Yup, back to reading the forum, ok'ing freestuff, perusing the gallery and approving new challenge entries.... Did get my new computer, but to tell the truth it doesn't seem that much faster, 3.6ghz, than my old one 2.5ghz, hyperthreading not withstanding. Anyone know how to speed things up let me know.....of course I have no idea how to alot virtual space with the HT, insights appreciated....there are only apps on the drive, all image, scene files, models etc. storage is on an external seagate. The 'illness' is almost gone, just stuck with an awful cough i hope goes this week....feeling much better.

Let me be the first to welcome you back Zhann, glad to see you here. Sorry I cant help you with your new computer settings much but Im sure there are enough tech savvy members here to offer assistance. Still sickeepoo huh? Well, I do hope youll be over it soon.

WB..... Missed ya...

We 'bin good while you were out. Nobody died or nothin'.

That's good to know...=

What O/S Are you running Zhann? I can give you some tips.

Welcome Back! I made it thru the whole winter without catching anything, now that I have plans to do things other than work, I'm terrified that I'll catch something. Glad to hear you're almost over it and feeling better.

where you bin, why haven't you bin here keepin an eye on things while AS was away. come on i hope you have a good excuse for not being around here. Welcome back Zhann :)

welcome back, zhann!! i don't think you'll notice the difference in HT until you do something really back-breaking and trying something like browsing at the same time. as for ghz, i don't know, you should feel at least a 2-3 second difference

Welcome Back, glad to hear you're starting to feel better!

WB... I've got a 3.0 ghz myself that's overclocked by 20%, giving me 3.6 Ghz. I've notice no differences at all. I did a test render of the same Bryce scene at both speeds. At 3.0 Ghz the render took 3:43:19. At 3.6 Ghz the render took 3:44:07. Go figure :-| Its my under standing that clock speed is only a minor factor in overall computing power. In Rendering I believe its MIPS (Millions of Instructions per second) that's the deciding factor. If your last CPU was a P4 @ 2.5 and your current P4 is 3.6, both those CPUs probably have the same number of MIPS (I think). Anyway, I'm not really a techy, so I could be just full of crap.

I'm not too sure about this HT stuff. I have HT and I notice that Bryce only gets up to 48 or 49% of the CPU usage and system idle uses pretty much whats left. Could be a question for DAZ if Bryce 8 or 9 will make use of HT technology. This means that Bryce doesn't make use of HT? I suppose it means I can render at the same speed as one without HT, but I can surf and listen to streaming radio at the same time without it slowing down? "They" do say that RAM makes more difference that a few ghz increase. I doubled my RAM the other day and, it may just be wishful thinking, but Bryce seems quicker. Generally the machine certainly boots up and shuts down quicker. Glad you're back Zhann.

I believe that bryce 5.5 will use HT as well as recognise multiple CPUs. They've said that in a few threads over at DAZ, so hopefully its actually true. edit - I also thought there was a way to turn off the HT in BIOS, so in effect you'd just have one very fast normal processor... but I could be mistaken.

Message edited on: 04/19/2005 07:56

IT would be neat if Bryce could utilize the special Rendering Video Cards that I've seen advertised in 3D World.

Good to have you back Zhann... 8)

Bryce 5 does not do multiple processors, either real or virtual (HT). Perhaps as Flak said 5.5 will, but to take advantage of it now you would have to be using a package such as Cinema or one of the others. There HT does make a difference!

Welome back to Brycedom, Zhann! HT works completely unbeknownst to me, so I have no smart advice.

Welcome back Zhann!!! RAM will be your biggest improvement. Keep in mind that winXP can't use more than 2.5GB. I noticed that you have your files on an external drive. This may be causing you slowdown if you are working with files off that drive. What are the specs for the hard drive (seek time, cache) and how is it connected? I was curious about bryce on dual processors, so I did a few tests. Here is the non-bryce cpu view. I have 16 browser windows open which is why you see a large memory value for safari (apple's web browser), as well as for the window server. In total, including system processes, I am using 834MB of hardware memory out of the 2.5GB I have installed while IDLE. If I closed my browser and iTunes, I would still be using about 512MB, the amount that usually ships with most standard computers.This shows the importance of lots of memory, as you will EASILY surpass 512MB and even 1GB while doing any type of intense tasks. Everytime the system runs out of hardware memory, it must write and unwrite data to the disk, which it 40 times slower. Notice the low CPU usage and high memory usage (CPU usage % by processor, RAM used in red): With bryce opened, the difference is clear that only one processor is utilized. Bryce is the most porcessor hungry app I have EVER encountered and seems to use all processor cycles independent of the system it is installed on. There is no way bryce needs all 2Ghz of one of my processors just to IDLE. I hope Daz fixes this. Luckily because only one processor is used, I still have another 2Ghz to edit photos, browse the web, etc. The first processor is at 10% of its capacity, the 2nd processor is at 100%. Interestingly enough, when I RENDERED a scene, the 2nd processor load fell to 80% and the first rose to about 24%, although it kept bouncing around so I couldn't get a meaningful screenshot.

I think WinXp Pro goes up to 4 Gb (I seem to remember this coming up in the C4D forum on CGtalk.) I do know that unless you use the /3GB boot switch setting Windows will restrict any single app to just under 2 Gb of RAM.

Using Win XP, I did find that when I render stuff in Genetica(texture creator) it's fast....I have a large scene in bryce that takes 3days to render, I'll see if there's any improvement in load time, importing and render time with that one....it's 528mb Bryce scene. I'm thinking of adding 2gigs more of ram though.... For the external hard drives they're both Seagate, 120GB, and are on highspeed USB ports, and basically are for storage only (backup), things come and go to them very quickly, so no problem there.....I guess I was expecting things to happen instanteously with the HT, and so far not finding it......

ooo, I did get a wireless keyboard and mouse though, no more wires for the cats to chew through, it's great...=)