Hardware Recommendation

[mrice30]

I’m new to 3ds Max and am trying to understand my hardware needs.  The scenes I create over time will be complicated and I'll end up pushing computing capacity to its limits.  

The attachment is a screen shot that can’t keep up as I pan in realistic view- it takes time to reconstruct.

The advice I’m getting from the Geek Squad is I need an expandable graphics card (OK) and a desktop to draw heat away (huh?? I thought desktops will soon be obsolete).

Any suggestions on a laptop configuration and manufacturer that will give me the most bang for the buck?

Thanks!

[Richard.Vivanco]

First i dont recommend a laptop for rendering jobs, pc is more powerful

core i7 4th generation or if you can buy a xeon

32gb of ram ddr4

4gb of video gtx 970 or higher

asus mainboard

several coolers

1.2w for power supply, antec is great

[CAMedeck]

For viewport performance, you'll want the best video card you can get.  There are a lot of opinions out there on what works best, but if you are tied to a laptop your options are a bit more limited.  Many can get away with a powerful gaming card for their work, others prefer a more robust Quadro card.

You'll also want enough RAM.  We have set our standard at 32GB for now, and it is enough.  But 24GB was enough a couple years ago, and we started hitting that ceiling.  

But for 3D work, I don't see desktops going obsolete any time soon.  Especially with GPU rendering, there just isn't room in a laptop for 3 Tesla cards.  🙂