Thread with Systems information

newvista

Do we have a thread that provides information on the SYSTEMS (processor, memory, video card etc.) that Pros are using to model and render their works? If not, can we start one, so people like me (newbie) can learn which system is good.

I am in the process of upgrading my system (memory and video card)and not sure if I need to upgrade my processor too.

I am getting Nvidia Quadro FX 4600 (768 MB) and 2GB more memory to make it 4GB total. But worried about the speed of my processor which has only 2.4 but it has 4 processors (Core 2 Quad Q6600). I will be using this machine for SketchUp and rendering in Vue 7. Thanks.

Gaieus

Hi Newista,

There is a topic "Hardware recommendations" in the SU Discussion forum. A lot of people shared their experiences there.

solo

Without going into too much detail as there are so many variants here to discuss, lets remember the fundementals...

Sketchup only uses one thread/core, so the bigger the processor the better it will run, Ram, well the more the better IMO, but a matched set of ram is even better.
Now as far as Vue goes, the best system would have as many cores as possible, as much ram as possible and as many bits as possible, so a 64 bit 8 core with 16gb of ram would be sweet, however with that many cores the clock speed would be low and thus SU would suck....catch 22.

The solution as I have been told is the new I7 Intel chipsets which can dedicate/concentrate resources to a single core when needed like in the case of SU and then spread them when needed like in multicore rendering.

Anssi

I would choose the processor from those with clock speeds over 3 GHz. I understand that if you want 4 cores or more with that kind of speed, the choice is kind of small - a couple of Intel Extreme and i7 processors.

Anssi

remus

If your feeling adventurous overclocking intel quad cores is pretty easy. Ive heard tales of the cheapest i7s being overclocked to 4 GHz with stock air cooling, so getting them up to 3GHz probably wouldnt be too bad. Would certainly be useful for rendering, as well.