Video card recommendation
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Well, an i7 and Quadro will definitely get you a nice computer, but as you're seeing, it doesn't guarantee a great SU computer.
Essentially what I've always heard is that geometry is handled by the CPU while textures and shadows are handled by the GPU (I believe that includes styles like when you use the Blue Ink Pen linetype and that sort of thing).
CPU: SU only uses 1 core so you want the processor with the highest single core clockspeed. I7's have turbo boost which will bump the single core speed up under this scenario so they're good processors for SU. Just get the best I7 you can afford. It will be great for SU and will help in all other apps as well. That said, will you notice the difference between 3.3 ghz and 3.8 ghz? Probably not much in SU. So if it's an extra $100 and the boss foots the bill, go for it. If it's $800, your conscience might start getting to you even if it's the boss' money.
The E7500 you mention doesn't have Turboboost so you're stuck with the 2.93 ghz single core speed which isn't that great. If you can get the new i7-2600 which is a very reasonably priced $300 processor you get a turboboost of 3.8ghz which is superb. It's got 4 cores which may seem like overkill, but if you multitask you'll have plenty of power for other stuff and it won't eat into the core dedicated to SU.
GPU: There's very little rhyme or reason here. Some video cards seem to just work better than others and it doesn't necessarily relate to price. Moreover, your video card is what will be chugging away on all those .png's and shadows you love so much so it's a very important piece of hardware for you. Testing SU on other systems, as you've done, is ideal. It's the only real way to know how well SU will perform. If I needed to find out what my best bet was, I'd study this thread ( http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=20076&hilit=speed ). Find the best reported times and write down the specs that produced them (and if you do report them in that thread as I'm curious but lazy). That will give you something solid to give to your boss based on real life results. That said, seems to work through that test more unpredictably (see my post about 1/2 way through the thread about odd results).
That said, quadros do tend to be a safe bet. They tend to give very even performance with good driver support. However, you have to decide whether it's worth the extra cost. It's like buying a BMW. You could save some money and buy a souped up eclipse instead but that later is a bit more of a gamble whereas you're almost certain to get a good quality vehicle with the former.
SSD: This will make SU start up faster but it's already a pretty lightweight program so it's a pretty small savings. It might help save images faster if you write them to your SSD but I'm not sure. Might want to post a separate thread about that. But it won't help you rotate around your scene.
-Brodie
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I7 2700k I have I5 2600k unlocked... running at 4.8 right now. 2 GTX 470s running sli.
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@krisidious said:
I7 2700k I have I5 2600k unlocked... running at 4.8 right now. 2 GTX 470s running sli.
...and? Do you find you get amazing results from all that power?
-Brodie
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I don't know... I know I can't go back. and I know that it doesn't lag anymore. my renderings come down quicker and larger files open quicker. however I still have files I can open and stutter it when I want.
The processor cost $225 and the cards $200 a piece. so it's not as expensive a route as some.
I have some 3D mark vantage results I think I hit 34,000 on it.
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Sounds like a very reasonable route. I think at some point you simply run into a software limitation.
-Brodie
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like you were saying about SU only using one core... you want that 1 core to be as big as bad as possible. the rest is cake. and it seems as if there is some size cutoff with SU as far as switching to boxed group instead of detailed group... and with this new processor it seems to make that leap with more ease. if I had it to do over I might go with the i7 2700k instead... but I dig this one.
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2700k?
-Brodie
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Isn't the 2700k the version which allows overclocking?
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@unknownuser said:
Isn't the 2700k the version which allows overclocking?
No 2600 is fixed. 2600k is overclockable.
If there's a 2700k out, I haven't heard of it yet.
-Brodie
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Sorry, my bad. A simple google would've answered my question. I think Kris' mention have been a dose of PEBKAC
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sorry I'm 100 up on both of those... I have the 2500k and the 2600k i7 is what I was speaking of last.
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the k indicates being unlocked via the multiplier...
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@krisidious said:
sorry I'm 100 up on both of those... I have the 2500k and the 2600k i7 is what I was speaking of last.
ah, gotcha
-Brodie
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@unknownuser said:
Well, an i7 and Quadro will definitely get you a nice computer.....-Brodie
Thank you so much for taking time writing detailed and helpful response. I love this forum:)
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