When configuring band size, the goal is to balance CPU utilisation against memory bandwidth and capacity. Start from the recommended MaxBandMemory and then adjust in small steps while monitoring overall throughput and RIP utilisation on a representative set of your jobs (including both image‑heavy and transparency‑rich PDFs).
If bands are too small, overheads increase per band and CPU cores may be under‑used; if bands are too large, you can hit memory bandwidth or capacity limits, reducing throughput or increasing variability in job times. The values suggested on this page are a solid starting point, but fine‑tuning band size for your own workload mix can deliver noticeable performance improvements.