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Amd 64 or Pentium 4: A new dilemma in the life of an animator.

post #1 of 48
6/24/04 at 8:27pm
Thread Starter 
The sexy new mayhem g3 with its 3400 amd 64 looks like it could get some really good benchmarks. I know the sager 5790 and the 8790 have gotten really good scores on benchmarks, better than my pc. But i was wondering is the amd 64 really powerful? Some say its not others jump all over it. I want to know the advantages of each and disadvantages.
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post #2 of 48
6/24/04 at 8:43pm
Thread Starter 
Anybody know anything?
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post #3 of 48
6/24/04 at 8:45pm
I would take a athalon 64 just for the extra battery life.

I bet they would benchmark within 1-2% of each other. with each one winning in a few categories.
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post #4 of 48
6/24/04 at 8:49pm
Thread Starter 
I may have to just take the plunge and see what happens. I just hope the WSGA screen doesn't have the SXGA's problems, and that amd is fully compatible with the 9700. i heard that there were a few problems with the pairing. i had an athlon before (lasted 5 years ) but i couldn't get the audio card i wanted because it was incompatible. j
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post #5 of 48
6/24/04 at 10:41pm
Thread Starter 
Does anybody know which processor is better for renderering and ray tracing?
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post #6 of 48
6/24/04 at 10:51pm
well that is hard to say. I would think a64 as most rendering program have come out with a 64 bit version or a planing too. the P4 3.4 is really good to.

For the best thing get a mac. If this is your job a mac would be better. Its all up to you.
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post #7 of 48
6/24/04 at 11:14pm
Thread Starter 
The problem with mac other than getting hot, is that maya unlimited is not available for it, only maya complete. Those extra programs i think are worth getting a pc for.
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post #8 of 48
6/24/04 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roarak
I would take a athalon 64 just for the extra battery life.

I bet they would benchmark within 1-2% of each other. with each one winning in a few categories.
no theyt definitly do not, in the days of the 9600 that was true. now with the 9700, amd64s are more on par with the pentium m. this is with current amd64/9700 setups, the hypersonic ax7 claims to have some kind of larger gpu to dissipate heat faster so it can clock higher but i dont know how much that will effect benchmarks.
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post #9 of 48
6/24/04 at 11:31pm
Thread Starter 
So does that mean they are more powerful or less powerful. I need a ton of power for animation.
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post #10 of 48
6/24/04 at 11:47pm
i was talking about the gpu performance(as in games). if you mean graphic and movie editing, the p4 extreme edition is supposed to be the best, but its incredibly expensive. as for just plain p4 versus amd64, mostly they are pretty similar, but it depends on the programs your running, photoshop for instance is optimized to run on p4 now.

if you have specific programs that you need to use, you should google them and see what works best with them, but the p4ee is probably the most powerful.
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post #11 of 48
6/24/04 at 11:48pm
Thread Starter 
i wasn't planning on shelling out the cash for the ee. at most i would get is the 3.2 ghz p4.
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post #12 of 48
6/25/04 at 12:01am
well do you need a 9700 graphics card for games? or any newer graphics card for that matter
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post #13 of 48
6/25/04 at 12:02am
Thread Starter 
Yep. Gaming is life. I lived a year of college without a computer and it was boring.
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post #14 of 48
6/25/04 at 12:28am
lol than if you want to buy now i would say go for the p4, 9700s have been clocking better with them in general. the ax7(amd64/9700) from hypersonic looks promising, as hypersonic has said they have a custom larger 9700 chip to dissipate heat more efficiently enabeling it to clock higher than current amd64/9700s. but ax7 is widescreen so i wouldnt touch it personally.
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post #15 of 48
6/25/04 at 12:35am
I'm an Illustration/Graphic Design/Metals student at Purdue, so I use autocad, 3d studio, macromedia studio mx, rhino 3d, and Im also a big gamer. Though I use my desktop (in the sig) to do most of my school work, I do plan on using my new Compal CL56 to do on campus work.

so I recommend Pentium M
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post #16 of 48
6/25/04 at 12:49am
Thread Starter 
But isn't it less powerful then a the p4 for rendering and such. The aquamark scores of it were not encouraging. They are lower than my desktop which has the 9500 radeon (which still rocks ) but i like to have power. Is there any really overclocked pentium M's. I was considering the compal 56, but I dunno if it would perform the best.
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post #17 of 48
6/25/04 at 12:56am
aquamark is a synthetic benchmark, not a real world test ofhat youplan on using your laptop for.

a lot of ram with fast timings and a large bandwidth teamed up with the 2mb cache of the dothan will be able to do what you need.

i did plenty of research before i finally decided on the pentium m, and then plenty more research before i chose the cl56.
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post #18 of 48
6/25/04 at 1:04am
it depends on how intense the editing your doing is really.
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post #19 of 48
6/25/04 at 1:20am
Thread Starter 
I dunno. I just want something that will last for 3 years. And can play Half Life 2 well. I don't have any big preferences in screen size, just as long as it doens't ghost when playing games, and hopefully no dead pixels. I still would like to find out more about the processors. Some real world tests of performance in maya or other related software could be a selling point for me. BTW how is 3d studio max on the laptop? Does it render fast with raytracing?
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post #20 of 48
6/25/04 at 10:07am
OK:

If you just use Maya you can buy an A64 laptop with enough confidence. You'll get enough power with enough battery life. Don't believe the 64bit hype too uch though: the A64 is a good processor AS IT IS. 64bit won't matter in 3d for more than two years or more.

If you use other 3dapps (like 3dsmax) go for a P4 with HT. It's definitely faster.

Whatever lappy you choose be careful to configure it with the right components (IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE!!!):
1) 1GB ram minimum (the more you have, the less likely your 3dapp is gonna swap onto HD).
2) 7200rpm HD minimum (Do NOT get a big 4200 or 5400rpm HD. BETTER a smaller 7200rpm. You'll realize that as son as your notebook will begin to swap onto the HD)
3) WSXGA or SXGA screen and a 128MB graphic card. Especially with MAYA: don't settle with less.
4) at LAST (incredible to say) a good processor. especially when you deal with BIG scenes and rendering, the first components are much more important.

My suggestion:
Mobile A64 2800+ (more battery) or A64 3400+ DTR (more power)
WSXGA or SXGA screen with Ati 9700 128MB
1GB ram DDR
60 GB 7200rpm Hd

machines with similar specs:
Acer ferrari 3200 (to customize with better HD)
Hypersonic Ax7

that's it.
Good luck!!
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