Max processor cores

[framarz]

Hi guys,

I wanted to know if there was a limit to the number of cores on a single machine running? For example, if I had a machine with 2 processors each having 9-12 cores (don't know if this exists yet), would Max have an issue with running with this configuration?

[BenBisares · Accepted solution]

Personally I've seen Max working on systems with 48 threads (Blade server) and the elements of Max that are multithreaded work fine.

I have seen only one issue. mental ray will allocate available RAM equally to all threads. So the more threads you have the less RAM each thread will have. Example: Let's say you have 12GB of RAM available and a 6 core Intel i7 with Hyperthreading enabled (so 12 threads). mental ray will allocate 1GB of RAM to each thread. If you disable Hyperthreading you'll only have 6 threads so each one will get 2GB of RAM.

So imagine you have 48 threads so, 12/48 = 250MB of RAM per thread. Could be a problem with heavy scenes.

To be honest though that was the only time I saw a problem so I would say that you're safe at the moment.

[ctranchina]

Does this mean I should disable hyperthreading before rendering?

I have two 16 core processors and 64GB of RAM, so 32 threads. I _only_ work with large scenes. My renders average 16,000,000 polys. Since I first got this machine I've felt it renders slower than expected.

[framarz]

Thanks for the response. Appreciate it 🙂