Digital Art Zone

I’m using XP Pro (Sp3), and I presently have 1gb of physical RAM. I’m planning on upping it in the near future to 3gb, but I’ve also read about virtual memory a little bit. Could that help me at all?

My system: Intel 6300 CPU, Nvidia 8400 GS graphics card (500mb).

I can physically install a maximum of 8gb on my mainboard, but XP couldn’t use all of that, plus I can’t really afford to max out my RAM at the moment. So, even if I had to switch to a more advanced OS, I can’t likely take advantage of those slots right now.

More ram will always help. You currently are working on such a small amount that it would be surprising if you can get any of todays programs working well, really.

remember   If your system has to rely too heavily on virtual memory, you will notice a significant performance drop. The key is to have enough RAM to handle everything you tend to work on simultaneously.

Thanks, chohole.

I can render small scenes with 3 characters (base) or less. I’m hoping I can do better with 3gb of physical RAM and maybe 20gb set aside for virtual memory.

Basically, you’ll have nearly 2 GB available for Bryce to use…XP and loaded apps should use less than 1 GB.  XP doesn’t get into trouble until you get to more than 4 GB.  But at 4 GB you’ll only have a little under 3.5 available.  So, without having to resort to exotic measures, you should be good to go…