I have now got a Dual quad 4 E6600 processor installed and in the process of getting XP Pro 64 bit and another 4 gig of ram for a total of 8.

I don't want Vista for now but will install XP Pro 64 bit on a partattion by itself and dual boot when needing to use it for Vue and its resource problems I keep running into with XP Pro 32 bit.

Can anyone tell me what to expect with running XP Pro 64.   It will be for Vue only. I will only load the drivers I need for my motherboard and VC card.  Maybe do the sound. :)

I am curious what problems to expect if any. :)

I'm building this same rig (parts arrive tomorrow). So I'm interested in this topic.

I think XP64 is a better choice than Vista 64 (xp = faster processing & a smaller memory foot-print than Vista).

I may try a dual or triple boot system by adding in XP pro 32 and Linux, each on its own partition. This decision is in wait-and-see mode, as I want to see how many problems develop after I install my collection of 32 bit compiled programs.

My XP Pro 32 bit I have installed is working fine so will add XP Pro 64 bit to a second partation.
   I may alter remove XP Pro 32 bit if I see I can run my 32 bit stuff without any problems.  I got feeling going to be a lot of try and see what happens.
  The quad 2 dual is a big improvement over the Dual core I replaced a couple days ago.  Render time is a little more than double.    Render time with Dual Quad is 8 times faster than my old Intel Pentium 4, 2.4 ghtz I was using for Vue before building the new computer. :)

My problem is memory management and resourcess.  Even with 4 gig  of ram I can choke Vue with some scenes I have tryed to make.  I know I may be pusing the envelope but what good is it if can not use it as advertised.   I have one scene with 5 million polys and is now 395 mb in size and is only half finished.   Maybe with 4 more gig of ram I can finish it. :)

With XP 64, all eight gigs of RAM will be accessible. That is a big plus over any 32 bit OS. Recently, I ran out of memory using Paint Shop Pro 8.  My current rig has 2 gig of RAM and WinXP32 Pro.

My parts arrived today from NewEgg (it took them 2 days to get it here). After supper, I'm going to start putting things together. Wish me luck. ;)

Are you going to use EasyBCD to manage the multiple boot?

I will proably select the system i want to use during boot up after xp 54 is installed on 2nd partation.   If not mistaken xp64 will write a path to the ini file so one can choose the system he needs during boot.

I will check into EasyBCD as I have never used it before.

My XP 64 and extra memory is in transit and will be here tomorrow. :)
I have a vue scene that is 395 mb in size and only half done, I can do no more till I get more memory. :(

Unless you're planning on more than 2 OS( I have 3, xp32, xp 64 and Vista ultimate 64), you wont need any boot managers. While installing XP 64, you will be given the choice. after install, you can choose which one to boot up, or have your choice auto boot after a set time (I set mine to five seconds). And yes, XP 64 is perfect with VI , and as mentioned above it will use all the memory available.

Got my 4 gigs memory and XP Pro 64 bit today and when I went to install XP 64 it would not auto run.   Took Cd out of CD_Rom and it was cracked in half.
  Now got to wait 10-12 days for a replacement before can do the install again.   What a  bummer. :(

I want to correct myself. I imagined that XP 64's extra bandwidth would speed renders up in Vue. I was wrong. Apparently the 32 and 64 bit OS split takes its toll on the render engine. Here are some test times I tested on a simple test scene:

Q6600 - OC'd to 3200 ghz (200 fsb x 8 mulitplier)
   
    XP 32 pro - 4' 6"
    XP 64 pro - 29' and counting - I stopped the render at 53%

Athlon XP +4800
    XP 32 pro - 9' 8"

So, I stand corrected. I believe to see a benefit from the 64 bit OS, the OS needs to be dedicated to the 64 bits only.

Run this test, and you will find out which one renders faster, 64 or 32 bit.....64 bit wins every time..
http://www.cornucopia3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3344

Running Dual Quad Q6600.
Benchmarks.

XP Pro 64 bit:  567
XP Pro 32 bit:  534

8 gig ram 64  bit
2 gig ram  32 bit

This is using same computer with a dual boot.
 

I think I've tracked down the problem to process priority. Whenever I render, XP64 changes Vue's process priority goes to "low priority" from a "normal priority".

Anybody know how to keep XP64 from changing Vue's process priority? I can't change the priority at all.

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing Vue 6 infinite to no avail. I've just contacted e-onsoftware's tech support.

Here is the VueMark 1.3 benchmark:

XP pro 32:  573

I have the same amount of ram as ïÏøçö. I put a Thermaltake water-cooler on the cpu and  started over-clocking a few days ago (a first for me).

I can see where you gaining with the overclocking with 32 bit comparasion.  I have never done any overclocking but intend to this winter when have more time.    I have to babysit my grandson 8 hrs a day right now so dont get much time to do some things I want to do. :)

Sorry I can't help with the 64 bit problem.  I have no idea how to set priorty for 64 bit. :)

Sittingblue

In the task manager, right click on the running Vue Infinite and you can change priority there.

I see what you mean now.  My priorty goes to low when rendering also.

That is normal....It keeps the computer from freezing or crashing.

Okay, so its not the process priority. I have a fishy feeling about one or more of the drivers on XP-64.

ïÏøçö: I installed the audio driver. Was there a reason you didn't want to install the audio driver?

What I'll probably end up doing is wiping the hard drive and re-installing Vue after XP-64, but before any drivers, so that I can measure the render speed before the drivers can take effect.

I think I'll wait to hear from e-onsoftware before doing a clean install.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Yes I did the audio drivers. 

This is very interesting. Let us know what you find out from tech support. :)

Sittingblue, try this test...The scan is free
(not the drivers), and it will tell you if you have bad or missing drivers....you can find most drivers free on the net, but at least this will tell you....

http://driveragent.com/?PHPSESSID=9d78f2b7c3a54c16e22c5f2f82c5bcbc

Well, re-downloaded and re-installed Giga-byte motherboard drivers. If anything, the problem is worse. My current VueMark for the XP-64 is:

293

Ugghh! I am so frustrated.

Now, I think the problem has to do with the installation of Vue and XP-64 on the D:  drive. Here is my configuration:

C - SATA II - XP-32 + Vue 32
D - IDE - SLAVE with a CD-RW drive as MASTER - XP-64 + Vue 64
F - SATA II - Shared data drive for both OS's

When I run XP-64, the OS is causing the hard drive indicator light to flash non-stop. Even, when there's nothing running that I can see. What gives?!

If I watch the indicator light with Vue 64 and run VueMark, the hard drive flashes non-stop as if every other second, Vue has to fetch some data off the drive. In Vue 32, the hard drive light flickers a little at first, then nada.

Perhaps, my next move is to un-install Vue 64 and install it on the C: drive?!

Why is XP-64 hitting the hard drives with so much intensity? I've set the page file size to zero (min & max), but in the Task Manager, the page files are still being swapped?!

Alright.  I hope you excuse me for blogging.

I unplugged the D: drive.  The D: drive was actually a SATA II drive. The F: drive is a parallel IDE drive.

I then installed XP-64 on a previously unallocated portion of the C: drive.

Then came Vue 64. Also, I copied 10gb of files over to the new D: drive and deleted them permantly.

I ran VueMark. I got a score of :

515

I rebooted. Ran VueMark again and got score of:

580

The render times of the scenes are well, fickle, as they changed from each VueMark run.  On the first test run, 'Radiosity Room' and 'Cerro Verde' scenes completed in less time than they did during the second run.  However, 'Peaking Through' took roughly twice as long to render as it did during the second run.

Vue created a watermark on each render, slowing the processes.

It occurred to me whilst I was installing XP-64 again, that the background services might be formatting the raw hard drives (C and D were both clean installs). That is why I copied and deleted about 10 gigabytes of files, so that Windows would format the drive sectors, and then I would have the sectors available for Vue to use.

The hard drive did not blink during the VueMark renders, like they had before.

Now I have to get a new activation number from e-onsoftware. I am going through tech support this time, because I don't want update XP-64 with one smidgeon of code. I'm wary.

I installed Vue XP 32 bit on my Sata C drive and XP Pro 64 bit on a pattion of C drive.
   I use external drives for storing all my poser runtimes and Vue collections.  this workd great in case need to format my C drive partions.   Don't loose all my poser and Vue collections this way.
  I have my DVD-Rom and DVD_Burner on ide as master and slave.

Do let us know what you find for your problem.  May come in good at a later date.   I was able to use same actavation for 64 bit Vue as I did for 32 bit. :)  Both running on same computer but different partions. :)

I think I'm going to make a chart of this installation mess. Anyways, I'm still getting very mixed results:

cold boot - Activated Vue - VueMark score:

567

Radiosity Room's render time doubled. The other scene's render times were lower.

Defragged hard drive. Disabled network adapter.  For Vue, I turned off 'Data Execution Prevention (DEP)' in the performance options of system properties. VueMark score:

642

Installed Forceware driver 162.18. This is failing in some fashion as I get a dialog at the end of the installation as the reboot process starts: "should not see me" is the dialog's title. VueMark score:

0

Rebooted. VueMark score:

0

The renders hang (Radiosity Room, Peeking Through)

I recall I had this forceware error before on the earlier install. I'm going to try a different 64 bit forceware driver.

I don't know if it was nVidia drivers or Vue's OpenGL software implementation. In either case, the renders are having many slowdowns.

I did get one run with of VueMark at:

597

So after four night of hard work on this problem, I've come to the conclusion that Vue 64 is not greedy enough with the CPU and RAM. My copy of Vue Infinite 6 is yielding ***to background services.

***I think XP-64 was designed to take better advantage of the multi-processing.  It's my opinion that when Vue sets its render engine on a low priority, the OS takes advantage of this slowdown to run some background services.

In my first installation, there was a slow down caused by excessive hard drive usage and possibly other issues. Now the problem is the windows activation. This annoying program comes up during every VueMark run. As soon as  it does, the interrupted scene's render time doubles. In the Task Manager, I can see Vue using only 90% of the CPU power after this background service has popped up! After I shut it down, Vue goes back to its normal 99-100% CPU usage.

I guess I'll have to activate windows and find out if that helps create more consistency in the render speed.

I am curious after actavation if that changes anything. :)

ïÏøçö,
I ran the VueMark on my XP-32 today just to verify that it was working. The score was:

636

I had made some changes in BIOS that probably impacted XP-32.  I disabled the onboard parallel port, turned off the high precision timer, DEP, and the over-voltage I had applied on the front-side bus and the DDR2.  I don't which change caused the improvement.

The overclocking has added a lot to your bench marks compared to mine that is not over clocked.

 I need to get a good cpu cooling fan before I attempt any overclocking.  Also need to find some good instructions on settings with my setup.

I am also curious if other programs set priorty to low when rendering.  Like bryce, Terragen or Carrara.    Very curious if Vue is programmed this way or if other programs are as well. :)
 

I took a peek at Vue 5i and Vue 4. Vue 4 uses a normal priority. I think e-onsoftware is scaling the processor back due to CPU temperature issues. The temperature problem is why I set-up water coolers on my last three PCs.

So, after I activated XP-64, my VueMark score dropped to:

582

I went into computer services and disabled a few services. The one service that is consistantly causing a slowdown is: 'WMI Performance Adapter’.  The score with this service disabled:

604

I was able to reproduce this score on a secondary run. That’s the first time I’ve been able to get a consistent VueMark score.

I went into the msconfig and turned off  ‘nwiz’ and NvMcTray’. When I removed ‘NvCpl’, the render times doubled. I think these other two programs are 32 bit. My VueMark score went to:

630

I’ve messed around with many background services. In my last test, I achieved better results with the ‘manual’ status instead of ‘automatic or disabled’ on the unneeded services.

Right now I have about 2/3 of the OS’s services disabled.  I think I’ll set some of the services on manual to see if I get a faster render times on a consistent basis.

....Vue can't decide or control the prirority level....but this program can give control over that...[

http://www.prioritymaster.com/white2.htm](http://www.prioritymaster.com/white2.htm)

Waht will happen if a person sets priorty from low to say normal or high for Vue.  Has anyone used this priorty setting program.
 Checking my  services as well this morning. :)
Interesting thread. :)

I had to uninstall my video driver, because the chipset drivers say they should be installed first. Too bad I didn’t read that earlier. So I installed the chipset drivers and then the video driver again. Plus, I had to re-activate Windows XP 64 because the chipset drivers changed the hardware profile.

Before I could install the drivers, I had to go into the Services console to set the disabled services to Automatic. I probably could have set the disabled services to Manual as well. 

Then I tested Vue 64 again. I also looked at the Task Manager. There were a dozen new services running.  Vue reported that it would take 2 hours to render “Peeking Through”.

I turned the unneeded services back to disabled. I have these unneeded services listed in a text file, so that I can remember which services to turn-off. Four or five reboots later and some tweaking, I was able to get a VueMark score of: 

647 

That was the last run of the evening. The next morning I cold-booted XP-64 and ran Vue/VueMark.  The render times were scaled by a factor of four. I cut the renders short and tried again. This time the renders were scaled by a factor of two. I ran out of time and left for work.

Start a new day – get a new service running? I don’t know. An e-onsoftware tech has acknowledged that background services can slow a render down. Their waiting for some additional feedback from me on what progress I make by cutting back services.

Now, I’m off to XP-64. I’m planning on setting some of the Automatic services to Manual.  Then run one test after another. 

Also, I ran XP-32 and Vue/VueMark today when I got home from work. My score was: 

591 

I’ve yet to tweak XP-32.

I admit I’m still confused why I get a fast render and then a very slow render. 

I read about the PriorityMaster during my research on priority.  It looks like a valid $40 program, except that Vue changes its priority after its start-up which is when PriorityMaster asserts itself.

I also read about a program that uses a configuration file to set its process priority. In other words, the programmer’s are empowering the user to decide how to run the program (e-onsoftware are you listening?).

Attached Link: http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Attached is a link I have always used for disabling services or to know which ones to use and not use.
  I have found it very useful.

fascinating thead, please keep blogging. I'm a big fan of Vue, and am pondering various options to speed up.

I'm giving this a rest. I'll report to e-onsoftware my experiences. It hasn't been very fruitful. I haven't come-up with one-all solution.

Everyday I have ben running a XP-32 VueMark test after boot. Here are my scores in succession:

573, 636, 591, 557, 568, 555

My latest XP-64 VueMark scores:

604, 593, 602, 598, 625, 456

These scores in XP-64 are relatively consistent. If there's a bad render time, it's the first run of a shift (456). The best time comes at the end of the test runs (two hours of  test runs - 625).

My highest XP-64 score was 659.  The time did not repeat. My second highest score was 646.  These high scores dropped like a dead-weight on the next day.

So there's not much I can give to you in advice.  I have a screen-capture of my services in XP-64, if anyone's interested, but I'm not sure it's helpful.