glass..three years on!

[RErender]

Most motherboards come with a monitoring software, otherwise there are several freeware progs. I don't think it shows up in MyComputer. Worst case is reboot into bios and check the temps there.

[trick]

AMD has a monitor utility that checks frequency on both cores !!

[meanadam]

The x2 (ours anyway) actually uses less memory during LC calculation than dual xeons - somtimes up to 500mb less. Unlike trick, we do all calculations on the x2 and render back to the xeons.

Tricky -
Turn off area shadows - especially on that tree!

Is the gravel displaced too?

No - never a problem with planar glass. It is actually better (see bad shadow on the mullion at the glass base). And you don't have 2 planes of glass refracting and reflection each other in an endless loop (I hope you set your max bounce override?)

Also, what kind of glossy subdivisions are you using on the glass (and floor)? Can probably get away with less.

[trick]

Just did a giant Light Cache file on an X2 and it gave no problems at all. Both cores were running at full speed all the way.

I mainly use the fastest WORKstations for Lightcache because they are faster, have 4GB (3GB with switch) and they can do one or multiple passes per night, and because the farm is also rendering Lightwave scenes, which are not that optimal for dual Xeons with HT.