So yeah, this is a pretty basic question regarding information I really should know by now...
But, I'm rendering items in Max with a new lighting setup, which is horrendously slow (for example, one cab scene is now over an hour into a render and I'm not even half way there ). Those I know who are also using a similar setup seem to be able to do this in near enough ten minutes, so I want to know what the secret to a fast render. I have a good system (I think) which has an i7-2700k o/c'd to 4.2Ghz, a GTX580 and 8Gb of Corsair Vengeance Jet Black RAM (DDR3 1600Mhz). So taking into account what I learned in my computer architecture lectures last year, along with the assumption that all the main components in my system are fairly decent parts, I'd have to assume Max can't do too many of it's light-traced calculations with 8Gb of RAM. So is the RAM the issue here? I do seem to have a large CPU usage by Max (around 80-90%) but the RAM is also pretty much maxed out.
So what's the amount of RAM other people have for arduous tasks like light-traced renders? I'm open to getting more (max can be 16Gb without ditching the current pair of sticks and buying some fresh ones).
Thanks folks!
Kevin