3ds max 2015

[ComradeF9]

I just finished building a workstation amd 8320 - gigabyte 990fx, ripjawsx 2x8 16gb ram (can upgrade to 32) video card is an old 9600gt.

When im rendering, my cpu will spike - no biggie, my video card is also hawt, but my memory is only 21% utilized, i've been doing test renders where they take some time, and still it feels as if my ram/memery has nothing to do with mental ray? 

Should i learn a new render? maybe use an older version of 3ds Max? enable or disable features in Mental ray?

Thank you.

[Brock_Lafond]

RAM is just a place to store temporary information.

Any rendering engine, any program, will only use as much RAM as it needs to perform a particular task. There really is no way to force it to use more.

If you really want to use more RAM increase your texture map size a few fold, subdivide every object a few times, use complex shaders and run expensive GI and caustic solutions at render time.

Typically it's a good thing to not max out your RAM.

[Pyro777]

...also, its a good thing that youe CPU is spiking. Your CPU should be at 100% usage during a mental ray render.

Brock, your advice on using more RAM made me laugh...

Dean