a MAJOR chokepoint on laptops unless they use SSDs (and recording to SSDs will burn them out a lot faster than normal) - because many laptops utilize 5400 rpm drives... which are lower power consumption, but notably 'slow' when it comes to read/write. Generally speaking, it is almost always best practice to run at least dual HDDs (program drive and record to drive)
- Optifine and MagicLauncher are your friends (Optifine for streamlining resource usage and MagicLauncher for window size and ram usage controls - to limit how 'munchy' minecraft can be with your resources)
Hope this helps.
-TheXseption
Well everyone generally speaks about how good a computer is in terms of RAM. Just like weight lifters compare each other using bench press, and nutritionists use calories. These are just general measurements that don't fully reflect anything, but help to give some sort of explanation. If you only have 2 gigs RAM on your computer then you probably aren't going to have the best CPU, GPU, HDD speed, or whatever else, and likewise if you are shopping for a new computer most people recognize RAM while they may not know how powerful the other parts are. Most likely the computer at the store with more RAM will have better parts as well to compliment each other. So while you are right, most people wouldn't know what to look for with the other parts and would be confused if you tried to explain it. Also even with a good CPU and HDD write speed, I don't think 2 gigs of RAM would cut it for recording a game like minecraft which requires a lot of memory to run without dropping frames, maybe other games on lower settings but it's still not ideal.
Spoken like a true mac user.
As has been stated, the performance you achieve during gameplay and recording is most heavily dependant on the CPU.
If you have custom shaders you'll need a powerful GPU as well, but it's not as important for an unmodded client.
I have a state of the art CPU but an outdated and shabby GPU, I get 1-2 thousand frames per second on normal draw distance, 3 thousand on the lowest settings in debug mode.
Your amount of RAM solely dictates the amount of tasks your computer can think about at once, or how large a single task can grow.
As I'm sure you know, the longer a video file is, the larger its filesize will be, right?
So while you're recording a video, its filesize will steadily grow larger.
Since the video channel is actively loaded in your RAM while you record, you will steadily consume more and more free memory as time goes on (however, more modern and sophisticated video capture software can often circumvent this obstical)
In my opinion, 2gb of RAM is just enough to run minecraft itself, so no, I wouldn't recommend you try recording, though it can be done with the right software and configuration, providing you have the overall processing power to pull it off.