What is the best commercial processor put right now that i can get at say BestBuy or similar ?

I run Vue and Cinema 4D latest versions always.

Attached Link: http://www.cornucopia3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7593

if by Best you mean fastest render speed then check this thread. It looks like the i7 series quads are the best listed there. Not sure if they are at Best Buy as I shop online at places like Newegg.

In a couple of months there may be a new i7 with 6 cores 12 threads.
Core i7-980 XE will have 6 real cores that show up as 12 cores in the OS. Comes out in march 2010 according to Wiki.

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Hm, are those 64 bit ? and whats the best one if that series ?

I don't think you can find a new processor without support for 64bit operating systems these days.

yeah all recent CPus (bar a few weird laptop ones, iirc) are 64 bit capable :)

um no such thing as "best" they always grossly WAY over charge for most recent CPU, so IMHO not worth it unless yer rich. a syou may only be talking about a 25% speed increase or less.

good cpu + good motherboard + good ram + good SYSTEM hard drive is much better than just a super dooper CPU :)

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If money does not matter then the fastest rendering one I know of is Core i7 975 3.33gz it's 64 bit capable.

But  I agree with silverblade33

Anyway there is going to be a financial sweet spot (bang for buck) somewhere between the lesser Core i7 920 and the Core i7 975.  I would get a Core i7 920 and pickup as much compatible midrange memory as possible.
Because while the cpu matters much with render speed, memory plays a big role in render size (amount of pixels)and maybe in complexity as well . A lack of memory can really limit your render size. (I make large stills) I don't animate.

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Ok, so i orderd today from TigerDirect and settled for the following:

i7 960(?) with "more than capable" motherboard

Nvidia GForce GTX 295

and 12G Kingston DDR3

for 1666.95 USD

sound good ?

Most interested in running Vue and Cinema 4D without headaches and crashes (;

...but enjoy a nice frag fest on ocassion as well :D

I'm jealous LOL!! contemplating buying a new pc this year but loathe to do cos I've upgraded my old one so much Win 7Prof  64 bit , 8GB Ram it all costs money LOL!!!!

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Quote - Ok, so i orderd today from TigerDirect and settled for the following:

i7 960(?) with "more than capable" motherboard

Nvidia GForce GTX 295

and 12G Kingston DDR3

for 1666.95 USD

sound good ?

Most interested in running Vue and Cinema 4D without headaches and crashes (;

...but enjoy a nice frag fest on ocassion as well :D

Sounds real good.

I don't know when I can upgrade, right now I'm thankful to God just to keep the mortgage and bills paid. The last 9 months have been hard on the biz.

A little early for me to upgrade any way. I try to do a full system upgrade when I can affordability triple my render speed. My Q6600 quad is showing it age, but I probably got a year left.

Then it becomes my secondary system when I upgrade and it will serve 2 or more years as secondary. It's not like the upgrades that I made recently are wasted.

Frank Hawkins/Owner/DigitalDaydreams

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Frank Lee Hawkins Eastern Sierra Gallery Store

 

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I hear that. 

The new cpus for the future will have HD decoding built right into the processor from what I read.  That is when I will upgrade.

Slonishko
I'd be very wary of running games on your art rig! some games come with horrendous DRM, rootkits etc. that's why I keep 2 PCs: 1 for games, one for art (also I can do renders or whatever one PC as I work on other).
IMHO, two "good" PCs are better than 1 "Uber" PC, plus lots of back up space and so forth.
but your specs should be a killer PC! :)

CobraEye
hm, why then? :)
to me, upgrading's based on 2 things:

1. when my PC breaks down/is on it's last legs! hehe that's the main one. Too expensive to replace except every 3 years or so. Hopefully my current PCs, being better spec will last 4 to 5 years.
2. Some major improvement, so, 64 bit/quad core and art PC was getting long in tooth made me upgrade.
   is HD capability on CPU that big a change? I honestly dunno :)

"I'd rather be a Fool who believes in Dragons, Than a King who believes in Nothing!" www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Free tutorials, Vue & Bryce materials, Bryce Skies, models, D&D items, stories.
Tutorials on Poser imports to Vue/Bryce, Postwork, Vue rendering/lighting, etc etc!

Yes, 64 and HD is important for me because most of my work is video. USB 3 is an important upgrade for the future too.  If vue users are making HD animations these 3 upgrades will work very well together.

Pardon the ignorance, but what is USB 3 ? Although I ave no interest in animation, i am just curious :D

The new usb standard, faster than usb 2.
Not that much of interest (to me atleast) unless you're a heavy user of external usb drives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

Hm, interesting article...how on earth are we supposed to keep up...geez

I have a Intel Core I7 920 with 12 GB DDR3 64 bit ...and it works fine looks like you have made a good choice

My new computer will be here in about 15 days.  Can't wait!  Sounds about like your system abumagic - i7 920.  I will start with 6GB and once hubby has recovered from the bill, then I will get 6 more GB...  :sneaky:

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I  start with 6GB up to two week ago it still rendered pritty good but def better with 12 GB my the I7 motherboards go up to 24 GB

Quote - Pardon the ignorance, but what is USB 3 ? Although I ave no interest in animation, i am just curious :D

USB 3 will make driveless computers (using memory for C: drives) save/read faster.

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