What is more critical when loading large Image files? RAM or Graphics Card

[jtgb]

For those experts out there in memory and systems in general - which is more critical for loading large raster images into a drawing - the amount of RAM your system has or the amount of RAM on your video card?

For example - i have a drawing with 6 TIFF images that are each about 330MB. I could load this drawing with no problem in Acad (with Raster Design loaded), but have since changed to Civil 3D (with Raster Design) and can longer load the drawing without encountering a fatal "Out of Memory" error. I was running 1 GB of system memory with a 128 MB video card and have since upgraded to 4 GB or RAM with the same 128MB video card. It doesn't seem to make any difference - the additional RAM still won't load the drawing. Any ideas?

Thanks

[blong]

ARD uses a hard disk swap file, not RAM. This is why in options there is a 50meg limit on RAM. Set the "Temporary File Location" in ARD Options to a location with many GIG of space. The temp files will be quite large. Using a second harddrive or very fast hard drives will also help. Also I convert all .tiff files to .jpg. this seems to help as well.

[de-co1]

In addition to what jgtb says, your graphics card will only really come into play when regenerating on screen. Zooming and panning around will benefit from a higher spec graphics card, but won't assist you with your 'out of memory' problem.