how can i pinpoint and alleviate bottlenecks?

[Jpjapers]

Hi, i work in a small design team and we all work off a server with lots of ssd power. Im wondering if there is a network speed issue when rendering. Does corona and indeed max, have to grab the texture files from the server each time? or does max cache them to the hard disk when it opens the file?
It just seems that despite my machine being ridiculously beefy (2 x xeons with 2 quadro k4000's and 32gb 3000mhz ram) they run quite slow especially in the precalc phases of rendering.
Thanks
Jack

[FrostKiwi]

Hi, i work in a small design team and we all work off a server with lots of ssd power. Im wondering if there is a network speed issue when rendering. Does corona and indeed max, have to grab the texture files from the server each time? or does max cache them to the hard disk when it opens the file?
It just seems that despite my machine being ridiculously beefy (2 x xeons with 2 quadro k4000's and 32gb 3000mhz ram) they run quite slow especially in the precalc phases of rendering.
Thanks
Jack

No, they load into ram or into pagefile, if you run out of memory. Each time you click Render, all renderslaves access the textures and load them in. Once the precalc phase starts it's over. No more I/O, exept saving or reading UHD Cache file.
If you stop rendering, the ram is flushed. And you will need to reread all textures next time you press render.
Meaning Long precalc phase is not an I/O issue.
Are your UHD cache settings stock?

[Jpjapers]

yeah standard settings. the building acc phase takes about 6 minutes on the file im working on now. however it is an area of well over 150,000sqft. im wondering if its just the sheer size of the scenes i work with that corona and my machine is struggling with. perhaps i should upgrade my ram to see if max handles the file any better.

[FrostKiwi]

yeah standard settings. the building acc phase takes about 6 minutes on the file im working on now. however it is an area of well over 150,000sqft. im wondering if its just the sheer size of the scenes i work with that corona and my machine is struggling with. perhaps i should upgrade my ram to see if max handles the file any better.

If you don't run out of ram, there is no need!
"building acc phase" means there is a lot of complicated geometry to chew through, triangulate and instance. Do you have lot's of scattering and/or displacements?
Do you have bitmap paging enable by chance?

[Jpjapers]

It is a massive scene and its chewing through a good 28gb of ram. Its alot of geometry but its all pretty low poly.
Im starting to think its because of the area im trying to light. When i use one light over everything it starts quickly.
When its 30+ lights it starts to struggle.

[FrostKiwi]

I recently defragged a drive with model data while working on a scene.
Building acc. structure took 20 sec instead of the 2 sec I'm used to.
May again suggest a faulty I/O.