The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    3d Studio Max

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by ilvrckmtlrpcr, Nov 24, 2006.

  1. ilvrckmtlrpcr

    ilvrckmtlrpcr Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I'm buying a laptop that will, among other things, be used to play games and to use 3d Studio Max 9. Anyone have any thoughts on the specs that will make this stuff run smoothly (especially 3ds max). Thanks!
     
    ilvrckmtlrpcr, Nov 24, 2006
    #1
  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,857
    Messages:
    16,212
    Likes Received:
    58
    Trophy Points:
    466
    I'd say get 2GB of RAM, a high level CPU (T7200 is good here), and consider a graphics card at least equal to a X1600 (or FireGL V5200) and their nVidia equivalents. If you have the budget, these would probably be your best performers.

    Good laptops include the nc8430, nw8440, nx9420, nw9440, M65, M90, just to name a few.
     
    Greg, Nov 24, 2006
    #2
  3. ilvrckmtlrpcr

    ilvrckmtlrpcr Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Should I get a 7200rpm HDD, or is 5400rpm just fine?
     
    ilvrckmtlrpcr, Nov 24, 2006
    #3
  4. kdfkwfwqiqa

    kdfkwfwqiqa Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    22
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    You don't "need" a 7200rpm hard drive to model or animate, but it will be handy when you deal with rendering/editing/compositing.

    3DsMAX has a very fast DirectX mode, so the mid-range gaming cards work very well.

    Like night_2004 said, ATi x600/1600 or Geforce 6600/7600, and always use dedicated graphics memory. Turbocache/Hypermemory is not ideal.

    This might be a good one for the "What Notebook Should I Buy" section of the forum.

    Good Luck
     
    kdfkwfwqiqa, Nov 24, 2006
    #4