What is the best way to go about this? Is it an increase in RAM or an improved processor?
I currently run Windows Vista 64bit and have a dual core 3.3ghz Intel and 4gb of RAM.
Improving Vue 6 infinite rendering performance
Mostly the CPU…mostly…
but, it also depends on how heavy your scene is.
Most of my scenes run between 1.5 and 4 gigs of RAM use. When it’s worked just in RAM, rather than off a page file, it’s a LOT better performance.
Personally I’d go for RAM as an easier upgrade, because CPU’s are changing so fast and upgraidng a CPU is much more tricky and liable to go badly wrong…lot of folk have blown/damaged their CPU and/or motherboard when upgrading.
wait a while an the i7 systems will be a lot cheaper, they render about twice as fast…so if money is ok near end of year, get a decent/basic i7 system, and use old PC as a spare renderer?
If you’re running a 64-bit OS with 4GB of RAM, you’re not utilizing the 64-bit OS’s capabilities.
32-bit OS = 4GB of RAM maximum addressable range.
64-bit OS = 128GB of RAM addressable range (for Vista).
So while you’re getting benefits from the 64-bit process in general, it’s really not doing much of anything for your render speed. Your scenes are still being swapped to and from the disk during rendertime, which greatly increases render times.
An upgrade to 8GB would work wonders for you. And currently RAM is at $30 / 2GB DDR2-800, so it’s the cheapest way to go. I’d do a benchmark scene real quick, and then render it again after you upgrade. Record the times. It wouldn’t surprise me if your rendertimes are cut in half, or more.
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