Maya on a iMac G5!
Im thinking about buying one of those new iMac for working with Maya, since my iBook really can't handle the job (14" screen almost cant hold all the menus)! Therefor i wanted to ask you guys if you think the new iMac is sufficient enought for that kind of work! Im going to buy a 20" model and 2GB of RAM (don't know yet if its going to be Crucial or Kingston RAM).
I have read alot about the weak 3D card in the iMac, and thats why im asking!
Will the new iMac be a good computer to use for Maya?
(im definetly not gonna buy a PC, an a PowerMac seems too expensive for me)
I have read alot about the weak 3D card in the iMac, and thats why im asking!
Will the new iMac be a good computer to use for Maya?
(im definetly not gonna buy a PC, an a PowerMac seems too expensive for me)
Comments
While I'm not the Maya expert, and I don't recommend starting your 3D experience with it, if you've made a habit of using it, I think an iMac G5 with a bunch of RAM in it should be fine. You may want to pick up an external drive for backup purposes, but that's not entirely necessary as long as you have a good place to backup. (Losing 3D model files SUCKS, and they have a tendency to get corrupt, so I usually have hundreds of chronological backups per project.)
I really really wanted one, but alas, some things are not to be. So I've just yesterday ordered a G4 eMac. £300 cheaper, and nowhere near as good, but hey, it will still do my Lightwave stuff. Later on in my course, we move on to Maya, so it will do for that too. The only intensive things for 3d modelling is the RAM and the vid card. A 9200 ATI is enough, when you're using OS X, since it can handle vram and ram properly, and as for rendering, borrow some time on someones farm, or hook up a couple of old machines. It will stil be damn fast.
I feal alot more comfortable buying the new iMac after reading your replys!
What I was worried about at the beginning, was the grafficcard!
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with only 64 MB DDR SDRAM
If anyone got any comments about this grafficcard and/or how it works with Maya, then please post em!
A month ago I shelled out the serious money to buy a G5 with the nvidea 6800 ultra.... and I am still waiting for it to arrive. But I just cannot wait for it to arrive.
In essence what I am trying to say is this... Maya will work on any machine you use, and with any screen.... but you got to go bigger in the end just to speed things up and increase your workflow. I am soooooo sick of increasing a poly's size, and then waiting 10 seconds for the computer to figure out what I have asked it to do.
iDunno
Originally posted by iDunno
I have spent the last year using Maya on a G3 400mhz with the graphics card that shipped with hit and only 380ish ram.... And I have Had Enough!!!
Heh, that's a big disadvantage of using polys/subdivided solids -- they need a lot more computing power to work with than do NURBS.
Ill fill it up with 2GB of RAM also!
Do you think I will see a (small) speed bumb from 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM, or will it only be noticeable when running demanding applications like Maya & Photoshop?
Originally posted by Brodersen
Ill fill it up with 2GB of RAM also!
Do you think I will see a (small) speed bumb from 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM, or will it only be noticeable when running demanding applications like Maya & Photoshop?
I'd characterize it as, not 'faster', but 'less likely to slow down.'
Additional RAM doesn't increase your so much as it decreases the likelyhood of slowing down on some tasks. Perhaps a subtle distinction, but definately important.
Originally posted by Brodersen
Im going to buy it tomorrow
Ill fill it up with 2GB of RAM also!
Do you think I will see a (small) speed bumb from 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM, or will it only be noticeable when running demanding applications like Maya & Photoshop?
Depending on how large or complex your scenes get, you may need the extra ram for rendering anyway.
http://www.barefeats.com/imacg5.html
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Heh, that's a big disadvantage of using polys/subdivided solids -- they need a lot more computing power to work with than do NURBS.
Huge disadvantage, it means that the days when everyone was working from home, I was the only one making the trip into college to use their computers.
iDunno
Originally posted by Kassandra
Speaking of Maya, is hardware rendering supported in OS10? Or does that use DirectX on the windows version? I might get Maya sometime if I get a job and a new machine, I've done loads of tuts and such with the PLE on windows.
Hmm Kassandra..nice (and HUGE) forums you got going there.
I'd run Maya on an iMac or at least try to. I doubt the performance would be all that bad provided you had a good amount of memory. I'm purchasing an iMac next spring and I'll be looking to toss in 2GB of memory. Then I'll start dabbling in some 3D to go along with my video work.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Hmm Kassandra..nice (and HUGE) forums you got going there.
I'd run Maya on an iMac or at least try to. I doubt the performance would be all that bad provided you had a good amount of memory. I'm purchasing an iMac next spring and I'll be looking to toss in 2GB of memory. Then I'll start dabbling in some 3D to go along with my video work.
lol, thanks, yeah, i was planning at least a gig if I get one, hopefully after i grab a job here pretty soon
Originally posted by Brodersen
Im going to buy it tomorrow
Ill fill it up with 2GB of RAM also!
Do you think I will see a (small) speed bumb from 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM, or will it only be noticeable when running demanding applications like Maya & Photoshop?
Photoshop kicks ass with more RAM, and more RAM will really make renders kick butt, especially if you're raytracing scenes with a high poly count. Anyway, get EI and just use phong shading, ray trace only when necessary. I swear, the $240 student package is worth the weeks you'll save in render time. Having 2GB in the G5 sped up Photoshop by a factor of 10 over the stock config in the tests I remember seeing.
Moving on, everyone -- check those barefeats numbers. Note that the PBG4 1.5 seems to beat the iMac G5 in most of those tests, despite a slower memory bus and what people believe to be a "slower" chip. Altivec! I am sooo geared up about dual core G4s. (FYI: Motorola/Freescale's implementation of Altivec is better than IBM's VMX, which is functionally identical. This is known.)
Anyway, I'm heading back to the bat-cave to work on analog control systems, rotary engines, and spline modeling. You haven't truly lived until you've manually adjusted control-point weights and vertices on a true, spline surface, since you don't trust the automatic tangenting tools.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Moving on, everyone -- check those barefeats numbers. Note that the PBG4 1.5 seems to beat the iMac G5 in most of those tests, despite a slower memory bus and what people believe to be a "slower" chip.
Actually the only tests where the PB G4 is faster than the new iMac are the ones (motion and games) that rely heavily in the GPU.
For raw processing power check the Cinebench CPU Render test and you will see that the iMac 1.8 is almost twice as fast as the PB G4 and is also faster than a PM G4 1.42 DP.
G5s are a lot faster than G4s.
Originally posted by Londor
G5s are a lot faster than G4s.
I can attest to that after having used Maya on a G4 and then a G5.
There is no comparison, and after working on the G5, going back and working on a G4 is painful.
Yes you can get work done, but it's not very efficient. (Remember, I'm talking Maya here.)
The biggest factor that I would want information on is whther that GPU can handle the graphics well. Of course that depends on what you are modeling. If your doing simple spinning logos, or some smal scenes, then it might be OK. Anything sizeable and I would probably be concerned.
Or is the graphic card only usefull when it comes to hardware rendering and displaying your modeling while your working at it?
Or does the graphic card also got something to do with rendering using Mental Ray, Maya Vector and Maya Software?
I sure do not hope I will get any problems with it
*Fingers crossed*
Originally posted by Brodersen
Do you think the graphic card will be a big disadvantage for me when running Maya?
Or is the graphic card only usefull when it comes to hardware rendering and displaying your modeling while your working at it?
The most important thing about graphic cards for me have been performance while modeling.
Most of my models tend to get pretty heavy with geometry, and I like to be able to work in a shaded mode most of the time.
It also affects things like being able to work with hardware texturing on, and beinmg able to interactively see the effects of your lighting tweaks.
And like I said before, it depends on what you're doing. If you're animating a character, do you need realtime playback? If your hardware can't support that, then just do a playblast. A lot of the features of highend cards just give you the ability to have immediate feedback, so you don't have to wait for a playblast to render.
Now, there are definitely workarounds and these are all functions that are nice to have, but not 100% "gotta have" features. They just make some things easier.
I'm sure you'll enjoy your iMac. I use Maya on PCs and Macs and the OSX version is much more of a joy to work with. It just works!!
Im worried no more
I ordered iMac today with Bluetooth, extended harddisk and of course 2GB of RAM
Cant wait for it to arrive and conquer my desktop