AE not using all my RAM at DVinfo.net

Nate Schmidt · July 3rd, 2006, 09:49 PM

So I'm a total nube to after effects and i'm running under XP on my iMac to add insult to injury ;-) but when I render my movie in the render quence it says that it is only using 12 or 13 per cent of my RAM. Does this matter, and if it does how do I fix it? Thanks in advance

Rob Lohman · July 4th, 2006, 01:41 AM

Why do you think / believe this is a problem? If it needs more memory it will
probably take it. It seems it just doesn't need any more memory to complete
the task you've given it.

Henry Cho · July 4th, 2006, 02:33 AM

as rob stated, there may not be anything necessarily wrong.

however, running a virtual pc environment on an imac alone will eat a good chunk of your ram, let alone running after effects on top of it. you might experience better memory usage and performance on your computer in a mac-native version of after effects.

if you want to play around in preferences, there is a "memory & cache" panel with options you can tweak. "maximum memory usage" is the general amount of memory after effects is allowed to use (can be higher than 100% with virtual memory -- default is 120%), and "maximum ram cache" is primarily to adjust the length of your ram previews. i find the default values are usually fine, and setting these values too high will actually reduce performance by taxing your system.

Rob Lohman · July 4th, 2006, 03:38 AM

Henry, he might not be running it in a virtual environment, I assumed he was
running it directly on the hardware (through Apple Boot Camp).

Nate Schmidt · July 4th, 2006, 12:13 PM

Thanks for the quick reply's. I am running bootcamp so that should be ok, I guess it just dosen't need all that ram. cool

Jean-Francois Robichaud · July 5th, 2006, 07:51 AM

Probably that for your AE composition, RAM isn't the bottleneck, CPU is.

July 3rd, 2006, 09:49 PM	#1
Nate Schmidt Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Welland ON Posts: 515	AE not using all my RAM So I'm a total nube to after effects and i'm running under XP on my iMac to add insult to injury ;-) but when I render my movie in the render quence it says that it is only using 12 or 13 per cent of my RAM. Does this matter, and if it does how do I fix it? Thanks in advance __________________ "We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

July 4th, 2006, 01:41 AM	#2
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Why do you think / believe this is a problem? If it needs more memory it will probably take it. It seems it just doesn't need any more memory to complete the task you've given it. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

July 4th, 2006, 03:38 AM	#4
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	Henry, he might not be running it in a virtual environment, I assumed he was running it directly on the hardware (through Apple Boot Camp). __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

July 4th, 2006, 12:13 PM	#5
Nate Schmidt Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Welland ON Posts: 515	Thanks for the quick reply's. I am running bootcamp so that should be ok, I guess it just dosen't need all that ram. cool __________________ "We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

July 5th, 2006, 07:51 AM	#6
Jean-Francois Robichaud Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 142	Probably that for your AE composition, RAM isn't the bottleneck, CPU is. __________________ JF Robichaud

July 4th, 2006, 02:33 AM	#3
Henry Cho Major Player Join Date: May 2005 Location: NYC Posts: 516	as rob stated, there may not be anything necessarily wrong. however, running a virtual pc environment on an imac alone will eat a good chunk of your ram, let alone running after effects on top of it. you might experience better memory usage and performance on your computer in a mac-native version of after effects. if you want to play around in preferences, there is a "memory & cache" panel with options you can tweak. "maximum memory usage" is the general amount of memory after effects is allowed to use (can be higher than 100% with virtual memory -- default is 120%), and "maximum ram cache" is primarily to adjust the length of your ram previews. i find the default values are usually fine, and setting these values too high will actually reduce performance by taxing your system.