[chedda]

Does Maxwell estimate the speed of networked machines and apply work to them accordingly, or is the render simply divided equally between them ? If this is the case the slowest machine is the lowest common denominator ? Also if my current machine is intel powered is it advisable to stick with intel ?

[numerobis]

if you use cooperative mode the mxs will be sent to all assigned nodes and all machines will render seperately.
You can specify a SL and max rendertime. The manager calculates the combined SL of all nodes and the render will stop if the target SL or time is reached.

Combining intel and amd shouldn't be a problem. But i think you'll get no decend amd machine atm...

[dmeyer]

In my experience with Maxwell AMD and Intel combination is not a problem.

In renderfarm scenarios it has historically not been recommended, simply because you're adding another variable to the mix, but it hasn't been a real problem since the PowerPC / Intel day. Back then, rendering, say, Lightwave on PowerPC Macs and Intel Macs or Windows would give a bit different result sometimes, depending the scene.