Rendering at 50% 4 processor server

[tracyaf_2]

I'm attempting to render out some animations on my quad e7 processor xeon server. It only wants to use 40 of the 80 available threads. When I disable hyperthreading it uses all 40 (with about a 50% performance increase). This shows that it is using all 4 processors, and is also using hyperthreading when it is enabled.

I am rendering in mental ray (other rendering engines are not an option). Is there a 40 thread limit for mental ray/3ds max per system, or are there some settings I can change to take advantage of all the power?

[Pyro777]

My computer has 2 xeon processors. When hyperthreaded, there are 48 cores. Works fine. Not sure what to say....

[spacefrog_]

whoa 80 threads .... what to say

I can only say that until not too long ago , Max used to crash on systems with more than 32 cores/thread. That got fixed in a servicepack for Max 2014 i think...

Anyways - i you want, you can check my little tool which allows to tweak the number of cores Max is using during rendering or normal work. All right out from inside Max

You can download it either from Autodesk Exchange

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3apowerc...

or from scriptspot

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/powercoretools-tweak-3ds-maxs-cpu-resource-usage

Would love to see a screenshot of that tool with that many cores available - could you please do me that favor ?

[Pyro777]

Space frog,

Does your program work on satellite computers while using DBR?

Dean

[tracyaf_2]

I will try your program when my render finishes in about 36 hours.

[spacefrog_]

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@Pyro777 wrote:
Space frog,

Does your program work on satellite computers while using DBR?

Dean

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Hmmm - nope, dont' think so

at least not with Mental Ray satellites , as the script only controlls 3ds Max's process options and MR satellites use there own service process to render. I think Vray DBR should work , as Vray DBR simply launches it's own 3ds Max process. If my script is configured to autoload on 3ds Max start, it applies the options right then in a startup script ...

[dgorsman]

How much RAM is available?

[tracyaf_2]

32gb of ram available

[dgorsman]

That might be a little low.  Consider that your system may need up to several GB for each operating thread - after a handful of threads are spun off there isn't enough RAM to spin off more.  You've got the cores but I suspect you've bottlenecked the system with insufficient RAM.

[tracyaf_2]

ordered an additional 48gb to make it 1gb per core which is equivilant to all of the others computers in my farm.

[dgorsman]

Alright.  I'll admit it: I'm suffering from more than a little box envy right now.  😄

[philippe.luneau]

To solve your problem:

Update your BIOS settings and your Bios must have a parameter of type "Numa Group Size Optimization" that it must switch to "Flat" and that should solve your problem.

[PROH]

Hi. I don't think that will solve the problem. According to theese articles, the problem is caused by the way Max handles some Windows limitations atm:

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/n268-how-many-cores-does-3ds-max-support

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/maxstation/n269-how-many-cores-does-3ds-max-support-part-2-renderers

Heres a quote from the last article:

"The scanline renderer is limited to 32 cores. If there are more than 32 cores in the machine you have to have at least Service Pack 1 for 3ds Max 2015 installed otherwise it will crash (from the SP1 readme file: MAXX-16801 The Scanline renderer caused a program error when rendering with more than 32 processors).

Like 3ds Max the mental ray renderer will only use a single processor group, so at most 64 cores can be used, but depending on the number of cores in the machine it could be significantly lower (in the example from the previous post the 72 cores will be split in two 36 processor groups)."

[philippe.luneau]

We have to resolve a problem with indentique 2620 v2 processor and 2630 V3 with hyperthreading on HP DL160 servers Gen9 2 and DL 360 Gen9 and now it works without problems