Operating System...?

chrislillytv

So I’ve recently learned that my Mac’s graphics card cannot be replaced and my machine is having a hard time rendering images. So I’m thinking of changing to PC.

My question is, what OS do you use? Have you ever switched? And if you have, what problems did you encounter that I should be aware of?

Mac? Windows? Lynx? Other?

Sfariah D

I use Windows 10 as I could not figure out how to use Poser or DS on Ubuntu.   I am thinking of getting a Mac Book in the fall, but have dual boot with probably Windows 10 on it.  I have not used a Mac in a long time.

TangoAlpha

I have an ancient 29" i5 iMac that I do all my work on. It's slow & underpowered, but I'm hoping it'll keep going till the new modular Mac Pros are announced next year (affording one is another matter!). Next to it is a fast i7/1080Ti/Windows 10 box that'll render in 3 minutes an image that takes my Mac over 90. I still prefer working on the Mac though for everything apart from rendering.

BTW, I run DIM off a common networked downloads folder, although I do keep a runtime local to each machine. Works well. Also, both machines save renders to a common network drive.

I'd recommend Windows 10 Pro over the Home edition though, cos it's much less locked down.

Dim Reaper

I've used a lot of versions of Windows - 3.1, 95, 98, Vista, 7 and now 10.  Each time Microsoft seem to go out of their way to make things more difficult to use, but you do eventually get used to it.  However, quite a few years ago for the last three months of employment in my old job I had to use Macs and I absolutely hated the interface.  I'm sure that it works the other way for anyone who has spent a lot of time working on Macs, so it might be worth seeing if any friends would let take you through the Windows interface and let you try it out before you decide to definitely make the jump.

Windows 7 is probably the best OS there has been and I still use it on my old machine, but I was forced to upgrade the newer machine to Windows 10 to be able to use all the capabilities of VR.  As others have said, you're probably better off going for Windows 10 Professional.  If you can get it, Windows 7 Home or Windows 7 Professional would also be a good choice.

nonesuch00

Mac's are massive waste of money if you are doing 3D. Even Pixar doersn't use them, even with their close historical association with Apple.

SixDs

If you are just asking what I use, then I have three machines running Windows 7, one of each flavour. I have licences for Windows 10 for each of them which I could switch to if ever I wanted, but that isn't likely. I won't bore you with why (its a long list of reasons). There are many things about Windows 7 that I'm not terribly fond of either, but I won't bore you with that either. As a consequence, if you are looking for a recommendation rather than just asking out of curiousity, I am at a bit of a loss. When support finally runs out for Windows 7, I'll probably sandbox one of the machines just to allow myself the use of the Windows-only software I already have, but I really am undecided where I go from there with whatever other machines I wish to use. I expect that I'll end up running at least one with some flavour of Linux, but probably only use software with native linux support. As for DAZ Studio, I'll need to be content with whatever version I can run on my sandboxed Win 7. I don't use either DIM or Connect, so working offline is no biggee. I'm not a big fan of any kind of walled garden, so I have mixed feelings about the Apple options. We'll see.

JD_Mortal

I would suggest windows 8.1, for the moment... I use 8.1 and 10... I hate 10... Loved 7, and like 8.1... (I have windows 7, but no longer use it.)

The reason is simply so that you will have more access to your installed cards "VRAM", which, in windows 10, is a rather large chunk that is "reserved". (Has to do with the new WDDM v2 driver that windows forces you to use. The new version reserves a lot of memory that limits how large of a scene you can load into the card. It is up to 3.5 GB on each of my 12GB cards, and up to 2 GB on 6 GB cards.)

I am currently running into issues, due to this "new limit"... Luckily, I have enough VRAM to spare, so it is not a common issue, like some others are having. If IRAY rendered "through windows", instead of "behind windows" (at the hardware level), we would all gain from it. Because WDDM treats all your GPU RAM as if it were one giant chunk of VRAM, and all your GPUs as if they were one giant GPU bank. But IRAY is coded so it talks individually to each card, trying to use what windows hasn't already reserved, along the way. Something I am sure NVIDIA will eventually smack Microsoft over the head for, and demand that they "fix", so they can use thier hardware, as they designed it to be used, not as "windows allows it to be used", while running on windows.

Or, if IRAY simply "renders what fits", then renders what remains in a second-pass... That would make VRAM size less important. (But they are in the business of selling cards with lots of overpriced VRAM. So they won't do that unless everyone complains and stops buying cards with tons of VRAM, as the solution.)

Windows 10 is also slightly slower, for 3D rendering, since the update that included the new WDDM drivers. (But slightly faster for 3D games.) {With multiple cards.}

I am not sure how far you intend to take your rendering-craze... But, in the long-run, you will find more gains with windows 8.1, when you start to stack multiple cards. If you take your craze that far. You can build an awesome budget computer, with the majority of your money spent on the GPU, and be nearly as fast as a super-computer, with that same GPU. It will help having that other computer, for additional work... So don't get rid of that. You will need that to work-on, while the other one is locked-up doing renders.