Hello I was trying to find out if there is any noticeable performance using SSD's for rendering from/to. The IT director at my work says it will make a huge difference but he does no rendering .... he said check on the internet all I could find was the following:-

*"I definitely saw a significant improvement in render performance when all the IO took place on the Savvios. Clearly solid-state drives will make even greater performance improvements"

*Does anyone render using SSD's is there any difference and if so how much?

The only times when there could be a benefit, is if any temporary files used during rendering are on the SSD, and when that drive is used for the virtual memory paging file (and some swapping is actually required).

I never used SSD but logic tells me that, for still images, there should be very little difference, or none at all. When Vue prepares itself to render, it loads all the scene in RAM. It works from there and only needs to write to disk once when the render is finished. So, if you have a SSD, you save 1 or 2 seconds...

For animations it can be different but I have no experience with that. With animations, Vue has to write to disk each rendered frame, so there's a lot more interactivity with the disk. However, I would say that the amount of time spent writing to disk is a very small fraction of the render time itself so, in practice I'd say the difference is negligible.

I posted before reading nruddock's post. He's right of course but if you have to use your swap file when working with Vue... well, you'd better buy more RAM instead of buying a SSD, IMO. :-)

Quote - *
*Does anyone render using SSD's is there any difference and if so how much?

I do, and depending on your system configuration and RAM it makes a difference.

• swap/pagefile on SSD is much faster

• all those little object and texture files are loaded much faster

• Vue creates a folder in the systems temp folder where it saves a lot of temporary  files (at least for network rendering. Dunno if this is the same for local renders). Placing the temp folder on a SSD speeds things up.

But, as others already said, investing the same money in RAM (if you're system isn't maxed out already) is the better solution.
Doing both is the best solution

Thanks for all your answers it is animatijng I am doing and lots of different textures etc so there could be benefits. However I have 6 gigs of ram atm it does run out on occasions but only ever goes as high as 6.5 gigish I returned 6 gig of ram in the past as the PC was using no more than 3.5 at the time and I thought it a waste. I have about for or 5 models that are between 500,000 and 1,000,000 polys each I am reducing the poly count on these to make sure they fit into my 6 gig max limit. If I buy another 6 gig is 5.5 gig going to be doing absolutly nothing?  or is it just worth buying 1or two  more gig ?

Andrew, your original question was about the influence of SSD in render times, and my opinion was based solely on that question. But crowning was talking of something completely different, which is loading time. Of course that loading time is greatly improved by SSD but loading should only be done once per render, so the impact on the total render time is not relevant, IMO.
I don't know about network render, I don't do that.

As to your latest question, I have 8GB and only once or twice did I hit that ceiling. Of course, your scenes may be heavier than mine. But, when my Vue is close to that limit, even though it's not using any swap file at all, I already notice a sluggish behavior, everything slows down a lot. It seems to me that Vue has so many things to handle that, although all objects are in memory, the programming algorithms are not optimized enough to handle such vast amounts of data. Or my CPU is not fast enough (I have a quadcore, Vue benchmark 100).

So, as conclusion, I would say that if you have a very fast high-end CPU, you could increase the RAM above 8GB but if your CPU is "normal", then you don't need to spend that money because Vue will slow down to a point where you can hardly work, before RAM is completely used.

Thanks Rutra, yes I did go a bit off topic there.... shaving 1 or two seconds off each frame is definatly not worth it in my opinion... a minute or two then I would be very keen! 

I have an i7 920 so a fairy good cpu. When I use 5.5 gig + then things start to get sluggish. Vue can crash if I press the mouse button when it is thinbking/calculating.  Render time does not seem affected at all.  If 6 gig of Ram will stop that sluggishness/crashes  it may be a worthy upgrade I think. Just out of curiousity .. I take it you are using DDR2 Ram ? If so what make/speed are you using?

When your Vue is sluggish, is it using swap file? That becomes obvious in the task manager, for example (physical RAM close to zero, lots of page faults and I/O, etc).
If the answer is negative, then adding more RAM will probably not improve the performance.

Sorry, I'm not home right now and I don't remember about my RAM details. Will check tonight.

Sorry if I am appearing clueless.... I have a vague idea of what a swap file is ..... an extension of virtual ram?. I have no idea if I have one set up already or how to set one up and if I need to set one up!looks like I need to learn more

A swap file is the virtual ram, its a file that depending on your config is either fixed or will change dynamically depending on how much data is being offloaded to the swap file.

An SSD wont help your computer render any faster

I would be amazingly supprised if you do not have a swap file. You can normally check if you have one by clicking start then run and typing

<pre class="in_text">
sysdm.cpl

Then look under the advanced tab and in performance click settings.
Then under advanced you will see the virtual memory.

Regards
Jon

Hmm, sorry about my font, not sure what happened there.

jon

...can this swap file be cleared to free up memory?

when I run

<pre class="in_text">
sysdm.cpl ...system properties comes up, where do I go from there?

You should then click the "Advanced" tab at the top, then their will be 3 sections, the first is called "Performance", in that sections is a button called Settings, click on that then click on the "Advanced" tab at the top and it that section you will see "Virtual Memory"

HTH

Jon

Additionally unless you know what you are doing you should leave the swap file alone, its doing its job, it cannot be cleared in the sense you mention. And while people will talk about fixed size swap files etc, its best just to windows to do its own thing.

Regards
Jon

I agree with you fully Jon ;-) Last time I flashed my bios my motherboard had to be RMA'd ..... found the file now ... well on my work pc anyway.  

This says there is a maximum of 2048 available (prob limited because it is a work one) ...

I am not sure what I should have mine set at home .... any recommendations would be great thoguh....

Sorry, because your original question was a bit technical, I assumed you knew about swap files. If you don't, don't worry about it, chances are it's ok.

In order to determine whether you need more RAM or not, whenever Vue is sluggish open your task manager, go to tab Performance and check the available RAM in the section Physical memory. If it's close to zero, then you need more RAM. Otherwise, your problems are elsewhere.

I have a cpu/ram meter on desktop so can see that it reg reaches 5.5 gigs will take your advice by not messing lol. Will wait for Ram to come down in price and maybe get some january time. Back to the origional topic -

Solid State any improvements to rendering... we have established more ram is definatly going to help.

I do have some quite large hangs in between frames when rendering an animation,,, prob due to textures pictures etc. Is this a job for solid state?

I'm afraid I don't know what's the origin of those hangs, I have no experience in animation.

It could be the when its applying motion blur(if used) or adding the frame to the video file.

I would wait until prices drop even further on solid state drives before buying one, it seems like you are seeking for an answer to get one lol. The prices will come down further in the next 6 months or so and then maybe look at getting one, at the moment they do not offer a great price to Gigabyte ratio at the moment and a normal hard drive will do its job just as well.

You will not see any real benefits in render times by getting an SSD.

Jon

Of course I am looking for a reason to get one ;-) lol ... yes I will take all the advice it will be another 6 gig of ram I purchase first then an SSD a bit later on.

Cool, I think its the right choice :)

Jon

Jon....... I bought 6 gigs of Ram and a 5850 Radeon graphics card.. I definatly now need a Solid State drive! The Graphics card was a great investment I am actually able to see what is going on in my scene in great detail. Vue has not crashed since I upped the Ram and am regularily using 10 gigs of the 12 .... probably because I am now displacing anything that falls under my mouse cursor! hehe. However there is one really obvious lag when it comes to Vue now and that is the loading/saving times of scenes I had to sell the shirt off my back to get the graphics card and Ram so will have to wait for SSD! This was not as apparant before the other upgrades

You made the right choice, if its only slowing down on loading/saving scenes I wouldn't worry too much just yet :) 

SSD's will continue to fall in price as they did with hard drives, I would wait a bit longer until you can get an SSD at a reasonable price, right now they are at a premium.

I am glad Vue is working better for you now, nothing like more RAM and a faster graphics card to speed up any 3D app :) 

Jon

Don't forget that SSD's are new tech, and they do not have a multi-year reputation for reliability. Tney may be the next best thing, but if not, it wouldn't be the first time people jumped into the newtech tub and all the water ran out.....