I have 4GB and i often feel it is sluggish. How about you, and how much would you recommend?

I have 2 Gbs in Poser 6 and DS 3, in a K8 at 2,2 Ghz. It runs quite fast and well.

I also use CleanMem to free unused ram every 30 mins.

6GB under windows 7 64 bit.  Makes sod all difference in Poser (7 is only 32 bit) but helps a lot in other apps I use (Vue, Reaper, Sonar, 3DS Max)

8 Gb under Windows XP 64-bit and it makes a tremendous difference in both Poser 8 and Poser Pro 2010.  I haven't done a render in Vue 9 yet but I imagine it will help there, too.

oh great. yeah i'll get some. i really need it! i'll get 12GB or something

Quote - oh great. yeah i'll get some. i really need it! i'll get 12GB or something

My next upgrade will be to 16Gb of DDR3 Ram and the i7 Quad ... along with a new MB and Heatsink

But i heard that memory only helps you to open more programs and not to speed up. So let's say my program and rendering with it takes just under my total memory .

like say i have 4GB and my OS takes some and Poser  takes 3.5GB. that means it's still using RAM so even if you added more ram it would use 3.5GB thus it would be a waste having bought more RAM.

am i wrong? i'm just saying stuff i don't know how it works.

I'm not really sure how it all works ... I just know that this current upgrade from 2 Gb to 8 Gb speeded everything up.  It may have to do with being a combination of both lots more Ram and moving to the 64-bit OS. 

I have 12GB, using Win7 64bit.

Most of the time it uses around of the half of it, during the render process (sure, depending of the complexity of the scene.).

I'm fairly new to Poser, since PP2010 is the 1st one I ever had. So I'm not having any experiences with older ones on older PC's (or Mac's)

Different thought .... weird I find the usage of the CPU.

I'm running an Core i7 920. Set Poser ( -Pro2010) to 4 threats and set it to render in a separate process. And it still uses just around 50% of the cores load. What a time saver it would be, if it'd use a higher CPU load.

     The benefit of more RAM is that you can render more complex scenes, at higher quality settings, and at larger pixel dimensions.  Rendering slows down as you approach your machine's RAM limit, so a machine with more RAM will render the same scene significantly faster.

     How much memory you can use will depend on which version of Poser you have (P8 or PP2010?), your operating system (32bit or 64bit?), and your motherboard.

     If your operating system is 32bit, it will only allocate about 2Gb to any given "process".  If you have Poser 5 through Poser 8, you are limited to a 32bit memory allocation -because your version of Poser is 32bit- even if your computer is 64bit.

     If you have Poser Pro 2010 on a 64bit system, it can use as much RAM as your motherboard will hold/read.  12Gb would suffice for anything but extremely complex/large scenes.  I was able to get PP2010 to draw almost 48Gb, but that was with a "torture test" scene, very complex, and using IDL with 7 or 8 raytrace bounces.

     @Victoria_Lee:  Vue will very much appreciate more RAM, and not only will you see the benefit in rendering, but Vue will also display a much better preview during scene setup.

     @ErickL88:  The core i7 is a HyperThreaded quad;  set Poser to render 8 threads with this processor.  ^^

     Laptop Pixie has a core 2 proc with 8Gb of RAM.  Desktop Galadriel has a core i7 quad and 12Gb of RAM.  Cameron has dual hex processors with 96Gb of RAM.

(JosterD):> Quote - But i heard that memory only helps you to open more programs and not to speed up. So let's say my program and rendering with it takes just under my total memory .

In such a case, most every render engine -including Poser's FireFly- will slow to a crawl as you approach the memory limit.  Adding RAM would greatly improve render speed in this situation.

(JosterD):

Quote -   like say i have 4GB and my OS takes some and Poser  takes 3.5GB. that means it's still using RAM so even if you added more ram it would use 3.5GB thus it would be a waste having bought more RAM.

If you have a 32bit operating system, 4Gb is the most a vendor will put in the chassis.  Windows will use part of your OS' memory capacity to account for the video card's onboard memory, so the system doesn't even have the full 4Gb to work with.  Open system information and see how much memory Windows credits your machine with.  Let's say it shows 3.5Gb.  Poser cannot use this much, because no single process can exceed the 32bit allocation, about 2Gb, to the best of my knowledge - (corrections welcome!)  So, if your OS is 32bit, 4Gb (physical) is the max, and you can't even use all of that.

  If you are hitting this limit and need more capacity, the only thing you can do is go to a 64bit operating system and upgrade to Poser Pro 2010.  You might be able to switch to a 64bit OS and add RAM to your existing chassis/motherboard, or you may have to get a whole new computer.

I have an AMD Quadcore with 4 GB of RAM, Windows 7 64 bit. I plan to have 12 GB soon. 

I usually do not render szenes with dozens of Vickies, so my RAM seems to be enough. I still found that Poser Pro 2010 renders faster than P8 with it's 32-Bit system.

Keep in mind, if you have a 32-bit operating system it won't address more that 3GB no matter how much physical memory you stuff in it.

You need 64 bit to get the extra capability

Before you go and buy a whopping amound of RAM, you're best bet is to find out the maximum amount your mobo will take. Some only take 8 gig max.

Laurie

I have 4 gigs as well. Poser isn't too sluggish (I used to have only 500 mb). With windows XP as my operating system, I don't think it can handle more than 4 gigs anyway. My 3d  modeling programs seem to run out of memory constantly though. But poser not so much. It seems to be much hungrier for processing power.

Instead of memory, I'd like to have a quad core system. All that processing power would really speed up the renders.

for poser 8 and later (OS X), recommend minimum quad core, 8 GB, 512 MB VRAM.  pre-intel OS X versions/machines cannot address 8 GB AFAIK.

I have Poser 8, a dual core and 3 gigs of ram and Poser runs fine. Video ram doesn't matter to Poser since it uses CPU not GPU.

Laurie

My HP"big one" has Windows 7, 64 bit, and 4GB
This one, a Asus netbook, has WinXP32bit, and 1GB, and runs PoserPro2010, slow, but doable.
Just stay away from mosquito net meshes. (or big textures)
Or from complicated material nodes.
But for a quick test, up to and including Posette? More then OK.

In between, a PB with Windows32bit, and 2GB
A DELL netbook, Windows 7 32bit and 1GB

Just keep everything clean, drivers up to date, and well defragged.
All, once a day.

1.Ccleaner, Cleaning and registry
2.Advanced System Care, all but defrag
3.Glary Utilities, One step
Configure them carefully, and enjoy.

Anti virus, Windows Security Essentials

And now Smart Defrag2 also from iobit, free and in beta, but seems to be working very well.

You defrag every day? OMG...you're gonna kill your hard drives...lol.

Unless you're constantly moving gigs of data and installing and reinstalling, there's no need for daily defrag ;o).

Laurie

Since Smart defrag 2, i let the proggie do its thing.

• hanging head and looking sheepish *

Well I have an entire 512 mb or memory , and then whatever windows xp wants in virtual memory. 

I run an Emachines athlon processor 2.08 ghz with 512 mb memory and 80 GB disc. 

It was always my understading that RAM has nothing to do with Rendering.

RAM will enable you to manipulate more polygons, Hi-res textures and lots of elements in your scene with less trouble, but when it comes render time...it's all passed of the the CPU...Rendering is just Number crunching and RAM has little to nothing to do with it.

But then again...I've been out of the loop for a while...I could be way off on that.

Tom

Quote - I have 2 Gbs in Poser 6 and DS 3, in a K8 at 2,2 Ghz. It runs quite fast and well.

I also use CleanMem to free unused ram every 30 mins.

Thanks for that imput on CleanMem.  I need to clean up what stuff I have in memory, couple it with CCleaner.

I too am still on 2GB in Ram using Poser 8, Core2Duo at 1.8Ghz.  Running Poser fine as I speak.

4GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.53Ghz, Win7 64Bit, no problems with Poser, mind you, i don´t do complex renders.

I run P8 on a 2.4GHz Q6600 (quad core, jan2007) with 4Gb and Vista 32, and the 3Gb switch enabled (see my tutorial on handling memory in 32bit Windows, its on my site as well as in the tutorials section).

I just did a scene with two quite well dressed up Vickys with hires maps, and an elaborated / detailed building prop. It's in my gallery right now. Rendering this (1500x1000) just passed the magic 2Gb boundary which is the default in Win32. An empty scene requires about 0.5Gb.

For everything over 3Gb you need a 64bit system anyway, PP2010 included. Take 1Gb for everything but Poser user memory, and use taskmanager to monitor Poser behaviour.

BTW, I usually pass the 2Gb boundary when doing Central Park like shots in Vue with full ecosystem population. See my 'Hello World' in my gallery (first serious Vue attempt). It's one ecosystem, one terrain and no postwork. It never came close to 3Gb, though.

Hope this helps.

Another thing that make poser go faster is have the temporal Poser  folder (virtual memory)  in a fast hard disk, 7200 rpm... For example, I run poser from a laptop, and its HD like many laptops run in 5400rpm, I have changed the temporal Poser folder to an external 7200 Hd, and I notice poser faster when it is going to render and has to load the textures...

Quote - It was always my understading that RAM has nothing to do with Rendering.

Ram has everything to do with rendering. In addition to needing to load and handle all of the polygons, and textures to render a scene which eats up ram, you need to have ram to calculate shadow maps, calculate rays and bounces, and actually hold the bit map of the image(and images can eat a lot of memory uncompressed - multiply height by width then square it for each level of color depth to determine bytes).  In addition, you need ram on top of all of that to serve as a swap area for all of the number crunching and calculations (think of it as a scrap pad).  If you have insuffient ram, your computer will start using the pagfile on your HD to make up for the difference, which will slow your render down to a crawl - even with some of the fastest HDs.  This is always how 3D rendering has worked and used ram, since the earliest days back in the mid 80's.

If you are running 32 bit OS or Poser, then it will only be able to take advantage of 2 gb of actual ram, and up to 2gb of additional swap (if your computer and bios are configured properly).  One way to give Poser more ram to render is to render in a seperate process - this allows just the number crunching and bitmap image to take advantage of up to 2gb, while all of the object and texture memory is in the process with the initial Poser executable.

If you have Poser 7 Pro and are running a 64 bit OS, you should always render to a seperate process, as Poser 7 Pro has a 64 bit firefly implementation that will allow it full access to your ram for rendering.  Poser Pro 2010 on the other hand, has a 64 bit native executable, which is even better in the long run.

I have 12 gigs triple channel RAM with Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. Poser 6 flies and it used to crash all the time. I also use Vue, and it works great.

I just upgraded to a quad core with 8 gigs of RAM using Win 7 64 bit, it makes a huge difference compared to my old P4 with 3 gigs.

Well quad core against P4, you would notice the difference although you have the same ram.

Anyway, I think ram is always welcome.

hi,

I will give you some numbers below.

I got my new laptop today and compared performance with the old one using p8 (32 bit application)

same animation rendered on:

1. new ->    i7 740qm, 8gig, windows7(64)

2. old ->    core2duo T9400, 4gig, vista(32)

animation was 113 frames long and average time per frame was:

1.  9 sec

2.   12 sec

So the new one made a job only slightly faster.

I started out with 1 gig RAM. Poser ran very sluggishly, and I mean VERY sluggishly. Trying to have more than one fully-clothed figure in a scene was stretching it, and I couldn't even think about running a maximum-quality render. I upgraded to 2 gig--same computer, I just got upgraded RAM chips--and the difference was incredible. I could put five figures and scenery in a project and make a high-quality render without my computer freezing up.

**CPU:**Daz Studio and Poser are not muti core aware (until you render) so if you have a quad core or six core CPU with multithread technology your system will use one core at the CPU's speed, which is roughly 13% of it's power for everything you do outside of rendering. Your $1200.00 starte of the art CPU is not even breaking a sweat at 13% and not giving you much help in your setup.

When you render in 3Delight, Firefly, Lux, etc. you generally use all cores at full power but you can change that either through a command prompt or the render interface, so this is where your CPU is pinning at about 100%

RAM:

32 bit OS by default use 2 GB of RAM per application, this can be changed to a maximum of 3 GB of RAM per application and the system tops out at 4 GB RAM total for everything (The exceptions are Windows Enterprise Server OS's)

64 bit OS's can allocate a theoretical limit of several thousand GB, but that does not exist.

but most 64 bit OS's have a actual limit imposed on them. Windows 7 limits range from 8 to 196 GB of RAM. Mac OS does not impose the limits but the systems themselves do because of the actual Mac systems. Currently very few affordable motherboards allow more than 16GB of RAM to be installed, end of story. More RAM will allow you to work with bigger scenes and render them but the speed increase between 4GB and 16GB on a system is hardly going to be noticeable, so shoving a box full of RAM is not the solution, and if your running a commercial 32 bit OS  (Mac OS X or Windows) 4GB is the absolute limit.

Video Card:

Your GUI for any application is tied in with the video card. If you are trying to move around the screen and the system is hesitating the CPU and RAM play a part but the video card actually plays a bigger part in speeding things up (or slowing it down if you have a crappy card)

At the time I write this some rendering engines are looking at using the power of the GPU in the card to assit in rendering which may actually have a bigger impact than CPU rendering.

wow ...1.5gig I'm using ... and I truly need a 4-6core i7 ... but then I guess i need to buy pp2010...

so with my money sit., I guess its but a serious dream...for yet longer time.

btw..hawkfyr ..your dingle ball is moving.

Quote - wow ...1.5gig I'm using ... and I truly need a 4-6core i7 ... but then I guess i need to buy pp2010...

so with my money sit., I guess its but a serious dream...for yet longer time.

btw..hawkfyr ..your dingle ball is moving.

an i7 is going to require tripple core ram (DDR3), so there is that expense and pp2010 is not going to take any true advantage to that cpu until you render.

32 bit OS by default use 2 GB of RAM per application, this can be changed to a maximum of 3 GB of RAM per application and the system tops out at 4 GB RAM total for everything (The exceptions are Windows Enterprise Server OS's)

64 bit OS's can allocate a theoretical limit of several thousand GB, but that does not exist.

So how would I go about  making poser use more than 2 gigs of memory? And would that make a noticeable difference? Anybody have a link or something that explains the process in greater detail? I am afraid that I am not very computer savvy. But I do  have a 32 bit OS and 4 gigs of memory.

well to be clear on one thing about Windows 7

Windows 7 Home 64 has a limit of 16gb max.

Windows 7 Pro 64 and above, 192gb max.

(this is from the Microsoft Site)

Quote - 32 bit OS by default use 2 GB of RAM per application, this can be changed to a maximum of 3 GB of RAM per application and the system tops out at 4 GB RAM total for everything (The exceptions are Windows Enterprise Server OS's)

64 bit OS's can allocate a theoretical limit of several thousand GB, but that does not exist.

 

So how would I go about  making poser use more than 2 gigs of memory? And would that make a noticeable difference? Anybody have a link or something that explains the process in greater detail? I am afraid that I am not very computer savvy. But I do  have a 32 bit OS and 4 gigs of memory.

Enable the 3GB switch on Windows XP

• Right-click My Computer. Click Properties.
• In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
• On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
• In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit. The Windows boot.ini file will be opened in Microsoft® Notepad.
• Create a backup copy of the boot.ini file. Note: Boot.ini files may vary from computer to computer.
  Select the following line in the boot.ini file:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

• Press Ctrl+C to copy the line and then press Ctrl+V to paste it immediately below the original line.
  Note: Your text string may be different from the text string in this solution, so be sure to copy the text string from your boot.ini file, and not the text string included here.
  Modify the copied line to include “ /3GB”, as shown in the following example:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /3GB /fastdetect

Note: Do not overwrite any existing lines.

• Save and close the boot.ini file.
• Click OK to close each dialog box.
• Restart your computer.
• During startup, select the 3GB option. If you do not select the 3GB option, the system will default to the 2GB total memory setting.

Note: If problems occur during startup, you may need to update some of your drivers.

Enable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista

• Right-click Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
• At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072"
• Restart the computer.

Disable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista

• Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
• At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"
• Restart the computer.

source:

http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/2009/04/enabling-3gb-switch-on-windows-vista.html

VersionLimit on Windows 7

32bit/64bit

Windows 7 Ultimate

4 GB/192 GB

Windows 7 Enterprise

4 GB/192 GB

Windows 7 Professional

4 GB/192 GB

Windows 7 Home Premium

4 GB/16 GB

Windows 7 Home Basic

4 GB/8 GB

Windows 7 Starter

2 GB/2 GB

Source: msdn.microsoft.com

How much memory do you have and how does it help you with Poser?

Ummm...sorry JosterD,  i forgot what i was going to say.

Quote - > Quote - 32 bit OS by default use 2 GB of RAM per application, this can be changed to a maximum of 3 GB of RAM per application and the system tops out at 4 GB RAM total for everything (The exceptions are Windows Enterprise Server OS's)

64 bit OS's can allocate a theoretical limit of several thousand GB, but that does not exist.

 

So how would I go about  making poser use more than 2 gigs of memory? And would that make a noticeable difference? Anybody have a link or something that explains the process in greater detail? I am afraid that I am not very computer savvy. But I do  have a 32 bit OS and 4 gigs of memory.

Enable the 3GB switch on Windows XP

• Right-click My Computer. Click Properties.
• In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
• On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
• In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, under System startup, click Edit. The Windows boot.ini file will be opened in Microsoft® Notepad.
• Create a backup copy of the boot.ini file. Note: Boot.ini files may vary from computer to computer.
  Select the following line in the boot.ini file:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

• Press Ctrl+C to copy the line and then press Ctrl+V to paste it immediately below the original line.
  Note: Your text string may be different from the text string in this solution, so be sure to copy the text string from your boot.ini file, and not the text string included here.
  Modify the copied line to include “ /3GB”, as shown in the following example:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 3GB" /3GB /fastdetect

Note: Do not overwrite any existing lines.

• Save and close the boot.ini file.
• Click OK to close each dialog box.
• Restart your computer.
• During startup, select the 3GB option. If you do not select the 3GB option, the system will default to the 2GB total memory setting.

Note: If problems occur during startup, you may need to update some of your drivers.

Enable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista

• Right-click Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
• At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072"
• Restart the computer.

Disable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista

• Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
• At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"
• Restart the computer.

 

source:

http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/2009/04/enabling-3gb-switch-on-windows-vista.html

I simply can't thank you enough. :) But anyway,  Thanks you so much for this info.

Desktop: Quad 2.5Ghz processors, 8Gb RAM, 1Gb Nvidia graphics card, Win 7 Pro 64-bit.

Laptop: i5 processors, 4Gb RAM, 1Gb Nvidia graphics Card, Win 7 Home 64-bit.

These days I almost invariably use PP2010 over any older version of Poser. I found the 64-bit OS made a huge difference to render times when I upgraded to it on the desktop earlier this year (previously it was running Vista Home, and took nearly 20 minutes just to boot up). 

Haven't noticed much difference on older Posers, but I only keep P5, P7 and P8 installed for compatibility testing.

I only have PP2010 installed on the laptop, with a mirror of my desktop's runtimes. If anything, it runs faster than the desktop, which I attribute to it being a new, clean machine, whereas the desktop is now a couple of years old and stuffed with my usual digital clutter.

@Terrymcg

**You're welcome! Did it help?
**

Quote - @Terrymcg

 

**You're welcome! Did it help?
**

I haven't excactly really tried it out yet ( I need to do certain other things first, like backup my system and update my virus protection suscribtion..etc..etc..)  But I will certainly give it a go as soon as my more immediate computer related work is done (that I can't put at risk right now).  But your advice is very much aprechiated and easy enough to follow.

 It's just that I am very good at turning even a simple computer related operation into a full blown disaster, that I need to take some precautions, before I do anything even remotely risky.

"Mac OS does not impose the limits but the systems themselves do because of the actual Mac systems."

I'm confused... :blink:

Quote - "Mac OS does not impose the limits but the systems themselves do because of the actual Mac systems."I'm confused... :blink:

It means there aren't any artificial limits on max memory imposed by the OS, the limits are hardware ones.

Quote - > Quote - I have 2 Gbs in Poser 6 and DS 3, in a K8 at 2,2 Ghz. It runs quite fast and well.

I also use CleanMem to free unused ram every 30 mins.

Thanks for that imput on CleanMem.  I need to clean up what stuff I have in memory, couple it with CCleaner.

CleanMem (and other so called memory cleaners) won't do anything that Windows does not manage on its own better already. Waste of time.

Quote - How much memory do you have and how does it help you with Poser?

I have probably a normal or average amount of memory but most of it is usually tied up with other applications and the stuff I learn about Poser gets compressed and buried when I don't use it often.

Poser, fortunately, doesn't require that much memory. I find that I can go months without using Poser and then when I suddenly need it, most of what I thought I forgot comes back from the abyss. 

@ nruddock, Ah... ok, I understand now. Thanks!

When I went from 4GB to 8 I didn't notice much difference to Poser, except that I could use larger bucket sizes to render and Firefly didn't really cache to the hard drive anymore.  Except for those incessant exr conversions.  What it did do was allow me to have a bunch of programs running straight out of RAM and not the swap file, greatly speeding up applications switching.

For those who have more than 3.5GB of RAM on a 32-bit OS, there are some ramdisk programs out there that can use the extra RAM that Windows can't allocate.  For example, I put 4GB into an old laptop running XP 32-bit, and used the extra 500MB as a temporary drive for swap files, storage, etc.  Not recommending anybody go buy extra RAM because of that, but if you already have it you might as well use it.  Sorry that I can't remember which program I used, it was a while ago and I don't mess with the laptop that much anymore now that I have the desktop built.  

Going through some of the posts I'm noticing the trend that some posters are of the opinion that adding more RAM is going to speed everything up, and that's not exact picture. Adding more RAM will speed things up on conditions, here's some examples:

Larger bucket sizes were beneficial with systems with one or two cores had the RAM available. Now with mutlicore systems the opposite appears to be true: A smaller bucket size can be more responsive in situations where you have an image and one core is tied up on a 32,64,128 or 256 MB segment and the other cores have finished and your waiting for that stupid section of your render to finish and so are the other 7 cores on a four core multi-threaded i7.

With multi-core processors if you break the bucket size up into smaller 2,4,8,16 MB segments those other cores can assist in particularly difficult corners ofyour render and speed things up dramatically because the whole CPU is working, not watching.

If you are working on smaller scenes the jump from 4 to 8 GB may not be noticeable, but as you work on bigger scenes it will be. Also if you like to jump from one application to another and say modify a texture in Photoshop while working in Poser than extra RAM is also a huge help. Yes Studio and Poser will work with 2GB of RAM for simple scenes, but start adding a crowd and building a story and you will see both those applications start to get very shaky. If you work on epic scenes and want to limit your post production than lots of RAM and 64 bit OS's with 64 bit applications makes a big difference.

As for speed differences between a core2 and i7 getting not much benefit the blame is generally on the software. If the software is not designed to take notice of those additional cores your CPU is running one core to complete those computations while the rest of the CPU stands around doing nothing. I stated earlier that Daz Studio and Poser did not use those cores, but 3Delight, Firefile and Lux do when you render.

Here's something else about RAM: If you plan to get involved with the LUX project I can tell you from the Daz Studio standpoint that LUX is a monstrous RAM hog so if you plan to use Lux and Poser at the same time, and you will need to do so at first while you learn how those surfaces react to things and make adjustments that extra RAM will come in handy.

This one is important, but out in left field: When going to a 64 bit OS if you use anti-virus make sure you are running a 64 bit anti-virus. If you get a virus that is aware of more than 4 GB RAM and hides in the upper registers of your RAM a 32 bit anti-virus package will not be able to see it, it's a 32 bit limitation.

and finally (for now) if you use a swap file, and chances are you do if you move your runtime to fast internal drive (e.g. SATA 3GB/s 7200 RPM or SSD) keep your swap the "Windows" drive and keep your data and Runtime on the other drive, it will help out. Moving your runtime to a USB 2.0 or FireWire will slow things down, and the USB 3.0 are faster, but the seek time is not as great as they claim. Loading little files like props and textures will drop that awesome speed down to a crawl for each item it loads.