Morning, I am starting to build a new PC for Vur d'Esprit, but i am not quite shure what kind of configuration i should have to get the best. Does it render quicker on Intel or AMD processors? How much memory is recommended? I want to build a PC for Vue4 only, so maybe some "old fishes" can share me their experience. Regards, Mten

For Vue, the punch line is, "The more is better." Vue is very sloppy when it comes to sharing CPU cycles and memories. So, the "best" would be the fastest CPU on the market and the max memory it can take. (Since you asked for "BEST".) Video card I suggest one of the top of the line ATI products, just make sure it is capable of Open GL. NVIDIA vedio cards seems like doesn't work well with Vue. I personaly like Intel and their products. And of course first and formost thing is how much you want to spend and what can be found on that price range! Hope it helps.

I planned 1Gb of memory, but what i actually would like to know is, if i buy equally prized procerros from AMD and Intel, which one renders scenes in Vue faster. For example, which one is faster in rendering, Intel P4 2.6Ghz or AMD Athlon 3000+ (2166Mhz) I also use LightWave and i know that LW is very very SSE2 optimized, thus even P4 2,0GHz is faster than AthlonXP 2800+ But i am interested in Vue d'Esprit. Are there any "special" SSE2 optimizations that give an edge to P4 or not. When it comes to pure FPU power, id rather buy AMD, because i get more performance for less money.

My personal experience has been that Intel p4 over the amd. I have used both and intel seems to work best for me. Operating system: Windows XP Pro CPU (type & freq.): P4 2.4 mghz RAM & HD space: 1.00 GB of Ram 80gig HD space Video board: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 `shoop

I never did a rendering comaprission, so I guess someone else might be able to answer that question. 1 GB memory should be just fine for Vue. Then again I don't consider Vue to be a powerful rendering tool, so my guess would be performance wouldn't be much different in both P4 or AMD. The problem is VUE handles CPU cycles very poorly. As I'm not an expert, my knowledge in SSE2 is very limited. As far as I know, the settings and parameters are much higher in P4, but it is still a bit sluggish. For instance, a simple operation on 128 bit vectors take at least two cycles and achieve a throughput of one operation per two cycles at best. On the other hand AMD has tripple pipe line, while P4 has only 2. Contrary P4 gives you better clock speed and durability. So, I would say Intel is still a step ahead of AMD. And with their HT technology I think they might went over two steps; but it's still up for observation.

Oh good, thanks Shoop for the comparission.

I laso contacted e-onsoftware on this matter. But someohow I think that P4 is a better choice, also giving the fact that 2.6GHz is extremely easy to overclock to 3.3GHz or even higher. BTW, "Oh good, thanks Shoop for the comparission." Whats that all about? Regards, Mten

Shoop is the name of "rds" who gave us his hardware info and and his opinion based on personal experience. He post the msg while I was writting, so I missed it. That's why I thanked him for the info. Happy? :-) "You somehow think?" hm! I hope my infos help you make the right judgement. :-) You know to be honest, I have never thought of this before ... overclocking the CPU on a render box. I would suggest you go slow on this matter. As gaming softwares and 3D apps don't interact the same way. Specially Vue is a Godzilla for the CPU; and if the pollygon counts gets real high on your scene or frame it might cause serious damage on a overclocked CPU. If you do overclock the CPU, drop a msg in this msg board. I for sure would love to know how did that go. :-)

I surely will. Right now im waiting for e-onsoftware to answer. But i have had quite a lot of experience on overclocking, this shouldnt be a problem. But on a hyper threading CPU, does Vue detect 2 or still one processors?

Just to confuse you a little. How about an Apple G5? Much faster than the fastest Intel processor (they say 3 times) and Vue Pro is optimized for this processor too - they say as well.

Well, thank you :) Now i have even more to think. Although, Macs are extremeley expencive here, so i really need to do some pricing research.

"For Vue, the punch line is, "The more is better." Vue is very sloppy when it comes to sharing CPU cycles and memories." THANK YOU!! I've said this before and no one seemed to know what I was talking about when I said Vue doesn't play nicely with others. I can't even play a simple MP3 in Media Player while doing stuff in Vue. -Tim

*"How about an Apple G5?

Much faster than the fastest Intel processor (they say 3 times) and Vue Pro is optimized for this processor too - they say as well."*

Totally untrue ... not to start a platform war, but Apple certainly does one thing well: LIE. I'm starting to loose track of how many commercials in which they have completely mistated the truth now.

And even if it were true, you could buy TWO (or three?) of the fastest PC's available and start a nice render-farm.

Now i have read some information about Vue4. It seems that Vue4 has no processor optimizations, but Vue4 Pro has both Mac G5 and P4 HT optimizations. So i think as for the processor, Intel is the right way to go. And i do not want to buy a whole new PC, i want to build it piece by piece to get the best.

That's the way to go; generic computers run well and last longer then store PCs. And Intel gives the best warrenty on their processors and motherboards, so by the time the warrenty expired you'll be tired of that computer. :-) Even though Mac is much stable and a bit faster then Windows, like 'timoteo1' I also think G5 would be a bad choice. Cuz the price is way to high then P4 and you will need a whole new line of softwares.

Yes, Vue does recognise and use multi-processors.

I've run Vue on a dual 1GHz PIII box with nVidia GeForce 4 and an AMD 3200 with ATI Radeon 9800. For Vue 4 either will work but for Pro go Intel, no question.

My own experience is that the configuration is as important as anything. Off load as much as possible from the CPU i.e. don't use on-board sound, LAN or modem functions, get separate cards and use the minumum of drivers, no frills or manufacturers' "control panels", etc.

Disconnect your network from the outside world, shut down virus checkers, software firewalls, tablet drivers, mouse drivers (use MS standard ones) and use a startup monitor to find 'n' kill anything that's not needed.

It's purely subjective but I reckon XP Pro is faster than XP Home in all operations including rendering.

Keep it clean, lean and mean! :-)

Hmm... so the processor matter is settled i guess. P4 2.6 overclocked to 3.3 - 3.5Ghz About graphics. Since im not rich enough to buy a Quadro or FireGL card, im going to boy a "standard" one. I have seen in some benchmarks, that GeforceFX line works very well in 3D programs, any comments about that?

Im sorry, "im going to BOY a "standard" on".. I meant BUY ;)

As far as I know, XP Pro (configured for best performance) is faster than 2000 Pro. Don't know about XP Home - don't use OSs that can't recognize multi-processors. Time to upgrade that dual mobo, BGFT! :) I'm on a dual Xeon 2.66GHz and it rips apart my dual 1GHz PIII - now used as a Web/FTP server. ;0) There is also a website that tells you which Services may be safely disabled to enhance performance. Don't remember the site, but it's been a regular mention on TechTV's The Screensavers.

daman_est, I just replaced my GeForce4 TI 4600 128MB, which had no complaints from Vue Pro, with a high-end GeForceFX 5900 Ultra 256MB. Vue Pro is very pissed at me right now. The only thing it has to say to me is "Your video board/driver could not be located on our list of Qualified Hardware..." This from the newest, beefiest, fastest NVidia nonPro board out there with the latest (released 7/2003) drivers, WHQL no less!! I'm just ignoring the message as everything appears to work perfectly (so far, anyway) despite its calls of "foul!". Still, the message, appearing at startup and requiring a selection, is getting on my nerves! ;) So, do you want a Geforce4 TI 4600 128MB (AGP 4x) for a good price? :)

Attached Link: http://www.overclockersclub.com/windowsxpservices.shtml

It's very nice indeed, but hopefully by the time you are ready to upgrade, the 64-bit processors, mobos, and OSs will be out and stable. Although the only advantage is addressable space, these days, it is a good advantage (what with >4GB RAM and >140GB HD available and usable). Eeks! Sounds like my current DNS and Mail server. Its a PIII 333, but it's loaded with spare memory; maybe 1GB - can't remember offhand. Thanks for the link! Will check it out.

A little offtopic, he? :) TO kuroyume0161: you sure that shipping doesnt cost more than the board is worth? ;) But how is performance different while editing in Vue? Considerably faster or just almoust the same? OS is going to be WinXP Pro. The services link im going to check out. The weird thing is, that from official support for Vue4 i got an answer that AMD is actually faster when rendering Vue4. Hmm... now i have to do serious thinking.

:) Maybe. The 4600 is a nice board, but the 5900 is definitely faster in the OpenGL end. Noticed this in both Vue Pro and Cinema4D. If you're going to upgrade your entire system (or build a new one), I'd suggest getting a Windows system and forego the Macs. Don't get me wrong, I like Mac Gx series and MacOS X, but cost-wise, you can get more from Windows for less cost. Get a motherboard with the fastest bus (FSB) possible. This really makes a difference in overall system performance. I'm running a 533MHz, but 800MHz or 1GHz is optimal. Get DDR memory to match, 1GB or more. I use 2GB which suffices well unless I'm doing Photoshop with large textures, Poser, and Cinema or Vue simultaneously. AMD Athlon XP+ and the new Opteron are good cpus. Although I mainly use Intel, I had no qualms about the AMDs that I've owned. Whichever way you go, try to go dual processor (hint,hint) and get something with HyperThreading. This will benefit most 3D applications (except Poser), really reduces "rendering stress" (on you that is!), and the OS and other applications in general. ;) Video cards are tough. ATI Radeon 9800 or GeForceFX 5900. I've heard great things about the former, but since I require 3D Stereoscopic support, NVidia is the way for me. If you can afford a Quadro Pro or other high-end graphics card, that will always be beneficial. Be certain to get a good power supply, 400W or better. My dual Xeons require 500+, so I'm using 550W PS. Hard drives are easy. Get the biggest you can afford at 7200 RPM with 8MB cache. If you're lucky enough to be able to afford it (and have that option on the mobo), get 10000RPM Serial ATA drives. They are supposedly the fastest option out there. Have not had a chance to check this myself.

About fsb youre right. Im getting a 800Mhz P4 CPU and im going to overclock it to 1000Mhz fsb or even more if i can. That requires good 500Mhz memories though. I'll go for 1Gb at first. 2 proccessor system i cannot afford, thatswhy i go for hyperthreading. About video cards. I found a test (i cant find the link anymore, damn) where it showed that in real life OGL applications (3dsMax, LightWave etc.) even GF FX 5600Ultra is 6-7 times faster than Radeon 9800Pro. Gaming is a different story though ;) Hard drives, i think 120Gb SATA Barracuda V with 8Mb cache can take the situation. The system i plan right now has the following components: Intel Pentium 4 2,60 GHz HT Abit IC7, Intel i875PE chipset 2 x Adata DDRAM PC-4000 500MHz 512MB CL 2,5 (excellent overclockers ;) GeforceFX 5600Ultra Memories are going to run in dual-mode. The fsb that quite a many people have got using similar components are 1100Mhz, some even more. So i should have a P4 3.6Ghz system with fast memories running on dual-mode. Other components i will buy later, my budget is also limited you know ;) Later i plan to upgrade the amount of memory, a new case and a better hard drive. Since my mind is quite made up for now i thank everybody for their attention. Comments are welcome though.

Wow, thank you very much. Too bad there are no single AthlonXP processors to compare.

Thorntoa: Can you post a link to this group? I did a search on Yahoo, joined a few, but can't find it. There are a lot of matches for Vue, surprisingly. Thanks! -Tim

The Dual Athlon MP 2200 listed in the chart is my machine. I built it last November and it cost me $1300 and change (although I didnt have to buy a monitor). It should be cheaper now. In fact when the Athlon MP 2800 drops in price Ill slip two into my present system.

Dave

Can you make a bench wit only one processor? That should be interesting...

Cinebench allows you to benchmark one or both processors but I dont anyway to do that with Vue. Dave

I meant that could you render the scene using only one processor and then post the results?

I Checked the CMOS and found no way running my system with one CPU other than farting with the motherboard and Im not about to that (sorry). Im sure some out here can test a single CPU Athlon.

Dave

Attached Link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vuedesprit/