Loading...
> >

DAZ Studio, Library of Content, and SDD

hjakehjake Posts: 816
edited December 2014 in The Commons

I did not see an answer in the forums to this question.

I have decided to put an SSD disk as my C drive on my windows 7 pro pc.

Since it is a small Samsung 840 EVO 250GB drive (209.59GB usable after over provisioning)

I have to be quite selective about what I put on it.

So my question is this.

Does my library of content have to be on the SSD drive to get best performance for working and rendering?

To explain:

My library is on my D drive (traditional HDD). Let's say I build a scene with G2F, some landscape, lights, skydome, and props
that are in my library. I realize that the initial loading would be faster if on my C drive (SSD), but once the initial loading is done
and I am working with the models and lights etc, does DAZ Studio keep going back to the D drive library for content manipulation and rendering or does it load all that stuff into a "scratch disk" (temporary working memory) on my C drive (SSD).

If it loads it to a temporary C drive folder then would my manipulations and rendering performance be improved (faster)?

Post edited by hjake on

Comments

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 13,513
    edited December 1969

    You can put your content folder wherever you want. Just point DS to it once you move it.

  • hjakehjake Posts: 816
    edited December 1969

    Frank0314 said:
    You can put your content folder wherever you want. Just point DS to it once you move it.

    Hi Frank thank you for responding. I was not asking if I can put where I want.

    I was asking how Daz Studio handles the meshes and textures for in program manipulation and rendering. Does it keep going to my content library or does it load it into DS's own data storage so only the initial loading of content is impacted by the slower HDD.

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited December 2014

    As with anything that is limited by Heard drive bandwidth, using multiple heard drives will always make those processes faster (things will load faster), however the CPU will also play a part in Overall performance. The computer will only be able to use the bandwidth, it can process, for the brief moments it is using the heard drives.

    I have done "Provisioning" as you suggest in the past with my computers (and use it to this day), with mixed results. Daz Studio has no issue working with My Daz Library on a second drive, and the MyDaz3d Purchased stuff on a third. It dose nothing for moving stuff around the scene, it just loads the scenes faster.

    I have yet to try Installing Daz Studio on a separate drive from the OS, as some programs get a tad flaky if there not in there 'default' folder and drive.

    C (SSD) windows and specific programs only.
    D (HDD) programs folder
    E (HDD) Documents and settings
    F (HDD) movies and music files
    ...
    R (Ram-drive) temp folders, including Daz Temp folders. (I have enough RAM to do this)
    etc...

    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited December 2014

    hjake said:
    Frank0314 said:
    You can put your content folder wherever you want. Just point DS to it once you move it.

    Hi Frank thank you for responding. I was not asking if I can put where I want.

    I was asking how Daz Studio handles the meshes and textures for in program manipulation and rendering. Does it keep going to my content library or does it load it into DS's own data storage so only the initial loading of content is impacted by the slower HDD. It puts some stuff in the temp folders as it is working on them. I don't know exactly what any of it is, or what it is doing with it.

    It just runs a hell of a lot faster with that temp stuff in RAM.
    (EDIT)
    A dedicated SSD for it would probably be second best, and HDD the worst over all. For the temp/scratch folders.
    (EDIT2)
    Your content folders, it probably dose not mater as much, as it is mostly read-only when loading stuff into a scene. mostly.

    DazTempFolder_onR_Crop1.png
    411 x 787 - 38K
    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • hjakehjake Posts: 816
    edited December 2014

    Hi zarcondeegrissom,

    Thanks for replying.

    If I understand what you are saying then my assumption is correct. Daz Studio loads the content so only the initial scene load would be improved no impact on mesh and texture manipulation.

    What about rendering. Do you think it uses the temp folder info or reloads from the content library?

    Post edited by hjake on
  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited December 2014

    Going from the email notice I read. I know the render process uses that temp folder allot, and the render is saved there temporarily as well.

    I have no clue if it uses the files it puts in temp, for the render, of it reads all that stuff again from the Content Library (The later seams really redundant to do So I guess not).

    My Content Library is on HDD drives, not SSD, and it made more boost moving the Temp to RAM, overall with a few exceptions from my lacking Graphics card.

    To be specific now. Loading a single clothing item is slower on HDD then it was on my SSD. loading scenes with my content spread across two drives is acceptable. Would I love a 1TB SSD for my content, yes, can I afford it, no. My 120GB SSD is kind of taken up by SonarX1 so the room was not there for all the stuff I purchased from Daz, I had no choice with moving it.

    And on that note, installing your entire content collection again, after making a path on the other drive, will be much slower then it was on your SSD (We have comparable drives, "840 EVO" vs "SanDisk Extreme II"). I was on the fence between them when I got my SSD. The SSD feels about ten times faster loading anything then a Spindle Drive.

    Post edited by ZarconDeeGrissom on
  • hjakehjake Posts: 816
    edited December 1969

    thanks zarcondeegrissom for your educated guess.

    it helps alot.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,944
    edited December 1969

    I have no issues with DAZ installed on my E drive and content on F
    in fact most my programs on E
    just some pains in the A will not let me put them there or will not find default folders if there like Poserpro2012 for example but those are few and far between.

  • RoLoWRoLoW Posts: 341
    edited December 1969

    Bear with me for a moment as I wade through some techno-babble. In the past, Windows moved data being accessed on the hard drive in and out of its "working" memory (RAM) which appeared as if it was actually located on the hard drive. To do this of course, data was always being loaded into this virtual segment by the O/S to speed up programs needing access to it but was slowed by the capability of the disk drive. So, initially an SSD increases performance in the O/S. The RAM Drive also works fast because the data is simply moving from memory to memory (instead of storage to memory and back again). Windows has always been a "memory hog", so in most cases the more RAM you have (16Gb vs. 2Gb) the better performance you will get. Unfortunately 32-bit Windows is capped at 4Gb (of which only 3 or so is usable).

    Finally, the point I was getting to. For most systems regardless of how you decide to structure your information locations, I would recommend getting the maximum memory supported (when you can afford it) and always use the fastest memory type/speed that your motherboard/cpu will support (DDR3 1600 vs DDR3 800). NOTE: If planning an upgrade you should also take this into consideration.

    This is one of those cases where "doing more with less" should be re-worded to "doing more takes more"...

  • Peter FulfordPeter Fulford Posts: 1,325
    edited December 1969

    hjake said:
    ...it is a small Samsung 840 EVO 250GB drive...

    Slightly OT, but just in case you are not aware, the Samsung 840 EVO range suffers a firmware bug that makes read speeds for "old" data (i.e. data that hasn't been accessed for over a month) slow down noticeably. Samsung released a fix back in October, but it's still news to plenty of owners.

    Here's some background on the issue:
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8617/samsung-releases-firmware-update-to-fix-the-ssd-840-evo-read-performance-bug

    Samsung's SSD downloads page:
    http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

    The install guide is pretty important to read before going ahead:
    http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

    The more data on the drive, the longer the tool will take to do its work.

  • hjakehjake Posts: 816
    edited December 1969

    Peter Fulford said:
    hjake said:
    ...it is a small Samsung 840 EVO 250GB drive...

    Slightly OT, but just in case you are not aware, the Samsung 840 EVO range suffers a firmware bug that makes read speeds for "old" data (i.e. data that hasn't been accessed for over a month) slow down noticeably. Samsung released a fix back in October, but it's still news to plenty of owners.

    Here's some background on the issue:
    http://www.anandtech.com/show/8617/samsung-releases-firmware-update-to-fix-the-ssd-840-evo-read-performance-bug

    Samsung's SSD downloads page:
    http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

    The install guide is pretty important to read before going ahead:
    http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html

    The more data on the drive, the longer the tool will take to do its work.


    thank you for the info. It is appreciated.

    I actually have the 840 pre-evo (long story). It is in an older system Intel Core-Duo 3.0 on a non-AHCI motherboard.

    as soon as i installed it, I put the samsung magician software on and did a software and firmware update, so all should be good.

  • hjakehjake Posts: 816
    edited December 2014

    rolow said:
    Bear with me for a moment as I wade through some techno-babble. In the past, Windows moved data being accessed on the hard drive in and out of its "working" memory (RAM) which appeared as if it was actually located on the hard drive. To do this of course, data was always being loaded into this virtual segment by the O/S to speed up programs needing access to it but was slowed by the capability of the disk drive. So, initially an SSD increases performance in the O/S. The RAM Drive also works fast because the data is simply moving from memory to memory (instead of storage to memory and back again). Windows has always been a "memory hog", so in most cases the more RAM you have (16Gb vs. 2Gb) the better performance you will get. Unfortunately 32-bit Windows is capped at 4Gb (of which only 3 or so is usable).

    Finally, the point I was getting to. For most systems regardless of how you decide to structure your information locations, I would recommend getting the maximum memory supported (when you can afford it) and always use the fastest memory type/speed that your motherboard/cpu will support (DDR3 1600 vs DDR3 800). NOTE: If planning an upgrade you should also take this into consideration.

    This is one of those cases where "doing more with less" should be re-worded to "doing more takes more"...

    thanks for the info. i knew all of that but it is good to re-iterate, especially if someone else reads this post.

    my current system is a dinosaur by today standards but it hums along okay for this year. next year we will see.

    as a side note the drive is installed and there is definitely a marked improvement in overall performance even though this motherboard can not do AHCI.

    thanks to everyone for their support.

    if anyone else thinks we may be in error concerning Daz Studio memory management for content and rendering (especially the errant Daz employee who unwittingly strayed into my posting, bwahahaha.

    Please post a reply. I am certain i am not the only inquiring mind that wants to know. :-)

    Post edited by hjake on
Sign In or Register to comment.