Ok for a start what OS are you running. Personally I didn't have it as bad as you but I started off with 250meg on W2k and recently bought another 500. But I am only a hobbyist as it were. Also a mamnagement program like Ram Booster helps, there is a thread posted in the last 3 months about that. Another thing is that it all depends on what those tweaks you mentioned were, did you play about with the render settings at all?