One thing that usually never gets brought up on render times, is all the garbage that is running in the background on a lot of systems.

A lot of brand name systems have tons of stuff running in the background that can slow the system down considerably when one program wants to use most of the cpu time.

To add insult to injury, many programs will undo any changes you make next time you update them as well.

The amount of memory in a system can be misleading as well. You could have 64 gig of memory and that may not help depending on the speed and channel setup of the memory. You are far better off getting the fastest memory your motherboard supports than getting more of the slower stuff. If you mix memory, all of it will run at the speed of the slowest chip, and internal height/width differences can slow it down even more. Contrary to popular belief, not all memory is created equal.

For a program like Firefly, the number of physical cores used is the first key to render speed, memory speed is second. The number of cores is also a dimishing return. A cpu with 12 cores still only has one pathway to the main memory. So if you want a cpu like that, get one with as much cache as you can.

Overclocking can drastically improve render times, but you better know what you are doing when you set it up. Finding the proper voltage settings can take some time to get right. You also risk making a very expensive paperweight as well. If the motherboard in your system is not designed to be overclocked, get one that is.

Setting the cpu power to max is not the best advise, I have motherboards that would fry the cpu at max power. It is scary how much you can turn the voltage up on some motherboards. Cooling needs to be properly addressed before you turn up any voltages. Not just the cpu either, everything plugged into it will get hotter.

Just remember, overclocking will burn it up, when depends on how it is set up and how far it is overclocked. Many people will say that it wont, but it will at some point. If it is done right, it may last for years, do it wrong and it might burn up as you are setting it up.

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