3D Animation Workstation

[Kage]

A penitum 4 card with hyperthreading will be better for a program like 3D Studio Max since it uses the processor more than anything. I'm using an Athlon 64 3500+ and I know it could be faster with a Pentium. It'd just be faster at rendering the image though, not much else, though this is rather important if you want to be animating.

If you run alot of games on your PC too, a Althon 64 will be best, but if you just use it on your desktop for programs, honestly, pentium 4 with HT will be better for this

 

[setishock]

64bit???

You don't really need a 64bit cpu to do rendering. I use Poser and it runs just fine on my p4 2.4 with 512 ddr400 setup. And you have to bear in mind that bench marks are a way of getting you to buy another product. The systems they get run on are not the system you have or will have and the differences will be dramatic. Beside the $748.00 dollars you're gonna plunk down for the amd 64bit cpu would buy a really nice vid card and a couple of high end hard drives. But it's your money...

Airlox, where you finding those cpu chips for $350.00?

 

[Kage]

Yeah though a faster system does help with rendering, as it doesn't use your video card much to do so. I know you might think it does, but it doesn't.
Its all about processing speed which is why a Pentium 4 system with HT technology pushes it a bit more.

The graphics card only helps for modelling itself where it'll be using polygon power

 

[Techy Geek]

Ive got maya, its pretty damn demanding, you should check out their pages for a minimum specs, mine will only jut run it but i know it needs a minimum of 512 mb ram, it takes ages to load up, even on my amazing laptop, i cant run High Quality rendering either, so definately check out their min specs
http://www.alias.com/eng/products-services/maya/maya_ple/system_requirements.shtml
good, luck are you any good at using maya, im rubbish, but getting better all the time, i can now use cameras, lights and do simple animation with them, ie make the camera and lights move, great fun

 

[dredz172]

Basically the key to these graphics programs is the advantage of Software Rendering- which can produce an image 1000x better than hardware rendering- these programs are also processer hunger, which is why p4 HT work well, im not an AMD guy so i cant say much for them- but hardware is second place to a good rendering program