alvin777 Posted March 11, 2007 Share Posted March 11, 2007 Hi. If you're into applications like Maya, Photoshop and related softwares for 3D animation/modelling and digital arts; usually, how much percentage increase between a: a) single channel 512MB vs. 2 x 512MB dual channel single channel 1GB vs. 2 x 1GB dual channel If your not going to play games, do you need a separate graphics card for those applications mentioned above to render or can you just rely on the speed of your CPU and the built-in GMA950 graphics chip? If you still need a graphics card, how much percentage does a 512MB vs. 256MB graphics card? How about the ones with 128DDR3 vs. 256MBDDR2 graphics card which is faster (the 128DDR3 has aslightly faster graphics chip)? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/44968-dual-channel-and-more-graphics-card-memory-advantages/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zulu.Walker Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Anything related to doing video and graphics on any machine requires a lot of RAM, and if it's fast, it's much better. Going from single to dual-channel has very little noticeable increases, but the extended 128-bit width (64+64 per channel) increases throughput by as little as 100MB/s to 300MB/s+ in benchmarks. The best RAM setup for graphics workstation is one that has low latency and it should be running synchronously with the processor (1:1). Running asynchronous with the CPU/RAM will have a negative impact on memory bandwidth. So in your question, 2x1GB Dual-Channel memory would be best for you. The video card question is a bit tricky, as there are some applications that will use your video card to boost performance, but not necessarily on encoding or rendering. One such application is combustion, a graphics compositing software. Combustion enables you to work faster by leveraging the video card to render composites/previews using accelerated OpenGL, and as such, the video card's memory is also used (eg. direct playback from timeline (current project) - c4 w/o OpenGL acceleration: 15-17fps; c4 w/ OpenGL acceleration: locked at 29.97fps). Most 3d applications also have support for accelerated OpenGL viewports to make visualizing easier and faster without the need to render to disk. RAM on a video card is different than system RAM. Is it GDDR2? GDDR3? GDDR2 offers lesser bandwidth than GDDR3, and is much cheaper than GDDR3 (which may explain some differences in pricing). You will not be able to use the extra 256MB on a 512MB video card in OSX, there is currently no support for that. As you were not particularly interested in gaming, I would recommend a faster card than one that has more RAM. The RAM is there basically for textures and stuff meaning you could hold more info there for your card to process, but if the card is horribly slower then what's the point? From my own standpoint, I'd get as as much of the fastest RAM I could get and get a decent video card that is supported by the software you are planning to use. Again I'd like to remind you: graphics apps are memory hogs. And in this biz, better and faster hardware simply means quicker project turnaround times. If you plan on working more and waiting less, go dual-channel and get a fast vid card with tons of RAM (256MB current max detected by OSX/drivers). And oh, I do my work in Windows. How ironic. (Avid Media Composer, combustion4, nuendo, PhotoshopCS, EncoreDVD, a bit of maya and 3dsmax). Learning FCP Studio for a job Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/44968-dual-channel-and-more-graphics-card-memory-advantages/#findComment-321950 Share on other sites More sharing options...
alvin777 Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 (edited) Thanks for taking time to reply. It's good it comes from a fellow artist. I haven't tried Combustion. I'm still mastering Maya and plan to master Zbrush but if it's better to master Combustion next since Maya has a modeller already, then I'd skip Zbrush. Your explanations will confirm my choices for my upgrade and hopefully with what I do with this machine will help make a difference in the future, hopefully through making movies. I have to ask, primarily for Maya, if it would be better to have 1 x GB combined with a 7900GS or a 2 x 1GB combined with a 7300GT or a 7600GT or I don't really need a 3D acceleration card for this software that a built-in GPU, the GMA950 | 2 x 1GB RAM and the fastest CPU I can afford is the way to go? Why not go OS X btw? I have bought Macs until recently, for affordability reasons, I kinda' made a mistake of buying a PC then tried to make up for it by using Vista RC2 but it's good that OS X runs on Intel. Edited March 13, 2007 by alvin777 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/44968-dual-channel-and-more-graphics-card-memory-advantages/#findComment-322333 Share on other sites More sharing options...
boo50 Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 (edited) take 2*1 gb of ram and 7300/7600GT 256 mb ddr3 video card - you'll get the maximum perfomance for your needs. Edited March 14, 2007 by boo50 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/44968-dual-channel-and-more-graphics-card-memory-advantages/#findComment-323550 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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