Ram settings – I just need a straight answer

[Stephen Cordes]

Thanks – should I enable multi core processing, and if so, where should the slider be?

thanks.

[Todd Kopriva]

This post is meant to answer exactly that question:
https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2009/12/performance-tip-dont-starve-yo.html

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Stephen Cordes]

Thanks very much – you have answered my question. I neither have enough memory or ram to enable multi-core processing. Even when I buy 8gb of ram.

[Todd Kopriva]

> Thanks very much – you have answered my question. I neither have enough memory or ram to enable multi-core processing. Even when I buy 8gb of ram.

I don’t know how you came to that conclusion from what I pointed you to.

Yes, 8GB of RAM is enough to use Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously. It’s enough to feed three processor cores (leaving 2GB for other software) for a typical HD-sized composition.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Stephen Cordes]

I don’t have three processor cores. I only have two.

[Stephen Cordes]

Sorry that should have been I don’t have four cores. Only two

[Stephen Cordes]

Thanks fir your answers and sorry to keep posting. But the guide you showed me said I should leave a core for the operating system and not set that value to 0 (ie never fire up all your cores). . Could I use one core with 7 gb of ram?

[Todd Kopriva]

> But the guide you showed me said I should leave a core for the operating system and not set that value to 0 (ie never fire up all your cores). .

No, it doesn’t say that. It says to never reduce the amount of memory for other application down to zero.

> Could I use one core with 7 gb of ram?

No. The limit per process is 4GB. That is because After Effects CS4 is a 32-bit application.

———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
———————————————————————————————————
If a page of After Effects Help answers your question, please consider rating it. If you have a tip, technique, or link to share—or if there is something that you’d like to see added or improved—please leave a comment.

[Stephen Cordes]

I quote from the subpage of the link above. The offici adobe help Manual

“CPUs To Leave For Other Applications Set this value to a number other than 0 to prevent After Effects from using all of the CPUs (processor cores) in your computer system. For example, if you have a computer with 8 CPUs, setting this value to 2 leaves 6 CPUs for After Effects.”

so for me only having two cores I couldn’t set 3gb per core as it would fire up both cores?

[Walter Soyka]

[Stephen Cordes] “I quote from the subpage of the link above. The offici adobe help Manual

“CPUs To Leave For Other Applications Set this value to a number other than 0 to prevent After Effects from using all of the CPUs (processor cores) in your computer system. For example, if you have a computer with 8 CPUs, setting this value to 2 leaves 6 CPUs for After Effects.”

I read that as more of an explanation than a command. If you had eight cores, you could leave a couple idle during render so you could work on something else and your computer would still have enough horsepower to be responsive. With two cores, if you want to increase your render speed, you can leave it set to 0, but you shouldn’t expect your computer to be very responsive to you while it’s maxed out rendering.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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