3d computer update -> help

they don't have the card I wanna get ?

the ati radeon 9500/9700

 

I looked at that page before and it doesn't have the card I want..the 9000 pro

oh and i dun think i will get the 9500/9700...there like almost $400 +

 

forget ati, too many hassles/bugs. Nvidia has the best support these days in apps. Gf4 will do the job nicely. (you can always softquadro it anyway, altho its emulated, and doesnt perform the same as the real quadro..as a lot of people belive) also, apps like XSI 3 have full support for Nvidia Cg

what app are you going to use? kabab provided maya info,
but if thats not your cake (there is better cake )

all info can be found -

www.sidefx.com
www.discreet.com
www.softimage.com (yay)
www.newtek.com

get a system for the app, not the other way around. you will get much better performance if the system is built for one thing only.

1gb of ram is plenty. anymore and you need to look at how you create your scenes. the only time you need more, is when you NEED more. your not exactly going to be rendering 5mil polys with gi, fur, paintfx etc, so dont stress.

if you start paging, then look at more ram.

althon xp2200
1gb ram
gf4 4400
19" (or two)
18gb u160 (10k or faster)
29160 or similar

scsi is a must, less (almost nil) cpu overhead, fast seek, partioned with 4gb for a swap disk)

cheap(ish) system all up.

solid little workhorse. install linux or win2k, photoshop and whatever 3d app. and bam, you'll be happy as a cat in a hat.

3d mailing lists -

maya@highend3d.com
xsi@softimage.com
3d@softimage.com

forums.discreet.com (havent been there in years however)
newtek also have a good one.

 

Also check out the hardware area at cgtalk.com...

I am looking at building a lightwave rig in the next 6 weeks, P4 2.4, 1GB DDR, R9700... God I cannot wait for something faster than this stupid Cele 1000

It will be nice to see some realistic render times when using GI or Hair sim...

 

holy crap thanx heaps

best reply I have ever got

Yeah i heard about the quadro's owning for 3d aps so I wasnt sure about the ati card.

thanx

and maya is my cake

 

And the most tasty cake of them all

As for flexablilty i would recommend the quadro card works great with maya and you can still play games YAY !!!

 

cake is most debatable,

http://www.3dluvr.com/proffesso/Short/

some new stuff im workin on

 

nice....but the checker textures gotta go

 

Just playin

Very nice got a really nice feel about it

I'm working on a nissan R390 atm i'll post some screen shots in a few days.

 

cool, I did a 390 years ago (part of lemans) great car,

 

a word of advice: if you are using anything like lightwave, 3dsmax, maya, etc: stay away from radeon cards.

i know i'm going to piss a lot of people off here, but radeon cards realy don't handle these apps well. they are heavily optimised for games, and their current level of drivers become quite flakey under these professional applications.

nvidia's openGL drivers have been very accurate and very stable for a long time. take it from someone who uses the applications all day every day on a variety of systems: nvidia is the way for professional 3d software.

also, remember that blinding framerates aren't the goal of viewport animation. a consistent 25-35 FPS is all you need for your day to day work.

i'd recommend for the budget concious a 128MB gf4ti4200. you really won't notice a hack of a lot of difference between these and a faster ti4600, but the large amount of video ram will help immensly in those heavily textured scenes.

also, check out a great forum called http://www.cgtalk.com . there are plenty of budding and professional 3d artists there who can give a lot of sage advice in both hardware and software.

 

thanx...and don't worry I have been a member of cgtalk for quite some time.

I think nvidia is going to be my graphics cake

 

does anyone know any decent online hardware sellers. Since eyo and umart is all i know and there pretty poo for graphics cards.

 

PIMPAGE!!!

http://www.razorprices.com

 

Love that pimpage... gotta love em URL trackers

 

To give you a slightly different tack on the situation, I use maya with a 64mb 8500. It's fine, even with complex scenes.

I've been benching viewport fps between it and the quadro 550's at tafe, the quadro's are generally only about 5fps faster, until you get scenes that are over about 80 000 faces, when the quadro's are about 7-8 fps faster. All the time, the fps hasn't yet dropped below about 35-40.

Now I'm not saying that quadros aren't good, they are, so are firegl's, however they are not the be all and end all of gfx cards.

Ati and nvidia? I wouldn't worry, my 8500 outperforms my friends ti4200 in maya, but neither outperform a ti4600 or a 9500...

If I were you, concentrate on your cpu/monitor/ram.

You want at least 2ghz, more is nicer. At least 512, and that should do you fine if you don't mind waiting ages during rendering (512 is easily taken up during rendertime if you have complex/multiple shaders happening), and a nice big 19inch monitor is always good.

Get a better gfx card latter, if you want a 'pro' gfx card. Forget nvidia and ati, get a 3d labs, once you've used on of those you know what pro means.

 

yeah just go a wildcat card 6110 would be nice to bad it would be worth more then the system..

If you don't wanna play games on that rig find a 2nd hand Firegl2..

 

Ammending my last post.

Isometrix didn't say whether he was going to be using his rig professionally or in a learning/evaluation capacity.

Elvis is right as far as a proffesional rig goes, however I added my experience in if Iso is eg. a student, or learning about 3d etc.

You don't really want to spend the money on a pro 3d card and only find out a few months later that's it's not really what you want.

Either way, good luck.

 

yeah good point...i am only learning 3d but I'm pretty certain it will be my career. Anyway ill buy some l33t rig when i have the cash coming in...in a few year time (im still in yr 12)....I just want something that will be sweet for when i goto cgc or aie down in canberra, any comments on which is better ?

thanx

 

Get a pro card so you can't play games that way you won't get distracted