First "RIG"?

#1

This is a very broad question. I just learned 3DS Max, and now I am mastering it, but the renders are so slow, on this i7 16gb ram (that was the good part), and an intel 4000 or whatever its called. If I get something it should last me 2-3 years, so keep that in mind.

I went to an architect I think I mentioned in another thread, and he just finished his architecture degree, and spent a few hours learning 3d from lynda cause the degree didnt teach him 3d. He bought a i7 6 core, 3 titans, 64gb ram, and all original software. I’m not here to judge, but you are free too.

Should I build it myself? Buy all the parts from Amazon, and get someone to build it for me (I have 0% hardware skills) Or should I buy a ready made one from Dell/HP/Lenovo? Someone suggested Falcon NW, but I calc’d it: $15k. Lol.

Also, what would be better? A Nvidia Titan or a quadro k4200

Thats alot of questions guys, would love it if you would feed it some input.

Edit: I want to connect it to 3-4 screens

#2

That’s actually not bad.

If you’re concerned about render times, one of the last things you look at is the working hardware (especially in your case).

In the words of the great Greg Jackson: “You have to look at it like a Math problem.”

The main areas of question are the Render Engine(s) available to you and the attributes of your scene assets.

There’s an entire laundry list of things to check: Ray Tracing/No Ray Tracing, Transparencies, Vertex Counts, Texture Resolutions, Number of Texture Channels in use, Subdivision Surfaces, Asset geometry modifiers, etc. etc.

You start “unplugging” some of these things and you’ll figure out which things are causing the delay. You tweak settings and assets to maximize your hardware - get the most out of every dollar you spent.

After you’ve cut off all the fat you don’t need, then you think about hardware.
Sometimes you’ll find that by isolating and eliminating inefficient asset/scene issues you can get render times to drop by quite a lot.

Good luck. :slight_smile:

#3

I’m moving to a new house in a month, and I want everything to be fresh. I typed in “best workstations” onto google and it showed me an iMac as the best. But I’m reading online that 3DS Max is not supported on Mac. Maybe they meant if I go into “Bootcamp” mode? On the Apple website the best specs for a 21 inch iMac was:

  • $1,899.00
    -3.1GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
    -16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X8GB
    -NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 1GB GDDR5

That is a fair price, but is it good enough?

And for my question, the RAM is 16gb GDDR3…would it be better with GDDR5? (im so sorry if this is too newbie) Should I get 32GB Ram? (These kinds of things get outdated in a few years.)

Between a 6 core i7, vs a xeon processor what would be more idol?

Please help! Suggestions?

#4

Well, I’m from the Blender Universe… so not everything I say may apply to you.

But by that comparison, the only thing you’d need to take advantage of Blender’s Cycles or BI Render Engines to get top notch speedy renders would be a good video card with MORE THAN 1GB MEMORY.

Otherwise, I think an i7 or Xeon is good enough… If your i7 is existing, then it’s the same rig I have.

16 GB memory is good enough.

Essentially a good gaming rig is a good 3D/CG rig - again, give or take what your Render Engine likes. Which is a huge range these days depending on what you use not just for renders but for GUI/Open GL support: Lightwave, Zbrush, Blender, 3DS, Mixamo, etc. All have requirements you must check to maximize your money.

Always refer to what your Render Engine and Software likes. Especially because there’s the odd case where you get hardware your software actually does NOT support! evil

#5

I saw on a tutorial, that while render there are 2 types of renderings: hardware and software, then they compared mental ray, to iray (and 2 more forgot the names)

can you please elaborate on that? would that affect what type of processor or card i have?

#6

The term “software mode” rendering can mean many things. Can you give me a link to this tutorial?

Also, given the reality of hardware life cycles, you shouldn’t worry about mental ray or i-ray unless you actually already have them - you’re still just studying right?

Particularly for hobby/studying purposes you just tailor fit your machine to what you actually have or will have within the hardware’s life cycle.

All the software you can get have “recommended specs” listed out for the version… That’s what you need to match up. If you have what they listed or higher, and you’re still unhappy with render times/quality then the hardware is not the problem.

I felt your rig was above recommended spec for almost all 3D packages which is why I said you might want to look at hardware last. :slight_smile:

#7

To be frank, I very much doubt you “just learned 3DS Max,” as learning all the ins and outs of such a program can (and does) take years. I will second exactly what GCIPadawan said: Spend more time learning your tool set. Start optimizing your assets & scenes and turning off render-intensive effects/textures/shaders where it’s not absolutely necessary. A huge part of being a skilled 3D artist is knowing where you can safely cut corners to get the job done far more quickly and efficiently.

Something I’ve often seen from people starting out in 3D is blowing insane amounts of polys on simple objects or things that appear very far in the background. Unless you plan on doing extensive HD animations with many complex elements, I’d say the system you have sounds adequate for learning. (It might help, too, if you elaborated on the kinds of scenes or objects you want to create. This could greatly affect the type of system you might want to get in the future.) Also pay careful attention to texture map sizes and optimize for the end use of your rendered images. Do you really need to use a huge amount of 4k textures for that kitchen scene? Sometimes you do, if the camera is moving and flying very close to many “hero” objects or surfaces. If not, you are needlessly using up your available RAM.

Since this is a hardware discussion, it also might be more appropriate if it were posted in the hardware sub-forum.

#8

Thank you guys for the info! Since this is my first rig I dont think id blow $10-15k on a machine, I’m still learning, so I guess with my 16gb ram, a decent gtx 970 (around ~$340) should be idol to learn on.

And really? gaming laptops/pc’s are good for 3D work? why is that?

#9

No, forget what I said. Just go with what you have for now. :slight_smile:

It’s just a little thing that’s “becoming true” as GPU usage in 3D apps has increased. But that’s something you’ll appreciate more in the future.

A GTX 970 though (which Nvidia lists as a high-end Gaming PC card!) should be good for a number of years… but only if you are actually using a GPU renderer, see? Even then it depends because if you got a GTX 970 with only 4 GB Video Memory for example, you might be surprised how limited this card can be if a GPU renderer has limitations and requires more Video Memory in-card versus a lower spec card with more than 4 GB video memory.

Just for theory.

But really, you shouldn’t be thinking about these things so much. Focus on the tools. Focus on efficiency and technique within software you already have.

What Artbot mentioned is a real problem especially with people who splurge money immediately on powerful machines. You might become blind to inefficiencies and a GTX 970 may get you fast renders but it would actually be having “ignored performance losses” because you never learned how to render on the “smaller hardware”.

So you should just stick to what you have. Learn the software… and if necessary, pare down the render effects first. :slight_smile:

#10

Perfect, thanks, ALOT!