Just got some dual quad core zeons. I've been testing the render speeds by rendering a simple scene and watching the CPU performance graph with the windows task manager. running maya8 x64, winxp64.
When i render with maya software within maya, all 8 processors clockout at 100%. When i render with maya software with command prompt, same again 100%. When i render with mentalray with command prompt, 100% when i render with mentalray within maya, it struggles to make use of 30%...
can someone enplane why this is please?, is there a setting in maya to make mentalray within maya use 100% of the processors?
turn off auto threads (maya 8,5 and above you must still set the treads in earlier mayas) for render options (either renderset > batchrender > optionbox or preview render > option box NOT render globals!!! Depending on render you use), set thhreads to either 8 or 10 or 16. Please note maya completes have less available licenses than maya unlimited. And unfortunately some older mayas DON'T have 8 proc licenses.
An yes not all parts of renders can use 100% of power form procs, sometimes most time is taken up by export and thats single threading.
Also note procs that hypertherad might show up erroneous % uses, by showing 50% whike it may be 100%
great news, while previous versions of maya w/mentalray does not use, or does not report using all 8 processors, maya 2008 does. I'm getting wicked render speeds on an 8core/8gig machine.
Next step is to get the the raysatserver working on the other 8core machines....