ZBrushCentral

Zbrush is really slow on my computer?!?!

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

So, let me begin by saying that I am fairly new to zbrush. So, any newb info would be helpful. I have been sculpting my first character in zbrush. I have subdivided to about 6 million polys. At this stage, zbrush will often pause for 10-15 seconds at random intervals such as undo, or any type of mask action, or even on a brush stroke. This is insanely annoying since it breaks workflow constantly. I have a computer with the following specs:

cpu q6850 @ 3 ghz
video card nvidia geforce 8800 gtx
4gb ram

one thing that might be an issue is I use a 32 bit vista OS. I have turned off all the bells and whistles in vista to increase performace though. In any case, I feel like 6 million polys should run smoothly on this machine. I have my mem set at about 2000 in zbrush. What else could be causing this slowdown? thanks for any help you guys can give me.

#2

Hey, there sarakawa. The reason why your computer is running slow is because you don’t have enough RAM available. You would need at least 8 gig of RAM in order for everything to run smoothly if you are going upwards of 2 million polygons.

Also if you are running in Zbrush 3.1 as I assume you would be but not the new updated Zbrush I would recommend that you set your memory for Zbrush at 4096 as that is the maximum memory that Zbrush can handle. Yes it would be better if you ran a 64 bit operating system with 8 gigs of RAM available that way everything runs smoothly without any lag and you are using all the available memory that Zbrush uses which is 4 gigs of RAM.

Oh and another thing is that I would also recommend that you run a Windows XP 64 bit rather than Vista. Vista just hogs all the memory and that can be bad thing when you want all the available RAM you need to run all the necessary applications. A word of caution though about Windows XP 64 bit is you need to be prepared to look for the drivers in order for your computer to work properly or else it won’t work as a normal operating system would. In terms of operating systems that is my preference. Hope this helps. :smiley:

#3

You don’t need to upgrade to 8 Gigs.
4 is more than enough to sculpt 6 millions poly models (and, using HD geo, you can raise the polycount up to 1 billions poly with ease.)
Your slowdowns may come from your OS.
Xp64 is indeed a better choice, rather that Vista 32.
With that, Zbrush should run smoothy, even with anoter app like Maya or Photoshop in the background

#4

I don’t know what kind of system you are running on but 4 gigs of RAM seems kind of pretty low for sub dividing more than 2 million polys and running another app like Maya would eventually crash the whole system. If you are using the HD geometry as a means to sculpt finer details which is fine but if you want to extract displacement maps or normal maps then you can’t really use the HD geometry feature.

I know for a fact that 4 gigs of RAM is not enough because the computer that I am using right now is at 4 gigs RAM on a 32 bit Windows XP operating system Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.53 Ghz and I used to do all my 3D stuff on here including Zbrush. I can’t tell how many times I have either get lag or crash when I hit close to the 4 million poly mark in Zbrush and forget about running another app like Maya at the same time. You would definitely crash. I would know because I have experienced it.

Just ask any zbrusher on how many gigs of RAM you would need in order for Zbrush to run smoothly and I bet you they would say more than 4 gigs of RAM. There are actually similar threads like this in this forum that discuss about what is the recommended RAM for zbrush to run smoothly if you are going to subdivide upwards of more than 2 million polys. Trust me I know because I have read it and experienced it!!!

The slowdown might come from my operating system but the fact still remains that you need more RAM if you are going to sub divide more than 2 million polys.

P.S. Using Subtools might help you get up to more than 6 million by breaking up the model with just 4 gigs of RAM but try not breaking let’s say a humanoid figure and you’ll be lucky to get close to 4 million.

#5

Sorry about this extra post. I was trying to delete this post but don’t know how to delete. I accidentally pressed something where I posted the same post as above which is this one that I am writing right now.

#6

Again another attempt to delete a post but ended up making another one by mistake. Couldn’t find the button where to delete the post completely off the thread. Sorry about this guys.:o

#7

There’s one HUGE difference between my config and yours : the OS
I’m running Xp 64 with 3.2 gig of ram, and Zbrush can handle with ease models up to 6.5 millions polys, this is also a fact
Seraph, do you use at least the /3g switch on your Xp ?

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

#8

Sounds like your computer is compacting memory alot. Go into prefs then mem. Set compact mem to about 2000. That should do it.

#9

yea, it is compacting everytime it slows down. it says “compacting mem” and then “reading virtual mem”. only problem is, this is already set to 2000.

#10

@rimasson: What is the /3g switc? I don’t know what that is. Please explain as to what it does in layman’s terms (something I could understan. I still believe that no matter what you do you will either get lag or crash.

@Tuso: I already have it set to 4096. I just opened up zbrush and checked my compact memory settings and it does lag when I get close to 4 million polys. Thanks for asking.

#11

XP32, is not be able to fully use the 4gb amount of ram. until you use the /3G switch on the boot.ini
to do that, you can use a text editor, to edit the file. (it is a hidden file located on c:
the mem pref in ZB should be a 2048. its is enough i guess, not higher.

#12

What is the preferred RAM? I run multiple programs at once and I always get a lag, or sometimes programs crash. I want to be on the safe side rather than the minimum need for RAM, so what does everyone have (computer stats) and you had no real problems?

#13

You only have 4 GB of memory in your computer. DO NOT set this to 4096 (4 GB)!!! That leaves 0 RAM for the OS and any background apps. It will result in corrupt ztl files and you’ll lose work! You need to leave some memory for the operating system at least. Or if you add more RAM, then you can use the 4096. This may be the reason you’re experiencing performance problems.

#14

The more the merrier. I only have 6 GB on a Mac Pro and run it efficiently rather than having a ton of stuff going on. How much ram do you have and why do you need so many programs running?

#15

I run 3dsmax or maya, photoshop, zbrush/mudbox, microsoft, etc all at once and sometimes watch media at same time. It’s a bad habit but I like to work simultaneously. So I hope the 12 gb would be enough??? I’m coming from a 2gb outdated computer so I was trying to “imagine” what was enough ram to run all my programs at once.