ZBrushCentral

How much RAM do I need?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi! I use ZBrush 3.2 on a Mac Pro (2x3ghz QuadCore) with 8GB’s of RAM. As it is now ZB preferences -> “MaxPolyPerMesh” says that I should be able to handle ~18 million polys, but when I get close to 15 it really starts to freeze and everything feels really slow.

Will I get much better performance if I upgrade to 16 GB’s of RAM (or more)??

Thanks in advance!

// tennet

#2

8 gigs! WOW! I don’t know if adding RAM will help. I do know there are a few tricks you can do to maximize the RAM you already have.

  1. Delete your UV’s. This free’s up some space and should help performance.
  2. Hide unneccesary parts of the mesh. Use CRTL + SHIFT to isolate the area that you’re working on.
  3. Split the mesh up into subtools when possible. If you’re sculpting a girl with long flowing hair, make the hair a seperate sub tool.

I believe these are correct and useful. Please let me know if that helps…

:cool:

#3

Hello

Adding more RAM will not make a difference. ZBrush will only use up to 4GIGs currently. Are you running anything else when you are running ZBrush?

Paul

#4

Does it only use 4GB?! That’s not very good… Does this have to do with 32 vs 64-bit OS?

The only other apps I might have running in the background is Photoshop and Cinema 4D, but I believe this happens even when I use Zbrush only. I will try to hide parts of the mesh and see if that helps, thanks for the tips.

Any other recommendations?

//tennet

#5

in general i think you are going to find zbrush slower on a mac. I know this is the case for maya as well. viewport speeds crawl compared to an even slower PC counterpart.

hope this changes at some point, but for now it’s just the reality i have noticed.