Pixinsight config help

[Anthonyexmouth]

Ok, just finished building my new processing/light gaming machine. Still need to add more storage at some point but it's up and running 

5700g

64gb 3600mhz ram 

1tb gen4 nvme 

Been using an old gen 4 i7 until now so wondering if there are any settings in pix I can change to optimise processes in my new machine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Starflyer]

A ram disk really helps, I can't remember my exact config but I have 32GB with 16GB dedicated to the ram disk, set as 8 scratch folders in PI, I think, Google will tell you more.

There are some settings to make PI use your GPU for certain functions too, this speeds up star removal massively.

Then there's the PI benchmark, you can benchmark your system upload the results and compare the results to other machines.  Take a benchmark before you start tweaking so you can see how much of an improvement you're getting.

Sorry I can't be of more help with the specific setup, but these should point you in the right direction.

[Anthonyexmouth]

2 hours ago, Starflyer said:

A ram disk really helps, I can't remember my exact config but I have 32GB with 16GB dedicated to the ram disk, set as 8 scratch folders in PI, I think, Google will tell you more.

There are some settings to make PI use your GPU for certain functions too, this speeds up star removal massively.

Then there's the PI benchmark, you can benchmark your system upload the results and compare the results to other machines.  Take a benchmark before you start tweaking so you can see how much of an improvement you're getting.

Sorry I can't be of more help with the specific setup, but these should point you in the right direction.

what did you use to setup the ram disk? I've just build a SFF maxxed out with 64gb. wanted as much as i could get in there. Also running a 980 pro nvme 1tb

[Starflyer]

I think it was ImDisk Toolkit, I'm away from my PC at the moment but that rings a bell. It loads at startup and I'd forgotten about it until you posted, it just works.

I run the same nvme disk and it's fast, but a ram disk for PI's swap files is way faster. Screenshot your benchmarks, I'd be interested to see the progress as you tweak things.

[Stuart1971]

On 25/08/2022 at 08:44, Anthonyexmouth said:

Ok, just finished building my new processing/light gaming machine. Still need to add more storage at some point but it's up and running 

5700g

64gb 3600mhz ram 

1tb gen4 nvme 

Been using an old gen 4 i7 until now so wondering if there are any settings in pix I can change to optimise processes in my new machine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add more swap folders, about 6 on each drive you have installed as long as they are SSD drives, makes a big difference.

delete the swap folder it creates by default, and make a new one on C drive called Pixinsight swap folder, and add It multiple times under edit, global preferences, network and folders, don’t create different folders, just the one and add the same one multiple times, I have three SSD drives in my machine and have 6 swap folders on each drive…

if You just have the one drive then add 8, or 10 or more to that drive and it will still give a good speed increase…👍🏻

Edited August 26, 2022 by Stuart1971

[Anthonyexmouth]

57 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Add more swap folders, about 6 on each drive you have installed as long as they are SSD drives, makes a big difference.

delete the swap folder it creates by default, and make a new one on C drive called Pixinsight swap folder, and add It multiple times under edit, global preferences, network and folders, don’t create different folders, just the one and add the same one multiple times, I have three SSD drives in my machine and have 6 swap folders on each drive…

if You just have the one drive then add 8, or 10 or more to that drive and it will still give a good speed increase…👍🏻

I just watched a Cuiv video and his benchmarking showed that there was no difference when using multiple folders and only time a ramdisk he;lped was under linux. How much improvement did you notice?

[Stuart1971]

4 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I just watched a Cuiv video and his benchmarking showed that there was no difference when using multiple folders and only time a ramdisk he;lped was under linux. How much improvement did you notice?

I got 15-20% increase, just try it and then run the PI benchmark script before and after and you will see, no harm done in trying, if not just delete all but one of the folders….👍🏻

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 minute ago, Stuart1971 said:

I got 15-20% increase, just try it and then run the PI benchmark script before and after and you will see, no harm done in trying, if not just delete all but one of the folders….👍🏻

Aparently the benchmark script does show and increase but he done some real world tests. 

 

 

[Stuart1971]

1 minute ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Aparently the benchmark script does show and increase but he done some real world tests. 

 

 

Ok, well it’s up to you, was just an idea….didn’t hurt to try…👍🏻

[Stuart1971]

3 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Aparently the benchmark script does show and increase but he done some real world tests. 

 

 

Also swap folders only really are useful on separate SSD, I have three in my system, they do work on the C drive, but best on different drives to get the full benefit…👍🏻

[Anthonyexmouth]

Just now, Stuart1971 said:

Also swap folders only really are useful on separate SSD, I have three in my system, they do work on the C drive, but best on different drives to get the full benefit…👍🏻

Ah, ok. Might be worth trying if/when i can afford to add another nvme drive. I'm probably being greedy anyway. WBPP is blazingly fast with this new machine compared to my old gen 4 i7 

[Stuart1971]

2 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Ah, ok. Might be worth trying if/when i can afford to add another nvme drive. I'm probably being greedy anyway. WBPP is blazingly fast with this new machine compared to my old gen 4 i7 

Swap has no effect on WBPP, it’s only for post processing where you have an undo function….

What do you mean by fast, I have a Ryzen 9 5900, which is better than the i9, and with full calibration frames Darks, flats and dark flats, (not masters) and 160 x 2 min lights it still took 1 hour 45 mins

[Stuart1971]

I only have 32gb RAM

[Anthonyexmouth]

27 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

I only have 32gb RAM

Hmm. just tried to run my data from last night to get a time to compare and keep getting LN generation fail in WBPP. 

[scotty38]

32 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Swap has no effect on WBPP, it’s only for post processing where you have an undo function….

What do you mean by fast, I have a Ryzen 9 5900, which is better than the i9, and with full calibration frames Darks, flats and dark flats, (not masters) and 160 x 2 min lights it still took 1 hour 45 mins

I have an old i5 and 16GB of RAM and dream of 160 lights taking under 2 hours.....

Spare a thought for the little guys 🙂 🙂 

[Anthonyexmouth]

7 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

I have an old i5 and 16GB of RAM and dream of 160 lights taking under 2 hours.....

Spare a thought for the little guys 🙂 🙂 

My 7 yr old i7 laptop is taking a well deserved rest. i'll redo the thermal paste and new battery but glad i finally got around to building this new SFF 

[Anthonyexmouth]

Anyone point me in the areas to check why this is failing. 

[Stuart1971]

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Hmm. just tried to run my data from last night to get a time to compare and keep getting LN generation fail in WBPP. 

Hmm, I have seen this issue mentioned quite a bit recently….on the PI for beginners FB group… local normalisation failure…🤔🤔

[Anthonyexmouth]

2 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

Hmm, I have seen this issue mentioned quite a bit recently….on the PI for beginners FB group… local normalisation failure…🤔🤔

never had it before, this is a complete new install on my new pc and wasnt sure if i'd done something wrong. 

[scotty38]

Any better clues in the log files?

[Starflyer]

18 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Ah, ok. Might be worth trying if/when i can afford to add another nvme drive. I'm probably being greedy anyway. WBPP is blazingly fast with this new machine compared to my old gen 4 i7 

RAM disk for swap is way faster than nvme, like 10x plus faster.

[Anthonyexmouth]

1 hour ago, Starflyer said:

RAM disk for swap is way faster than nvme, like 10x plus faster.

Cuiv done some testing and the  real world results showed no improvement using a ramdisk under windows and a little improvement under linux. I posted his video a bit further up. 

 

[Starflyer]

19 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Cuiv done some testing and the  real world results showed no improvement using a ramdisk under windows and a little improvement under linux. I posted his video a bit further up. 

 

Thanks for opening my eyes to this, I've done some reading and now this makes perfect sense.  In the past I was only using the benchmark results and it appears the benchmark doesn't reflect real life use cases.  I had super fast undo / redo though 😄

I'll revert to no RAM disk and set up the swap space on my nvme when I next process some images and see what difference it makes.

[Stuart1971]

9 minutes ago, Starflyer said:

Thanks for opening my eyes to this, I've done some reading and now this makes perfect sense.  In the past I was only using the benchmark results and it appears the benchmark doesn't reflect real life use cases.  I had super fast undo / redo though 😄

I'll revert to no RAM disk and set up the swap space on my nvme when I next process some images and see what difference it makes.

I get a 15-20% increase with 18 swap files across three SSD drives…Try it and see, but this is assuming the benchmark is correct…🤔🤔

At the end of the day, swap space is only there for the undo and redo part of processing anyway…👍🏻

Edited August 28, 2022 by Stuart1971