new pc + maya = ?

# 1 05-08-2010 , 12:37 AM

Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2010

Location: england, nottingham

Posts: 2

im building a new pc in around 2 week. At the moment im planing on basing it on a pc called, alienware aurora alx, but before I get the parts, im wondering if anyone can tell me how suitable it is for maya. Heres a few details:

Intel Core i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
DUAL SLI 1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 graphics card
12GB 1333MHz (6x2GB) Tri Channel Memory
1.5TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x750GB - 7200rpm)
1TB (7200RPM) SATA Additional Hard Drive

PS--i dont know much about the graphics card yet, I still need to research

thnks for reading.

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# 2 05-08-2010 , 04:38 AM

Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Michigan, USA

Posts: 2,998

get a 930 processor not the 920. the 930's are selling for $199 at microcenter here in michigan.

The perf gain is minimal but no sense buying the 920 as they sell for around the same price if not more then the 930.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 3 05-08-2010 , 04:41 AM

Technical Director
Join Date: Feb 2004

Posts: 2,988

Hi tudds. Looks like a pretty nice machine there. The only thing that screams at me is the graphics card. SLI is useless for professional 3d graphics applications such as Maya; so if this is only for Maya, then that would be a waste. The second thing is, don't use Geforce's with Maya! Or even Radeon for that matter. They aren't built for high performance OpenGL which Maya uses. You should get either a Quadro, or a FirePro. They are specialty-built for 3d applications. If you go with gaming cards, you're risking quite a bit. Different video cards and system configurations will create display problems. The same is also with drivers. Some times it may work just fine, but once it's updated, kaput.

Also, just my opinion here. I like AMD's better than Intel. No "virtual cores". Take a look at AMD's new 6 core processors. 6 real cores are much better than 4 real, and 4 virtual.

This is the one I'm looking at:

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition
Thuban 3.2GHz (With Turbo core, 3 cores can go up to 3.6 GHz at one time)
6 x 512KB L2 Cache
6MB L3 Cache
Socket AM3
125W

It runs for about $316 CND which is about £195.

Hope this helps mate.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Last edited by NextDesign; 05-08-2010 at 04:58 AM.

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# 4 05-08-2010 , 06:19 AM

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Join Date: May 2005

Location: Manchester Uk

Posts: 6,300

Though I agree with Next on the SLI, I would differ on the gforce Vs Quadro and Radion Vs Fire.

Ive used many Gforce and radion cards with Maya and not had a problem at all with them (as well as quadro cards), granted they are not autodesk qualified but they do work, and for the price differnce well worth looking into, if its going to be a gaming machine as well as GFX.

If you look on other discussion forums then you will find info on the differnt cards and their associated problems

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 5 05-08-2010 , 09:42 AM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

Ahh the old graphic card debate on a new bit of kit.

Just to put things into perspective, I had one of the original NVidia 1000 FX cards for around 4-5 years and it was fine, I think it cost around a grand or just over. Anyway it finally died on me in 2008 and as I couldnt afford to spend that much on a new card, again I settled for an NVidia card, in fact a games one, the GeForce 7300 GT with 512mb on it, Ive done various bits of freelance video recording for Simply maya, a ton of freelance work in Maya for tv programmes, Im doing a 3d comic strip for which Im throwing everything at it to make the comic look good, Zbrush runs great with it though its not really graphic card run at the end of the day, thats more ram hungry if anything same with PS. Its doing the job it needs too and displays textures very very well, and yes its a games card. I have no gripes whatsoever with it.

And it only cost me 90quid from PC world LOL nuff said!

there were tests done by 3d world magazine a while back and they did actually prove that games cards worked more efficiently on the big softwares and handled everything really well than the so called work station cards.

Just some food for thought before you splash out on a big card.

Also worth noting is that 'back in the day' of maya 2.5 and 3, there was alot of emphasis on the cards ( elsa gloria cards, a real dog of a card) because of Mayas architecture handling the 3d format and textures plus all the other crap you tend to throw at it while making stuff. But at version 4 onwards it was re-written so it wasnt reliant on the card to do small stuff, but written so that it accessed more the system resources of the PC.

Im not super savvy on what exactly but as I said its not super reliant on the card anymore.

cheers
Jay

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# 6 05-08-2010 , 12:46 PM

The thin red line
Join Date: Aug 2009

Location: England

Posts: 4,472

I have a low end Geforce GT 320 (came with the computer) no problems at all...........dave

Avatar Challenge Winner 2010

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# 7 05-08-2010 , 03:17 PM

Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2010

Location: england, nottingham

Posts: 2

great info thanks guys, it looks like im going to do more research on the card then make the decision

thanks again

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# 8 07-08-2010 , 11:50 AM

Maniacal boy king of Babylon
Join Date: Aug 2005

Location: the netherlands

Posts: 1,605

I have a quadro FX 4600 and it runs perfect, I agree with Gster123 and Jay however that nowadays it really doesn't matter what card you have in it, when it conerns Maya.
I also have a feeling that Open GL is becoming obsolete because most packages run either on processor, RAM or DIrect X ( some even Open CL).
I attended a Demo for VRay awhile back and there they chucked in a couple of gamecards in SLI voor the RT version of Vray and it worked like a dream.
These cards together probably cost around 800 bucks whilest a good Quadro/highend card will set you back at least double of this.

Well to come to the point where I am going to give my advice:
Take a NVidia card with lots of RAM on it 1 GB or more, because there is a new time coming which brings rendering on a Graphics card which is over 10 times faster than with a CPU, there is only one major drawback and that is the amount of RAM you need to render big scenes.
If you are really smart you buy a relative cheap card now and wait a couple of months when VRAY comes with there V2 of their renderengine where RT is incorporated in the regular render, and next April when Autodesk comes out with their new releases there is probably some thing called IRay incorporated in the packages.
A year later there will be videocards on the market which makes use of this new technology and that's the time you should switch your relative cheap card for the more pricey one.
And don't buy ATI I had nothing but trouble with drivers and crap like that.

And if I may give you overall advice:

I myself have a HP XW 6600 workstation and although these systems are relatively expensive, they are well thought out machines with great support, if my CPU explodes I call HP and they switch it the next day.
I don't know what your budget is, but here in the Netherlands a system like this:

HP Z600
2,66 GHZ Dual Hexacore
24 GB RAM
500 GB Harddrive
Windows 7
NVidia Quadro FX 1800

Costs around 4900 euro ex VAT
The system you are configuring is probably a lot cheaper, but to be honest since I have a HP system I really don't want to build my own systems anymore f@cking around with drivers and stuff, but to each his own

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