Hi all,
I need to build or buy a very good pc/workstation to develope high-end 3D realtime contents with Unity 3D (and 3dsmax 2011).
The os wil be Win7 64bit and the budget for this is around € 2-3000,00.
Please, could anyone give me idea or suggestion about the hardware configuration?
Is a good idea to use Nvidia Quadro graphic card instead of hi-end Nvidia GTX gamer gfx card?
Any idea or suggestion is greatly appreciated.
Kenshin
I think if I were going to build a high end workstation, I would buy the best graphics card I could afford and then build the rest of the system around that card.
I’m not a techguy but I just learned that a quadro card isn’t build for realtime-graphics and for achieving high FPS but rather focuses on accuracy. So they are good if you work in CAD or something but if you want good performance in Unity you better off buying a good gaming-card where you get much more bang for the buck aswell.
At work I have a quadro card bought this autumn although in the cheaper range. In Unity I get maybe 20 percent of the FPS I get at home with my four year old computer.
I haven’t tested one, but I’ve read that the nVidia GeForce GTX 275 is a decent, entry level yet high end gamer’s graphics card. That, or something similar, is probably what I would look for.
Thank’s for your answers.
Listening Filto experience Nvidia Quadro Card is no a good idea with unity,
@bigkahuna: what do you think about a configuration with two cards Nvidia GeForce GTX 580?
Can uinity3D take advantage of 2 video card (SLI) ?
I honestly don’t know. Unity, by default, uses DirectX 9.0c and according to Nvidia:
Taken from here:
About Geforce GTX 580 I found an interesting comparison with ATI Radeon HD 5970:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/11/14/geforce_gtx_580_vs_radeon_hd_5970_2gb_performance
What do you think about SLI and Unity3D? is this a good idea or only a wast of money?
I would go for one GTX580, this is already so much power, and also consumes a lot.
I’ve never had an opportunity to try one so I really can’t say. Unity Tech used to keep track of what boards they tested with their engine so they may be able to shed some light on this, but otherwise the only way you could find out would be to test one yourself… but that probably won’t be easy to do until after you bought it.
I should also add that I personally have had very good luck with Nvidia boards, so I personally would tend to lean in that direction.
I like too Nvidia boards.
I am really interested to understand if SLI and Unity3D is or not a good idea.
Any experience about that?
unity works fine even on my eee pc with intel video and 1.6 Ghz proc, so relax, top end card with / without SLI will be ok
I think Kenshin’s concern is that why spend more for SLI if Unity won’t take advantage of it, at least that’s what mine would be if I were considering this board.
You are totally right!
I don’t care about eee pc, I am interested to an high level of graphics and I am trying to understand if unity engine take advantage of multiple gpu (SLI) or not.
SLI works on a driver level, it also results into a better performance with Unity. If you really need this much performance or are after burning some money, you can have a look at 3 or 4 SLI mobos as well. 3DMark can give you an idea of what can be expected.
Thank’s for your good answer taumel! 
I know you may want to produce for high end systems, but if you are looking to market your product to the masses, you will find the hardcore gaming market with high end machines like you plan to build will be very small. Just something to keep in mind.
Also, graphics cards are nice, but ALWAYS get the CPU FSB and RAM FSB to match if possible. If either is higher than the other, it will only function at the lower speed. Also, a speedy HDD would be nice as well, I would recommend at least 10,000 RPM and a larger cache(minimum of 16MB, best at 32 or 64MB) to allow the machine to hold its performance over the years. When I upgraded my laptop drive two years ago from a 5400RPM to a 7400RPM drive it made a world of difference in boot time and fetching programs to load into memory(so programs opened much faster, windows was much quicker). HDD speed and CPU/RAM FSB speeds is where all the bottlenecking occurs.
Thanks MakerOfGames for your good hints.
I need this PC to make some R&D with unity to make a non-game application that will work inside my company and not for the market.
Exactly for that reason I am really interested to try to build a very good and well-balanced PC.
I am thinking about “Intel Core i7 960” cpu with 12Gb RAM, but I am not sure about a good MB …but ASUS is a good option.
If you’re going SLI, you’ll also have to pick up a proper PSU as well. Googling for SLI and PSU should lead you into the proper direction (personally i made good experiences with Seasonic and Zalman). If you can life with 2xSLI only, then the Intel Extreme DP55KG is a very good motherboard. Intel boards are a little bit more expensive but usually run rock solid.
Btw a little video of 4x580GTX running on a wobbly ASUS mobo. I like how he speaks up after the fans kicked in.
Thank’s a lot Taumel is a very interesting video!
Intel Extreme MB is very interesting and I am also evaluating asus rampage III extreme: http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-rampage-iii-extreme-review
My computers 4 years old and runs Unity3D and Maya, Photoshop at the same time, with no slowdown, don’t think you really need high end for this.