How can I tell how much memory my scene is taking up?
I'm getting closer to buying a new memory card and I want to make sure I get one that will handle what would be my average picture size (Props, Environment, 2-3 people). RIght now I'm pretty sure I'm going ALL CPU all the time. I have a 4GB currently and don't want to waste the $$ on a new GPU just to have it never get used and all my stuff still going to the CPU for render. Is there a way for me to tell bu loading a pictuer somewhere? Some "Properties" pane?
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You could check the log, there's a breakdown (though it's not clear it takes account of texture compression) near the beginning of the messages relating to rendering.
I'm not really sure how to technically do it, but for what you described, a 8GB card should be ok as long as the enviroments you use are not so much geometry & texture heavy.. I render mostly 3-5 people and my scenes take up a total of (during render) 7-10 GB on a 1080ti (11gb). It's kind of a bummer that 2070 and 2080 (non-ti) cards have only 8gb, but the price tag for 2080ti is somewhat abhorrent, and buying a used 1080ti is a lottery. So, unless you have the budget for a $3000 quadro card or a $1200 2080ti, I'd go with 2070 SUPER. You won't break the bank and if you hide all unneccesary props that are outside of the viewport for you current render you should be fine.
Depends on your current computer specs, what you can ugrade to..... I recommend 16GB memory min. As for graphics card, high end graphics cards are always a plus, but really depends on scene creation and how fast you desire to render scenes.
If your on Windows OS, maybe this will help: https://www.howtogeek.com/351073/how-to-monitor-gpu-usage-in-the-windows-task-manager/
I just got another 8GB memory card to my computer and that changed everything. I can now load scenes
and actors and render scenes that where impossible before with only 8GB RAM!
Here is my concern (attached image) This is what my Task Manager reads with 2 characters wearing clothes with one ghost light and a 3 point light rig. THAT is more than 4GB? My render settings are set to CPU and GPU. Call me crazy but this doesn't add up.
Yes, but that includes the application, the morphs, and the rigging weight maps etc. - none of which is passed to the render engine. On the other hand the Viewport SubD level, if you aren't in Iray preview, is probably lower than that used in renders. You certainly can't deduce much from the raw memory used, and even comparing an empty DS to a DS with your scene would not be that illuminating.
Oh, I didn't know those things counted too. But what do you think? I mean, if I get an 8GB GPU is everything still going to flip to my CPU? Because right now, it seems my GPU is just taking up space in my cabinet.
It probably depends on which hair and clothes you have, but broadly I would expect most scenes of the type you mention to be fine in 8GB. Will one of the figure fit into 4GB? If so, given that there's already some overhead using up memory, I'd think the odds were good - if on the other hand a single character goes over 4GB, even when you close as many other things that might be using the GPU, then I'd be less sanguine.
System ram usage will *roughly* be 2 times the amount of VRAM consumed during render. It's common good practice to have ~3x system ram compared to your video card's ram.
For instance, I have a 11gb video card and 32gb system ram. For a scene taking ~8gb in the video card, DAZ will use as high as 20gb of system ram (as reported by task manager). If your system ram is insufficient, Windows will try to allocate it in a so called virtual memory, which is a kind of "last resort" system memory located on your storage drive (hard disk or ssd). Of course it's a LOT slower than actual ram... and if the virtual memory is assigned on your SSD drive you can easily kill it in a short period of time. With that said, 16Gb is the absolute minimum for a 8gb video card, but 32 is recommended.