Chaos Corona Forum

General Category => General CG Discussion => Hardware => Topic started by: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-20, 14:35:08

Title: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-20, 14:35:08

Hey,

I want to upgrade from 16gb ram. Should I go for 32gb or 62gb? my question is if the 64gb will be make a significant difference or 32 should be good enough. The difference in cost is $100

This is my laptop specs.

Lenovo legion y540-17irh i7 9750h 2.6ghz 256gb ssd 17.3 60hz gtx 1600ti 16gb

Thanks!

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: maru on 2021-01-20, 17:19:43

The rule of thumb is that the more RAM you can get, the better. It's a bit like asking "should I get a 256 or 512 GB SSD". :)

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-20, 17:27:02

Yeah, but doesn't the Ram have to match the strength the PC? meaning if I have a weak CPU then additional ram may not help me much?

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: TomG on 2021-01-20, 17:31:08

Extra RAM won't help you at all, if you are not running out. If you are running out, it will make a massive difference no matter the strength of your PC :) Are you getting low RAM warnings from Corona? If you monitor RAM usage, is it getting close to running out?

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: maru on 2021-01-20, 17:44:42

Quote from: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-20, 17:27:02

Yeah, but doesn't the Ram have to match the strength the PC? meaning if I have a weak CPU then additional ram may not help me much?

Help with what exactly?
If you have a weak CPU then additional SSD will help or not? :)

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-20, 22:30:12

Yeah, my ram is running out with just 16gb

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: TomG on 2021-01-20, 22:38:15

Quote from: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-20, 22:30:12

Yeah, my ram is running out with just 16gb

In which case, more RAM would definitely help - no matter how fast or slow the processor, as soon as Corona has to use virtual RAM (that is, use a hard drive or SSD to store information that it would normally store in RAM), your render is going to be a lot slower, as accessing any form of disk drive is significantly slower than accessing RAM.

Basically, if Corona gives a low RAM warning, either optimize the scene to fit in RAM, or get more RAM, otherwise things could slow down significantly (or experience other problems). See the article at https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000675854-system-is-running-low-on-ram-you-may-experience-excessive-parsing-times-and-or-crashes-you-will-pro

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: Mfriedm3 on 2021-01-21, 13:16:36

Awesome. Thanks!

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: Juraj on 2021-01-21, 15:00:06

You have a decently powerful laptop CPU, I have the same one in my Razer Blade.

64GB of memory is surprisingly affordable for it, I think I paid less than 220 Euro in total for two 32GB Modules. (HyperX I think)

Make sure you buy 2667 Memory, since most laptops can't run XMP profiles so they will run the JEDEC profile that is default for the kit.
(What I mean is, there is a risk that if you buy faster memory, 2933 or 3200, it will run even slower because it could default to 2133 or 2400).

Tom and Maru said everything, more memory doesn't make laptop faster but it helps you run more tasks and bigger scenes. 64GB is good minimum today, even for laptop.

Title: Re: Upgrading RAM?
Post by: maru on 2021-01-21, 16:04:17

Oh and there is also our RAM FAQ here: https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=17892.0