jucaro Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 Which one should I prioritize for my next purchase? A faster processor(I can only afford this time a single processor mbo) or increase my current system's memory to 2 GB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Ramsay Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 It depends... What is your current system spec and what software are you wanting to run on it? Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jucaro Posted August 20, 2003 Author Share Posted August 20, 2003 Intel D850MV Motherboard Intel Pentium 4 1.50GHz 1 GB RDRAM Matrox G450 I generally use my pc for rendering and video editing. How can I squeeze more juice from my old PC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted August 20, 2003 Share Posted August 20, 2003 I don't mean to be offensive, but I'm going to be blunt. Intel Pentium 4 1.50GHz A First generation Pentium IV. These chips are actually SLOWER then pentium 3's. 1 GB RDRAM Memory was made obsolete by Intel's complete abandonment of Rambus in their latest workstation chipset. Rambus has been replaced by DDR, and the ram in your current system will not be usable in any new systems. Matrox G450 A good 2d card...one of the worst 3d application cards on the market. Conclusion: Your system is dead in the water as far as upgradability goes. Your max cpu speed will be a 2.0 ghz williamante (which will cost a heck of alot of money due to it being obsolete), and your ram is both more expensive then DDR and slower. (So buying more ram will just be a deadend route). I suggest saving money and purchasing a new workstation. The only thing you could concievably speed up would be viewport manipulation...by buying a better graphics card...but that will be cpu limited. I generally use my pc for rendering and video editing. How can I squeeze more juice from my old PC? [/QB] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choochee Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 We serve also as BETA testers for a rendering software company here, and let me quote the men there : For working, memory is important so windows will not have to use virtual memory=harddisk. for rendering, CPU speed is the most important thing, the faster the CPU is the faster the image will be ready... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 Originally posted by choochee: We serve also as BETA testers for a rendering software company here, and let me quote the men there : For working, memory is important so windows will not have to use virtual memory=harddisk. for rendering, CPU speed is the most important thing, the faster the CPU is the faster the image will be ready... Its not as sharp as u describe it. CPU and memory go hand in hand. texture maps load to memory when u render, if you run out of memory, the CPU will have to wait for the textures... If you used GI and Radiosity then u know that light calc also loads to memory for the raytracer to render from even if its reading it from a pre-calculated file... As far as I understand things, and knowing the hardware Jucaro uses, Gregs advise is what I'd do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 The key to understanding the performance benefits of memory are as follows. 1) If your running out of memory, adding more will greatly increase performance. 2) If your not running out of memory, adding more will do squat. Actually the more dimm banks populated...the greater the chance for a memory error. Being as were all cg professionals here...we all probably have at LEAST 256 megs of ram, if not 512. This means that the normal benefit of adding more ram (to increase OS efficency) is already at its maximum level. (Aka if you have 256 megs of ram and add another 256 megs...it won't have the same effect as having 128 megs of ram, and adding another 128 megs). So ram then becomes only necessary if you need it. If your normally rendering and your ram is spiking over 512 megs to 1,024 megs...then increasing your ram to a gig will show a noticable difference. If you have 1024 megs of ram, and never even get near the 700 meg mark...adding another 512 megs of ram, or even a gig will have no effect whatsoever...and in some cases can actually slightly decrease performance. Easiest way to see where you ram is spiking is to set up performance graphs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted August 21, 2003 Share Posted August 21, 2003 EXACTLY what Greg said! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garethace Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Greg, couldn't agree with you more - worrying about upgrading a system like that is the height of messing. I know this myself from very hard experience with Intel's changing sockets.... I think you might have forgotten one important component Greg. I remember only too well now struggling with those 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5Ghz Willys, to do anything in CG. Remember than alot of those system shipped in early 2001, with 20GB IDE drives as standard - and for the most part they were complete dogs. That is how most oems keep down the cost of a system - i think buying a nice fast Western Digital or something, will improve the performance of the system alot. But then on the other hand, this requires building a system up from scratch again, preferably, and how many offices today have hands on personel to do this, or furthermore will waste the day/hassle/money handing in a system for a day/week to get this done. I have come across the people who literally turn up their noses when you suggest this. Yet it is essential to keeping a system that old now, to replace the drive with something a good deal better for a reasonable cost. The great about it, is you can actually leave the old drive in the case, but unplugged. But short of having a blue screen of death, and having a drive complete die, people are generally unwilling to do anything to a working system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted August 25, 2003 Share Posted August 25, 2003 Yup, I am in that crowd :angewink: I hate upgrading and try to purchase assuming that I won't have to upgrade. I have, of course, as drives come down in price, but I find it to be an inconvenience. Here's links I posted in the other purchase-advice question: Because your system is soooo old (hey, I've got a 933 with a Geforece2 64mb!), I would just wait until you can buy a new one. I looked at Dell's refurbished (I've got a refurbished workstation that is impeccable). For $825 you can get a whole computer that is current, including graphics card. Dimension 4600 (System Identifier FCVKBGML) Dell Dimension 4600 Micro-Tower: Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.4GHz with 533MHz front side bus System Price $899.00 Promotion Discount ($75.00) Discounted Price $824.00 Memory: 512MB DDR 333MHz NON-ECC SDRAM (2 DIMMs) Floppy Drive: No Floppy Drive Hard Disk Drive: 60 GB EIDE Hard Drive (7200 RPM) Video: 128MB DDR GeForce FX 5200 Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI Modem: 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem Operating System: Microsoft® Windows XP Home CD ROM Drive: 48X Max Variable CD-ROM Drive DVD Drive: DVD+RW/+R with CD-RW Damn, it's even got a DVD burner!! Also, keep an eye on http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/23155 they've got some fantastic deals. Personally, I rarely upgrade pieces. It always seems better to just wait a few months and upgrade the entire package. Just like the car analogy - if you have a nice V8, but a poor transmission, it won't matter much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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