ZBrushCentral

AMD 64 support?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hiya everyone :slight_smile:

I am thinking of upgradeing to one of thease new AMD 64 systems…

I was wondering if there was any advantages over Dual pentium 4 processors running at 2.40 GHZ…

it would be alot cheeper for me to go the dual setup… but if 1 amd 64 runs Zbrush faster or better, I would rather pay the extra…

are there any advantages between 1 type of setup and the other?

Zbrush is the main reason I am upgradeing , and I am trying to get the best system for running Zbrush…(Please dont tell me the Mac version is the best, If this is the case I would rather not know LOL! just jokeing :slight_smile: I will even buy a mac if this is true :slight_smile: )

thanks :slight_smile:

BTW I am getting atleast 1GIG of memory would Pixologic recomend more ? …

I am realy realy realy enjoying sculpting models that are around 10,000,000 polys… Lots of fun! my system with 1 pentium 4 2.40 GHZ runs Zbrush 2.0 quite well… I have a gig of memory, and it only realy starts to stutter after anout 4,000,000 polys…

anyways thanks in advanced 8)

#2

Can’t advise you with this Polaris but just thought I’d come in and join your quest. I am also considering upgrading my system to the new Athlon 64 but would like advice from those who have more experience in selecting hardware.
I am using a P4 at 1.8mhz with 1 Gb of SDram
Z2 seems to run ok but like you it starts to stutter when the poly’s mount up.

Hope you don’t mind me piggybacking your post Polaris, I guess it saves making more threads

#3

I’m also intrested in this, Polaris30 do you think its the RAM running out when you get stuck into the 4,000,000 poly models? So if you just had 512Mb more would there be no problem?

I know there is a ballence between the processor speed and the RAM but which might be more important when editing large poly counts.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112749,pg,5,00.asp
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,112749,pg,8,00.asp

The above shows the Athlon beating the G5. Doesn’t mean its better with ZBrush though I suppose but its a good indication.

I’ve only just got my ZB2 copy, seems to be working fine but I haven’t a clue how it really works yet.

#4

Aurick gives some info here and in other posts I guess… I guess the real ticket is Ram, and fast hard disk…
http://www.pixolator.com/zbc-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001300

He dosent mention anything about 64bit… but I dont think even windows uses them optimaly… someone was telling me that only Linux boxes have optimised the AMD64… he dose mention Hyper threading… I am going to go and see if AMD64 has hyperthread…

He puts hyperthread and multi processors in same boat, so I guess that the Hyperthreading is going to be the sellingpoint for me…plus it is only a 20% boost (give or take)

I am going to concentrate on a fast Harddisk and lots of ram… when Z2 is doing the virtual memory thing is only time I wish for Upgrade realy… so I guess this is where most of the system money will go…

rendering is realy fast on my existing system, and when useing transform tools it is almost instant when I am dealing with High poly models (within reason)… it is only when I am realy high in polycount that it slows down…

I am going to go and try crashing my system… I want to see how close to 10,000,000 polys I can get before I start seeing smoke comeing out the back of the computer case…

I have the slider turned all the way up in my prefrences, and I have only crashed once so far from subdevideing… (well it happened when subdevideing, I assume this is what got me… )

#5

The AMD64’s are not hyperthreaded but they have heavey FPU’s (math crunching bit)

Hyperthreading is basically the simulation of dual processors so dual should be better.

#6

I wasn’t satisfied with the performance of Z2 on my 1.2 GHz Celeron laptop, so I did some research on the PC side of things.

I found, and bought, a HP Pavilion with a 3.0E GHz P4 w/HT system that I will be using Z2 for almost exclusively. Initial testing, with only 512 MB RAM, I can edit a model with at least 4 million polygons. With more RAM, probably at least 1.5 GB, I will probably be able to edit it quicker and easier. I’ll know better tonight, when I get it installed. I honestly don’t think that getting a chip much faster than what I did is going to make that much more of a difference, i.e. 10,000,000 polygons like you mentioned earlier. I could be wrong though.

I was initially looking at buying a new Mac, but when I saw the price difference of the P4 system I just bought, and the G5’s, I figured I might save the $2,200 dollar difference for later. I’ll miss my Mac, but I can assuredly say that I won’t miss the dough! LOL

Maybe it’s a good thing the Mac version of Z2 was delayed. I never would have looked at a PC if it hadn’t!

#7

I read that the AMD 64 has a front bus of 1600 would this front end bus speed up the math when making the models in higher poly count?

#8

Zbrush 2 isn’t a 64bit app…or hasn’t been written for a 64bit system…

There’s a very interesting discussion on CgTalk as too why Opteron’s and other forthcomming processors are only really going to excel when the software is written for a specific 64bit system…i.e. Windows XP64 for the Opteron/AMD64…

Someone mentions that there is a version of 3d Studio Max 64 in the works… :wink:

*8

ps:R-Jay, these chips use ‘HyperTransport’, which is supposed to make Hyperthreading look silly…but don’t quote me on that… :wink:

#9

Although ZB2 isn’t 64bit I wouldn’t let that put anyone off buying a 64AMD as they are currently beating the Pentiums in the standard 32bit software. The most attractive thing about them as far as I can see for ZBrush users is the raw maths power of these processors, they are always streets ahead of G5’s, P4’s and AlthonXP’s in AutoCad and Games that don’t rely on the graphics card much. As far as I can tell this is the sort of program that ZBrush is.

That said the P4’s have Hyperthreading which is supported by ZB (20% increase so I hear) and as 8BIT BOY said the 64AMD uses HyperTransport which is not supported by ZBrush.

I don’t think that a AMD64 can beat a P4 at the same clock speed by 20% so I recon a high speed P4 might be the best bet, if you have oodels of money then get duel Opteron’s as dual systems should beat a hyperthreaded one when the chips use the same speed.

Hmmmm did any of that make sense? I hope so :cool:

#10

Hypertransport is a bus/throughput technology. It’s not a multi-threading technology like Hyperthreading. The Apple G5’s have Hypertransport technology on it’s motherboard, although it doesn’t use it for it’s FSB. You can find out more about hypertransport technology here:

http://www.hypertransport.org/

#11

R-Jay is correct, I wouldn’t be put of buying one as Opterons work very well with 32bit appz.

There’s alot of benchmarking goin’ on and it kinda looks a bit like this:

buy a Xeon if your using Max.
buy an Opteron if your using Maya.

I say just buy the god damn thing regardless… ;)…I’d say it’s future proof for about the next two/three years…the 248 that is… ;)…

Anywayz, here are the thread’s for your leisure:

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=132659&highlight=opteron

http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123132&highlight=opteron+vs+xeon

Wchamlet…You built that behemoth cube yet? :stuck_out_tongue:

*8

:stuck_out_tongue: