32bit 64bit compatibility ??..

[Raffaello.S.]

i have 2 pcs runing with athlons mp, and is coming the 3rd, i wonder if in the future wiht 64bit systems this pc's will be usefull..?....

 

regards

 

raffaello

[ihabkal]

I used a lot of MP systems and they are fast rendering machines...They still are great except for photoshop work slow because of the 512 cache and bottlenecks in the pipeline. Probalby they can be still used for max renderiong for at least a couple of years.

[AJLynn]

Keep your 32-bit PCs as long as you're still getting productivity from them. Apps that take advantage of 64-bit are pretty uncommon, the main advantage of 64-bit for the time being will be being able to use more than 4GB of RAM. In a couple years everything that's CPU intensive will support 64-bit, but even then you'll still be able to run everything on 32-bit machines, just not as fast. Continuing to buy 32-bit machines isn't ideal but if it's what your budget calls for, it's still not that big an issue.

[Raffaello.S.]

Hmm... but could they be part of the same render farm?..

[ihabkal]

max will not become 64 bits brfore version 9. which is 18 months from now or more. so for 18 months you are not going to gain any rendering improvment with 64 bits and max. version 8 is in the works and it is 32 for sure. What you ar easking about is network connectivity between a machine running max 7 or 8 on win32 and one running the same on win64. since win 64 runs 32bit applications, and check microsoft's website I read a few days ago that they are networkable, so I don't see anything preventing backburner from sending jobs across platforms...especially since it's the same backburner and max everywhere...

[abicalho]

You may use 32 bit apps under 64 bit OSs, but they run under an emulation layer. There are benefits, like being able to allocate 4GB per 32 bit app. Speedwise, they should run comparably to the 32 bit systems - they're not "faster" - they just can "hold more data".

 

From a compatibility side, since they are run under an emulation layer, there's a slight chance that the rendered output may look slightly different - it's hard to say until you test and compare both.

 

Last, keep in mind that some apps are not supported in 64 bit OS yet.

[Raffaello.S.]

Thanks !... we will se then...

[AJLynn]

Keep your 32-bit PCs as long as you're still getting productivity from them. Apps that take advantage of 64-bit are pretty uncommon, the main advantage of 64-bit for the time being will be being able to use more than 4GB of RAM. In a couple years everything that's CPU intensive will support 64-bit, but even then you'll still be able to run everything on 32-bit machines, just not as fast. Continuing to buy 32-bit machines isn't ideal but if it's what your budget calls for, it's still not that big an issue.

 

I should restate this. (Heck, Arthur Andersen got away with it in the end.) One thing I don't think any of us accounted for was the level of competition between 3rd party render engine companies - they'll have their 64-bit optimized versions out before the Yankees beat the Royals. It's happening already: http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/newsfeed.asp?nid=2650

 

So the 64-bit chips are probably worth switching to right away, if you're in the maket for new hardware.