Help configuring a workstation for Maya, Adobe Suite, etc.

[drjones]

Hi, I have a client who needs a workstation to run the following apps:

- AutoDesk Maya

- ZBrush

- Adobe CS6

Here's what I specced out:

Dell XPS 8500 Desktop PC

- Windows 7 Professional
- Intel Core i7 Processor
- 8GB RAM
- 1TB hard drive
- AMD Radeon 1GB Graphics Processor

Will this be sufficient, or should we look to a Precision workstation?

If so, what sort of Precision? The graphics card options alone are mind boggling... Is 8GB RAM enough? What sort of graphics card is recommended?

Of course cost is a consideration, but they are willing to spend a good amount to get a machine that will run the software well - that's the highest priority.

Thanks!

 

[angry_geek]

Xeon-based precision with a pro graphics card. It sounds like they're pretty serious about what they're doing. Explain to them it's better to spend a bit more now for a quality professional system. Also recommend good IPS panels for monitors.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Agree 1000%....stick with a professional grade graphics workstation (Precision)...with at least 1x pair of drives. Good long lifespan, plus brutally powerful performance. I recently did a Precision with a pair of 300 gig 10krpm SAS drives, 16 gigs of RAM, for a client. She was in LOVE with its performance.

Home grade 1 year warranty XPS stuff and other dimension lines...stay far away from. Explain the long term cost of ownership to the client...get a dimension and troubleshoot/fix frequently and replace every 2 years or so, (including your cost in transferring data)...or get a good Precision that will last well over 5 years.

Not to mention a good increase in productivity for the client since the machine will perform very well and give optimal performance for those applications.

Go Google Dells "ISV Certified workstations"....and find out what that is.

 

[Vyper28]

Depends on the purpose and use of Maya/Zbrush.

If they are rendering, no this is wrong.

You don't want a gaming card you want a working card, look at Quadro 2000 or an ATI Firepro card. Rendering is slow on gamer cards, it's slow and frustrating.

Second, you want a second hard drive, and 7200RPM for both (or faster). Biggest speed jumps for these types of applications are "scratch disks". They work best if they are on a separate drive and they are fast drives.

More ram would be idea, but 8 is enough. A good i7 business grade machine with a Quadro/Firepro would work for you.

I should also add in my experience i7 are much faster then Xeon's when it comes to render work. However, when we set up a render farm out here we used Xeon's simply because they were more stable at long-haul jobs. So if he is doing big render jobs over days, get him a xeon. If he is a designer and does more "model/design work" and doesn't render so heavily, get him an i7. Regardless, try push him to a Firepro or Quadro though, the software was designed to work for them so it's smoother in every aspect when compared to a "standard" card for gamers ect ect.

*Edit* V5800 is a great card too for "affordable" workhorses. Or an S10000 ... only 3k!

 

[drjones]

I guess that's really what I'm looking for more guidance on is what specific type of graphics card. This is not my strong suit; not very familiar with graphics cards.

In my Dell portal for a Precision T3600, here are the options for graphics cards:


Quad


NVIDIA Quadro NVS 510, 2GB, QUAD MON, 4 mDP [add $269.50]
Professional 2D

512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 300, DUAL MON, 2 DMS59 [add $10.50]

Dual 512 MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 300, QUAD MON, 4 DMS59 [add $73.50]

512 MB AMD FirePro 2270, Two Monitor, 1 DMS59 [Included in Price]

Dual 512 MB AMD FirePro™ 2270, QUAD MON, 4 DMS59 [add $52.50]

512 MB, NVIDIA® Quadro® NVS 310, 2 DP (2 DP-DVI adapters) [add $17.50]

Dual 512 MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 310, QUAD MON, 4 DMS59 [add $87.50]
Entry 3D

1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 600, Dual MON, 1 DP & 1 DVI [add $63.00]

Dual 1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 600, Quad MON, 2 DP & 2 DVI [add $178.50]

1GB AMD FirePro V4900, Three Monitor, 2 DP & 1 DVI [add $66.50]

Dual 1GB AMD V4900,4DP/2DVI [add $185.50]

NVIDIA® Quadro® K600, 1GB, 1 DP & 1 DVI-I (DP-DVI & DVI-VGA adapters) [add $77.00]

Dual NVIDIA® Quadro® K600, 1GB, 2 cards w/ 1 DP & 1 DVI-I each, (2 DP-DVI & 2 DVI-VGA adapters) [add $206.50]




Mid Range 3D


1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 2000, Dual MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI [add $346.50]

Dual 1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 2000, Quad MON, 4 DP & 2 DVI [add $745.50]


2.0GB AMD FirePro™ V5900, Triple Monitor, 2DP & 1DVI [add $283.50]

Dual 2.0GB AMD FirePro™ V5900, Six Monitor, 4DP & 2DVI [add $619.50]

2GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 4000, DUAL MON, 2DP & 1DVI [add $584.50]

Dual 2GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 4000, DUAL MON, 2DP & 1DVI [add $1,221.50]

2.0GB AMD FirePro™ V7900, Four Monitor, 4 DP [add $500.50]

Dual 2.0GB AMD FirePro™ V7900, Eight Monitor, 8 DP [add $1,053.50]

2.0GB AMD FirePro™ W5000, 2 DP + DVIi [add $290.50]

Dual 2.0GB AMD FirePro™ W5000, 2 DP + DVIi [add $633.50]


Dual NVIDIA® Quadro® K2000, 2GB, 2 cards w/ 2 DP & 1 DVI-I each (4 DP-DVI & 2 DVI-VGA adapters) [add $780.50]

NVIDIA® Quadro® K4000, 3GB, 2 DP & 1 DVI-I ( 2 DP-DVI & DVI-VGA adapters) [add $647.50]

NVIDIA® Quadro® K2000, 2GB, 2 DP & 1 DVI-I (2 DP-DVI & DVI-VGA adapters) [add $364.00




High End 3D

Dual 2.5GB NVIDIA™ Quadro™ 5000, 6 MON, 2DP & 1DVI with SLI [add $2,838.50]

6.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 6000, Dual MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI [add $3,202.50]

Nvidia Quadro K5000, 4GB, 2 DP + DVIi +DVId [add $1,410.50]

 

[drjones]

Also, how big a performance difference is there between SAS & SATA?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Also, how big a performance difference is there between SAS & SATA?

Huge with a capitol H!

 

[Vyper28]

What video card depends heavily on what types of projects he is doing. If he is an engineer and using Maya/Zbrush for concrete object design, you can get away with a lower end card as he/she is not Rendering his work.

If he/She is an animator or texture artist then go higher. Start at the Quadro 2000 and go up from there. The V7900 is a great middle of the road workhorse for this type of thing.

If he is rendering multi-scene Pixar level CG short films or higher, and he is not using a render farm for his work then K5000 or higher. At this stage, unless he has his own studio it's probably cheaper for him to get a mid range card and just source his large render jobs to a farm.

Lots of thing factor in to what he "needs" and what he can get away with. Here is how I would start:

Ask him what type of work it is. Maya can be used like CAD or like Lightwave. It can be for design or everything start to finish for an animated film.

Most of the animation art/design field is contract work, it is likely that he is a self-contracted animator or modeller. If this is the case go with a FirePro V7900 or Quadro K4000. They are good enough for him to work smoothly on very high poly-count models in non-wireframe mode, but not breaking the bank since he is not rendering his work. He is sending it to a studio and after lighting ect ect they are rendering. It might be choppy with a very high resolution texture on a large poly count model, but most animators don't work much in this mode.

A higher card will always make things smoother for him, so you'll have to get a feeler about how much he is willing to spend. But those 2 I mentioned above are great mid-range cards that should work for most contracted work.

 

[KompuKare]

Adobe CS is in a state of flux regarding GPU support. Adobe seem to changing to OpenCL support rather the previous CUDA stuff. In theory OpenCL is vendor agnostic but Nvidia are so keen to keep their proprietary CUDA that their OpenCL support is poor.

AFAIK only Premier has OpenCL for now but I can see them eventually having the whole suite running with OpenCL. This opens up the possibility of Intel graphics too - I know Intel graphics have a poor reputation ATM (aside from stability in 2D where they are actually very good), but if someone is really serious about Premier and Photoshop in the future Intel Xeon Phi might also be an option.

I imagine that if OpenCL catches on, Nvidia will be forced to pay attention to their OpenCL drivers. Another variable is SP/DP performance of cards: Nvidia were okay with DP up until Kepler, now only Titan has decent DP.

Just though I'd post this to add your confusion...

Or rather to point out that there are lots of variable to consider and it's possible that there is no single solution is good at all three of those programs.

 

[drjones]

So here's what I've configured, input please!



Dell Precision T3600

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-1603 (Four Core 2.8GHz, 10M)

Windows 7 Professional,SP1, No Media, 64-bit, English

635W Power Supply, 90 Percent Efficiency

8GB, DDR3 UDIMM Memory, 1600MHz, Non-ECC (4 x 2 GB DIMMs)

1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 2000, Dual MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI edit


Hard Drive Configuration
C4 SAS 2.5 Inch, 1-2 Hard Drives

No RAID

PERC H310 for Dell Precision, SATA/SAS 6Gb/s, RAID 0/1/5/10 (4 ports)

Boot Hard Drive
900GB, 10k RPM 2.5" SAS 6Gb/s Hard Drive

2nd Hard Drive
900GB, 10k RPM 2.5" SAS 6Gb/s Hard Drive

16XDVD+/-RW and 8XDVD,SATA