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Mac Laptop or Tower?

DekeDeke Posts: 1,636
in New Users

I've turned my old tower into a trusty daz machine, and I'm thinking of getting another computer to increase my productivity. When one is rendering I can keep working on the other. I thougth about getting a used tower, but like the idea of a laptop...maybe a i7 processor. Given that you can't upgrade a laptops gpu easily, are they still good for Daz Studio animation work?

Comments

  • mike_richards_acff70afedmike_richards_acff70afed Posts: 16

    The real problem with new Macs is they don't seem to come with nVidia graphics cards any more so if you want to use LRay it all has to be done by the CPU which is much less well optimised for the task.

  • OstadanOstadan Posts: 1,130

    There seem to be some emerging external graphics boxes (mediated by Thunderbolt) for laptops that might be coerced into dealing with Iray.  I have not seen any posts on how well such things work, though.

  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 2,306

    I've had Mactinosh computers since 2007. I absolutely love them. They're great at most everything I do. Unfortunately,, Apple doesn't much care for nVidia video cards. Apple doesn't think we need to put together a really powerful computer. The older Mac Pros were Apple's last models that could be upgraded to be real "power computers." 

    I've toyed with the idea of building a powerful PC to only handle DAZ Studio. I'd need to grit my teeth to put up with the Windows insanity. Right now I don't have much free money. I'll stick with 3Delight rendering until I get rich and build a PC.

  • brainmuffinbrainmuffin Posts: 1,276

    I have a 2010 27" iMac with 16 GB of RAM and it does Studio quite well. I tend to render with Lux via Reality and I do have a few older machines to help with network rendering. My old Mac is as fast as my son's newer Windows machine which also has an i5. If I could build a machine for Mac OS, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Or if Studio ran under Linux, I'd do likewise.

  • Alkemikal FaktorAlkemikal Faktor Posts: 0

    I spent many years of my life as a computer technician, and i use Windows since i can distinguish a pc from a microwave oven. If in the moment of making a decision on what machine u are going to buy, u have to consider some aspects, advantages and disavanteges of each machine the market is offering.

    For example Mac are awesome machines, coz they (almost) never stop working, they are always fast(autodefrag), they(almost) never run out of memory;

    laptops have mobility and some have really nice specs (no matter who produces them, i personally prefer ASUS/KINGSTON/NVIDIA rig before any other), u can get a nice and fast render while u are at the beach(not advisable!)

    but towers give you a flexibility the others can't, by the simple fact that u can upgrade them as needed with little effort. I'm absolutely aware many users can blame me for this, and not all have techical knowledge for mounting PC's but im sure u got some friend who does... If u want a more powerful videocard (nvidia is the future, no doubt about) and u have a Mac, or a laptop, u gotta stick with the one integrated into the pc, because both born and die with the same config, while with a tower u just need a screwdriver and some drivers to have the job done.

    I hope my humble opinion helps you in your choice. Good Things!

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