Best PC Today for Mid-Size Firm - Processor, Video Card, Ram

[Anonymous]

Starting with 4 new PCs right away, we need to replace about 60 workstations in May. I would appreciate recommendations for optimum configuration: processor speed, video card size, how much ram. (Macs have been eliminated as an option so please, no further comments.)

I know virtually nothing about PCs, but our IT Manager would like to know what's best for ArchiCAD 10/11; maybe one with enough ram for Cinema 4D & Maxwell Render.

What's hot on the market? What are you buying? What's coming out in the next few months?

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Just checked with our IT Manager, he worked with various consultants and ultimately opted for the NVidia as a choice that should keep these machines viable for a few years. Something about its ability to handle high polygon counts which is important for ArchiCAD & Maxwell Render (?) Retail is $1,500, our price much less.

What do you recommend?

[TomWaltz]

Mabe wrote:
Just checked with our IT Manager, he worked with various consultants and ultimately opted for the NVidia as a choice that should keep these machines viable for a few years. Something about its ability to handle high polygon counts which is important for ArchiCAD & Maxwell Render (?) Retail is $1,500, our price much less.

What do you recommend?

Archicad only uses the video card for the 3D window in OpenGL mode. The video card has no effect on plans, elevations, or rendering. I'd love to know if the consultants he spoke to knew anything about Archicad and how it uses the video card.

I cannot say how Maxwell uses the video card. That may make heavy use of it.

We've just been using the stock Apple G5/Mac Pro video card, currently the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB, which is about a $120 card.

[TomWaltz]

sirduncan wrote:
... I know that they are generally superior to PC's when it comes to graphics work.

That's kind of an outdated assessment since the Macs are not using RISC processors anymore (among other reasons).

[Andy Thomson]

TomWaltz wrote:
That's kind of an outdated assessment since the Macs are not using RISC processors anymore (among other reasons).

That being said, the macs we are using produce renderings much faster than our best PC (using Studio, have no real benchmark data on this, but it can be counted in terms of hours in flythru renderings) and with less 3D background image weirdness (PC does weird things with colour, resolution). Probably just better programming on the Mactel side? And specifically for the abvent product.

[Anonymous]

andyro wrote:

TomWaltz wrote:
That's kind of an outdated assessment since the Macs are not using RISC processors anymore (among other reasons).

That being said, the macs we are using produce renderings much faster than our best PC (using Studio, have no real benchmark data on this, but it can be counted in terms of hours in flythru renderings) and with less 3D background image weirdness (PC does weird things with colour, resolution). Probably just better programming on the Mactel side? And specifically for the abvent product.

I have found rendering speed in OSX to be about twice as fast as WinXP. I ran the test on my MacBook Pro using ArchiCAD to render the same file with the same settings in each OS (XP using Boot Camp). It seems that Apple has the advantage here. I don't know if the same would hold true in other programs, but, since the only difference is in the OS, it probably would. I suppose it is possible that ArchiCAD is better optimized for the Mac but that seems unlikely.

[Anonymous]

andyro wrote:
That being said, the macs we are using produce renderings much faster than our best PC .

Comparing 3D generation speed for our project with a gazillion polygons, same view, on my intel quad with 4 gb ram vs a G5 Quad w/ 8gb ram, same video card, we were surprised to find the times to be almost identical -- 18 minutes. We will continue such comparisons for other views, sections, and elevations. We will take a closer look at the reports to see where there might be differences.

Mabe

[Anonymous]

Mabe wrote:

andyro wrote:
That being said, the macs we are using produce renderings much faster than our best PC .

Comparing .... on my intel quad with 4 gb ram vs a G5 Quad w/ 8gb ram, same video card, we were surprised to find the times to be almost identical

Mabe

Perhaps testing your Intel Mac Book Pro against the Intel PC would be a better comparison as the G5 is now superseded?

[Anonymous]

Philip wrote:
Perhaps testing your Intel Mac Book Pro against the Intel PC would be a better comparison as the G5 is now superseded?

That was the first test; my MacBook was about 5+ minutes slower to the finish and slower to navigate around, as expected. The unknown was putting the pc quad intel against the G5 quad to see which one will be the designated renderer.

Mabe

[Anonymous]

I just learned interesting thing on MAC-PC rendering discussion; it's SketchUp, not ArchiCad but it's telling us something: in SkUp 6 Pro you can render image up to 9 megapixels in theory - I tried on my PC's and get half ot it at Max (it quits below 5) - The best PC config I tried is; IBM Intellistation Z Pro 3.06 Ghz/ 3gig Ram/Wildcat 7110 256G Ram; Still no max resolution. BUT even G5 /1 Ghz/ 2G RAM/ standard 64 G RAM will finish 9 megapixel rendering from SketchUp 5 of 6 (well, in an hour, but still). Any comments?

[Andy Thomson]

Mabe wrote:
G5 quad

You mean MacPro right? 3D regen may be the same, as AC doesn't care if you have 1 or 20 processors, it is slow and that's all! Heaven forbid you should ever need to generate elevations on such a project. I feel your pain - is all I can say.

Rendering on the other hand, especially with SW that is processor aware, is where you will get the results.......also, if for some strange reason you should render in AC (we do just for quickies) be sure to crank down the antialiasing to 2/3rds, and use the sun object (not realistic sun) - there are bugs there IMO.