Is 32gigs Too Much?

[Michael J. Brown]

Whichever new system I settle on (BOXX or MacPro), my intent is to order it with the minimum 2 or 4gig RAM, then go aftermarket to max it out at 32gig - which I should be able to get for well under $1,000.

 

Besides providing ironclad insurance against any possible memory errors in the future, what else will having 32gigs of RAM do for me? Will my renderings go faster?

 

I'm currently running a 3 1/2 year old dual XEON processor 2.8Ghz 3DBOXX on a 2100 chipset and only 3gig RAM (4 actual, but only 3 usable by system).

[BrianKitts]

Besides providing ironclad insurance against any possible memory errors in the future, what else will having 32gigs of RAM do for me? Will my renderings go faster?

 

this really depends on how much your scenes are relying on dynamic memory at rendertime. If you are using alot bitmap proxies/paging, dynamic geometry, or proxies, you will save on your rendering time by the amount of time that was previously required for loading and unloading that dynamic geometry in and out of your working RAM.

 

However if you aren't using any of the previously mentioned tricks to manage your memory use then, you probably won't notice a much of a time increase.

 

Your benefit will mostly be in the ability to render intense scenes without worrying about crashing due to exhausting your memory supply.

 

And of course since you know in advance that you are planning on doing this make sure you reasearch your MOBO's maximum RAM capability. To get to the maximum you'll probably have to use large sticks of ram in each slot, so I wouldn't waste money on the initial purchase for instance if you buy it with 2x1G sticks since they will be useless when you upgrade.

[xueming]

One thing I should warn you that the computer might not work well when you maxmize the memory. We got one boxx computer 18 month ago, with 6gb memory. Then we replaced it with 16 gb memory about 7 month ago, costs more than $2,000. Well, the computer wouldn't even start with full memory loaded, we can only get it work with 12 gb memory. The strange thing is that it worked fine in boxx office, since we have sent it back twice, and they can not find any problems. But we have tested several places here, all have the same problem.

 

We think it might relate to the power supply. Now we are in the process to send it back to boxx again.

 

One thing I should say that Boxx computer has very good warranty.

[STRAT]

if you're not using XP64 or Vista64 then you're wasting your time and money.

[aaron-cds]

I've yet to run out of memory using 4g. I rely on vrayproxy.

[Michael J. Brown]

if you're not using XP64 or Vista64 then you're wasting your time and money.

 

 

No question there. I'd definately by running a 64bit OS.

[STRAT]

you can never have too much ram

 

saying that, i doubt you'd generally need more than 6-8 gig max. and just because you have more and more ram doesn't mean your renders will get faster and faster.

[Nic H]

I have 8 and have never gone above 6 or so.

Overkill i reckon, get a faster cpu instead.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

32 gigs is like lens flares in PhotoShop. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[AJLynn]

I think if you manage to run your memory usage over 8GB you're probably doing something wrong. Also I'd like to know where you can source that RAM at that price - Crucial.com, which usually has decent prices, has 8GB of Mac Pro ram at $800. These Xeon boxes do not use the same cheap DDR2 RAM we're buying at $20/GB these days - they use FBDIMM memory, which is expensive.

[TexasAg98]

You have to look at your motherboard.

 

the 64bit OS can handle that much memory, but your motherboard may not, which is why possibly the Boxx machines, etc... are maxing out at 12-16.

 

My motherboard only supports 8gb.

[Michael J. Brown]

You have to look at your motherboard.

 

the 64bit OS can handle that much memory, but your motherboard may not, which is why possibly the Boxx machines, etc... are maxing out at 12-16.

 

My motherboard only supports 8gb.

 

 

DISCO! That's what my rep told me. Except with my particular (3 1/2 year old BOXX) the limit is 3.something.

[Sawyer]

I went to a clients office where they just got a new system. They were very proud of it it was a dual quad core amd machine with 32 gigs of ram. The thing ram slower than my office comp which is a single quad with 4 gigs. I watched the task manager and it just said that at most the scene went up to 6 gigs but with vista running there were always 2 gigs used (that seemed high and I don't think its normal). So to me 32 gigs seems way too much and a waste.

[blowback]

32 gigs is like lens flares in PhotoShop. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

 

Travis, never a truer word was spoken:)

[kris McIsaac]

32 gig is overkill and possibly money wasted but remember when they were writing XP they thought 2 gigs was enough to run anything.

[AJLynn]

Sure, but back then the 2 gigs would have been expensive and now it would cost $40. By waiting to buy the 32 gigs until software actually uses it, one would save several thousand dollars.

[Michael J. Brown]

So, if our software doesn't utilize 32gigs, what software does? Maya? Catia? Digital film production software? Gaming software?

 

I figure somebody out there needs it. Otherwise they (Mac) wouldn't make it an ($9,000+) add-on with their Mac Pro setup.

[aaron-cds]

They probably advertise it for the same reason Dell sells 4g upgrades for 32 bit systems. Because some moron will buy it

[AJLynn]

Well, sure, you've got software that has the capability of using 32GB. But considering that most of us find it challenging to use up 4GB, what the heck would you do with it?

 

If you want to spend thousands on RAM, that's your prerogative, but I'd advise you to really think about what your needs are first.

[Michael J. Brown]

If you want to spend thousands on RAM, that's your prerogative....

 

 

Not at all. Not by a long shot would I ever spend $9,000 on extra RAM. I just quoted that figure from the Mac Pro build site for shock value. My origianl intent was to just get it with the 2-gig minimum, and then up it after-market to 32. But that was BEFORE I started reading through other posts referencing RAM requirements. And certainly before I started this thread.

 

You can best be sure I won't be going anywhere near 32gig now that I know my workload will probably never demand more than 6 or 8.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I would guess if you are doing high def video editing, you could burn through 32gigs of ram fairly fast. I think most editing apps catch as many frames in RAM as possible, allowing you to real time scrub, effects, and editing.