I am using 3d studio max 2008.
I have a female character that i am optimising.
She is 1 continous mesh and made up of several material ids ( multi sub-object).
I hide parts work on remving edges and do a quick render and the parts i have hidden are visible in the render.
Would appreciate some advice

Open the 'Render Setup' dialogue. You can find it on the menu under Rendering>Render Setup. There is also a button on the main toolbar somewhere near the Render button.

in the Common tab, under Common Parameters, there is an Options section. There should be a checkbox called "Render Hidden Geometry" or something similar. Make sure this is unchecked. Hopefully that solves the problem

If you are rendering in Mentalray..it has a tendency to render elements/polygons that are hidden using the "hide selected" button in the editpoly modifier.... one possible solution would be to add a mat in your multi-subobject material that is completely transparent..and whenever you want to hide those certain objects..set their mat id to that of the transparent material

Thanks fgor the replies.
Although changing the settings in the render output does hide in renders objects that are in selected i am still looking for a way to quick render with faces that are hidden when working in editable poly mode that are part of the mesh.
For example- i am working on her hand it has several rings on the fingers.I hide the faces that make up the rings but they are still showing when i quick render.
I could detach them but it would mean re-attaching again and i really need them to be part of the mesh.Its not only the hands but other areas too.

Is it a game character? Why not just use a DirectX shader? No need to render anymore then.