Field test to determine need for ProTools HD accel card

[4themax]

I currently have Pro Tools HD1 (PCI Core card) with Pro Tools 8.0.1 cs2. My local music store has some used Accel cards. He recommended me adding one to my system to get "improved performance."

I realize that Avid/Digidesign marketing states that adding an Accel card will give me increased track count, more TDM plug-ins, more voices, etc.

Can anyone recommend a field test (tests that I could perform) that I could perform to determine when my system would need an Accel card? Reading the system usage window hasn't told me much yet.

I don't want to buy a used Accel card if it will just be sitting me my system "unused." And if this is just a sales pitch by the music store.

[DAS]

The most concrete way to test it is to pull up the window that shows DSP chip usage. When you open one of your bigger sessions how much of your DSP is used? That will tell you a lot. You can also manually count up your voices and make some determinations there. If you are doing pretty big sessions it most likely would be beneficial to add a card. If you want to run more software instruments it's probably a good idea to add a card. Not for the instruments, but for you to move plug-ins off the native processor to create more headroom for your processor to run more instruments.