Graphics card with 3d Studio Max 2011 design

[Donald2B]

What about testing other aspects of working in Max outside of just pure viewport performance? Do people have problems with any other strange performance issues? Would you include multiple VRayProxies? Animated textures or a texture performance test within Max? What about character animation and things like that? Or what about a file that has a LOT of objects in it? I know that has been a problem in the past. Just trying to brainstorm what "most" people would face while using Max and be as comprehensive as possible.

Here is a link to an older test between Quadro and FirePro cards. It is a little dated but does a great job at explaining the differences between the various cards and how they DIFFER from gaming cards! There are a LOT more differences than you might think.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...x-firepro.html

[Ramsay]

I'm having real problems with my File GL 3600 since switching to Windows 7 from XP64 a couple of says ago. I'm using the latest drivers with directX/Max2011... the viewports are practically unusable with any CAD information visible in them. This is driving me absolutely nuts! How come there's such a performance hit with Windows 7?

[Donald2B]

Well, from what I can gather, it's not entirely Windows7. In Max 2011 they are pushing more onto the GPU, which in turn can have some negative side effects for some people. Right now they are aware of the severe performance problems with the newest nVidia 400 series cards. You are the first person I have heard of having performance problems with a FireGL card.

First question would be have you turned off much of the Aero interface in Win7 off? I know that has helped me greatly!

[Ramsay]

Well, from what I can gather, it's not entirely Windows7. In Max 2011 they are pushing more onto the GPU, which in turn can have some negative side effects for some people. Right now they are aware of the severe performance problems with the newest nVidia 400 series cards. You are the first person I have heard of having performance problems with a FireGL card.

First question would be have you turned off much of the Aero interface in Win7 off? I know that has helped me greatly!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4488[/ATTACH]

Switching off all the Aero stuff has made a slight difference to the performance but the card still worked way better with XP64. I also now have all my buttons from the Max UI disappearing on me randomly I really want to avoid going back to XP64 but at this rate I might have to.

[Donald2B]

Chalk up another casualty due to crappy drivers for Windows7. At least I will get to talk to ATi and nVidia while attending Siggraph and I am interested in what they have to say about these issues.

[re:FORM]

Does switching off aero cause your quad menu to stop working in trackview when on a secondary monitor? It does here...
Having aero on on the other hand causes unbelievable stuttering when dragging or resizing the trackview window.

[Donald2B]

I haven't noticed anything like that. The settings I have posted give me the best of both worlds, I still keep the preview images with the new start bar but without the huge overhead of all the aero stuff. It seems to be about the same in performance as making windows7 look like windows2000. Or at least as far as I can tell. Obviously Max still isn't quite as fast in Win7, but I am sure it will get better.....eventually.

[Neilg]

I am part of the minority in the fact that I will ONLY use Quadro cards. How much time and effort have you exhausted in trying to get a game card to do the work of a professional card? How much time have you lost over the past couple of weeks fighting with things and complaining that they don't work.

I'll safetly say none, and i've been working on some huge scenes. Now, the problems we had with the old ati fire gl cards... slow as anything and worse performance than a geforce 8800.

Open another scene in max with one of those and your viewports would instantly crash, making it useless and needing to be crashed out. Every scene you wanted to open had to be done in a fresh max. There was a pretty good chance of it quitting to desktop instantly when putting it into smooth & highlights too. No error, just an instant close.

I dont care that it was 3 generations ago, i'm never touching one of those cards again.