Graphics card vs Memory/Ram
 

Hey guys just a quick question from me,

When are the 2 options needed?

Such as when rendering, is ram only used? or is the graphics card involved in it as well.

Would it be better off to get a top priced graphics card with 2 gig of ram, or a good graphics card with 4 gig of ram if you get what i mean...

which is more NEEDED?

Thanks, Marlon

I would say get a better graphics card, you can always add RAM as you can afford it and 2Gigs should be plenty for almost all tasks.
I have had both situations and to tell you the truth I very rarely use 4 gigs of RAM but if you get a good graphics card with say 256 of inbuilt Ram and good Open GL support you will probably find you won't need much more RAM than 2Gigs.
Just my opinion of course.

I dunno, all I can say form my experiance is that in one PC Ive got it has dual ATI 1900's in crossfire, and if I take one out I dont see any difference at all in maya, only if I really really up the poly count does it make a difference, textures are displayed the same etc etc

When it comes to rendering the scene ive got to say that the graphics card does nothing (if your using mental ray/software, as using hardware its the only thing that does it but how many times do you use that?) so the ram's really usefull. Ive created a character with hair and that crashes out with 2 gigs of ram with the output window saying that mental ray cant allocate enough memory, with 4 gigs it renders no probs.

As I dont play games I probably would go with the RAM and a lower priced card.

Thanks for your opinion guys, Both valid points...

Probably wont get the best card out there now as i am starting to cut down on games since the past few weeks, and trying to learn as much Maya as i can before i graduate next year so that i can create a good portfolio.

Cheers again both Jsprogg and Steve.

Marlon

ra m is usefull

dont worry about gaming on a quadro or firlegl card they are both based off th gaming counterparts


my 128mb firegl out performs my 256mb gaming card


but would get 2gig ram as rendering need ram and cpu

also when modfelling if u run with lag on high ploy just isolate the selected area to speed things up again

"dont worry about gaming on a quadro or firlegl card they are both based off th gaming counterparts"

Yeah, came across that in some graphics card article on the net... Would love to have the quadro but man its expensive lol,

"also when modelling if u run with lag on high ploy just isolate the selected area to speed things up again"

Just relised i could do that now that you mentioned it

Cheers