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View Full Version : Minimum System specs for Blender/Yafray/Wings 3D laptop?

PlanetMongo
06-19-2003, 08:04 PM
I can't seem to find any kind of definitive answer regarding this, but I'm looking at picking up a laptop soon (somewhere between Thinkpad T21, T23, or R40, depending on financial situation) and was wondering if there were any special requirements for using any of these tools.

I'll probably be installing Linux on whatever machine I decide to pick up (unless it's the R40, as Centrino isn't fully supported yet) and my app load will probably be along the following:
Blender
YafRay
Wings3D
Gimp

Now, I used to have a Sony 505FX, which had a P266MMX and 64 megs of RAM, and some crappy video chipset. Using the Gimp was a bit slow, but it was certainly "usable". (I also ran Photoshop under Win98 on this machine and it was also pokey, but usable). I never tried any of the the others, so I have no idea how the others will perform.
Will a Thinkpad T21 ( like this one (http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?action=techspec&options=TU&dpno=569206#scroll) ) be adequate?
Also consider that I am aware that rendering may take a bit longer, but I have a dual-P3 machine at home that I'd probably offload via ssh my files to for remote rendering. :)

Thanks in advance.

BTW, anyone else using this combination of apps?

EDIT: As an aside, I'm currently looking into installing the same suite of stuff on a P166MMX desktop with 32 megs of RAM. Worth attempting? I've already got RH 9 on it (beware BLUECURVE on 32 megs RAM! but am considering just moving to blackbox as a WM).. :P
Apollux
06-20-2003, 04:12 AM
Don' t know about the other apps, but about Blender I can tell you that if RH 9 can run on it then so can Blender.

Blender's minimum requirements are really low. However, having an OpenGL accelerated graphic car will certanly give you a BIG push on the modeling speed deparment. Rendering time isn't influenced by OpenGl acceleration because most work is done on the CPU.

For example, while in Blender, trying to model something using a background image on the grid (no matter what method you use to put the image there) is nearly impossible without OpenGl acceleration.

With my 2.4 P4, 500 Mb ram machine, a scene with about 7,000 vertex on it and OpenGL acceleration turned off would cause Blender to crash or display delays up to 5 seconds for every operation!!!!
jmcalpin
06-21-2003, 02:55 PM
today's laptops are all in the gigahertz range so they are all fine to use.

What really is important with all the 3d software you want to use is the video card. I am looking for a nVidia graphic card based system. They have good open GL support and run pretty good. BUT I've also used Wings 3D on a ati based machine and it ran fine.

Make sure you splurge on some memory so rendering can go smoothly. aim for 512 if possible.
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