usage of RAM

[Arie Stavchansky]

From what I understand the Mac version of CS4 software apps won’t let you access more than 3GB of RAM, but I may be mistaken. Double check on Adobe’s website, or call their technical support to verify. . .

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Arie Stavchansky | Demo Reel | Portfolio of Creative Work | Blog

[Kevin Camp]

actually after effects on any platform is currently only 32-bit. so the maximum amount of ram that it can address is 3gb (it’s a limitation of any 32-bit software).

however, since you have a 64-bit os, after effects can use more ram by enabling multiprocessing (preferences>multiprocessing, select the option to ‘render multiple frames simultaneously’). this will allow ae to launch a 32-bit render engine for each processing core available, each 32-bit render engine is able to use 2gb of ram each… so 8-cores x 2gb = 16gb of ram.

you can use multiprocessing for ram previews too, but you will need to disable opengl in the preview preference and choose to accelerate previews with adaptive resolution… multiprocessing doesn’t work with opengl acceleration.

there are also a few effect that don’t work with multiprocessing… cc time blend is one i can think of of the top of my head, but i think the help file discuses a few others…. but overall, multiprocessing works quite well if you have enough ram. and you have enough ram.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Todd Kopriva]

Kevin is right, but he understates the amount of RAM that each background instance of After Effects can use.

After Effects can start separate background processes of the After Effects application to render multiple frames at the same time. This can really speed up renders, both for final output and for RAM previews. Each of these instances of the After Effects application on Mac OS can use up to 3.5 GB of RAM, although only about 3 GB is actually available to the foreground application, because Mac OS X uses approximately 500 MB to load the user interface libraries. (See “Memory usage and storage”.)

There’s a complete list of effects that disable multiprocessing with Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously in the “Memory & Multiprocessing preferences” section of After Effects Help.

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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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[Kevin Camp]

hi todd,

is the 3.5gb per core new to cs4…?

i still have cs3, and had always heard 2gb per core… i’m wondering if i should petition to get more ram as we start doing more hd…

thanks

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Todd Kopriva]

Kevin,

No, these are the same numbers as for CS3. I think that people sometimes oversimplify by quoting the 32-bit Windows numbers as the numbers that apply everywhere.

2GB per process is the limit on 32-bit Windows without special (and some say somewhat risky) configuration. And, of course, the OS can only see 4GB, so that’s severely limiting.

Nearly 4GB per process is the limit on 64-bit Windows, with no special configuration required.

~3.5 GB per process is the limit on Mac OS (though the foreground application gets a little less because of the Mac OS UI libraries).

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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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[Kevin Camp]

thanks todd.

for over a year-and-a-half i’ve wondered why the mp render instances would be limited to 2gb, while any other 32-bit app could use 3gb… but i was so happy with mp in cs3 i didn’t question it much.

thanks for straightening this out.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Abed Sarsur]

Hey, i’m running windows 7 32-bit , with 4GB of RAM , after effects usage is only 2GB which gets me so frustrated when the program crashes while rendering a HD Video, please, if any suggestions could help me increase the usage to 3GB i would appreciate it so much!!