Dual Opterons... For What?

[ard]

I work with max and I currently have a dual opteron 244. It uses both processors for rendering, but as far as I can see, that's it. Other than that it only uses 1 processor. I'm working a lot in animation and do lot of previews. In previews it only uses 1 processor. I expect the same thing happens with dual cores.

So I'm planning to buy another PC with a FX-57, a fast single core processor for animation and upgrading my dual opteron 244 to a single opteron 275 for lighting tests and rendering (2 of these would be too expensive).

My idea is to get rid of the waiting periods, whether in animation or in lighting.

Am I thinking right here? Or is there anything else I can do with my system?

Another thing... A neighbour of mine just told me he has a 30.000 USD 3 year old Silicon Graphics just sitting in the dust and he's ready to give it me almost for free. I dont't know these systems and I work mainly with max. What can I use it for?

[nuabudikae]

Invest in a nice graphics card if your concerned with how your system is responding. Most apps are not written to take advantage of more then one processor except for rendering fuctions. Expect this to slowly change in the future. In the next few years mainstream, consumer class machines will be dual core and as such more software writers will have to rework and rewrite parts of their apps to take advantage of the additional potential performance.

[ard]

I have a Quadro 3400 and in the project I'm working on at the moment I can't use maxtreme. It gives me a strange flickering of large imaginary faces that ocupy almost the whole window that make it impossible to work.

Do you know if the graphics card affects the calculation of the previews in max?

[joojaa]

QUOTE(ard @ 09/06/05, 05:05 AM)
Do you know if the graphics card affects the calculation of the previews in max?
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definetly, check your driver version an/or contact nvida youve paid for the right of assitance.

[bellwilliam]

QUOTE(ard @ 09/01/05, 05:03 PM)
upgrading my dual opteron 244 to a single opteron 275 for lighting tests and rendering (2 of these would be too expensive).
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not sure why you want to do this. dual 244 runs at about the same speed as single 275. I don't see any advantage doing this.

[joojaa]

yes i agree allmost no big significance... atleast not soemthing worth throeing your manoy at.

[ncheater]

Forget about the SGI.
Unless U just want a nice piece of history to put it in the bookshelf to look at, the SGI is just not in the game anmore no matter how much it used to cost.
And Max only works on windows.

And I dont really agree about the part of that dual core should change the performance in modeling and UI. Just because its not that easy to write SW that uses more than one processor for these kind of calculations. There is a reason why only rendering uses the extra power.

[joojaa]

Well they seem to be putting awfully much effort to get allmost everything multithreaded, atleast on mayas side.

Anyawy for example zbrushes ui and modelling for exampel IS multithreaded so ethet 2 procs gives you anice boost so it certainly is possible.

[blackchicken]

QUOTE(Joojaa @ 09/08/05, 12:10 AM)
Well they seem to be putting awfully much effort to get allmost everything multithreaded, atleast on mayas side.

Anyawy for example zbrushes ui and modelling for exampel IS multithreaded so ethet 2 procs gives you anice boost so it certainly is possible.
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Only the rendering is multi-threaded in Maya.

[joojaa]

Yes i know that but if you looka t the docs, the number of things thet have become theread safe is on the rise. WICH means they either want to adres capabilities of those plugs OR they are tooling up for full multithread.

Amnd yes im talking in futurum not what is.