Hi,

Does the amount of memory in a PC increase render times? i have 2 quad cores and 4 gig of ram, would increasing it to 8 gig increase the render speeds?

many thanks,

ruth

Not really - Video cards and memory help you build bigger scenes, but rendering is based on CPU number crunching only.

thanks peggy... i'll sell my house to get a faster CPU!!!!

There could be slight improved render performance when rendering after a fresh reboot of your system. If I try to render after I've been working on my pc for sometime the system may become a bit sluggish.
Just something to keep in mind if it can improve things slightly.

Assuming you have a 64 bit OS for 8 gig to make sense.

The answer is yes, but indirectly.

With more memory, you will want to take on larger projects, which will result in longer render times :)

If you have 2 Quad Cores you should get more memory anyway and why on Earth would you want to sell your house for more Comp Power when you already have 2 Quad Cores??? IF you decide to do that, then sell me the 2 Quads ;^)

jeesh, with my rig, 64 bit ONE quad core, I render out big widescreen stuff 1680x1050 in 1 to 2 hours....why need more than that, at the moment ? ;)

Years to come, not that for off, I'm sure Vue renders will go down to 10 minutes on HAL9000 MKIV!

Hey, I remember playing games on a Spectrum you had to load games on a TAPE from and took half an hour to do that, 128k RAM!!!

My first PC had 4 gigs of ram and a HARD DRIVE!! Woo, no more disc swapping for Eye of the Beholder and X-COM!
Hehe.

8 giga and 64 bit is the way to go, baby!!! :p

Quote - Hey, I remember playing games on a Spectrum you had to load games on a TAPE from and took half an hour to do that, 128k RAM!!!

Oh, the memories!
The worst part was when you spent the half hour loading the damn thing & then it goes & fails on you just as it's nearly done! :cursing:
Didn't you also love the screeching sound during the loading.
One of my favourite games on the 128 was Daley Thompsons Supertest. Look at the graphics!!!!

  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

I had to just get this pic off the net for a laugh.

The Xbox 360's graphics has got nothing on this!

You show kids of today this & they won't believe you.

Actually, I just realised the screenshot isn't from the Spectrum 128, those graphics were even worse!

lol yes!! And you didn't dare BREATH around the damn tape when it was loading or it wouldn't load ;)

My fave was playing Spy Hunter, the original on the Spectrum...12 hours me and my cousin played it one day.... :p
Then 10 years later, me and a different cousin spent most of the day, to 6 am, playing Space Crusade on the Amiga.
OMG I LOVED my Amiga!! They were awesome:)

I've been there, playing 'til the early hours. You know you've been on a game too long when you can hear the early morning birds outside!
I remember one time, around 18 years ago now, me & a mate were playing PGA Golf on the Mega Drive. We started the game in the early evening. Before we knew it it was daylight, I think we only moved to get a drink & go to the loo.
Oh dear, the sad old days! :crying:

Stormchaser, Spectrum was really hi-tech - I used to get excited about "Pong" =P

http://www.pong-story.com/news.htm

Purrdey - Oh yes, I remember Pong! How could something so simple be so much fun. OK, well it was in those early days.
It'd be good to show the youngsters of today brought up on the Playstations & Xbox's just what it was like when we were kids.

I remember seeing the first Space Invader console in Scotland, at Glasgow airport...bloody heck, that was kewl! ;)

And yes I played pong too on those old Activision?? machines...anyone remember the Pong and other games mounted in a sort of table, in pubs, so you could sit down and have a play and drink? :P

Mmm...Xevious...GAUNTLET!!!! "Valkyrie is about to die!"....the first laser dics arcade games (was it MACH1??) and Dragons Lair....ah, good times :)

Xevious? Silverblade, do you mean the spectrum version? I had that, I remember thinking at the time that this was cutting edge stuff. Yeah, right!

My husband helped program Dragon's Lair.  Ahhh, the good old days!

Quote - Does the amount of memory in a PC increase render times?

If you notice your hard drive light on while rendering, more RAM means less virtual RAM.  Which means less disk access.  Which means faster renders.

Keep an eye on taskmanager for the amount of ram your using.
if you run out of ram the system will use virtual memory instead which is dependent on the speed of your hardrive.
Once your on virtual memory the speed of your CPU is irelevent as your limited to the slowest component, i.e. the hardrive.

Does anyone remember Dragon Slayer (I think that was it's name)....I played it on Calico Vision, but it wasn't a normal Calico game....it was a tape, I remember that, and somehow it was linked to Calico Vision....I was pretty young at the time so I don't remember how it worked, but I can still see the game....ah memories....

Ah the dear old ZX Spectrum with 48K of RAM!

Anyone remember Vu for the spectrum? 

No thats not a typo - Vu 3D from Psion in 1982.  Whenever I hear people telling me that 3D rendering as opposed to real time will soon be a thing of the past I think of Vu. 

What was once the best you could do on a home computer and took time to render would now be a doddle for a modern graphics card.  Thing is the simulation that renderers use instead of real time has moved on too...

I had VU-3D for the Timex 2068.  Great stuff for its time in '83.

 Stormchaser,
Xevious on both Spectrum, and before that, used to play it in the arcade! ;)
Found a Windows version, legit few years ago, damn I need to dig it up again ;)

I recall seeing PC Format magazine, etc, with renderings in Lightwave (or whatever) you could buy the renders on floppy discs...lol. No Web for us mere mortals.