3DS MAX Design Performance Question

[GreenLeaf]

Hi,

 

Let me start by saying that I'm an IT Consultant and not a CAD user. I know very little about AutoCAD or 3Ds Max, but have clients who use both, few if any of which are very technical. One of my clients uses 3DS Max Design 2011. He does a lot of heavy rendering. His old workstation had an Intel 6600 Core 2 2.4GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM and probably a 256MB video card (not sure of the type). It was running Windows XP Pro 32-Bit and 3DS Max Design 2010.

 

His new machine is an HP Z600 Workstation with the following specs:

 

1 Intel Xeon E5506 / 2.13 GHz (Quad-Core)

6 GB Unbuffered ECC DDR3-1333 RAM

NVIDIA QUADRO FX3800 Graphics Card

250GB Serial ATA-300 7200 RPM HD

Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit

 

The new machine has the latest performance video driver from NVIDIA. Other than that, I can't say anything has been optimized.

 

Currently, if he renders the same drawings on his new machine and his old machine, the difference in rendering speed is not that much better on the new machine, for example 17 minutes vs. 24 minutes. It seems to me the speed should have gone down more drastically.

 

So, my questions are:

 

1) From a hardware/OS perspective, does his new machine seem like it should work well for 3DS Max Design for heavy rendering? If not, what can I do to improve it? Add a second processor, perhaps?

 

2) What can be done to optimize the machine from a software perspective, if anything, to improve performance?

 

I thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

[AJLynn]

A Xeon E5506 is a 2.13GHz quad-core, no-HT, no-Turbo Boost Core i5 in a Xeon packaging. This is not a very high performance computer - I'm actually surprised it did as well as it did compared to the old computer - the old one is probably being hindered by its small amount of RAM. I hope he didn't pay very much for it. Actually, I'm sure he did, must have been more than $2k, right? Can he return it? If he were to replace it with the Midrange system from here: http://www.3datstech.com/ it would be a substantial improvement - it would render approximately twice as fast as this new Xeon box.

[GreenLeaf]

Thanks for the feedback. I doubt returing the current workstation is an option. However, if the current processor was replaced with a Xeon X series processor, such as the Xeon X5680, I'm assuming that would help a lot. Would you agree? I'm not saying this is the best option, I'm just looking for a number of options to offer my client. Thanks.

[AJLynn]

There are three important factors in speed of Xeon CPUs:

-Which generation?

-How many total GHz? (Cores * GHz rated)

-Does it have HT? (HT adds 10-20% depending on the task)

 

An X5680 is much faster than an E5506. 20GHz total, with HT, vs. 8.5GHz total, no HT. Which is why it costs $1500 more. Whether you can just swap them is another problem I'll leave to you and the HP support desk. The X5680 uses more power and requires faster RAM.

 

Do have a look at that site. (We're not selling anything there, just recommending systems spec'ed for this type of work.)

[GreenLeaf]

I understand that there are a myriad of concerns with swapping processors, and I would investigate them all before going down that path. In a nutshell though, it seems the processor is what's holding him back, so the best solution involves replacing it with a faster processor with HT and Turbo Boost, whether that means replacing the entire machine or simply replacing the processor.

 

I did check out the site. It's very informative. Thanks for the link.

 

I greatly appreciate your feedback. I'll give my client some options tomorrow.