I made the happy discovery the other day that my 32 bit Dell XPS laptop is “64 bit ready”. This is encouraging since I crash frequently in ZBrush. 8 gigs of ram is the absolute limit of what the system can accept according the Dell technicians I spoke with so I’m wondering if its worth the switch. Will 8 gigs do the trick and allow me to run Zbrush without constantly crashing, along with other applications I might use with Zbrush (Modo, Photoshop), or am I better off building a new 64 bit desktop system with more then 8 gigs ram? Please don’t laugh:lol: at this question. I have no sense of proportion when it comes to ram.
Nancy,
I think we established that adding more RAM to a 32 bit system will not make any difference if you already have the maximum of 4GB supported by the operating system.
“64 bit ready” presumably means that your system can take a 64 bit operating system but you need to be sure that your hardware (peripherals etc.) is compatible before upgrading. There’s a test tool available from Microsoft here .
Once you have a 64 bit operating system ZBrush will be able to use all of the 4GB that it can access (as ZBrush is 32 bit), so having 6GB or more (so 2GB for the OS) will show an improvement in the size of meshes ZBrush can handle.
However, I am not aware that ZBrush crashes on lower spec machines. I used to run ZBrush on an old and very low spec system without problems.
Thanks for the link Marcus…yes I’m well aware about the 32 bit limitation, my question was about converting to 64 on a laptop that has some limitations. I have no idea what happy ZBrush campers with 64 bit computers generally populate their computer with at a MINIMUM. I guess I should have been clearer in my communication here. I was wondering if perhaps 8 gigs as an upper limit was not worth the effort, in light of the hassle of a new operating and hardware/driver compatibility issues.
Clearly zbrush will use a full 4 gigs in a senerio with a 8 gig system, but is it worth the work and will it be enough for other programs to run in the backround. Does creating a 16 bit system only become worth the effort at say 16 gigs, in which case I’d save the money and time and take a different route.
I read alot about people crashing on lower spec machines…it could be that we all have some other problem that has nothing to do with ram, (like saayyyy STUPIDITY :eek: ) , but I do know that for me its not as bad if Zbrush is the ONLY thing open. That senerio is just not as useful to me. I prefer if possible to run Photoshop and/or Modo open in the backround. I’ve become a zbrush “forum hound” and have researched every past link I can to find tweaks to improve my experience here so I’m not asking this as a first resort.
Nancy,
This really is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question. Any application you have open will take memory so how much RAM you need will depend on what applications you like running at the same time and how much memory they use for the operations you like to use them for. ZBrush will only use its 4GB when it really needs it, so if (for example) you never model anything over 1 million polys and don’t use lots of 8K textures or 3D layers then ZBrush is not going to use 4GB.
The simple answer is that for a 64bit system, 6GB and above will give you the best ZBrush performance and the more RAM you get the easier it will be to run other apps at the same time. (I have 6GB which is fine for my needs.) With 8GB on your current system you’ll certainly see an improvement and unless you really want to run Modo, ZBrush & Photoshop all maxed out should be enough for general use.
In the end it’s probably more of a budgetary question than anything. RAM is relatively cheap compared to the cost of a new system. When you do go for a new 64 bit system get as much as you can afford.
Thanks Marcus! That was very helpful.
I would just like a clarification on one thing. I currently have 6gb of ram in my system, and am limited to models under 20 million polys. If I were to up my ram from 6 to 8 gigs would I see a increase in the amount of polygons I can get on any given model?
I ask this because you mention Zbrush itself is only going to use 4gigs and would rather not spend the money for another 2 gigs if it is not going to provide me with an increase in performance.
edit*
I am on win7 64 bit on a q6600 quad core with a 260 gtx video card.
If you only have Zbrush running (no other applications open), I think whatever you can max out at with 6 gigs of Ram in your system is as much performance you can hope for. Again, Zbrush can only use 4 gigs. BUT more RAM MAY be helpful if you like to work with other applications running in the backround.
Its hard to get advice on this because everyone has vastly needs…for example I might want to work with zbrush, photoshop and modo running all at the same time. 6 gigs of RAM might not be enough to feed all these applications at the same time. So specific advice is hard to get/give. I think Marcus answered the question very well. More ram won’t hurt, may help, or may not be necessary at all :rolleyes: - it depends on what else you plan to run along with zbrush.
Unless your operating system is taking more than 2GB of RAM, you won’t see much of an increase in the number of polys per mesh. 20 million is about the limit for the 4GB that ZBrush can use. But as Nancyan says, you may see an improvement in performance if you like to run multiple apps at the same time.
So how do people get models over 20 million polys then?
Are there some settings in Zbrush I should fiddle around with?
You can use up to the limit for each subtool, though you will see a slow down if you have too many subtools of 20 million polygons. Also you can use HD Geometry. HD Geometry is more efficient when the highest ordinary subdivision level is 200,00 to 2 million.