[Julian]

Reducing the resolution requirements for poster or billboard prints is all fine and dandy. However, if you need to do large format giclee art prints, then rendering at a lower resolution and blowing it up really dosen't cut it.

Yes I agree - I think the solutions here are for your average rendering type project not full-on specialist prints.

I found Neat Image software to be quite good, but maybe this is just my amature way.

thats what I used on this Will, you can always split hairs with this kind of software but I think Neat image is as good as anything really (IMO of course!)

[w i l l]

I just have XP, not 32 or 64. What effect does that have have for rendering?

Well XP is 32bit and comes in two flavours, the major difference being that XP-Pro allows the use of multiple CPU's (dual Xeon for example) whereas XP-Home only allows the use of one CPU. I am not sure if XP Home allows multiple cores within one processor, I suspect it would have to.

Anyway, to answer your question - unless the software application you are using has been specifically written for a 64bit OS (Max9 64bit for example) then you will not gain any advantage by using XP64 - infact you may be worse off as 32bit apps run on a simulated XP32 within XP64 if that makes sense!

hope that helps

I don't want to start another topic for this as there are a few that are similar at the moment, but is there any downfall in buying an extra 3 gig of RAM for my PC (3 GHz Dual Core Pentium (32 bit I think)). It has 1 Gig already, so that would be a total of 4 Gig. Could I be adding too much/can Maxwell use this memory?

[rivoli]

It has 1 Gig already, so that would be a total of 4 Gig. Could I be adding too much/can Maxwell use this memory?

nope, as long as I know win 32 only supports up to 3 gigs of ram. even if you were able to make win see all 4 gigs, it couldn't allocate more than 3 gigs per process anyway (assuming you use the 3 gigs switch and it actually works on your system).

[Julian]

The straight answer is no - dont buy 3Gb but definately buy 1Gb (and make sure it is identical to what is in there already)

32bit windows can only see 2Gb of RAM. You can put 4Gb into your machine and add the /3Gb switch to your boot.ini file which will allow you to access 4Gb of virtual memory (split 3Gb to apps and 1Gb to system use as opposed to the previous 1Gb to apps and 1Gb to system) but this isnt the same as having full access to 3Gb of RAM.

I am not an expert at all and the only reason I know any of this is because I spent last w/e trying to acheive what we are talking about in this thread (ie high res. renders) by playing around with memory configurations in order to coax another unbiased renderer to increase its resolution limit (which it turns out is now unnecessary). I even tried loading XP64 with 4Gb of RAM which gives you the real deal - a full 4Gb of RAM - but because the renderer wasn't written from the ground up as 64bit it didnt make any difference - I knew it was a long shot but worth a try. Some people here use 64bit and 4Gb for maxwell so worth finding them and asking if it makes a difference. I suspect not or they'd be letting us know in this thread!

[w i l l]

Ooooo k, but some people are using 8 Gig. How is this possible? Is this because each dual core has 2 Gig? I.e. dual dual dual core.

[Julian]

No - RAM (ie the 8Gb you're talking about) has nothing to do with the number of processors. The only way they can use 8Gb is if they are using a 64bit operating system, and even then they have to be running 64bit applications in order to actually use the extra memory - so until Maxwell is rewritten for 64bit OS's there will be no advantage to having anything more than 2Gb.

Less then 2Gb however is very bad news - it really slows things down - remember, when your machine is up and running there is a whole world of microsoft parafanalia happening in the background on top of your modelling and rendering apps. all trying to get a piece of that memory.

[w i l l]

Ok I understand. I'm just wondering how on Mike Verta's video it renders so fast compared to my PC. He has 8 Gig and you are saying that Maxwell can only use 2 Gig of it.

[Julian]

its not all about RAM remember - Mike probably has a dual cpu system or possibly a dual core dual system (effectively 4 cpus) - and the video may well have been speeded up - not to cheat, just so that we dont die of boredom watching a twenty hour render! - I'm sure he'd answer your questions if you can find him - he'll be a lot better informed than me!

[w i l l]

Yes it probably would be. It's a dual dual core. I thought maybe the 8 Gig had something to do with it though. Mine is a dual core, but verrrry slow. Suppose the extra Gig would help.

[Julian]

yep - it will make a real difference to your setup - assuming everything else is setup properly. Also, the thing that slows many PC's down to a complete crawl is spyware (and Norton Security/virus software!) if its really that bad and you've never run a spyware check, do it - you'll be amazed what it finds!

[w i l l]

I am a spyware expert! I don't have the rendering PC connected to the internet though so no need for that.

[Julian]

1Gb of memory it is then sir!