Whats the best CPU for Terragen at the moment

[BlueRose]

Thanks everyone for the useful advice and info.  Im looking at an i7 920 solution, but its quite a bit more expensive than I expected.  On pricing the individual components its coming out at $1500 just for the mobo, CPU and Memory - no case or anything else.

I am looking at seeing if I can source the parts cheaper and maybe building with help from a friend.  Might have to wait and see if I get any bonus in my next pay packet

[kaisersuzuki]

I am currently in the process of putting together an i7 920 machine as well, and for those three components that is insanely high.  I just purchased i7 920, asus p6t deluxe v2, evga 260 gtx, corsair 6gb dominator mem for 1000.  These are way high end components, so I could see you getting mobo, cpu, mem for about $600 if you wanted, or even less if you went for a cheaper motherboard and memory.

[commorancy]

64 bit can handle as much memory as you can throw at it. It really depends on the kind of work you'll be doing. For TG2, until it is updated to be natively 64 bit, it will only take up to 4GB of memory.

- Oshyan

Is there a target date set for a native 64 bit TG2?

Thanks.

--
Brian

[FrankB]

Is there a target date set for a native 64 bit TG2?

you must be kidding

[Tangled-Universe]

Is there a target date set for a native 64 bit TG2?

you must be kidding

No, he isn't, this is my new second alias here Frank :p

[BlueRose]

I am currently in the process of putting together an i7 920 machine as well, and for those three components that is insanely high.  I just purchased i7 920, asus p6t deluxe v2, evga 260 gtx, corsair 6gb dominator mem for 1000.  These are way high end components, so I could see you getting mobo, cpu, mem for about $600 if you wanted, or even less if you went for a cheaper motherboard and memory.

Yes it is high, but i was quoting NZD not USD so there is a difference - seeing as im not in the US

[kaisersuzuki]

Ahh there you go.  Sorry about being US-centric!

[jo]

Hi Brian,

Is there a target date set for a native 64 bit TG2?

We don't have a target date but it is definitely a priority. I'm going to be starting on it as soon as we've tidied up issues with the final release.

Regards,

Jo

[Tangled-Universe]

I'm also saving money for an i7 system. Had a very cool system composed in an online store:

i7 920
Asus P6T
OCZ DDR3-1600 8GB
2 x OCZ SSD 30GB in RAID 0
XFX GT260 Black Edition 896MB
DVD-r drive
Floppy drive (RAID drivers etc.)
OCZ 640W PSU (those new games look awesome, so I might plug an extra GT260 some day....)
Antec 182 Case (a friend of mine has this one and it has a good airflow and very good sound-isolation)

+ cables and other sorts of small stuff...

Costs: too much! (~1300 euros)
I could always replace the 2 SSD's with a normal HDD, but those SSD's are just so awesome

In the meantime I'm overclocking my Q6600.
It ran @ 2.4 GHz normally but now I have it @ 3.2 GHz and probably will keep it like that.
Still have to do some extra stability-testing though.

Hi Brian,

Is there a target date set for a native 64 bit TG2?

We don't have a target date but it is definitely a priority. I'm going to be starting on it as soon as we've tidied up issues with the final release.

Regards,

Jo

Good to hear Jo!

First of all, I don't want to squeeze any estimations out of you, but how long does a process of "converting" an app from 32-bit to 64-bit take?
Maybe better said: what's involved?
I understand the code has to be adapted etc., but since I'm not familiar with that at all I was just wondering what's involved in this process.
Does this mean complete re-writing, partially, adding stuff etc. etc.
Thanks for your time in advance.

Martin

[Tangled-Universe]

For anyone who's having a Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz like me:

They are really easy to overclock, sometimes even with a stock-cooler and stock-voltages.
I have overclocked mine the day before yesterday from 2.4 to 3.2 GHz.
Here's how I did it in a short explanation:

I set the RAM-frequency to 533 MHz. --> RAM:FSB:CPU = 2:1:9
Then I increased the FSB from 266 to 356
356 x 9 = 3.2 GHz
356 x 2 = 712 MHz RAM-frequency --> this goes automatically (DDR2-800 can go up too 800 MHz, so that's fine)
Increased the voltage of my DDR2-800 DRAM from 1.8 to 2.2 (quite much, but 2.15 gave BSOD's)
Increased the voltage of my CPU from 1.18 to 1.35. The vdroop became bigger so lowering to 1.3 volt also gave BSOD's.

I PERFORMED ALL THESE ADJUSTMENTS IN LITTLE STEPS! ALSO: THESE SETTINGS DO NOT APPLY TO EACH CPU/SYSTEM!!

I ran this configuration for 14 hours using prime95. This is very stressful and my CPU did just fine.
The temperature went up to 57 degrees max.

when TG2 is rendering at 99% CPU the temp is around 53 degrees, so somehow this is less stressful.
Works like a charm and my TG2-benchmark went from 21:06 to 16:02, that's a decrease in 24,0%
Or you can say "when I don't overclock the rendertime increases with 31,6%" which is even more impressive haha

Martin

[commorancy]

For anyone who's having a Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz like me:

They are really easy to overclock, sometimes even with a stock-cooler and stock-voltages.
I have overclocked mine the day before yesterday from 2.4 to 3.2 GHz.

The problem I seem to have with overclocking isn't the motherboard or the CPU.  These seem to do just fine.  I usually run into problems with the video card or other peripherals that just don't seem to like the overclocked speed.  I tried this on another machine a while back.  Granted, it wasn't even a dual core, but I had to throttle it back because the video drivers became unstable and crashed far too frequently while overclocked.  I might try it again with my Q6600, but I seem to have enough issues with my machine in a stock config.

Thanks for your info, though.

--
Brian

[Tangled-Universe]

You're welcome.
I was advised to fix the PCI-express frequency to 100MHz. This will not be affected by the CPU-overclock and should ensure more stability.

[metronome]

If you have the money get the new mac pro as it has 8 cores, and then boot camp it to run windows 7