anyone know if there is a solution for running max with a dual xeon 6 core 6 threads (24) each with a cuadro fx 6000
when i activate the hyperthreading option in the setup max simply wont start when deactivated works fine is like having a ferrari pulled by horses

you will only get a 15% performance boost on some scenes,
hyperthreading aint all that

Manchester Motion capture, Fully Body and Facial http://www.mocapone.com/

Not sure what the issue is, but I have a similar system (24 core dual Xeons) and for rendering it always uses all 24 cores. But many of the other operations in Max it only use one. Most operations uses several, but not all. Still, it’s all in the rendering mostly- that and what your graphics card can handle.

Doug
http://www.dbowker3d.com

New England independent 3D animator specializing in technical, mechanical and medical animation.
System: Dual Intel Xeons E5645 2.4GHz (24 cores), 24GB RAM, Quadro 4000, Win 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
3DS Max user since r2

In some cases, hyperthreading speeds up renders considerably. I had a project that used Vue Xstream objects etc. heavily with Mental Ray. Without HT it took ~15 minutes to render a frame, with HT, it dropped to nearly 10 minutes (~33%). It saved me hours of time while rendering animation.

As I remember, I had the same issue when I was using Max 2010(on Win 7 x64). After I upgraded to 2011, it was solved.

Isn’t there a feature in the advantage pack that lets you pick how many cores you want to use?

3dsmax 2012 14.0 SP2 / Mudbox 2012 / Windows 7 Pro 64-bit / i7-2600k 3.40GHz o|c to 4.5GHz / 16GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB / 2x 1920 x 1200 / 1TB WD HD / Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 / Emprex 6310U Keyboard / Wacom Bamboo Pen / Nescafé Alta Rica black, no sugar.

I have the same setup dual 6 Xeon and yea its annoying that max only uses one core for certain things, make me not wanna have a 24 core system sometimes, its almost a waste of cores, i dont think there is an option in max to change how many cores you want

The number of cores that can be used is based on how the software itself is written. Currently, Max is not fully enabled for hyperthreading but mental ray is.  In general, Autodesk recommends disabling hyperthreading as that improves the speed when actually working in the software while a significant speed gain will be noticed using hyperthreading while rendering.  So what does it all mean?  It is user preference at this time.  If you are fast and stable enough with hyperthreading on, go for it, just be aware that some operations will take longer but your renderings will process mor quickly.  If the instability and speed are an issue, turn hyperthreading off.

Stephen

Some of you need to stop confusing logical cores with physical cores. There’s a big difference.

As for hyper-threading, I haven’t noticed much of a gain at all, and in some cases a slow down.

Max 4 -> 2012 + AP
Dual Xeon Hex-Core @ 3.33 GHz, 12 GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 4000, GTX 460 x 2
Win7 64