nMP for 3D Modeling

[cap7ainclu7ch]

I am currently getting into 3D modeling and am looking into getting a nMP for the job. I was wondering if I should go with the 6 core model with D500's or the 4 core with D700's. I'm also planning on doing some video editing and a good amount of graphic work. I'm thinking it might be a better idea to max out the GPU and stick with the quad core, but I'm not sure. Going to be using programs like Modo and 3DS max. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[echoout]

I am currently getting into 3D modeling and am looking into getting a nMP for the job. I was wondering if I should go with the 6 core model with D500's or the 4 core with D700's. I'm also planning on doing some video editing and a good amount of graphic work. I'm thinking it might be a better idea to max out the GPU and stick with the quad core, but I'm not sure. Going to be using programs like Modo and 3DS max. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I work in Cinema 4D and Octane but work at a game studio that is primarily Maya, Max, Modo and Octane users. I can't imagine not spending that money on a nice Windows rig, since you'll be running Windows anyway. I love my HP!

 

[flat five]

I am currently getting into 3D modeling and am looking into getting a nMP for the job. I was wondering if I should go with the 6 core model with D500's or the 4 core with D700's. I'm also planning on doing some video editing and a good amount of graphic work. I'm thinking it might be a better idea to max out the GPU and stick with the quad core, but I'm not sure. Going to be using programs like Modo and 3DS max. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

get the 6 core.. while the 4 core may handle some things faster during drawing, the difference is going to be minuscule (as in- something that may hang for 3 seconds on the slower processor, will take 2.9secs on the quad)

but if you're getting into modeling then you'll probably be getting into rendering eventually as well.. going from 4cores to 6cores will literally speed up your render times by 33%.. previews which take a minute on the quad will take 40secs on the hex.. those are twenty seconds in which you are sitting there waiting on the preview to come in because you have to make decisions based off it..

anyway.. more to the point.. going from a quad to a hex is the best value out there when it comes to buying cpu performance..by far. after that, it starts getting much more expensive to do the same thing.. $300(?) is almost a no brainer if you can utilize the cores.

 

[echoout]

Cores good.

 

[flat five]

I am currently getting into 3D modeling

what kind of stuff are you into?
cars, architecture, characters, etc ?

but obviously. modo is good on osx.. max, not so good.

 

[davidb367]

What he said ^^^

I do personal 3D modelling work in Lightwave. I was forced to upgrade the CPU's in my 1,1 from 4 cores to 8. The rendering speed increase was incredible.

In Poser, the rendering times were not as dramatic. The two main factors were cores and memory. Poser quickly gobbled up 8 gigs and slowed to a crawl. 12 gigs was just right for most scenes. If the scene is too complex, the renderer has to resort to page swapping which kills performance.

 

[cap7ainclu7ch]

I am an industrial engineer major, but I have really just started modeling so I am not sure what programs I will be using in the future. I know windows is huge with modeling, but I honestly need OSX and would like to have a capable machine that can run both. Sounds like cores are the way to go so maybe I will just get the 6 core base. I can also use my educational discount which is nice. I'm sure the D500's will be fine for my uses. Thanks for all the input.

 

[flat five]

I am an industrial engineer major, but I have really just started modeling so I am not sure what programs I will be using in the future.

here:

http://www.rhino3d.com/mac


thank me later

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Sounds like cores are the way to go so maybe I will just get the 6 core base.

it's not really though.. fast clock speed while drawing is the best and the lower core processors have faster clock speeds..

it's just that if you're comparing specifically a quad vs hex, the clock speed difference is negligible and the cost for 33% increase in speed for multithreaded tasks is very cheap (relatively)..

ie- if you want to get 30% speed increase from an 8core, you have to pay $1500 instead of the $300 it costs to do the same thing from a quad.


[edit] oh.. and hey.. i'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money.. i'm just saying this is the way i chose to spend mine but your milage may vary.

[edit2]..add 500 for hex.. not $300

 

[cap7ainclu7ch]

here:

http://www.rhino3d.com/mac


thank me later

----------



it's not really though.. fast clock speed while drawing is the best and the lower core processors have faster clock speeds..

it's just that if you're comparing specifically a quad vs hex, the clock speed difference is negligible and the cost for 33% increase in speed for multithreaded tasks is very cheap (relatively)..

ie- if you want to get 30% speed increase from an 8core, you have to pay $1500 instead of the $300 it costs to do the same thing from a quad.


[edit] oh.. and hey.. i'm not trying to tell you how to spend your money.. i'm just saying this is the way i chose to spend mine but your milage may vary.

[edit2]..add 500 for hex.. not $300

Would you say the hex upgrade is worth it over getting the quad with D700's? I'm having a hard time deciding between those two options.

 

[DJenkins]

Do you have an exact budget? May be the best way to recommend an appropriate system.

Modelling alone is not intensive at all on CPU and not thaaat intensive with a decent GPU. Supposedly the purpose of the dual GPUs in the mac pro is to take on a lot of tasks that have traditionally been handled by the CPU.

If you have time I would honestly wait to see just what processing the dual GPUs in the mac pro are up to. You may be just fine with the dual D500 models. Just seems like you could be heading in blind at the moment. You software of choice may take complete advantage of the dual GPUs - or none at all. We don't know how the drivers and OSX have been written to work together, and in conjunction with certain software.

By the way if you are looking at rendering at all - although somewhat decent value as a base model - the mac pro is very limited. The potential for both CPU and GPU power out of a PC system can leave the mac pro back in the playpen.

Just depends on how serious you wanna get with this stuff. Macs are fun, well designed etc but if you want real power you may wanna look elsewhere!

 

[riggles]

It's hard to say without knowing what applications you'll be using and what your budget is.

The biggest value of the Mac Pro is it's dual GPUs. But unless your applications take advantage of OpenCL, one of them will just sit their unused (not the way I like to spend my money). As a 3D artist myself, I determined that the best approach for the next 2-3 years would be to buy a used/refurbished 12-core Mac Pro. Saved me almost $4,000 and I have much better rendering performance than the price-equivalent nMP. Once Octane Render (CUDA only) releases it's MODO plugin, my render times will improve dramatically again.

It's an odd time for 3D Mac people right now, as we're all waiting to see if/when OpenCL will be supported in our apps. I think it'll take a couple years at least to happen, at which point I'll re-approach my upgrade path.

 

[omnious]

There's an assumption here that the traschan will run Windows out of the box, or at all. That's to be seen first, Apple might release BootCamp much later for it.

Next, drivers are still kinda lagging behind and performance differences between Windows and OSX are noticable.

3ds max does not run in OSX so you have to be in Windows, and running it in Parallels is not an option.

Thinking about all this, an unorthodox course of action might be OTOY's ORBX.js and running a thin client. Since apps are in the cloud, running on Windows you can get anything, plus the cloud rendering. http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=37436

Else, I'd probably get a refurb. Mac Pro or even better build a PC that would outgun the traschan and still come in cheaper.

 

[Gav Mack]

There's an assumption here that the traschan will run Windows out of the box, or at all. That's to be seen first, Apple might release BootCamp much later for it.

Next, drivers are still kinda lagging behind and performance differences between Windows and OSX are noticable.

3ds max does not run in OSX so you have to be in Windows, and running it in Parallels is not an option.

Thinking about all this, an unorthodox course of action might be OTOY's ORBX.js and running a thin client. Since apps are in the cloud, running on Windows you can get anything, plus the cloud rendering. http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=37436

Else, I'd probably get a refurb. Mac Pro or even better build a PC that would outgun the traschan and still come in cheaper.

I would be shocked if bootcamp wasn't available upon shipping date. I won't be shocked at all if the driver support for the cards was buggy at first though. I'll find out on the 9th as one of my clients has ordered theirs today.

 

[flat five]

Would you say the hex upgrade is worth it over getting the quad with D700's? I'm having a hard time deciding between those two options.

yeah, i think so.

but then again, the (lower than expected) cost of the d700s have made me be less sure of my original choice of 6core/d500.. i need some more info to make the actual purchase decision..
that said, the 6core thing is automatic for me or pretty much unrelated to gpu decisions.. i'd get that regardless of d300,d500,d700..

sort of the best related info i have on gpu / openCL is what the developer of my rendering software told me:

what type of performance can we expect using the current version of indigo with the new mac pro's dual gpus? for indigo alone, would it be worth buying the (amd) d700s over the d300s?

then down the road a bit, is it unreasonable to expect the program to be able to utilize more of the gpu's potential power beyond the current gpgpu implementation?

thanks for any insight.

Hi Jeff,
Currently I think the D300s should be fine.
But in the future (somewhat near future if you want to use Indigo betas), theD700s could provide a major boost in rendering power.

that's the sort of info we're up against right now.. hopeful yet lacking precision.. in another year or two, this type of conversation will have much more facts/examples and less guess work.