Processor Vs Ram

[Ornsack]

I rendered something the other day on a computer with half the processor speed of my PC, but the same amount of ram, and it took roughly the same amount of time

Vegas seemed a bit slower with its renders, but is ram the most important factor when it comes to 3D rendering? (I understand that upgrading both is the best option )

[pdj]

I was under the understanding that processor speed made the difference between a slow or fast render.. A dual core is obviously better. Good topic as I have to update my comp soon and am deciding what to do.. Does that wise fellow Raptor still come round this neck of the woods? He'd know the answer!

[El Brenty]

You need to remember that your processor speeds at today’s standards are hugely fast - A standard desktop PC has the same computing power as a super computer of about 15 years ago.

The real bottleneck comes from moving the data around, and there's a couple of things that can really help your PC out here:

- More Memory - More memory allows better cacheing, also, use the fastest RAM that your motherboard can handle. The additional RAM helps improve the system cache, so there's less need to access the hard drive and slow things right down.

More importantly:

- Better faster hard drive - your hard drive is the slowest part of your computer, because it's mechanical, not electronic. Fast RPMs are not necessarily the answer to faster hard drives, you need to take into account other factors like bus speed (SATA drives are capable of transferring data between the drive and the PC much faster than PATA drives), drive cache (Where data can be dumped so the PC can do other things instead of waiting for the drive to find the physical location).

Also, consider defragmenting your hard drive! Having to search all over for file fragments will dramatically slow down the overall performance. It's the drive's arm movement, that is the slowest part of the process. If the data can be scooped off in one go, instead of bits and pieces here and there, it'll be significantly faster. In your File System settings, it's a good idea to set Read-Ahead optimization to full. Also, clean up temporary files, and Temporary internet files.

- Finally, keep an eye on system performance - Remove un-necessary things that clutter up the memory like startup programs that reside in the system tray (and that you won't probably ever use). You should also manage the swap file (Virtual memory) yourself, rather than letting Windows do it - Otherwise Windows will keep changing the size of the file according to the disk space you have. The minimum and maximum settings typically should be twice the RAM you have installed on your computer. You can tweak it differently for other applications.

[Ornsack]

All very interesting, but it doesn't answer my question

[El Brenty]

Yes it does!

If it doesn't, then make your question clearer!

[Ornsack]

is ram the most important factor when it comes to 3D rendering?

[El Brenty]

- More Memory - More memory allows better cacheing, also, use the fastest RAM that your motherboard can handle. The additional RAM helps improve the system cache, so there's less need to access the hard drive and slow things right down.

But don't neglect the other things! Just getting more RAM, won't necessarily instantly speed everything up!

[Ornsack]

I'm not upgrading right now, I was just confused by the results of my (itwasntatestreallyjustsomethingIstumbledupon) test

I have a gig of ram coming my way via a mate in about a months time and I was just excited that it could make all the difference (compared to my poor 256mb ram)

[Knightly]

with only 256Mb...yes, it will make tons of difference.

[Knightly]

My editing/compositing machine has 4Gb in it...and I use it to capacity.

[Grant]

I have worked on a single pc in the past and have upgraded its RAM but not processor. I found that RAM did speed up the editing time (it lagged at times in premiere) but did not speed up rendering. When I upgraded the CPU the rendering also became faster.

[Ornsack]

I'm getting 1gb of RAM this weekend to replace my 256mb of RAM.

I have three slots so I was gonna keep the 256mb stick in there but I'm told that having RAM of varying speeds (the 500mb or whatever sticks are faster than the 256mb) can mess things up a bit

Is it such a crime? Is it really not worth me sticking in the 256mb as well?

[Grant]

I think it depends on your motherboard and set-up. Also depends on the brand. But thinking logically if you have sticks of varying speeds then I could see issues with data being allocated, used and retrieved. I don't think the capcity of the stick would be an issue, the speed would though. RAM is really cheap (at least over here is is) so I would stick in 2x1gb sticks

[Ornsack]

I don't have any money. I'm getting these for free (like most things I own, in fact! I am the king of blag)