Adding RAM increase performance in 3ds Max??

[KIMHENGHOR98]

16Gb to 40Gb>>>>

[darawork · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes, adding more ram will increase the performance. Especially when rendering heavy scenes on the CPU. 
Although, you would be wise to look up what configurations your motherboard will take; Usually you add more ram sticks in matched pairs. So if there's two sticks of 8 in there now, the best configuration would be to add two more matching 8gb sticks up to 32gb.... not 40gb.
Alternatively, you could take the two 8gb sticks out, and replace with four 16gb sticks... so as to get 64gb.

Modern Motherboards operate on a DDR principle (Double Data Rate), which means you need to have ram sticks inserted in equal sizes, preferably the exact same make and size, in pairs. If you were to match the wrong size, speed and manufacturer it might even slow your system down, or cause BSODs (Blue Screen of Death).

It would be helpful to install https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
This will give you a detailed readout of the ram type, and manufacturer in your system.
From there you can find a match online, to either augment your existing 16gb or replace all to bigger sticks.

Regards,

[KIMHENGHOR98]

When do I know that to upgrade my RAM to boot performance cause I have already 16GB ??

[darawork]

Basically, processing calculations is done on the CPU. RAM is where the calculations 'wait' until it's their turn to be computed. If there is no space left in the RAM, the calculations are paged (written) to the HardDrive free Space... this is the slowest way to process complex calculations, constantly reading and writing to the HardDrive.
This file paging occurs when your system RAM is full. If it happens when rendering with the CPU it will result in massive slowdowns and even out-of-memory crashes.
Having more RAM will allow to also have more application open, and resident in RAM, where they will run quicker than if paged off the HardDrive.
I've 64GB of RAM here, rendering With Corona 10. Sometimes on very complex scenes (Millions of Polygons) the RAM will fill up and spill over into HardDrive paging instead. This causes the rendering process to run slower. I would ideally like 128GB, so this doesn't happen as frequently.
Theoretically you could run it barely, within reason, on 16GB.... Autodesks own literature states that 8gb of RAM is the minimum needed for 3DSMax 2024 (?), but it will run horribly slow. Subsequently your PC will be very slow, constantly paging to the HardDrive and most likely run quite unstably.
If you can get a chance to try a system with 64/128gb of RAM, if there is a workstation available for you to borrow, or use... try that, then try going back to running 16gb. You will notice an immediate difference in performance.

Windows 10 running on its own with nothing else open will consume 1.5 - 2.5gb of RAM.
Windows 11 running on its own with nothing else open will consume 4gb of RAM.

https://osgamers.com/frequently-asked-questions/does-ram-affect-3ds-max

(Information is quite old, at least 5 years)
Regards,

[KIMHENGHOR98]

Thanks you for helping me