Yesterday after downloading 16k terrain data from Mapbox I discovered I'm unable to work on them since the node filled my 32GB Ram and started swapping in the virtual memory, blocking the system till I need to reboot it.

Currently using an HDD as virtual memory target due to the other SSD being too full, I was thinking what can be the most effective way to proceed so to being able to work

- upgrade to 64GB Ram, max allowed from my system. Still im not sure will be enough (in another freeze I was looking at 110GB VM allocated) so using again slow VM drive probably will reach the same blocking situation
- without RAM upgrade, upgrade to a 1TB NVMe drive, shared for OS and programs, using it also for VM
- also no more RAM but to 1TB SATA SSD + 256GB NVMe, using the bigger for OS and programs and the smaller for swap, cache and VM.I was reading this article where seems NVMe vs Sata didn't change much, but being my case not simulation with caching not sure is appicable.
https://www.mediaworkstations.net/2019/08/30/houdini-software-system-requirements-and-benchmarks-cache-disk-and-ram-part-ii-of-iii/ [www.mediaworkstations.net]
- upgrade to 64GB Ram and a new 256GB NVMe drive for VM and cache.
- was reading also the possibility to use some PDG node to optimize memory usage, but being I already stuck on the Mapbox node I think this will be only a later stage solution

Someone more expert than me can share his ideas.

VM and Houdini do not play well, at least in DOP land.

The best bet is:

- upgrade to 64GB Ram and a new 256GB NVMe drive for VM and cache.

Thanks for this answer.
If 64GB will be not enough will anyway use VM, using a NVMe drive will make any difference vs a SATA one for paging file?
I can also upgrade to 64GB RAM and purchase a 1TB SATA SSD so to switch there also Houdini (currently installed on the HDD due to lack of space on the OS SSD).

jsut ran some swap tests, out of interest, on a 970 Plus and a Sata SSD.

They both die under Houdini's load, your main issue is that you'll need to keep some cpu cores free to at least control the computer a bit once it goes wobbly. Launch Houdini using the -j command to limit processes:

/opt/hfs17.5.425$ source houdini_setup
The Houdini 17.5.425 environment has been initialized.
/opt/hfs17.5.425$ houdini -j6

Leave 2 cores free out of 8 on this cpu.

I can't recommend either, as it doesn't really work for me, but in theory the NVme is better.

That's REALLY interesting, really thanks for testing.
Didn't know about your CPU, but your PC freezes both swapping on SATA and NVMe?
Btw I was looking to purchase exactly the 970 Evo Plus NVMe drive.

Both drives are not freezing using the -j command, but the CPU usage drops to below 15%, so the computer barely processes at all. This on a flip test just eating up ram - so it could be different in your use case.

Was asking if the PC was freezing, as in my case.
In my case the cpu became stuck at 100%,ram at 100% and next the system freeze attempting to work on VM.

Maybe I needed to specify I'm working on Windows. I didn't find an option to allocate a specific number of thread/cores, or there is one.

davide445
Maybe I needed to specify I'm working on Windows.

I think crashing is a Windows feature

In all seriousness, Linux has great capabilities when dealing with memory issues -from ssh-ing in to kill processes, to launching tty terminals when the gui stops. It also uses jemalloc for memory management, which is best in class, even if it allows facebook to run

That's the way this machine kept running when thrashing it with VM tests

goat
In all seriousness, Linux has great capabilities when dealing with memory issues -from ssh-ing in to kill processes, to launching tty terminals when the gui stops. It also uses jemalloc for memory management, which is best in class, even if it allows facebook to run

Using Houdini with the final goal to replace 3dsmax (Windows only), I was testing it also on my KDE Neon secondary boot.
Unfortunately I'm needing to use Mapbox on steroids node (https://gumroad.com/l/IMnXK)
to gather high res terrain data, and is not working correctly on Linux (at least not for me).
So I'm stuck on Windows and didn't know if Linux might be working in this workflow.
Btw I find Houdini great for terrains, but really cumbersome to work with CAD files, so I doubt will be able to replace 3dsmax soon.