ram control?

[Srek]

No, thats not possible. LImiting a process to less memory than it needs would mean crashing it.
Cheers
Björn

[JM-art]

I thought so. But i was fooling myself thinking that maybe the data stored in ram could go to the hard drive, taking some time to do that of course, but letting the process to continue at the same time that given more room to other process.

well, in another life maybe....

Thanks for reply.

[Srek]

That is already done by the Operating System automaticaly.
Cheers
Björn

[olson]

I want to know if there is a way of managing the ram usage, allowing to specify the amount that a process can use .So if a process is using a lot you can tell it not to be such an hungry beast, and leave a little to the other fellows process.
Like you do with cpu´s afinity in task mannager...but for ram usage.


A few years ago I was wondering the same thing and did a lot of research on the subject. Long story short this is not as good of an idea as it first seems. If you have to ask the question then that simply means you need more memory.

[JM-art]

A few years ago I was wondering the same thing and did a lot of research on the subject. Long story short this is not as good of an idea as it first seems. If you have to ask the question then that simply means you need more memory.

It can be that, but i´ll explain somethings to make more clear the picture..
I have instaled 12 gb and i rarely use all.

Sometimes it looks like, even without using all the ram...example 8gb from 12.....there are some kind of conflicts or bad system or software management when 2 or 3 heavy applications are running at the same time.
Example afterfx using 3 gb, maya 2 gb and mayabatch (using 6 of 8 threads) 3gb = 8gb plus 1 gb for windows and so.....9gb.......3 gb free.

And even with 3gb free the system seems to be strugling. I think it shouldn´t?
What´s the point of having a lot more ram than you use 95% of time, if when you need the extra amount the system have problems anyway?
Someone can say that...well...just quit maya while rendering or so....but i like to render, and work in maya and after at same time, and again, what would be the point of buying 12 if you end up closing programs like if you have 4 gb or so.
Not big deal realy, there are no hangs or freezes and i can see that havien 12 gb is a lot better than 6 like i had before. But i´d like to see that the things is smooth until it reach the 11 gb or so.

I talk too much..jajaa.

Thanks!!

[olson]

And even with 3gb free the system seems to be strugling. I think it shouldn´t?

If the memory is not full then the memory (or lack there of) is not the cause of the sluggishness. Likely the processor is already busy if After Effects, Maya and whatever else is rendering all at once. Limiting applications to only a few cores and/or getting a system with more processors/cores would help.

[imashination]

If youre rendering in maya and rendering in after effects, your computer is going to be slow. Also consider that after effects will often launch duplicate copies of itself when rendering, so although you may see the main after effects app taking 3 gigs, check the rest of the list for another half dozen threads.

[gamedeveloper]

I'm curious - what type of rig are you using?

When I reread your post it appears you have a dual quad machine (with apps using 6 of 8 threads).

[InfernalDarkness]

The bog-down you're seeing isn't necessarily RAM usage-related, but more likely CPU and/or GPU-bound. There are many ways to deal with this, but thus far the best solution I've found for Windows is ProcessLasso, a TaskManager replacement application for Windows. I don't know if there's a Mac version, but this application is devastating. It allows you to set per-application overrides for affinity, CPU class, and most important, throttling.

For example, say I'm running Maya and rendering on one monitor, but time's not a factor really so I want a movie playing on my second monitor, and I'm running Mudbox, Photoshop, and of course Firefox simultaneously... I have ProcessLasso throttling Firefox back to just the CPU cycles it needs to remain fully responsive, KMPlayer throttling UP whenever it needs to so my movie plays smoothly, and Maya throttling back to accomodate. Photoshop isn't doing anything really, so it's throttled back all the way, and Mudbox is merely using the GPU lightly to keep its display running, so it's throttled back too. Then I bring Mudbox up front, and its set to automatically throttle up so it remains responsive, and then Photoshop to load or review a texture project, so it throttles up accordingly. All the while, Process Lasso is controlling all of this behind the scenes, keeping responsiveness the top priority, followed by my movie playing smooth, with Maya at the bottom of the "stack".

Or if I need rendering to be the priority, for example, I simply dethrottle Maya entirely and off it goes!

Another benefit is that Process Lasso will retain affinities per-application, so for example if I want one dedicated core only for my movie player, it will always open like that, leaving the other cores for Maya at all times, etc.

Just an idea. I've been using it for years now and would never go without it, on my dual-core or my quad-core. The key feature is that it retains 100% responsiveness throughout, at all times, which makes the computer feel faster as a result.

[JM-art]

gamedeveloper...core i7 930 @ 3.8ghz (4 cores, 8 threads), 12 gb ram, 2 tb hd, quadro 580 512mb (this is an issue for heavy scenes).

InfernalDarkness Thanks a lot man! that can be very usefull and solve lot of problems. Cool!

Being here, and if can be usefull for someone, there are little apps like ram booster that let you do a clean up of ram, is usefull though it dosn´t do the things i was asking for (seem not possible really).

Thans to all.

[Accolite]

Add some more ram if you can, and I normally try to only run 2 programs max on one pc ( I am not talking about multiple firefox apps at a time, I am talking about 3d program and animation program, ex: photoshop, 3dsmax, etc..).

[JM-art]

i already did a big invertion by going for this rig with i7 and 12 gb, for now i can´t go for 12 more.

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