1.4 Thunderbird with DDR or DUAL P3 1GHz for a graphics workstation?

[MixmasterC]

okay, i'm building a home workstation and will be using photoshop and illustrator, and then maybe some 3d studio or maya on the side.

should i go AMD 1.4GHz or DUAL P3 1GHz?

thanks!

 

[Phuz]

It really depends on what kind of coin you feel like dropping.

Note: Are you aware that you can go DUAL AMD now as well with Athlon MP setups?

Regardless, with the 2 options you've listed there..
I'd defineately go with AMD.

I personally couldn't justify paying so much for a Intel 1ghz processor (x2), since its performance isn't anything to rave about.
The AMD setup will be very sufficient, generally faster in most areas (expect SSE/SMP optimized programs.

Since you are into graphics(me too!), RAM will be the most crucial part of the whole upgrade.
Buying the AMD setup will allow you to buy more ram as you will save $$$ by going AMD.

The programs you have listed are very hardware intensive, but mainly RAM pigs. DDR will also give you extra bandwidth that programs like 3ds will just love.

I like being able to run Photoshop/Imageready at the same time.. and its not easy w/ any less than 256mb of ram. Even then it can get a little hairy.
Same goes for 3ds. I can bog down quiet easily as my model progresses.. and my system is no slouch!

Hope you picked AMD 🙂

 

[dave127]

i would say go with the amd and with all the $$$ you save buy some serious ram...as Phuz said, alot of memory is one of the most important things for a graphics workstation

 

[GremlinHater]

Lol@ phuz, dude, you think you got it hard? Try doing photshop on a Pentium Classic 166Mhz with 64mb PC100 SDRAM. When you do that, then you will have claim to glory. 🙂

 

[poopaskoopa]

Graphs and charts can be found here!

 

[Degenerate]

actually, i have never compared both of them. Oh that link, its good. looks like they are par but cant really compare. Just stick lotsa ram. wait, the Athlon seems faster.

 

[Dually]

For graphics I say dual, make sure you get a quadro if you can.

 

[Remnant2]

For 3d modelling, The 1.4g tbird is for sure your best bet. Look at this page for comparison.

if you more often use Photoshop, a dual 1ghz p3 may be faster for some filters, but on the whole, I would expect that you would probably get better performance from the tbird, especially if the money saved goes into more ram (DDR especially).

 

[Phuz]

<< For graphics I say dual, make sure you get a quadro if you can. >>



Its been proven that powercards like the quadro aren't as powerfull as they seem.
Cards like a GTS have been proven to perform VERY VERY well in stuff like 3ds.


I would really think that the Athlon would be faster in Photoshop as well, even with filters.
The extra memory bandwidth would really be a key factor in this.


GremlinHater
I used to use photoshop on my old P90! 🙂
I only used it ocasionally back then.. but I was on a 233 for a loooong time.
Now its 1ghz lovin 😉

 

[DiamondFire13]

AMD with lots of RAM. I was using 3ds max with 128 megs, it sucked, I have since gone to 384 megs, and it is much much better. And I really love my fully pipelined FPU(athlon) for rendering, it is damn fast, I can always raytrace as fast as I used to render.

Paul

 

[Mem]

I would go AMD with good video card &amp; lots of ram.

🙂

 

[Snoop]

2x P3 1000= ~ 370 Newegg
IWILL DVD266 VI= ~ 190
256meg Crucial = ~ 60
Crucial
So total for the p3 system ~620
For the same price you can get:
Athlon 1.4 ~175 newegg
MSI K7 Master ~140 newegg
Crucial 512 megs ~120
So the AMD can be had for around ~435 with 256megs more of ram.
That extra 185 will help buy an Execellent videocard, maybe you could go ahead with a Geforce 3?