Graphic card for 3ds max design 2009

[marco]

[QUOTE=But not restarting for months? You must not use as much software as some. here.[/QUOTE]

Yep, since the beginning of this year (when I installed Vista X64 on my Dell precision 690) average time between restarts +/- 1 month. When my computer is idle, it goes on S3 standby during the night, but since everything remains in RAM, this is not restarting.
I have at least 6 or 7 programs open all the time (3dsmax, CAD program, photoshop, after effects or premiere mail program, browser,+/- 10 windows explorer windows, mediaplayer) and at the same time rendering on low-priority in the background on renderings that take several days to complete..
I experience absolutely no slowdowns after for for example 2 weeks, everything remains rock-solid.
Maybe its vista x64, maybe the Dell system, maybe the ATI fireGL V5600, but this is by far the most stable system I ever experienced.

From my experience with previous systems (wich all had NVidia cards) the quality of video-drivers has a very,very big impact on system stability. If the V5600 had crappy drivers, no way that it would last for a month witout a single restart.


Marco

[andrewjohn81]

Wow, must have a lot to do with Vista as well. I've got that at home, and come to think of it I don't restart often at all either while running lots (although a bit less than at work) of programs as well.
My experience with ATI still blows, so I'll equate your good luck with the system+a solid card with solid drivers. I know many of the problems can also come with conflicts in the motherboard, other peripherals, or even other software. That very well could be the pains I'm experiencing with my ATI card. It is in a little bit older machine.

At home i was having some crazy Nvidia problems, but it turned out to be the motherboard. Once HP replaced the motherboard everything worked fine. That was the first time I had experienced a motherboard problem where everything tested perfectly in the software testing of the hardware, but didn't actually work how it should. The built in network card was causing problems with the whole system.

[marco]

of course, if there are harware conflicts or bad drivers the only way to get things on track is a restart.What makes me sad is that most users blame windows for these restarts....

But in my experience, if the software is coded properly, if drivers are WHQL-ed and work as they should (which often is not te case....) there is no need for a restart every 2-3 days.
Computers -especially ones equipped with ECC-memory - dont't "forget" things.
If there is data in memory today, it will still be there without a single bit-error 90 days later.
Things get nasty if software start to mess things up, but thats not the systems fault.

Take a look at for example internet-servers, they stay up and running 24/7 for months without a restart, but again good balanced harware, good power supply, good -and lots of- ECC-memory and very important all WHQL-ed drivers.

and yes, Vista x64 is by far the best OS I've ever worked with. Absolutely no compatibility problems with older 32-bit apps, and best of all: no 3 Gig per process RAM limit anymore !

Marco

[Morne]

I'm running an ATI HD2900 XT, no worries. Purrrrs like a kitten.

And the argument that Autodesk runs all their machines on QUAdros is pointless. 2 years ago I was at a new company and they setup a new 3d studio and renderfarm. Everybody they spoke to including autodesk reseller said "you must get AMD PCUs". I nearly fell of my chair when I heard this as at the time INtel speeds already outperformed AMD at the time.....

[simmsimaging]

and yes, Vista x64 is by far the best OS I've ever worked with. Absolutely no compatibility problems with older 32-bit apps, and best of all: no 3 Gig per process RAM limit anymore !

Marco

I'm considering switching to Vista x64 from xp64 - which version are you running, if you don't mind my asking?


Thanks,
b

[marco]

I'm running Vista Business 64 bit.

O, and make sure you put in lots of RAM (like 8 gig or so) and disable the following unnecessary -but heavily marketed- services: windows search, superfetch and readyboost. These services have a habit of continuously accessing harddrives in the background, and I don't like that. The only time I want to hear my harddrive is when I save a file or start a program.