| Author |
Message |
    
Don French
New member
Username: Donfrench
Post Number: 1
Registered: 8-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 5:39 pm: |   |
Is there any advantage in having a dual processor system when using Panorama Factory? Also, does anyone have recommendations for the best motherboard/processor for working on very large panos? |
John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait
Post Number: 319
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 5:54 pm: | |
The Panorama Factory uses parallel processing to run faster on multi-processor systems (dual, quad or more processors). For example, on a dual-processor system, it gives half the work to each processor and runs nearly twice as fast as if it used only one processor.
To get this advantage, you must run the m32 or x64 Edition of The Panorama Factory. The m32 Editions runs on Windows XP Service Pack 2 or newer. The x64 Edition requires a 64-bit computer running Windows x64.
Unfortunately, it is not possible for The Panorama Factory to take advantage of multi-processors on systems prior to Windows XP Service Pack 2, so the Legacy Edition of The Panorama Factory only uses a single processor.
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Don French
New member
Username: Donfrench
Post Number: 2
Registered: 8-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 5:59 pm: | |
Sorry, I see that this question was already answered in the FAQ (the answer is no). And I was about to ask about what I need to run the 64-bit version but I went back and did a search and see that this has already been answered too (XP64). But what I now wonder is if there is a maximum to the amount of RAM that PF can use. XP64 supports 128G, which is a little more than I can afford (to say the least), but could 64-bit PF use all of that if it were available? Last, I still would appreciate any recommendations for motherboards that support a lot of RAM and a 64 bit processor, if anyone has any. Thanks. |
Don French
New member
Username: Donfrench
Post Number: 3
Registered: 8-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 6:02 pm: | |
Gee, our messages crossed in the ether. Well, it seems that you are now contradicting what I read in the FAQ. But I am glad to hear it! I will begin shop for a multi-processor 64-bit system with room for lots of RAM. |
John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait
Post Number: 320
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 6:19 pm: | |
Yeah, the FAQ is full of out-of-date information. The m32 and x64 Editions were released at the beginning of 2006 (see http://www.panoramafactory.com/news_v4p2.html), so any older FAQ articles may apply only to the Legacy Edition.
If I could clone myself a few dozen times  , maybe I could weed out the old information. But there just aren't enough hours in the day.
The x64 Edition will make use of all the RAM available on your Windows x64 system. And even if you don't have 128G of RAM, the virtual memory system in Windows x64 gives each application 1 terabyte (1000 GB) of virtual memory space -- providing your page file is big enough.
We recommend that you enlarge the default size of the page file as described in the FAQ article Increase swap file size for Windows NT, 2000 and XP. Actually on Windows x64 you might want to increase the page file to 4 GB or even more. Increasing the initial size of the page file is important because performance really suffers if Windows enlarges the page file while the application is running. And apparently, Windows sometimes signals "out of memory" while it is enlarging the page file, so you risk application failure at that point.
Hope this helps!
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John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait
Post Number: 321
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 - 6:28 pm: | |
Sorry, I don't have any specific processor recommendations. Both AMD and Intel make fine 64-bit processors. AMD calls them AMD64 and Intel calls them Intel 64 or EM64T.
Although Windows might support up to 128 GB of RAM, I doubt there are any motherboards that support that much. I'm not sure what's possible right now--maybe 16 GB?? Anyway, when shopping for a new computer, you should definitely look carefully at the number of RAM slots and how what size RAM modules are supported.
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Frank Grages
New member
Username: Frank_grages
Post Number: 9
Registered: 7-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, September 01, 2007 - 9:28 am: | |
Don,
I´m running PanoramaFactory 4.5 64 Bit edition on a Athlon64 X2 4800 CPU using Windows Vista 64 Bit with 4 GB of RAM.
The biggest panoramas I have created werde made of 45 pictures (3 rows x 15 images) with ~65 MB each (16 Bit Images from a 10 MP camera).
It was no problem at all to stitch these images. With my machine, it took about 3-5 minutes for the last step of the stitching wizard to create the panaorama in full resolution (about 15.000 x 3000 pixel).
The best thing is, the finalization was running in the background while I was surfing or browsing pictures for my next project.
-Frank |
Dane hidden
New member
Username: Wicode
Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2008
| | Posted on Saturday, March 01, 2008 - 7:47 pm: | |
Might I suggest
GA-M57SLI-S4 REV2.0 -- MOBO
2x 2x2gig DDR2 kit From G.Skill == Ram total 8Gig
Phenom 9500+ Quad Core == CPU
Windows Vista x64 == OS
and atleast 4 identical SataII harddrives to run in raid for max speed .
I have a very similar setup and it just burns through anything I throw at it. Video compositing, panorama stitching, and F@H.
This isn't all the newest and latest and greatest but it is rediculously fast and much less expensive then the bleeding edge stuff out there right now. look for those items on Froogle.com
or TigerDirect.com. Thats where I do most of my shopping.
Good Luck
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Jay Groccia
New member
Username: Onsitestudios
Post Number: 1
Registered: 6-2008
| | Posted on Friday, June 27, 2008 - 5:23 pm: | |
I have a machine with an Intel Centrino Duo processor. It is one of the "dual core" processors and I want to know if it can take advantage of the M32 version.
Thanks,
Jay |
John Strait
Moderator
Username: Jstrait
Post Number: 366
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 - 6:36 pm: | |
If you are running Windows XP or newer, the m32 Edition will automatically detect the number of processor cores on your computer. When PF uses the two processor cores, it will run significantly faster (nearly 2x) than if it just used one core.
This capability is also available in the Windows x64 Edition. It is not yet available for Mac OS X, but is under development now.
(Message edited by jstrait on June 29, 2008) |
