max 2009 x64 RAM issue

[Eliadan]

hello,

I have a scene of 750k~ polys (which I think is not that much) and when I open the .max file, it takes around 5 minutes to open (40 mb size). This I would understand, as it isn't loaded in cache etc...but then, when I check my memory management window, it constantly shows max uses 3gb of RAM (I have 4 gb).

Then, when I try to duplicate some many-polygon object within the scene, max almost always crashes. It also crashes at random times (all objects are collapsed to editable poly).
It's very frustrating, considering my PC isn't that bad (intel 2core, 4gb ram, geforce 250). I also keep my PC defragmented and all the stuff, so I am open to suggestions or solutions to this issue. Also saving the scene and exiting max takes ages. btw, I'm running win 7 x64

Cheers

[Nukie]

Max 2009 tends to have some strange compatibility issues. On my intern, they used 2009 under Vista, and I think I spend over 50% of the time I worked there, rebooting the computer than actually doing something useful.

Anyway. There might be a couple of things you could try to reduce all the problems you have:
- Make sure you don't have your materials (bitmaps) visible in your viewport if you're not working on them. Keeping all those materials visible is a major load for max.
- If you are not working on the lighting, use the default lights of max.
- Hide anything that is not useful while working on your scene. Especially things as hair and fur or particle systems can take a lot of ram to keep loaded.

You might also check the drivers of your video card, if they are up to date and all. It once happened to me that the newest nvidia drivers gave me a lot of performance issues in max, so I had to go back to older ones.

[Eliadan]

Yup, drivers are up to date.
It's work in progress, no materials or bitmaps are applied yet.
I work with layers and isolated objects, but despite this, it's very slow and my ram is on max.

As it seems, the issue has appeared since I copied kinda high-poly object 3 times (tyre+breaks+rims). Before that it was fast and smooth.
Any suggestions now?