Will dazstudio run on a cheap $100.00 pc ?
RorrKonn
Posts: 509
in The Commons
If I get a cheap $100.00 pc that don't quit meat the minimum specs .would it still work ?
I need educated about how important specs really are
Thanks
RorrKonn

Comments
Wow, good question. It would probably depend on the specific specs the machine has. And I'm sure it would also depend on what type of renders you were going for. Iray, I'm pretty sure, requires a bit more out of a machine than 3Delight.
You might be able to run it, but would you want to is more my question? o.O
Laurie
Depends on how much of “not quite meeting the minimum specs” you’re talking about...
You’ll need at least a basic graphic card with OpenGL 1.2 support for the preview window to work (I’m not talking about Iray preview, just the regular viewport). If you render with 3DL there’s no other requirement for the graphic card, if you render with Iray then it won’t be able to render on the GPU unless you have an Nvidia card compatible with Iray, wich would most probably be more than the 100$ you quoted so that would mean rendering with the CPU too.
You’ll need a decent amount of RAM if you want to be able to load some content and to render with the CPU.
And it will probably render dead slow if you have a crappy CPU.
Another consideration would be the operating system. I thought most very cheap PCs (which I thought were mostly aimed at developing countries) run some kind of Linux.
Very unlikely, but maybe you have found a really great deal. But provide the specs and we can see. It also depends on just what you want to do. Are you wanting to use Iray or 3DL? How large of a scene are you wanting to create, like how many people, in a room, ect. All of it matters.
If you are thinking of doing Iray, then no, not a chance. Unless you can add a decent GPU to the machine, you will waiting for very long periods of time to render even a tiny simple image with Iray. It would not be worth it. A decent GPU will cost more than $100 all by itself...a LOT more.
If you are thinking of doing 3DL, then your chances are slightly better, as 3DL only uses the CPU and the GPU is not a factor. But even still, it might be a while for a simple render if your CPU is really bad.
It probably won't run as you expect, it might mosey tho.
A $100 PC can mean anything. I have a 7 year old laptop I paid $50 for 2 years ago and it runs DAZ Studio, including dForce & even Unity quite fine although I'm sure most forum users would quickly loose paitence with it, it does everything their nVidia video card PCs do except it does it much slower.
So bottom line is you need 8GB RAM, 16 GB avoids almost 100% of the DAZ Studio crashes and you need an integrated intel HD Graphics 2500 or integrated intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU minimum (an integrated intel HD Graphics 3000 however WON'T work); which equates to a 3rd Generation iCore intel CPU. Those are all 2011 intel release CPUs included in 2012 computer manuafacturer computers and are now 7 years old.
If the $100 PC has an AMD or nVidia card than you can use an even older intel CPU but as stated earlier the video card must support openCL 1.2 at a minimum - that usually equates to openGL 2+ cabable graphics card. You'll still want at least 8GB CPU RAM.
If you won't be doing dForce then you don't strickly need openCL 1.2 support and can use even earlier generations of intel integrated GPUs and discrete GPUs. Before DAZ Studio 4.10 introduced dForce I ran DAZ Studio on a 2nd Generation intel CPU with the intel HD Graphics GPU. I could still run DAZ Studio on that computer but could do no dForce simulations.
Yes (providing the cpu/ram/widows were on spec).
But, you would hate it. And I hate to think how long a render would take (3Delight or Iray), presuming they ran.
Other factors might work in you favour; how old is it?
If it is new/fairly new and just terrible specs then I would NOT waste your cash; if it is second hand, and just a spec (perhaps gfx card) is borderline then you might have something that gives you value for money (Remember: value for money on $100 of PC is pretty low).
what sort of PC can you buy for $100?
Windows 98, a CRT monitor and a floppy disc drive?
This ^
It is like asking: Can I run Apple Final Cut Pro or Adobe After Effects
on a monitor that was about to be thrown in the garbage by my
fickled upstairs neighbor with more disposable income than skills & knowledge?
In My case ..Yes because it is a 26 inch samsung syncMaster 240 in excellent
condition.
A better question would be
Will Daz studio run on a PC with the following
hardware specs ?............( >enter configuration here <)
While that certainly is one possibility, refurbished quad-core early i5 and i7 or workstations fall in this price range too..
I have a secondary 300€ PC with a GTX 1050, and I don't have a good experience with it. I can get something done, but it actually kills my will to render...too slow.
If you want to use Iray, you need a GPU with a big VRAM! I suggest to start with a used GTX 1060 6Gb.
Then you can spare a lot of money with an old i7 refurbished maybe! Just add a nice GPU.
If you provide more data such as the type of graphics card, operating system, hard drive size, processor speed, RAm size, etc...You might get a definite answer...
I can run daz studio fine on my win 8 laptop that has just 4G ram and a little 1G nvidia card. But I'm strongly limited with small scenes and small textures there, as well as the rendering resolution. That apart it works.
EDIT. For old hardware be quick to grab 4.10 while it stills available. Since in 4.11 Iray will not run on old hardware anymore. For example 4.11 will not run Iray on my laptop since it has a fermi card.
Don't just grab it, but back up the Studio and addon files; I have a few versions available - just in case; in case of what, I am asked (with regards to my paranoia), if I knew what, then I would know if I needed to keep it or not; ergo: I keep lots.
Regardless of whether the PC can run Daz (or even render for that matter) I would be more worried about the FPS you're going to get in the window while trying to work. There's a few settings you can use in daz that will help, but I'd be worried about even one character, clothes, and hair bogging down a super cheep system and getting 1 or less FPS in your work window. I know I'd be so frustrated trying to pose something I'd probably give up. In that instance you'd have to use pose packs exclusively, and at that point you could just save that money along with your $100 till it added up to a bit more and then get a stronger PC. I'm typically all for getting something you want sooner rather then later (I have terrible impulse control) but I think you'd be far better off just saving up a bit till you can spend closer to $300-$400.