Digital Art Zone

I will be getting a new PC with the following spec below.
My current system is slow for renders and when working in the view. Here are a few question on new version DS 4.5 and new hardware.
I plan to dish out over a grand on new PC workstation…...

1.) I have only a single core 3 Ghz CPU,  plan to get i7 4 core 3.4 Ghz CPU, This will help with render times for animations and high shadows on single images?

2.) Does DS 4.5 pro render faster with more cores? if so Has anyone seen a big change in i5 2 core to i7 4 core? don’t want to spend $$$ if DS 4.5 pro does not take advantage of this.

3.) I now have 32 bit O/S and only 4 Gig RAM, plan to get 8 or 16 Gig RAM Memory running on Winndows 7 64 bit, Will DS 4.5 pro use more memory? can I asign more though regedit or switch? Has anyone seen a big change 8 or 12 or 16 Gig RAM, can DS 4.5 pro even take advantage of this?

4.) The last is the Video card !!!, I know DS 4.0 still uses OpenGL 1.6, but new video card now use OpenGL 4.2 and DirectX 11.1, Does DS 4.5 use a newer version of OpenGL ? I do not know if the high end video card will work with older versions.  I am looking at one of the Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or 590 or 690 OEM (put OEM has been turn down in spec alittle) has anyone had good luck with thsese cards? I use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 540 1 Gig RAM card now, it still supports OpenGL 1.6 and is the fastst card my PC will support.

5.) I am looking to get 1 of the 3 systems, $900.00 = Alienware™ X51 mini, $1,200.00 XPS 850 tower, $1,500.00 Alienware Aurora tower. I know 2 of these are gaming system but they have all the CPU cores, speed and high end video cards…. Has anyone had any issues with DS 4.x Pro on theses systems????

If anyone has tested or upgraded PC and had good luck with newest high end hard ware please help.

Thanks

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

1.) I have only a single core 3 Ghz CPU,  plan to get i7 4 core 3.4 Ghz CPU, This will help with render times for animations and high shadows on single images?

Yes, very much.

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

2.) Does DS 4.5 pro render faster with more cores? if so Has anyone seen a big change in i5 2 core to i7 4 core? don’t want to spend $$$ if DS 4.5 pro does not take advantage of this.

Yes, you’ll see a big difference.

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

3.) I now have 32 bit O/S and only 4 Gig RAM, plan to get 8 or 16 Gig RAM Memory running on Winndows 7 64 bit, Will DS 4.5 pro use more memory? can I asign more though regedit or switch? Has anyone seen a big change 8 or 12 or 16 Gig RAM, can DS 4.5 pro even take advantage of this?

More memory will let you get more into a scene.  DS will use what it needs to for the scene; extra RAM won’t speed up rendering on a small scene.

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

4.) The last is the Video card !!!, I know DS 4.0 still uses OpenGL 1.6, but new video card now use OpenGL 4.2 and DirectX 11.1, Does DS 4.5 use a newer version of OpenGL ? I do not know if the high end video card will work with older versions.  I am looking at one of the Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or 590 or 690 OEM (put OEM has been turn down in spec alittle) has anyone had good luck with thsese cards? I use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 540 1 Gig RAM card now, it still supports OpenGL 1.6 and is the fastst card my PC will support.

A higher-end card will work even if DS doesn’t use all of the features.  A higher-end card can make the viewport more responsive, but unless you’re rendering videos using hardware renderer or using an external renderer which supports GPU rendering, you don’t need to go overboard on the video card.  NVIDIA cards work well with DS in my experience.

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

I will be getting a new PC with the following spec below.
My current system is slow for renders and when working in the view. Here are a few question on new version DS 4.5 and new hardware.
I plan to dish out over a grand on new PC workstation…...

1.) I have only a single core 3 Ghz CPU,  plan to get i7 4 core 3.4 Ghz CPU, This will help with render times for animations and high shadows on single images?

2.) Does DS 4.5 pro render faster with more cores? if so Has anyone seen a big change in i5 2 core to i7 4 core? don’t want to spend $$$ if DS 4.5 pro does not take advantage of this.

3.) I now have 32 bit O/S and only 4 Gig RAM, plan to get 8 or 16 Gig RAM Memory running on Winndows 7 64 bit, Will DS 4.5 pro use more memory? can I asign more though regedit or switch? Has anyone seen a big change 8 or 12 or 16 Gig RAM, can DS 4.5 pro even take advantage of this?

4.) The last is the Video card !!!, I know DS 4.0 still uses OpenGL 1.6, but new video card now use OpenGL 4.2 and DirectX 11.1, Does DS 4.5 use a newer version of OpenGL ? I do not know if the high end video card will work with older versions.  I am looking at one of the Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or 590 or 690 OEM (put OEM has been turn down in spec alittle) has anyone had good luck with thsese cards? I use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 540 1 Gig RAM card now, it still supports OpenGL 1.6 and is the fastst card my PC will support.

5.) I am looking to get 1 of the 3 systems, $900.00 = Alienware™ X51 mini, $1,200.00 XPS 850 tower, $1,500.00 Alienware Aurora tower. I know 2 of these are gaming system but they have all the CPU cores, speed and high end video cards…. Has anyone had any issues with DS 4.x Pro on theses systems????

If anyone has tested or upgraded PC and had good luck with newest high end hard ware please help.

Thanks

I’ve just upgraded my PC, and for me:

1. Yes CPU upgrade make a “Big” Difference.  I’m on i7 3930 now, and yes the render is faster about 30%-50% (I was on i5 before)
2. Absolutely.
3. I’m not sure about this, I was using 8 GB before, and now I’m using 16GB, but I’m not sure, since I can’t see the difference on performance.
4. Yes, but not a significant one. I was on GTX 460, now I’m on GTX 680. Yes it can handle more object better on the screen (preview scene)
but the fps is not significantly better, the preview (on a complex scenes)  is not as smooth as I thought . 

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

3.) I now have 32 bit O/S and only 4 Gig RAM, plan to get 8 or 16 Gig RAM Memory running on Winndows 7 64 bit, Will DS 4.5 pro use more memory? can I asign more though regedit or switch? Has anyone seen a big change 8 or 12 or 16 Gig RAM, can DS 4.5 pro even take advantage of this?

I just upgraded from 4GB to 16, and the big difference I’m seeing is that it’s no longer slowed down by using virtual memory, even when I’m also running other memory-hogging programs at the same time.

tberube - 09 September 2012 12:51 AM

I will be getting a new PC with the following spec below.
My current system is slow for renders and when working in the view. Here are a few question on new version DS 4.5 and new hardware.
I plan to dish out over a grand on new PC workstation…...

1.) I have only a single core 3 Ghz CPU,  plan to get i7 4 core 3.4 Ghz CPU, This will help with render times for animations and high shadows on single images?

2.) Does DS 4.5 pro render faster with more cores? if so Has anyone seen a big change in i5 2 core to i7 4 core? don’t want to spend $$$ if DS 4.5 pro does not take advantage of this.

3.) I now have 32 bit O/S and only 4 Gig RAM, plan to get 8 or 16 Gig RAM Memory running on Winndows 7 64 bit, Will DS 4.5 pro use more memory? can I asign more though regedit or switch? Has anyone seen a big change 8 or 12 or 16 Gig RAM, can DS 4.5 pro even take advantage of this?

4.) The last is the Video card !!!, I know DS 4.0 still uses OpenGL 1.6, but new video card now use OpenGL 4.2 and DirectX 11.1, Does DS 4.5 use a newer version of OpenGL ? I do not know if the high end video card will work with older versions.  I am looking at one of the Graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or 590 or 690 OEM (put OEM has been turn down in spec alittle) has anyone had good luck with thsese cards? I use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 540 1 Gig RAM card now, it still supports OpenGL 1.6 and is the fastst card my PC will support.

5.) I am looking to get 1 of the 3 systems, $900.00 = Alienware™ X51 mini, $1,200.00 XPS 850 tower, $1,500.00 Alienware Aurora tower. I know 2 of these are gaming system but they have all the CPU cores, speed and high end video cards…. Has anyone had any issues with DS 4.x Pro on theses systems????

If anyone has tested or upgraded PC and had good luck with newest high end hard ware please help.

Thanks

My experience with gaming systems is they are the best investment for entry level 3D apps like Studio provided they have sufficient RAM and 16GB is going to be very sufficient. Rendering with a dual core compared to a Quad core is night and day and from an i5 to an i7 the difference in speed is noticeable. Alienware is Dell and Dell makes a great product for the price vs the competition. It would be cheaper to build,  but if you don’t build these systems are an excellent alternative especially if you’re going to throw in gaming too. Just keep your video drivers up-to-date and you should be in good shape.

Thank you all for the answers.
I will go all the way with the extra memory and 4 core.