MandEMfg
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CPU Question...
I have been rendering 3D scenes with Maya, and I have noticed a sudden drop in productivity. I have 2 Dual Core Xeon 5070 cpus in the system in question. Before, when rendering, all 4 cores would render, using between 90-100% of processing power. I would check the Task Manager, just to verify this. But, lately, I've been working on a different scene, with a fraction of the geometry and lighting, and it seems it's only utilizing half of the power it should be using. It is staying near 50% usage, using half of each core's power. I checked the Affinity of Maya, and it is set to use all 4 cores (labeled as CPU 0, 1, 2, and 3). I set it's Priority to High, but it still doesn't help. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Callandor
It is the job of the OS and program to decide how many cores to use. I think 4 cores running at 90-100% is an indication of a tough computation task, whereas 50% utilization means it has processing power to spare. You mention that the scene has a fraction of the geometry and lighting, so I would expect it to work less to render it. What's the problem? Isn't the behavior that you see what you would expect?
ASKER
Well, that would be normal behavior for, let's say, running an app. I would expect a less taxing app to be easier for the processors to handle. But, in rendering, the processor should be working at 100%, trying to compute and assemble all of the aspects of the render. Basically, because the cores are running at half power, the render is taking longer for the smaller scene than it is for a render of the larger scene. The lighting is set up in the same fashion, with the same exact settings. With less geometry and lighting to calculate, you would think the processors would finish much quicker, rather than take even longer. Does that make sense? It seems to me like the render should be taking much less time, instead of mnore time, given the differences of the scenes.
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ASKER
Just forward me that address, and I'll get this heap of junk out to you asap :p
I'm stuck waiting for my Manager to purchase the new machine. After all of the questions I had answered, and compiling the machine to get, I've sadly hit a stand still. But, while I'm waiting, I have no choice but to struggle with this dinosaur, for the time being. :p
The older file is 9.78MB, and the new version is 7.40MB. That's strange, considering that the smaller, newer file takes more than double the time to render. In the Task Manager, though, the older file utilizes the RAM more, while the newer one uses about half of what the older one does.
I'm stuck waiting for my Manager to purchase the new machine. After all of the questions I had answered, and compiling the machine to get, I've sadly hit a stand still. But, while I'm waiting, I have no choice but to struggle with this dinosaur, for the time being. :p
The older file is 9.78MB, and the new version is 7.40MB. That's strange, considering that the smaller, newer file takes more than double the time to render. In the Task Manager, though, the older file utilizes the RAM more, while the newer one uses about half of what the older one does.
Strange ... both of those are small enough it's certainly not a paging issue. But it COULD be a cache-hit issue, depending on how the smaller file's data is being accessed. Unless there are some settings in Maya that can change the behavior, you're probably getting all the performance you can.
ASKER
Ouch. That kinda sucks. Oh well, I guess I'll have to deal with it. Thanks for the help!!