a new PC

[oliversimonnet]

hello everyone
at the moment im working on a rubbish computer.
im planing on buying new parts for it to make Lightwave run fast.
at the moment after about having 30.000 polys on the screen it gos relay slow.
so i was just wondering. what do i need exactly. just a new graphics card.
or do i need more than that.

[JohnMarchant]

Firstly is it definitely your hardware thats the slow down.

If it is and the computer is old then it might be that you will need more than just a new graphics card, throw us a bone mate and give us your computer specs and your budget for buying new stuff.

If money is not a problem i would buy all new stuff or mostly new stuff. Get a good board, fastest processor and as much memory as you can afford. The graphics card is not so important as long as its at least over 512 Mb.

Also what software are you using, some will utilise the GPU some will not.

[oliversimonnet]

hey
sorry havent been on internet bin messin up
aa ok
ok
mmm i duno what u mean by "what software are you using"
so il answer it a few diferent ways lol
my computer is LG
i use Lightwave 3D
and im on windows XP.

[oliversimonnet]

o and is it any good working on a laptop? (lightwave)
or is it best on a computer

[JonW]

Lightwave is ok on my old Mac Dual 533 1.5 gb ram, but if I don’t want to stuff around with a second rate box a pair of X5680 CPUs are the go now. They will be 50% faster than a pair of W5580 CPUs. 24 cores in one box, anything less is just fiddling around.

Once one has used a 30 inch monitor, any else is near impossible to function on.

While you are at it put in an SSD or two, they are very nice.

[JonW]

If you want any help, telling us your computer is an LG, is about as useful as saying you drive a Ford. It could be a 1.2 litre egg beater, or a 5 litre super charged V8.

The operating system is equivalent to standard fuel or premium, in reality even less of a difference than this! (I sill run XP on my pair of W5580 CPUs & they don’t suffer from it)

Ironically if you put together a custom made box you will have a box assembled out of top of the range parts (Intel, Supermicro etc). If you buy a box from a large supplier it is built to a price, or in other words the lowest common denominator & is made from parts built down to a minimal price, not worth the the boards they are printed on.

You may be doing some NLE, so you will need set up your computer quite differently. You may need to run even more programs, running a few SSDs in raid could make life a lot easier. Even Photoshop, with a stack or ram helps a lot. You may be running a large data base, then a handful of SSDs in raid is the way to go.

Some things work even better using 4 AMD CPUs on one board. But you may be better off with some render farm boxes (bare bones).



You need to know where you are at now, & where you would like to be, to be able to provide your customers it a timely & reliable manor without stress.

A new video card will do nothing to speed up Lightwave. Put the old computer out to the farm & use Screamernet.

Before you buy that new box, you do really need to clarify to yourself what you are actually trying to achieve.