[Maxer]

What about video cards, I've always purchased the Quadro for around $500 are there any better cards that work well with Max?

[deadalvs]

well, i actually have not a large knowledge in graphics cards.

the only thing i know is that SLI and stuff like that are not (yet) supported by any leading 3d package. the gaming industry moves on much too fast that always the newest drivers could be implemented.

so choosing by price is not that wrong, also based on moore's law.

--> also check out at autodesk's certified hardware list !!

$500 for a graphics card... certainly You get a very nice performance !

i'd say that pny quadros and stuff like this which cost $2000+ are just one year ahead in technology until the gaming industry adapts this as standard.

since SGI produces clusterserver with integrated graphics solution where up to 16 professional graphics cards work together to display for example 400 GigaBytes of raw information as in the oil industry standard i have no more expectations anymore for my $300 card...

SGI rules ! well, they're dead or nearly dead.

[Maximus3D]

Nowadays gamingcards perform really well in 3d apps, the clear line you had before between gamingcards and real 3d cards been blurred out more so now if you spend less you get more.

This card below will be my new one in the new box next week

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/lis ... nId=731116

It's a great performer for around 400 euro.

/ Max

[deadalvs]

It's a great performer for around 400 euro.

/ Max

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGyOo6ppTYM

[lllab]

i also just build an core2 quaddro 2.66 as an extra renderbox.
did cost me only 1200.-€ without tax.(just onboard graphik)

could oc it without problem to 2.8ghz. very nice and fast renderbox. almost as fast as my macpro...

cheers
stefan

[MetinSeven_com]

Sounds good!

[numerobis]

as Maximus said... in the last years gamingcards/driver have improved very much - if you use them with direct3d! here you can find some tests for this:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=205759

if you don't need opengl for your 3d-app you can go with a gamingcard. maybe in the future we'll see the next big improvements in ogl... don't know.

i just bought a radeon x1950xt (230 euro) for use with 3dsmax... i hope it was the right choice...

[w i l l]

Is it a bad idea to buy a Dell gaming machine? This is better value for money than the Dell Precisions - it has a quadcore/good graphics card etc:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstor ... sdt_710h2c

[Maximus3D]

Holy smokin' cow Will, that's a fine rig ..and no it's defintely not a bad idea to buy a "gaming machine". They can very well be used for 3d and for gaming.

/ Max

[w i l l]

Yeah I know... I couldn't find anything so I just typed 'quad core' in the Dell search bar... it looks alright to me. Cheaper than the Mac Pro as well with 4 Gig of Ram. This would do well in the speed test.

[w i l l]

1.2 hasn't been released yet has it? Get the feeling i'm missing something.

[numerobis]

i think with MWs speed of development it's very hard to miss something...

[deadalvs]

i think with MWs speed of development it's very hard to miss something...

that might also be interpreted positively...

[deadalvs]

a rollup on mac minis...
[core 2 duo, 1.83 GHz; cinebenchR9.5: 520 xcpu]

is there still a chance for them to be a good solution for network slaves ?

* * *

i see three downsides

1) they are «apply», tending to be too expensive. the «cool-factor» kills the overall price/performance ratio
2) ram is expensive and no 2 GB sticks are available, thus the max is set to 2 gigs at the moment.
3) if You want to run it on win xp, the relative price of the OS to the whole slave is very high, resp. licenses and admin expenses.

* * *

upside:

«hey look at my renderfarm» - «where?» - «well, this tower of stacked mac minis there!»

[deadalvs]

next point.

we were talking about the perfect maxwell workstation till now.

* * *

i'd like to talk about the perfect network slave at the moment.

is it blade based ?
how much ram is needed ? 2, 4, 8 gigs ?

let's talk a little...