Has anyone been able to utilize 128gb RAM in zbrush? Choosing between x99 and H170M

hedition · July 3, 2019, 8:42am

I just moved and now building my PC. Now I’m choosing between a x99 and a H170M. The cost difference is about 300 (500+ if I max out ram).

Now x99 gives me 8 ram slots which I can max out at 128gb RAM. While H170M gvies me 4 which I can max out at 64gb RAM. I build this system mainly for zbrush, so it would seem RAM would be the main criteria.

My previous rig was only 24gb RAM and I was able to work on it fine (gets rather laggy at 30million). I wonder has anyone able to utilize 128gb RAM and advise if it is worth spending the money for the extra 64gb RAM and 2 cores.

Cheers
Henry

brycereigle · July 4, 2019, 4:10am

What CPU are you using?

bestellen · July 4, 2019, 4:11am

Do you have a budget? You’re looking at two different platforms the Z170 (1151) and the X99 (2011 v3)

hedition · July 4, 2019, 4:11am

Hi thanks for the replies. I have since then bought the H170M maxed at 64gb ram.

I am aware of the pros and cons of each platform. The reason I asked this question is because I wanted to know if getting a full 128 gb ram is too big a pool, if I will ever fully utilize it.

aurick · July 4, 2019, 4:11am

It would be massive overkill.

ZBrush has a limit of 80 million polygons per SubTool. When a SubTool is not active, it is mostly offloaded to physical memory. So while the 64-bit version of ZBrush can use 128 GB of RAM (or even more), the truth is that it will never need that much. And it uses smart memory management so that it only uses as much of your RAM as it needs to, which in turn means that it will never use that large amount.

Perhaps if a future version allows larger SubTools. But for now, it would be overkill.