AMD Processor for Blender?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

I want to buy a computer and I would like to build one like my son built. He did his for gaming mostly but I was hoping it could work for decent Blending. I have a limited budget.

He did it for around 800-900$

quad AMD Athlon II
ATI Radeon HD 5770,
750 watt power supply
8gb ram
1 terabyte Hitachi SATA HD

Would that be decent?

Thanks

2

That will work a charm with Blender.

Go for an Nvidia graphics card though. ATI has a history of graphics problems with Open GL.

3

I wonder how long this rumor is continued to be spread. I bet ATI doesn’t have Open GL issues for years.

4

I had no issues with my ATI 4850 after driver version 9.1 or so.

5

a 750w psu is fairly overkill
you can go down to something like a 500-600w quality psu
also I’ve had no problems with a 5770 using blender

6

Why build it? You can buy a refurbished HP computer with those specs or better for the same or less price.

7

This one? http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?storeName=storefronts&landing=outlet&category=desktop&lanAttr=column2&orderflow=1&product_code=VT527AA%23ABA&catLevel=2

It has one of those onboard Intel POS video chips. 680+160 for a new video card and you are at 840 already. I dont see any mention of the power supply, so that might need to be replaced as well which would drive the price even higher.

If you build it yourself at least you know what components went into it and if something goes wrong you can swap parts out on your own.

8

Because it’s not a rumour. I work in tech support and I’ve seen it on about 7 different cards. Then there was the incident where a colleague purchased a firepro, which is supposed to be their ‘pro’ card aimed at professional 3D graphics. It wouldn’t work with Maya at all. If you moved any vertices, you had to move the whole model to get the screen to refresh. We tried 5 different drivers. Eventually we called the tech support department and they hadn’t a clue what to do. It took them 5 minutes to look up what the latest driver set was.

Every time I’ve had an ATI card, I spend a lot of time searching for drivers to sort out different problems.

EDIT: jrs100000 - If you check the spec list, the motherboard does have a PCI Express x16 slot, so it should take a replacement card.

9

It will take the card, but you still have to buy it which bumps the total price up to the same level as building your own new setup. If the power supply cant handle that new card, then thats an extra purchase that will push the price higher than a new selfbuilt system.

Plus, it looks like they reinstalled all that fun OEM bloatware that you get to scrub off.

10

I’d warmly recommend the setup and I’m sure the hd5770 will work without problems.
Nvidia has had a history of better drivers, but the new ati drivers are really good too, and just because the drivers have been good/bad before doesn’t necessarily dictate what they will be like in the future. Companies change and priorities change.

Anyway if you can spare som extra bucks, the nvidia gtx460 has the best performance to price ratio right now. It also has a very high performance to power ratio.

Being a custom computer builder myself I wouldn’t buy any pre-assembled computer, especially not a refurbished one, unless it’s really cheap for its specs. It’s a bit risky and usually comes with a few surprises.