Rendering 3D animations and video

[Techguns]

My old PC is getin old. I was my backup machine Amd 2.4g 32 bit.
ha

What happend the my primary machine.
I fell asleep durring a storm. Well ya know gone surge protector mother and hard drive. Im left with a ATX case with a P4 power supply. I stuffed the faster parts into my backup. Its slow I didnt build it for rendering.

Its time to build another.
Im going for a Amd Quad processor 6gs ram.

Sabayon.

Im a Linux fan and Im think SLI will work the best for what I want and Im also thinking the video cards gamers use will render 3d animations faster and the Gimp effects.

Anyone here into 3d studio max, Blender or video editing.

I havent been techin for about 4 years and Im learning about the new cards.
Im looking for Video cards that have quick render times.

Ill pickup on any ideas.

Getin old.
Ok I admit that I repaired 8088 machines hey hey.

 

[Greg King]

I am a fan of Rhino 3D (cheap and simple) and still use it a bit today. I took some 3D Studio Max courses in college but I don't think I remember enough to have a decent conversation with anyone who knew what they were talking about.

As for your video card question, and this is a very vanilla answer, you would more than likely be better off getting a workstation graphics card like NVIDIA's Quattro or ATI's FireGL. With that said though, unless it has changed, a high end workstation GPU wont really help you in render times because 3D Studio Max isn't setup to allow that. With a quad core CPU, you should have more than enough rendering power to pump out your videos.

Do you play any games at all? I would assume that if you prefer Linux, you don't game all that often. Perhaps I am wrong and you do game but I will proceed under the assumption that you do not game. Having said that, will you be using these cards and making money? If you will be, the extra cost of a workstation class video card might be justified. If however, you are just working around at home for giggles, you would be fine with whatever current class of card is out now. At this time, I would recommend anything in NVIDIA's 88xx lineup or ATI's x1950 series. You will have to forgive me though, I am not as knowledgeable in workstation cards as I once was.

I hope this helps. Good luck. Intel 8088 FTW! Read up on it, computing history at it's finest.

 

[Rob Williams]

6GB of ram? That won't make much sense, unless you had 1GB * 6 for proper bank interleaving. 8GB would be the best scenario, with 2GB * 4. SLI in Linux is still in it's infancy, so I wouldn't rely on it for anything. I am very doubtful that Blender would recognize the fact that you have it. The Gimp deals with flat graphics, it wouldn't touch your GPU.

That said, I don't think Linux is the best platform if you want to get into heavy multimedia work. Your best choice is a Windows x64. Vista might work as well, but I have been unable to get 3DS Max working properly under it (although I have yet to try out the official patches for it).

Though if you do want Linux, it's easy enough to do work in Blender under it, and then transport it to Windows if need be. 3DS Max will not run under Linux, however.

Greg is right with the FireGL/Quadro recommendations, but they are expensive. If you can afford it, great. But you -need- to be dedicated to the work you are doing, as they are not generally suited for gaming. If you are looking for a cheaper SLI method, you could go dual 7900GT (or 8800GTS if you want future DX10 support).

 

[Techguns]

Thanks Im looking at the cards now.
I only play games when Im very bored. Most of the time Im doing graphics.

Im a Blender fan not because its free but because its easy for me to use.
I love the key shortcuts they are easy to learn, but most are mouse users and dont like the GUI. Im still learning it in my spare time. Im impressed with open source.

I really dont like 3d studio but they say its the industry standard. Sometimes ya have to learn something you dont like. Im at the modeling people stage now. The campus here has 3d studio and lets you use any computer even if you have been a registered student in the past.

A lot of Hollywood's studios is moving into New Mexico so I should learn it.

I have learned from techin on PCs that doing creative stuff requires 1st or 2nd best parts. In the middle doent cut it. For me at least 2nd best save time and money. I still have a box with about 35 old cards and another esd box with about 8 processors and 6 mem sticks. Oh well Im slowly using the parts upgradin older PCs. Im sure that the GAMERs Know what Im talkin about.

My video cameras are gettin old so I should upgrade to HD.

I use the GIMP alot it was easyer for my to learn that PhotoShop CS2. The GIMP version 2.3 and the future 2.4 supports threading multi-processors. On my old PC I have to take a 10 minute break while running scripfu. By the time scripts render ya can forget what you were doing. Version 2.2 was much faster but its a 8 bit instead of 16 bit editor.

I really dont like Windows XP so Im going to use 2000 pro for Win stuff and dual boot the Linux Sabayon AMD64 ver. Linux supports Nvida SLI.

Ive seen a few models SLI cards but Im kinda confused about what ya get for the money. I havent been techin for about 4 years now. I havent seen anything like this since the Voodoo Cards in the late 90s.

I think that Ill wait untill the campus gets new machines in the graphics lab this summer because they are sayin Nvidia SLI but its not carved in stone yet. I want to test drive first.

I think Im going Nivida SLI.

Ill be posting on other treads.

 

[Techguns]

Oh Yes interleaving I like that better. Its best to keep the sticks the same size. Missmached is a wasted.

Post ya latter, Im at the campus Im getting chase out by a instuctor in this class room .

 

[Techguns]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_fx_5600_4600.html

I think this will work. I can start with one if its expensive then get another and bridge another it when my buget allows.

Im going to wait on the memory untill I choose the mother probably Nvidia chipset.

I divide the max memory in the specs by the number of slots to choose memory size. That way the memory gets maxed out each stick the same size and Im not wasting any with Interleave turned on.

I can start with pair that size and add when my budget allows.

It seems like software is changing so fast new versions are starting to use multi-processors. What dosent use it now will in a few versions latter so Its better to be prepaired. I never though Gimp would.

That good to know about 3d studio and vista. Im a poor student now and only have 3 weeks left. The student discount version is about $3000 and for sure I would rather spend the money on the hardware now and wait untill they iron out the bugs on the software before buyin it. Untill then 2000 pro on one partition. Ha eveyone thinks vista is expensive. Blender for now.

 

[Rob Williams]

3D Studio for $3,000 doesn't seem like much of a discount. Usually student discounts are like 25% of the retail price, not a measly 15% off. That aside.. any savings are good savings I suppose.

That card will suit you fine, but I highly recommend doing good Google searches prior, to make sure it's what you are looking for. If you plan to get right into the business quickly, then you may as well go all out. But if you are going to be off to a slow start, it's an awful lot of money to spend.

I am still not sure about SLI in Linux either, so you should be aware that it will be far more hassle than it might be worth. Chances are SLI will not be needed for what you are doing anyway, unless you plan to use one of the GPUs strictly for rendering. In the sake of straight rendering, buying a Quad-Core processor would show more benefit than an extra Quadro, I'm sure.

"Ha eveyone thinks vista is expensive."

Vista > Pain In the Ass > Expensive

 

[madstork91]

The reason I havent been around in awhile is exactly because of 3d modeling.

Ive been doing alot of work in 3ds/sketch up to be honest. I like the simplicity of the exact edits i can do quick and easy in sketch up and then the massive amount of work i can get done in 3ds. ftw!

I also for a short time looked into Zbrush, wings3d, GIMP and a few minor other things i cant think of atm.

I also recently started working in CS3

So far the only thing I can tell you is GO QUAD CORE!... and from what I have been reading lately the intel is the way to go. Calculations ftw in the 3d graphics world. My AMD dual core gets maxed out lately.

As for the video cards; Get yourself a SLI in the high end NVIDIA. You will not be sorry. My GT's have some compatibility issues with 3ds9 but 7 runs like a champ! And I get some really decent rendering times with the 7800's. I suggest getting the DirectX10 compatible ones though... you never know when you might need to port something in the way of file types in a year or two. :-/

( speaking of which, sketch up handles so many )