ZBrushCentral

zbrush creates a heat problem

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

since i upgraded to zbrush zr6 i am no longer happy with it. no matter what simple thing i do in zbrush, for example just selecting with the lasso tool some polygons from the standard sphere, after less than 5 minutes the vents start working like mad…

so, i got an app to read out all the temperature sensors inside my machine. my machine started with core temperatures less than 50 degree (celsius) on each core:

zbrush raised within 5 minutes the temperature of all cores close upto the max allowed of 105 degrees, the system then shut off already one core, because it reached the critical limit. when i work further, more cores get shut off.

so, what is that??? zbrush should not heat the machine that much when it is used almost in “idle mode”…

my machine specifications:

imac 27’’, intel core i7 3.4 ghz, 32 gb ram, nvidia gforce gtx 680mx 2gb
mac os 10.8.4.

so, i request some help on this, as a friend has burned his mac exactely when running zbrush on it. i do not want do same with my machine… but i want use zbrush!!

and, to prevent the answer “this is normal”… it is not normal, since when working in blender, even on really high polygon models like 8 million for hours, the cores stay below 55 degree in temperature

Attachments

zbrush_heat.jpg

#2

Someone should answer your questions, this is serious.
But it won’t be me.
This temp monitor app looks weird here.
It doesn’t read the heat sink temperature of the CPU. Maybe no sensor there? I wonder how well the heatsink is placed on the CPU chip.
I’m also wondering if the silly
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?180586-Zbrush-OSX-4R6-crahses-(solved)
when working in zbrush has to do with this heat issue. It is irrelevant, right? The disk is almost empty though, lot of free space. System crashes after this.

#3

I’ve noticed my fans spinning up a bit with Zr6, but not to the degree you’re experiencing.

Serious technical problems like this should be directed to a Pixologic support ticket, with complete system information. They can’t anticipate every possible hardware configuration, or guess at what users might be doing, but they would probably like the information. The Pixologic support folks are very nice and earnestly want to help, but they are a small company, and making a post in the Questions forum over the weekend when people are likely not in the office is not the best way to contact them for serious problems.

#4

Are you running 4R6 or 4R6P2?

We’ve got the exact same iMac model (imac 13,2: i7 3.4 Nvidia GTX 680MX 2GB). I’ve had no issues with it running hot with Zbrush or Blender or any other Apps I run regularly. The only difference I can see from your setup and mine is I’ve got 24GB memory instead of 32 and my OS is 10.8.5 instead of 10.8.4.

I would recommend upgrading to 4R6P2 and upgrade the OS to 10.8.5. See if that changes anything. My setup and my co-worker’s setup are the exact same and both our imacs maintain a decent room temperature (doesn’t run hot).

If it’s still an issue after the software updates I’d talk to mac support. To me it sounds more like a hardware issue, maybe something not installed correctly.

#5

michalis, yes i got this silly message too already, but no crash of the sustem afterwards… and yes and that time the machine was very hot. maybe the system had shut off the last core, hence the message?

spyndel, yes of course weekend is a bad time for expecting support, but hey these issues establish on weekends sometimes…

mentalfrog, yes i have zr6, i try the upgrade. as you have almost same machine, it might help… thanks. i doubt it is a hardware problem, since when i work in blender, even if i do really demanding sculpting say, my machine stays relativley cool, below 50 degrees… and most the time much lower, more like room temperature…

i will report if the update brings relieve…

#6

sadly, after upgrade the problem is even worse… :-((

test was: brushing with the claytubes brush on the standard polymeshsphere

after 1 minute all cores were at 80 degree, fan did not start though,

after 3 minutes , 4cores were shut off, and the fans did not even start!!

#7

What are your Zbrush settings in the Preferences->Performance tab?

#8

You upgraded your OS as well? Fans not running would lead to overheating, it does on a car.:wink: Any way to check status on them as you have for temperature? It might have to go to the Mac store. :frowning:

#9

i never touched the prefs performance, here is what they are set to
prefs_performance.jpg
and, no, i doubt that the mac has to go to the appstore, after all, first it is quite new, and secondly, the over heating only occurs with zbrush. in all other applications the cores stay cool, and if i render in blender, all cores go on and the vents too,but they never heat so much that the system shuts them off… this only happens in zbrush… and now with the upgrade, the heating comes without the fans going on…

#10

So you’re running OS 10.8.5 now correct?

#11

yes i do run 10.8.5 now , zbrush heats the cores, as i described, when just using the claytubes brush on a simple polysphere… no vents start. i break off when the cores are at 90 degrees…
with no vents at all, as it is after the patch upgrade, i cannot use zbrush at all :-((