%| Why is Blender running so slow on my PC (2800+, 512 MB Ram, ati radeon 9800pro…)
I start Blender (any Version) and everything works fine for the first 2 minutes or so but after a while it really slows down and I have to restart it…
I have Win XP…
does anybody have an idea?
(512 MB Ram was enough to run Blender under 98…)
I’ve seen other people have the same problem recently, and I think they all used ati graphics cards. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
it’s the ati - use the search function to find other posts about this topic, there are lot’s of them. i heard, that the lates catalyst should solve the problem…
marin
Heh, we should make a sticky thread at the top of the Forum “Get rid of your ATI card” 
I don’t understand why everyone keeps blaming this problem on graphics cards the whole time. There are also other reasons that could slow Blender down. I had the same problem myself but I resolved it without having to buy a new graphics card. It’s just a question of trouble shooting.
First of all Glowie, Windows XP is known to be one of the most resource draining Windows releases to date so this is probably responsible for some slow downs although I guess there’s not that much we can do about that.
What other software do you have installed? You probably have some kind of anti-virus software, please specify. Do you download a lot of software from the internet? How many items do you have running in your system tray?
And about your graphics card. Does it have a cooler on it or just a heat sync? Or both? The ATI Radeon Pros with heat sync are know to over heat very quickly without additional cooling from another fan. I know it sounds dumb but an independent body of hardware testers actually recommend this. Have you over clocked your graphics card or CPU?
What is the general room temperature of your PC? Has Blender always been slow on this particular computer? When is the last time you run defragmentation or cleaned up the registry?
If you can answer these questions I think we might be able to find a solution. I just need to know a little more.
I don’t understand why everyone keeps blaming this problem on graphics cards the whole time. There are also other reasons that could slow Blender down. I had the same problem myself but I resolved it without having to buy a new graphics card. It’s just a question of trouble shooting.
almost all reported slowdowns “…after some minutes…” ARE due to ATI graphic cards - i consider this a fact.
First of all Glowie, Windows XP is known to be one of the most resource draining Windows releases to date so this is probably responsible for some slow downs although I guess there’s not that much we can do about that.
don’t blame XP for that - blender stays interactive on my machine even if my pagefile is over one gig (except the sequence editor - but this is adifferent issue)
What other software do you have installed? You probably have some kind of anti-virus software, please specify. Do you download a lot of software from the internet? How many items do you have running in your system tray?
i agree in this point, background services can slowdown foreground applications. but again, there have to be some major tasks going on in the background in order to cause blender to run noticeably slower.
A graphics card isn’t the only component inside of a computer. It can be due to an incompatibility with the mother board. Did you know that the sound card can slow your computer down?
Do you have any idea how much extra ram Windows XP uses? Don’t be so naive.
And about background applications. Many programs that can run in your system tray have automatic update features. This means they constantly search online for the latest versions. If you’re not connected to the Internet at this time, the program will keep searching and most never get timed out. This causes accumilations of memory being used and therefor causes a memory leak. So you see that a little task can cause big problems on your computer.
Almost everyone has anti-virus software and you can’t say that this isn’t doing that much. If you don’t set this software up properly, it will turn Blender into a complete granny.
Why is it that people only bring the ATI Radeon cards up in cases where Blender runs so slow? There are a lot of people in these forums that have ATI Radeons and Blender runs fine. How do you explain this? DirectX can also cause a lot of problems and that has very little to do with the graphics card you have installed. DirectX is a joke of an EXE and was only chosen because Microsoft wouldn’t give in to the better open source alternatives.
Dirvers for your graphics cards can also play a major role in performance.
Try and look at things from a broader view.
actually, it is a bit odd
catalyst 3.10 or later drivers seem to cause slowdown, a delayed response after you spin the view
and for me, the render window appearing causes the other window (the main one) to stop redrawing, making blender useless
it turns out that 2.23 (and prior) versions of blender also don’t have this problem
I can recreate this error, and debug blender (it is kind of kludgy how I have to do it, but that is another story), so, given time and motivation I will look for the problem
phew, solid, i appreciate your broad-vision, but given the facts that glawie posted, it sounds exactly like hundrets of other posts and all of them were related to ati cards! i can’t imagine that some mysterious background services start with blender, eat up memory within 2 minutes, disappear when blender is closed down and reappear after the next blender startup to do the same again - this i call naive.
however this high-level-broad-vision discussion won’t solve glawie’s problem - so glawie, say something and tell us we’re wrong, or at least tell us you got a new proper graphic card (or, wait, it may be your sound card?!)
leaving the arena with kind regards
marin
(§$& :< %(§(/= MY window closed down on me so I have to write everything again… i`ll make it short) :< %|
t get to hot, none of my hardware overheats!! :x (around 45°C, Room temperature around 18-19°C, I´m writing from germany, I dont know what that`s in farenheit)
TNX MFG
Glawie
maybe a new treiber can solve your problem
gruß
marin
It would appear that Windows XP is causing the problem, as opposed to the graphics card. ATI Radeon pros are good cards. I don’t see any reason to change your graphics card. My advice to you would be to install Windows 2000 Professional.
You should also try and avoid the catalyst drivers. It’s like using the detonator driver for an nvidia card. Doesn’t work all that well.
Ist deutsch deine Muttersprache? Dein Englisch find ich ganze gut.
PS solomax, do you still think it’s a graphics card problem? Perhaps it’s a coincidence that the graphics card stopped working properly after windows XP was installed. I do wonder…
Another reason why I’ll never get an ATI based card.
lol… what do you work for ATI or something? I could understand if Windows XP was still brand new and few big players had gotten drivers out, but it’s been out for awhile now. ATI has had ample time to create good drivers for XP but aparantly they havn’t done all that good yet.
It’s NOT XP. As much as I hate it, I’ve had Blender working great with systems using less than 512 megs of memory, and everything from on-board video to high end geforce cards.
We’re not bashing ATI cards either, but it is a known fact that certain versions of their drivers have problems with blender. That is just the way it is! Stop trying to find something else to blame, and start going through the advice that the ATI users on this forum have posted about their own experiences, and you might actually get something working.
I don’t think it’s ATI’s fault that they have to put up with the disfunctionalities of DirectX. You’ve probably noticed that ATI cards run perfectly fine on linux machines. This is because linux uses something much better than DirectX.
I have nothing against windows in general. It’s just that it is an Operating System and when your system fails to operate properly, it probably has something to do with it.
With all the problems that I’ve had with Blender slowing down, it’s always been a Windows problem. I’m just tired of reading these about Blender being slow and the only response people get is: “Buy another graphics card” That’s not very helpful as graphics cards aren’t that cheap.
If two people speaking different languages, one speaking German and the other speaking English, which one of them is to blame for not being able to understand one another. Do you blame the German speaker for not knowing such a well known language.
This compares to the incompatibilities between windows and other hardware/software components.
I wonder if windows really is working towards making it easier for graphics card companies to make drivers for their hardware?
Have a nice day everyone
Well, I think we can all agree on the fact that windows operating systems suck
But I wouldn’t say that Graphics cards aren’t cheap… Given the fact that you get an incredible graphics engine and a huge amount of fast memory, including a PCB, Fan, and software, all for around $80, I would rather say it’s INCREDIBLY cheap.
A graphics card that could do 640x480 in 16 colors has cost 10 times as much in 1990.
So what do you want these people to do? Force everyone to move to Linux? Too many people still would die in Linux or simply don’t want to mess with getting it. And the way I see it, if ATI’s Driver dosn’t work, it’s their problem. Not Microsoft’s, and as much as I dislike M$, don’t throw blame on them that does not belong to them. And btw, the English-German example is not a very good one…
I just think that it’s imortant for people to look into their computer problems with an open mind. I think looking into windows for the problem is a good place to start as opposed to just assuming and blaming the graphics card.
I’m sorry that you don’t find my example good. I was never good at communicating with others…sorry
I rest my case
Ok, i have a windows 98 600Mhz 512DDR ram and a ATI RADEON 9000
Blender runs great on my comp If its running slow try defraging your computer or doing a scan disk also if it continues make sure u dont have any advertizing or things you dont need! Go CTRL ALT DEL to see what you have running. I made it so when i turn on my comp i only have Explorer Atipixx and systray running besides when i open other programs or other stuff!