Hi all,
Im building a new computer for a friend to use for Houdini. He's starting a university course in animation and wants something pretty serious (but doesn't want to spend more money than necessary)

Firstly it says on the website that houdini requires a workstation class graphics card. Is this strictly true? and what exactly is the difference between say a GeForce FX mainstream card and a GeForce FX workstation card?

Ive been looking at the 3Dlabs wildcat realizm 500 as i read a review which shaid this was the best value card for openGL. Is this correct? or would it be better to go with an equivalent Nvidia model (or ATI?).

Also how much harddisk speed is needed to run this program. Is it more harddisk intensive than photoshop. Are we talking video capture speeds? I was thinking along the lines of WD Raptors in RAID0. is this is good move or is SCSI the best way to go?

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me

Seb

I use ATI…but from the grapevine I believe that I have heard to go with NVIDIA.

On the raid 0 on a 10,000 rpm raptor….That was my first set-up and it ran super fast…

An nvidia GeForce will work, he doesn't need to buy an expensive pro card. I'm running an older GF6600 and it works fine, although there are some redraw issues sometimes. The latest drivers from nvidia caused some problems with Houdini as well, so if he goes for an nvidia he should use the older 77.xx drivers.

I've heard quite a few people having trouble with ATI cards and 3d apps including Houdini, so I'd suggest you stay away from those.

There are no requirements for a superfast disk either, but if he can afford it…

An nvidia GeForce will work, he doesn't need to buy an expensive pro card. I'm running an older GF6600 and it works fine, although there are some redraw issues sometimes. The latest drivers from nvidia caused some problems with Houdini as well, so if he goes for an nvidia he should use the older 77.xx drivers.

I am using a GForce FX 5200, and with the drivers version 1.0.7667 i have some problems with Houdini and linux. for example, the tooltips doesn't appear.
Have anybody experienced problems like this, what driver version works well with Houdini?

say away from ATI, especially Radeon cards which have a pathetic memory leak problem with Houdini under XP.

Nvidia Quadro something is usually nice.

I second Kiko .. and i repeat .. stay away from ATI.

i've used it on (currently) qudroFX 1300.. and many Geforce (4800ti, 4400 and older) without any problems…

cheers.

while on this subject…anyone have a comment about how ATI 800xt works with Linux…

I know ATI is known to have probs, but maybe things run better when you are not using windows.

Im using FC4 and have some crashes…but I think its related to the kernel, not the ATI.. but could very well be

I had enough problems with every card and decided to buy quadro.
It's better to buy a slower quadro than a new blazing geforce along with 3 year troubles and endless driver changing guarantee.
Once I got the pro card, every display problem is gone.

Peter

lynch_ppl
while on this subject…anyone have a comment about how ATI 800xt works with Linux…

I know ATI is known to have probs, but maybe things run better when you are not using windows.

Im using FC4 and have some crashes…but I think its related to the kernel, not the ATI.. but could very well be

It woud be very strange that the kernel is causing the crash.
I think that is more normal that the card have problems with the AGP, is a very common problem with the ATI drivers.
And AGP problems always cause a machine crash reboot, etc …

My radeon x600 runs fine on FC4 with none of the XP memory leaks.

It might be a Windows driver only problem.

hello list

I am learning Houdini through the apprentice edition ( 8.040 ) and tried to config my ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 to work with. The refresh lag time becomes unusable until know. I was using the ATI 797 drivers and now downgraded to the 795 ones.

Now I can use houdini with no much problems so far.

hope it helps anyone with the same problem.

btw, Houdini is addictive!

bests

chris

7800GT baby! You MUST see this card in action - OGL and direct3d performance simply rocks - get the eVGA bungle (includes MB for about $350) if still availible. DO IT - GET IT DONE

jabbermacy
7800GT baby! You MUST see this card in action - OGL and direct3d performance simply rocks - get the eVGA bungle (includes MB for about $350) if still availible. DO IT - GET IT DONE

I tried Houdini last week on my new “gaming peecee” wich have SLI 7800GTX … yeah.. it runs so fast.. but.. lot of leak and problems.. network view which doesnt show the wire links.. and viewer which often make wireframe disappear… I must admit that the closer and slower Quadro FX1300 runs damn good.

I'm moving all my base to a thinkpad btw.. with ATI (yeah… so dont read my older posts:p) … FireGL V3200 and i can just hope it'll run smooth.. just in case anybody here installed SUSE 10 on such thinkpad (t43p) can give me any advices?.. I'm still unsure if I'd run WinXP or Linux on that thinkpad.. looking forward for your advices…(no, i wont change my mind about laptop.. I'll get a thinkap )

cheers

I tried Houdini last week on my new “gaming peecee” wich have SLI 7800GTX … yeah.. it runs so fast.. but.. lot of leak and problems.. network view which doesnt show the wire links.. and viewer which often make wireframe disappear… I must admit that the closer and slower Quadro FX1300 runs damn good.

At the end, is the same the only cards that runs completely well are the Quadros.