Medium-sized scene won't render OR Preview

[keeganrms]

Hello there!

I'm rendering an asteroid field scene with a moderate amount of object particles (~1000), Plus a couple moderate-poly spaceship models. The scene will no longer preview OR render after the scene got to a certain size. My RAM spikes up to 98% and holds there forever basically until I try to exit. In the Octane Preview the top bar says "Rendering" While the text inside the preview window simply says "Scene evaluation"

In the render window, the render gets stuck at "Processing Geometry"

I'm beginning to think this might be a problem where my machine doesn't have enough RAM (16GB) to render the scene, but mental ray seems to do it no problem. Also the scene isn't that big! I tried Changing Kernel types to no avail. The only way I can get Octane to render or preview is to start hiding objects, which doesn't help me. My workaround right now is to disable everything, load up the preview, enable one or two objects, refresh the preview and repeat. But even this only goes so far and will crash eventually.

Any thoughts?

Specs:
Windows 10 home 64-bit
16GB RAM
i7-3770k CPU (3.5GHz)
Nvidia GTX 1060

[paride4331]

Hi keeganrms,
I think your issue depends on Vram.
Windows 10 compared to windows 7 eats about 20% of available Vram.
Does your GTX 1060 has 6GB or 3GB?
If GTX 1060 6GB, then you have available around 4.8GB; add monitors, 3dsMax viewport.. Vram available for OCtane is not much.
Considering use of particles, your issue is quite possible.
Try to make tests by decreasing total particles amount and checking Octane renders.
Developers are experiencing PFlow optimization, meanwhile my advice is to use ForestPack whenever possible, It's works very well with massive instances.
If your inclination is 3D graphics, I recommend adding a GTX like 1070, 1080, (a 1080TI would be the best) to your PC.
Use your GTX 1060 with OS / monitor, and GTX 1080TI with Octane Render.
So you would have 11GB Vram available and fast render.
Regrads
Paride