a setting for how much ram to use?
Mistara
Posts: 38,675
i'm watching performance monitor while rendering, never goes over 4gb. compy has 12. anyway to tell carrara to use 8gb?
thanks!
win7 os
Post edited by Mistara on
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How much RAM is used before you render?
As an Example if I can load everything into the scene and have RAM at 50% very rarely will it go much higher as it is all loaded already incuding textures.
Then it is just the CPU or Video Card Rendering away with the data already in RAM.
was hoping would render faster with more ram
i5 quad core, can only use 4 threads, i think
I will see if I get a chance to check tonight and do a test render.
Nope. More RAM might help with renders that have so many resources as to require that extra RAM, but as I've said many times before: It's the Number and speed of (cpu) threads that counts!
I just got this little laptop (cheap) which has a four thread cpu. It's actually a quad, so it does have four physical threads. Some cpus might be dual core with hyperthreading, giving an output of four threads. This would be four logical threads. Either will relate to Carrara renders.
My laptop may be a quad core, but each core only runs at 1.5 GHz. My Carrara machine has eight physical cores, each running at over 3.5 GHz.
So two of my Carrara Machine's cores would render the same Carrara scene faster than my laptop.
Multiply those two cores by four and you'll see that Carrara can render quite fast with 8 x 3.5GHz, having the 16GB RAM to make sure that each core gets fed properly!
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Here's the thing. When it comes to render speed in any 3d software, optimization is everything. What I mean by that is this:
If we put together a Carrara scene and it takes forever to render, the computer itself is only part of it. Put that file in a computer with more cores, each of which are faster, and you will notice a difference but, chances are, it'll still take forever. If each bucketload of pixels takes a long time on one computer, there's something in that bucketload that's slowing things down.
Yes, faster cores, and more of them is key as well as making sure that there's enough RAM to load all of your data to those cores. There's a HUGE difference between my quad 1.5GHz laptop with 4GB RAM and my Octa 3.5GHz with 16GB RAM. HUGE!!!
Still, we need to look at each scene and know what's going on with it. The Render room allows us to set how many maximun raytraces are allowed. In a scene with no reflections, no refraction, and no global or indirect lighting, that value has no merit. Add in any (or especially ALL) of those in, and the maximum raytraces CAN have an effect on your render times, but likely not quite as much as any of those things on their own.
Lighting a 3D scene can be a challenge. There are actual college courses on just that alone.
Soft Shadows slow down renders considerably.
Full Indirect Lighting can slow down the precalculations of a render.
Reflections can really slow down a render.
Volumetric Clouds and/or other volumetric effects can slow them down.
Refraction too.
I'm not saying to not use these things. But if you do... expect renders to take a long time.
If your model is a simple thing,. like a glass,. then it's never going to use more ram than the system needs to show and render that model.
your system only uses what's needed,. not all available resources.
More ram allows you to work with more resources to create more complex scenes,. it may also help with rendering,. but the MAIN (working / rendering) calculations, are being done by your CPU (processor)
Or by a GPU (on a graphics card) with a GPU based render engine. (Lux / Octane etc)
Using either CPU or GPU method,. the system still only uses what it needs to,. and how fast it completes any task is dependent on the Processing speed.
Your i5 probably has what it takes to crank out some decent renders in pretty decent times, with a lot of considerations of the above sorts of things.
i7 cranking out eight threads will always be faster.
When I first got into Carrara, I bought a computer that was mostly okay for gaming. Decent cpu, decent RAM, higher-end graphics card.
Carrara didn't care about my graphics card.
I don't care for games.
So I built my own computer a couple of years later, keeping Carrara, not games, in mind for my hardware choices.
Carrara's favorite thing: more cpu cores or threads. The faster these cores or threads are, the better!
That recent gaming machine was sporting the latest and greatest intel processor, which was being advertised as blowing away the AMD competition by a LOT. My wife wanted a new computer for running Office and simple hidden object games. The one we settled on had an AMD cpu, the one my intel was supposed to "Blow Away", yet her much lower-priced machine seemed like it was a LOT faster than mine!
When I built my workstation, I decided to be unbiassed. I always liked AMD, but was also willing to look at intel.
Well, as it turned out, I was able to easily afford my eight core AMD (with eight actual, physical cores) as well as all of the good parts needed to make it fly, much easier than if I went with intel's hyperthreaded quad-core (resulting in eight logical threads) and it's necessities.
I've not compared it side-by-side with an i7, but this AMD (several years old now) eight core really rocks!
But 3d rendering software can bring the fastest super-computers to their knees. We have to practice hard on optimization to improve on render speeds - no matter our computers.
i have an amd dual core, dont know if the m/b socket could hold something faster
octacore is amd3+ socket
Yes. Mine is an older Zambezi, back when the Zambezi were first released. I bought the lower-end Zambezi 8 core, Spooky from Daz3D bought the higher-end one. I think there's still a Zambezi line-up, but they're different chips altogether.
AMD processors won't fit (or work) on an Intel motherboard, which is what you have, having an i5 chip.
Please don't think that I was trying to say that you have a mediocre cpu (i5 dual core - hyperthreaded to four logical cores) Intel makes top-of-the-line stuff!
I've always been at the lower end of the income scale, so I've always had to scrape and scrape in order to enter the world of 3D.
Building my own computer has turned into the only way I can get a machine with the specs I want for rendering out enough animation clips to make a movie, let alone episodes of movies. Not only has it proven to be a LOT more affordable (or... affordable period, for me) but also the only way I've ever seen to get all of the components I want in a computer into the same box.
► How to Build Your Own Carrara Workstation is an article I've written regarding building a machine with Carrara's native photo-realistic render engine in mind.
Here's a write-up I've concocted of my opinions on what Carraraists should keep in mind when upgrading their computers for use with Carrara:
Oh... I thought you said you have an i5
I lucked out in that, just at the time it came for me to order all of my parts (from Newegg) there was a fine Military-Grade (more robust QA, higher-end capacitors, etc.,) AM3+ motherboard on sale that held the graphics card/power supply I wanted, a great Corsair powersupply with all of the cables and ends I wanted for future upgrades and such, and an excellent deal on my beautiful, filtered intake tower box with a bunch of fairly silent, low-rpm/high cooling fans. Under a grand got me all of my parts (no monitor, keyboard or mouse), Windows 7 64 bit, and Sony's Vegas HD Platinum bundle. Under a $Grand!!! Barely... but still!
Wow! They're still using my AM3+ socket! That means I could fit my monster box with AMD's latest, greatest and Fastest Octa-core cpus! Awesome!
In Windows, I think you can right-click on Carrara in Task Manager, and change its priority allocation but Windows then warns against doing it. I did it anyways at least once a while back, and noticed zero improvement. None. Actually... as Windows warns... it kinda seemed to mess everything up.
As far as RAM is concerned... Carrara will take what it needs, up to the limits of what you have - and since you have 12GB, I don't think you'll need to worry.
For render speed increases, try looking into what socket you have - see if you can find a cpu with more core, logical or physical.
Another method would be to go for a super high-end video card and getting Octane plus Octane for Carrara. Since I already have a socket AM3+ motherboard, sticking with Carrara's render engine and a faster, better cpu is the way to go. Besides... I'm not a fan of working with PBR renderers just yet.
My original plan was to eventually build a second machine with another AMD 8-core... but now I feel as if I don't really need one.
I'm hoping to publish some cool tips on how to easily scour through Carrara scenes for way to improve upon the render speed without much, if any, sacrifice of the quality you need. Takes time though... working... working... working.... LOL
i'm using the amd dual core as a render node to the i5. doesn't really render much faster lol
When I was finallizing Starry Sky for Carrara, my main tester asked me to test for him as well. I was still using my dual-core laptop, working on animations when I wasn't working on Starry Sky.
My friend knew this, so thought I would be the perfect Guinea Pig for testing him out as a Render Farm for Hire.
He gave me a special FTP upload situation, through which I'd send him my scene files - ready to be rendered out as animations. For this all to work, I had to save them all internally, so that he didn't have to have copies of all of my files - textures, models, etc., (He signed an agreement to destroy all of my files after completion)
Anyways, he only had one quad-core and two three-core (AMD) computers. I was impressed by how quick the turn-around was. But again... this was compared to my dual core laptop. It was cool though. I was able to test a lot of stuff for animation use much faster than I could if I had to render it all - all by myself. Most of my Just for Fun video was made using those tests.
My Eight-core is impressive. It's so fun to try and 'see' the little buckets cruise across the screen as I render animated clips. Sometimes it's nearly invisible until it gets to Rosie's hair.
dreamed about cores last night. lol
does this look good? it's a refurb. i know nuthing about mac and it's os's
started specc-ing an amd 8core build, 3 parts already tapped my price range >.<
tee hee, some HP pron
I don't know Macs at all. Only that they give you what you get - unless you pay premium to have them change it for you.
If your budget is entirely used up before you're finished with your build, take a close look at which items you have so far, and ask yourself if you can go for something less expensive - which is exactly how I've found my mother board... I couldn't afford the top-o-the-line boards, so I started looking at the cheapest ones I could find that contained my minimum requirements.
For example, I knew that I needed to stick with an eight-core AMD, so I started with a socket AM3+ board. Then I wanted to make sure that I could eventually upgrade to 32 GB RAM. Then it was graphics card compatibility... which didn't matter anymore, because everything that was available in the above criteria already accepted the graphics interface I needed. I put graphic on a low priority because: A - Carrara doesn't really use it much, except for OpenGL, and B - Graphics cards are really easy to upgrade in the future. I always manage to burn them up eventually anyways, so....
When it comes to RAM, my computer-engineer brother tells me not to worry about getting expensive RAM sticks. So I just look for a nice 16 GB pack for cheap. I ended up not going with the cheapest, because I didn't need to by the time I was done.
Personally, I like filtered intakes on my tower box. So I spent a little extra on a great (Antec) tower.
I had to also skimp on hard drives, which was okay for me because I have a few. But I wanted a new one for my new Windows OS, so I got a cheapo (but decent) 1.5TB low-rpm(5,400 rpm) internal drive, since it's fine technology still allows it to crank out 6GB/second... plenty fast for my needs.
I also got a brand new DVD drive - going for cheap, once again. Like I said earlier, I have a very low income, so have to find ways to cut costs or I just can't get anything. Something is always better than nothing - and my cheapo Octacore is an absolute MONSTER when it comes to rendering!
Oh... Power supply. I needed to cough up a little more for this one. My last build started with a cheaper high power PSU, and it didn't last long. Well unfortunately, cheap PSUs have this horrible tendancy to take other things with them when they go - like an otherwise perfectly strong motherboard, for example! :(
So I found a very highly rated, guaranteed Corsair power supply that met more than my needs (I like to take the recommended wattage, and go the next step (or two) Higher) for a decent price on sale, so I got that one. It's still cranking strong. This one is known well for it's stable, constant power accross all outputs, which can be a real blessing for the longevity of your precious purchase.
I said thast I left out buying a mouse, but I see now that I did buy a new cheapo corded mouse. I don't like it when mouse batteries wear out while I'm in the middle of something - so I go corded.
When I built my last one, I just used my WinXP disc, as I was destroying the other machine - and MS said it was fine. This time I wanted 64 bit so I could use higher RAM than 4GB. So I went with Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit, again taking the cheaper route - but Win 7 Pro's added features don't really apply to me. So even MS recommends Home Premium for me.
I had enough left over to add Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum Suite, where the suite included DVD architect, Sound Forge, etc., and some cool sounds/music. Turns out that the sounds and music aren't royalty-free, though... so using them in my videos means that I cannot monetize... which is fine. I only wanted those extras for practice.
I was also able to squeeze in four 120mm fans for my nice, giant tower case.
Building that same machine - even something much less robust, could have easily costed me twice, three, or even four times as much... or even a lot more if I didn't spend so much time crunching, compromising, researching...
I start a wishlist at Newegg (Newegg, because I'm always able to get Everything I need - which is handy for designing via wishlist!) and start designing. Quite often I have to remove items and replace them with something else - either due to budget reasons, or sometimes because thhey become obsolete or out-of-stock or some such annoyance.
Being a pauper-buyer, instead of trying to build using all of the latest and greatest, I build according to Yester-year's greatest - or even yester-year's decent.
Computers are SO powerful - even if their not top-of-the-line. So I just get my needs met - nothing more.
Wanting to create a machine that cranks out renders FAST, I knew I wanted as many cores as I could afford, so I went for ANY octacore solution I could afford.
I don't know what to do with a Server-Class machine. I'm pretty sure that I could run one just like a PC, just that it's a lot more machine.
If I knew them better, or at least knew if what I just said is somewhat correct, I might try to build myself a 16 core Opteron or even a 32 core dual cpu machine. But that's a LOT more money. So for the time being, I'm liking my Octacore.
Besides... it's a LOT faster that my quad. A LOT faster! It vastly exceeded my intentions - which is really cool for a change!
When I built mine is was looking at building a very capable machinge as well. I had some Money set a side and I would just buy the components one or 2 a month until I had what I wanted.
I started with my Case so I had a place to put everything in as I collected it Made sure it would take a large water cooler Radiator.
Then the Hard drives as they don't change much, started of with a 1.5 TB HDD,
then got my Blue ray burner,
then looked at cooling, I got a liquid cooler that fit my case, and enough fans to ensure there is lots of air flow to keep things cool.
I purchased the AMD R7 250 1 GB video card.
Then I looked at the CPU I had always been a AMD fan but decided to try Intel and chose the I7 4770K.
I looked at the new MB with the new DDR 4 and decided I could not afford that so I went with DDR3 MB that had enough PCIE slots for 2 Video cards at 16X.
Then I baught the Ram 8 GB to start I have upgraded it slowly until it is now at 32 GB.
I decided i wanted an SSD so got a 250 GB SSD for the OS.
The last item I got was the Power Supply an the Operating System WIN 8 SP1.
I then built the system and installed all the software and it ran like a dream.
I have since installed anouther Identical Video Card and upgraded the Ram to a total of 32 GB.
Since I have the liquid cooling I don't have to worry about it over heating while rendering for 24-48 hours as It has never goten about 59-60 degrees C.
I use Lux Core which is why I got the second Video Card these are not top of the line cards infact they are no longer for sale in Canada from what I can tell but they work well for Lux Core.
I just slowly and methodically picked up the parts that would not change in the begining until I knew exactly what I would get in the end.
This also made it more affordable in the long run.
I've seen Phillip Staiger's i7 Quad (Hyperthreaded to eight cores) absolutely tear through renders in Carrara. Nice chips.
For the i series Intel processors, run a search on the actual model number to find out whether it uses Hyperthreading to increase the total core count (doubled) or not. Some do, some don't.
I have an R9 ATI 2GB video card. I'm fine with it, I guess. When ever I would buy a new nVidia card, it always pleased me in some visible way. Something was always improved. This R9 was (spec-wise) a massive improvement over my blown nVidia card, but there was no evident change at all. It looks nice though. It has huge copper pipes in its cooling system.
I'm currently looking to replace it for a 4 - 6GB GTX card whenever I can. I'm eager to see how well Iray works with a compatible card. I love reading about Mec4d's experiments and breakthroughs and such, and she uses a pair of Titans with massive specs. Must be nice! Perhaps one day I'll be able to build a "Latest-and-Greatest" machine with top-notch video, etc.,
The old Mac Pro as illustrated does allow you to add graphics cards, at least as far as the 980 series and maybe the Titan X. I've got a feeling that I read somewhere the card needs some sort of Mac-related bios fix. There's been a lot of this type of discussion across the forums in recentmonths, and it's hard to keep track of everything.
The new "mini trashcan" Mac Pro is not upgradeable as far as the graphics card is concerned, so a poor solution as regards Iray, since you'll be cpu only. Great for Carrara though. You can also get a "graphics card in a box" external chassis for the newer Macs. Don't know much about them though.
Great thing about MacOS: it isn't Windows!
(oh and Mac Carrara has a way classier icon!)
...but if you got the Twelve-core version of the new trash-can Mac, I bet it would rock Iray with its cpu. My eight core seems pretty good with it - I think. It's been a while already. I think I remember it really working well in cpu-mode.
Still... for true Iray bliss, TangoAlpha's right. You'll want to be able to upgrade graphics. Wow... I can't believe they made it so you can't swap out the graphics! That's insane for that price!
the power supply is tricky?
it needs the right connectors for sata 3? and stuff.
All newer PS have all the right connectors. You just have to get one rated for the amount of Power you will be using.
This is the one I have http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_1238_442&item_id=063365
This is the CPU I have and it does a really good job on Carrara renders but If i really crank the settings even it can take a while. I believe the time for the Saloon Render in the Carrara challenge was about an hour with full settings and a i find making the Bucket size to 16 really helps as then with the 8 threads can move to the next bucket which seems to render faster.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=4_1210_65&item_id=073043 it is usually clocking at 4.3Ghz due to the liquid cooling.
Are you using the 64 bit version ? the 32 bit version is pretty much stuck at 4 gigs, it can't use more if that's what you mean.
True you have to make sure that you are using the 64 bit version or you are limited tojust 4 GB of ram usage no matter if it has more or not.
Good call, Mikael!
with 2 x 4GB cards you are fine at 16GB , with 2 x 6GB cards you need to jump to 32GB , you can still use 16GB as well but it will be very tight if you render bigger scenes and too risky.
I run now 4 x 12GB cards with 64GB and need to jump to 128GB if I want to render scenes above 10GB VRAM or use only 2 or 3 cards in this case, I was out of budged to spend additional $1500 on DDR4 RAM so definitely need soon an upgrade again but usually I not even go above 5 GB VRAM yet even with heavy scenes like stonemason sets that usually not take more than 3 to 4 GB VRAM (without figures)
NVIDIA recommend 96GB RAM system to run 4 x Titan X 12GB for games
so always double System ram as each of your card
4GB = 8GB system Ram
8GB= 16GB system Ram
12GB= 24GB system Ram
etc..