Desktop Workstation for Maya2013

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mcvshopping

Honorable
Dec 1, 2013
5
0
10,510
Hi,

I am looking to invest on a desktop workstation that can handle my everyday needs of Maya. I have a LOT of questions about the graphic card and CPU choices.

I Currently Own:
A Lenovo W520 laptop that has a quadro 1000 card, 12GB DDR3 RAM and an i5 prcoessor.

Reason for upgrade:
I am now working on my thesis and there is a lot of lag while animating. When I load all the scene files and the characters and hit play... the fps rates are really bad. 24 frames that should take a second to play back, take 19 seconds!!! it is impossible to aniamte in this condition.

Nature of Work:
models are not that heavy at all. My sets and charatcers are low poly.
Practially no textures.
Even wireframe mode lags.
the most intense calculations are becaue of the character rig. But the rig is definitely not too complicated to slow down the system so much.

BUDGET : $1000 for the entire system including tower, power, fan etc. I dont mind spilling over this budget a little if it is really worth it.

GRAPHIC CARD:
I started my research from here. Narrowed my search to 3 cards:
1) ATI V5900 for $400+
2) GeFORCE 580 for about 400 (althoguh it no longer seems to be in production)
3) GeForce 680 (for around 300)

v5900 features pretty heavily in all of the tests conducted with respect to Maya. Autodesks website lists v5900 as the 3rd top card to use with Maya2012(which is what I will us till my theis is done, and then shift to Maya2014).

580 and 680 have some great reviews. Both are gaming cards.I do not game at all. I only use my system for Maya and Mudbox work. I am sure Maya works with GeForce cards as well. Many users say so.

APPLICATIONS USED:
Maya (80% of the time)
Photoshop (5%)
AfterEffects (10%)
Mudbox (5%)

Now for the questions:

Q1) So, is a quadro graphic card really needed? If I buy a cheaper, older, higher memory gaming card, will it be better than buying a professional card?

Q2) Autodesk recommends using OpenGL cards. So, that means any gaming openGL should work too, right?

Q3) How important is it to have a good CPU? Do the number of cores matter? I dont think all operations in maya utilise all multiple cores. But there are certainly some operations that use multiple core. So, what should i be looking for when researching for a good processor

Q4) Is it better to have a more powerful graphic card and compromise on the CPU, or other way round or average both out?

I would appreciate any help in this regard as I am totally confused at this point.
 
Solution
k1114
Where's the list you are talking about that shows the v5900 as 3rd?

1/2. The default viewport is opengl but viewport 2.0 is directx. You might want to try it out with your current system and see if it helps. In the viewport window click renderer and select it. Workstation cards will handle opengl much better than gaming cards but directx is more in line to actual gpu performance. Sadly there are no viewport 2.0 benchmarks around to show the performance difference but here's showing opengl. I'd say to just get a workstation card but your budget is somewhat low for any decent one.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-8.html...
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k1114

k1114

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May 2, 2010
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Where's the list you are talking about that shows the v5900 as 3rd?

1/2. The default viewport is opengl but viewport 2.0 is directx. You might want to try it out with your current system and see if it helps. In the viewport window click renderer and select it. Workstation cards will handle opengl much better than gaming cards but directx is more in line to actual gpu performance. Sadly there are no viewport 2.0 benchmarks around to show the performance difference but here's showing opengl. I'd say to just get a workstation card but your budget is somewhat low for any decent one.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-8.html
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/AutoDesk-Maya-2013-GPU-Acceleration-166/
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/AutoDesk-Maya-2014-Professional-GPU-Acceleration-509/

3/4. The viewport performance is primarily the gpu so modeling and animating will want a good gpu. Dynamics and rendering is done on the cpu where you want a good cpu; at least for any of the built in renderers since they are all cpu based and not throwing in maximus in the mix. The number of cores does not necessarily correlate to cpu performance but it's easy to see which is better by just looking up benchmarks. Which component to focus on really depends on your workload.
 
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Solution
M

mcvshopping

Honorable
Dec 1, 2013
5
0
10,510
Hi,

Thanks for getting back on this.
To see the list of cards that autodesk recommends, you have to fill out a form here.
I am using win7 64 bit, 2012 Maya.
You will then see a list of cards that autodesk recommends. The v5900 is actually second in the list.

I always work on viewport. I am mainly in the animation side of Maya. Viewport 2.0 is for a good representation of the textures. I don't really care about it right now. (might in the future).
I also installed the application Tech Power-Up GPU-Z. I wanted to see how much of my GPU was being used.
I opened the scene that is struggling to play and hit the play button. As the scene struggles to chug along, my GPU utilization was only 11% and the clock freq kept oscillating. It had small periods of high freq and then drops to very low freq. All the time the animation is chugging along slowly in the viewport. The scene has no dynamics. If it is the same amount of calculation being done in each frame, then why does the GPU Clock freq oscillate so much? Isn't it moving the same amount of pixels in every frame?

I then looked at the CPU utilization. All 8 cores were being used. Only about 30%-50% of CPU was being used.
The RAM too was not being fully utilized.

So, I fail to understand why the scene is chugging along so slow.
any ideas?



 
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M

mcvshopping

Honorable
Dec 1, 2013
5
0
10,510
I also read a thread about how to post a query for a new build. So hoping that following this template makes things easier

Approximate Purchase Date: sooner the better. A week or 2 would be great.

Budget Range: $1000 After Rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
1) Maya 3D Modeling, Rigging, Animation (most important)
2) Maya Rendering (I have access to a render farm right now. So this is not critical)
3) Online videos and browsing
3) Games (Least important. Will never play any games on this system)

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Anywhere I can get it cheap. Prefer amazon and newegg and maybe even ebay.

Country: US

Parts Preferences: Confused about the GPU and CPU. Hoping you guys can clear some of this confusion.

Overclocking: No for now. Maybe if budget allows

SLI or Crossfire: No. I know budget will not allow for a maybe here

Monitor Resolution: 1600x900

Additional Comments: Prefer windows7. Dont mind win8 too. Will also use the system for Mudbox, Zbrush, Photoshop and Aftereffects.
 
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k1114

k1114

Titan
May 2, 2010
14,240
93
75,540
The recommended hardware is just what they tested, it lists them in alphabetical order (with workstations cards first) which is why it's near the top.

Viewport 2.0 will have different performance as it uses a different api. I am well aware of the differences and wanted to know if it would be better performance for you. Dx is much more efficient than ogl and 2.0 should give better performance. But the issue you are having is with the cpu. The rigging calculations are done on the cpu and sadly it's not really multi threaded. You are hardly using your current gpu so I'm going to put more money into the cpu.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2eiQP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2eiQP/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2eiQP/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($289.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro K600 ($161.00 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $1015.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-03 12:37 EST-0500)
 
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M

mcvshopping

Honorable
Dec 1, 2013
5
0
10,510
Wow.. good point you make about the graphic cards being arranged in alphabetical order.
Once I realized that was the case, I started to dig around a little more and came across this page:
http://www.cgchannel.com/2011/10/review-professional-gpus-nvidia-vs-amd-2011/

Looking at these charts, once again for the performance/price ratio, v5900 seems to be a real good bet. I found a deal for this card for only $200 (new card). I might end up buying that as I feel it will give me a lot more performance than the k600. (correct me if i am wrong)

Also, thanks to cyber monday deals, snatched up a Kingston SSD 240GB for $120.

For the rest, I will try from your search and modify as needed. Hoping I can find some real good deals online and post the best config here.
Thanks for your help till now. Appreciate it.
 
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M

mcvshopping

Honorable
Dec 1, 2013
5
0
10,510
Thanks Rolli59.

I am planning on going with a 1150 and a PSU of atleast 500W. I am actually finding some real great deals for the system. I will be able to put together a real good config for about $800 is my guess. The moment I get all the parts and I have tested them out, I will put up the config info and how I went about collecting these. Bound to be helpful for others trying to build a real powerful system for less than $1000.
 
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