bucket mode or single frame?

Hi all

Im rendering a complex scene which often crashes out on me without warning and Im trying to optimize the settings and memory allocation, my questions is:

Is it safer to render in bucket mode to avoid memory related crashes or should i use single frame IR calculations?

Also on the note of crashes and optimizing, is it best to collapse meshes or keep to groups, should I uncheck generate GI on smaller objects etc etc basically any advice on avoiding crashing and long render times would be much appreciated.

thanks in advance

Groups can cause memory issues for sure. only way to see if that is your issue is to remove them .