for video game design Do you benifit from the faster ddr4 ram and m.2 pcie ssd?

[Anonymous]

 How beefy a system do you need to design video games well and fast? 
 I'm building a computer for college next year. I'm going into video game design using 3ds max, maya and other software.
  I've decided on i7 skylake and gtx 980 video card.

 I can't figure out if I need a faster ssd than sata 3 for graphics rendering in a timely manner.
 I know I'm getting ddr4 ram but I don't know if I should spring for faster ddr4? is 32 gigs enough?

 the college program is 3 years after I get out I'd like to start designing my own video game.

[Anonymous]

Same question as you and also is 980 enough or should i get nvidia quadro insead?

[Anonymous]

  In my research the faster ddr4 only offers marginal benifit. It doesn't even speed up photoshop. If you can afford the mobo throw in some 2400 or something low but im going with 2133 for myself.

I bet you 980 to 980 ti is more than enough. and you can play video games with it, its not just for workstations. I'm just using my gtx 950 until the new cards come out later this year probably in the fall. The price on all graphics cards will drop dramatically if you have a hold over.

m.2 is more of a just for the hell of it faster load on software. A small flash drive is probably enough. im getting a 500 gig ssd.

[Anonymous]

this is my ultra quiet build.  for video game design oh and get 32 gig of ram.
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/4pMY4D

[paulkind]

GTX 980/ti or 1080 is more than plenty enough power for almost anyone.  Quadro cards are specific use case cards.  Most all of Autodesk software runs exceptionally well on GTX cards so you should have no issues whatsoever and in many cases will see a performance benefit from them.  You can do simple searches on the google.  ie: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-Quadro-K4200-vs-Nvidia-GTX-950/2838vs3510 shows that a gtx950 is about 5% faster thanthe quadro 4200.  There are key places where the quadro will outperform it, but overall, 140$ gtx 950 is well spent here comparing the two.   If you go dollar for dollar ie: 440$ on a k2200 quadro vs 420$ on a gtx980ti, the stats will surprise you. http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-980-Ti-vs-Nvidia-Quadro-K2200/3439vs2839

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

While i can't force-feed personal experience on anyone, i would humbly recommend you go with Coffe-Lake 1155(300)Series, The i7 8700+ and i9 (forget the model#) are great chips, and the point of the advice is the motherboards available for the new 300 series are excellent.

While it will probably cost a couple hundred more, "Future-Proofing" a new rig is th ebest way to go. If you can get a deal on a GTX 980, and have the funds to buy 2 of them, get an ASUS Z370 Board and run them in SLI. While the becnhes are not even with a higher tiered card, the Alternating Frames often hold up well to a bench. this way, you get more than enough GPU power for approx. 120% the cost of an inferior card. BTW: nVidia RTX is the Future, so keep that in mind. Hybrid RayTracing and Rasterization with real-time culling of which objects will be raytraced or not, is ~6X Faster than current GPU's at top-tier.

an m.2 is technically faster than an SSD, and i won't say "don't get one" however the impact on your development won't benefit at an amazing difference, nor will faster RAM speeds, however if you can manage to future-proof your Root-Components like CPU/BaseBaord, and get a solid Graphics Card or 2, then you can benefit form a faster m.2 or SSD, and higher speed RAM.

My Specs:

Intel i7 8700K (Oc'd to 4.7GHz) 12-Threads

ASUS ROG Strix Z370-E Motherboard with 3-Way X-Fire, or 2-Way SLI, built in wifi (so you can move the unit and connect anywhere) and 6 x SATA 6Gb/s, a discrete m.2 socket with removeable heatsink and cover

64GB (16GBx4)G.Skill RipJaws 3200MHz DDR4 Dual-Channel RAM

2x (SLI) EVGA GTX 960, OC'd with Precision X OC @ *8000Mhz/405MHz (Core/Clock) = Not Great, but i don't lag on a 40" Samsung HDTV via HDMI @ 60Hz @ 1080p.

128GB Team Group SSD for OS/light Apps

500GB Samsung 860 EVo SSD SATA III @ 6Gb/s

1TB Western Digital Caviar Black SATA III @ 6Gb/s

Antec TPQ 1200Watt PSU (the Effeciency Rating is 80+ Silver, and given i have 2 optical drives, a 95W CPU, 4 High-powered RAM DIMM's 2 Gfx cards, LED Ligthing, a Creative I/O Panel via PIC-e 1x. and 8 120mm fans with RGB lighting; The Efficiency Parabola is very close to peak, and doesn't draw more power than needed due to the surge protective capacitors in-line with the cables.

[Anonymous]

I prefer heavier hardware for game design.