Best upgrade to increase Render speed in 3dsmax?

[frenzyFoL]

Howdy,
Some of my rendering in 3ds max can take +24 hours, especially if theres any nasty raytracing or atmospherics involved.
Iv'e posted on a few 3d forums and have recieved mixed answers as to what would be the best hardware upgrade to increase my rendering speed.
Some have said CPU, some say GFX card, some say RAM.

My system is a 1.1Ghz Athlon with 512 pc133RAM (mboard wont take ddr) and a GF2MX

I dont want to spend more than 500 australian which is around 300 US (I think).

 

[lhgpoobaa]

well rendering stuff like that is cpu dependent i thought... so your best bet would be new mobo/cpu/ram. get a fast cpu with a high bandwidth DDR chipset and ram. high end XP cpu/kt333chipset/PC2700 ram or P4/533fsb/PC1066 RDRAM if you can afford it. (probably not, P4's in australia are too pricey)

two good shops to peruse (australia only)
<A HREF="http://www.eyo.com.au" target="_new">http://www.eyo.com.au</A>
<A HREF="http://www.auspcmarket.com.au" target="_new">http://www.auspcmarket.com.au</A>
ive shopped from both, and have had great service (im an auzzie too)

<b>MegaHertz Matters! ... But not without Cache our a decent chipset!!! </b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by lhgpoobaa on 08/19/02 09:29 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

in all honesty ur best off having all 3 of what everyone have said...a better GFX Card...More Ram...and a better CPU...

ur best bet is a high end Athlon XP CPU and 512-1GB of DDR RAM and a new KT333 or KT400 MB...it'll be ur cheapest AND fastest route.....but just for now..ur best off buying a fast Athlon XP CPU and DDR Board and DDR Ram....

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[BuddyAtBzboyz]

I'm going to have to agree with athlon. But I would go with not quite top of the line so you can overclock it and increase the fsb. Which will increase your performance quite a bit since increasing the bandwidth will allow for better graphics processing.

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

Agreed =)

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>

 

[Jake75]

First priority is RAM.
The more RAM you have the less 3DMax has to access the harddrive.

After you slap in some mo´ RAM go for the fastest processor you can afford, consider dual CPU setup if you have the cash.

Graphicscard?
Doesn´t matter when you render, it will "only" make a difference in the viewports.


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[Spitfire_x86]

Best upgrade is Athlon XP (as fast as possinle) w/ KT333 and PC2100 or PC2700 DDR RAM.

If you can afford, go for Dual Athlon MP setup.

Never buy P4 or Xeon for 3ds max. This app loves faster FPU. An Athlon XP 2200+ is equal in this app compared to much more pricier 2.53 GHz P4.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

dude go with a dual system! athlon mp's would be cheaper. but the noise would be there. You don't necessarly need an opengl card but it is recommended. I don't have one and the rendering is done just fine.

But most rendering is used using the cpu and RAM. So you want lots of RAM (256mb is the minimum, 512mb recommended, 1024mb ideal) and a powerful cpu and a decent 3d graphics card with open gl support. Id wait for the radeon 9700 pro because it has lots of features that will make your future rendering a lot easier so i hear. I believe thats waht render monkey or monkey render is, a vertex shader programming tool kit. which you'll want to get into later i'm sure.

good luck!

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

a better GFX Card isn't necessary. Rendering utilizes the CPU and RAM. So you want to focus on those two aspects. But you do NEED a 3d graphics card with opengl support. But you don't need the most expensive card either.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[grassapa]

Guys!, he said he would rather not spend more than 300 bucks...help a man keep his wallet plz. I would definately get a new mobo and DDR ram....

real philosophy of life: "do onto others what you dont want them do onto you"

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

thats impossible. He needs new RAM, new chip and new motherboard. Possibly a new case too and power supply as well. He's looking at 400 easy.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

 

[ritesh_laud]

Never buy P4 or Xeon for 3ds max. This app loves faster FPU. An Athlon XP 2200+ is equal in this app compared to much more pricier 2.53 GHz P4.

In the current version of 3DSMax, yes. But I believe that the current version does not have heavy SSE2 optimizations. A future version may give the P4 a significant lead.

Ritesh

 

[Jake75]

I have a new suggestion for you, buy a 256Mb module and save your money
for the "next generation" of hardware.

I don´t think you will see THAT much of an decrease in rendering times if you buy new
components currently on the market, at least not price/performance wise and certainly
not for that amount of money you have, sadly.

You´re saying that you´re using raytraced shadows in combination with volumetrics and
then on top of this you are rendering it all?

That´s just like begging for problems.
As you surely know raytraced shadows and especially mixed with volumetrics is
very demanding and can bring any processor on it´s knees before it knows what hit it.

I suggest you decrease your volumetrics detail and skip the raytaced shadows entirely.
Use the standard shadowmap and set the value for them to 3000-4000.
When you animate things, lot´s of details "disappears" as the eye don´t have the time
to focus on them, this is especially true if you have a focal point in you´re scene (all scenes should
have this ) that draws the attention to it.
Spice all this with a "good" amount of motionblur and voilá, you have a very nice result.

Raytraced shadows/lighs is almost only good if you need to render caustics, "see thru glass" and exact shadows
(which don´t exist in real life).

Also...how many shadowcasting lights do you have in your scene?
Sit down and think thru, do I really need this light to cast shadows, what if I put
this light in this spot and so on...I promise you that you will get splendid results without
raytraced lights and overdetailed volumetrics.
Just because you can set a detail level to, say 1000 does´nt mean you get better results.
Tweak around till you are satisfied.

Hmm, well, that´s it for now. Hope it helped somewhat.

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[Guest]

I have wonder that the rendering speed is depend on cpu or ram first. Also, if we use 16 Raid SSD harddisk for the rendering, is it more faster than before. Also, if we use the distirbuting rendering and also, we use the 1G bandwidth for this situation, is it more faster than before. Can anybody answer my question, I have doubt of this question.

I want to build a super computer for my rendering, what is the best solution?

 

[Wisecracker]

This has got to be some kind of record!

Google "" 3ds max Backburner ""

You may establish 1,000s of nodes to distribute your renders.

 

[one-shot]

This thread is 7 years old! LET IT DIE!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey