Yeah, gwhicks, I have had to get moderate with the bucket when that happens, also. What you REALLY have to watch out for is on an animation, the first frames are no prob with the bucket at 256, so you go blissfully to bed and come back in the morning and find out that when the camera zoomed in close to a model with complex hair or something...SPLAT. Render crash. I am hoping more RAM will increase my ability to kick up the bucket safely. Isn't it great how the shader power does not incurr much of a rendertime hit! ::::: Opera :::::