3D Studio Max 4 on an 'old' PC ... what upgrades?

[AnAndAustin]

On behalf of a good friend who uses 3D Studio Max 4 (and Cool Edit Pro if that matters) has the following HP PC (UK I-Media 5200?):

Celeron 1ghz 100FSB
128MB PC133 1 stick (with room for 1 more stick)
Skt370 i810 mobo (NO AGP SLOT)
20GB HD
Aztech v92 CNR Modem
o/b sound
o/b gfx using 2MB system RAM (dxdiag shows 4MB)
Pinnacle PCTV PCI TVcard
1 SPARE PCI SLOT!
WinXP Home.

Gaming is of little importance but 3D Studio Max is. He's a student with a family so is severely limited in budget. A PIII would be nice though hardly cost effective so I rec'd first and foremost RAM, 256MB to add to the existing 128MB, then secondly consider a PCI gfx card. Prices are:

Savage 4LT 8MB £12 (prob worse than i810)
TNT2 32MB £32
GF2MX 32MB £55
GF4MX420 64MB £70 (about GF2GTS 3D perf)
Hercules Rad9000 64MB £105 (due out soon at Komplett)

I know what these cards can do for him gaming wise, but I have never used 3D Studio Max so am unable to be overly specific. I believe GF4MX420 would near Wildcat II 5000 and Quadro2 type perf in 3DS Max. Money is tight and would the RAM upgrade be enough? What perf boost would we be talking between the gfx cards?

Thanx in advance for any advice or assistance.

 

[zsouthboy]

Nope. Add 384 megs of ram....... 3dsMax loves RAM...


Also, worry more about the processor speed than vid card---> makes little difference unless you have a VERY high end card designed for use with high end 3d rendering applications........ i know this because i use 3DSMAX 4.2, going from my radeon 32meg DDR to Ti4600 made VERY little difference, but moving from 1200 athlon to a 1600+@1.74 made a HUGE difference...... dual procs also makes a huge difference too.


In short, screw the vid card upgrade.... see about getting a new mobo and chip.