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The right box for C4D R11: 64bit? Quad-core? Vista?
Hello all,
Our firm has recently added C4D R11 (the full suite) to our toolset, largely on the recommendation of an employee with experience in the application. There is some modeling, but with an emphasis on animations, mainly industrial items, not character at this stage.
The current PC it is running on is ok, but starts to slow down and go into wireframe mode with the addition of many objects and animation, slowing down our work flow. I would like to get a new box for multiple uses, but with handling C4D well as a priority. I don’t have a big budget to throw at this, so I would appreciate recommendations on what will give us the best for our spend.
I have several specific questions:
-Should we go for a quad-core or is a dual-core sufficient? We could probably afford an entry spec quad-core, or a higher spec dual-core.
-I know the benefit of 64bit addressing more RAM. I assume there is also some benefit in processing. Will C4D run better/faster on 64bit? Are there going to be complications with using some of my other 32bit software on the same box?
-If I run a 32-bit machine, I would most likely stay with Windows XP Pro. However, on a 64-bit machine, would you use XP or Vista?
I really appreciate your input. I feel most comfortable with Intel but would consider AMD if strongly recommended.
Thanks,
Sean72
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4 Replies
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Your main issue seems to be viewport speed, so I’ll address from that perspective. Viewport speed is primarily dependent on cpu speed and OpenGL performance. In terms of cpu, you’d be best off getting the fastest clock speed you can — rather than the most cores you can. That’s because, while the renderer and some other functions are multi-threaded, most processes relating to the viewport are not.
So in that respect you have to balance your desire for best editor performance vs. best rendering performance. My guess is that a mid-high level i7 system would give you the best bang for your buck.
As far as openGL goes, you’d want to get a high-end gaming card either by nVidia or ATI. The “pro” cards do not provide any better performance in Cinema, but they cost a lot more.
Cinema is generally faster on a 64 bit machine, and AFAIK all of your 32 bit apps should work fine. If you buy Vista now, many vendors are offering free upgrades to Windows 7 when it comes out in a few months. That would probably be the way to go.
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Thanks for the reply. I’ve spec’ed a machine and the best I7 I can afford is the 920 2.66. It also looks like I can gat an Nvidia 285 as my card and 6GB of RAM. It sounds like a beast of a machine, but what do you think?
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I would opt for xp 64 over vista with the option of an upgrade to windows 7. xp 64 is tried and tested and a lot less bloated than vista. Just my 2 pence.
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I’m running c4d in Vista64 on a quadcore laptop with 12GB ram with the nVidia qm3700. Runs a dream so far no problems.
Alan (London)
FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP
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