COMPUTER FOR WORK WITH GRAPHIC. TIP ON THE WORLD

To start a career in computer graphics, you may not have a clue what landfills, vertexes, normals and retopology are. You may not know anything about textures, you don’t even need to be able to draw. But one thing you should have for sure – a computer. In this article, let’s tell you what to look for when assembling a computer to work with 2D and 3D graphics.

Laptop or desktop PC
Now laptops are not particularly inferior in performance stationary PCs. There are even models based on full-size RTX graphics cards. But high performance imposes its limitations. So, because of the small case, the laptop may have cooling problems. This leads to relatively rapid wear and tear of components and less stability.

The undisputed advantage of laptops, still, is mobility. Plus, now there are quite a lot of models with acceptable weight. At least 2 kilograms. Yes, it’s still quite a heavy machine, and still have to pull a kilo power supply. However, it is not as scary as it used to be.

But you need to understand that working on a serious software will discharge the battery in just an hour. So autonomy is very questionable. In addition, the laptop can cost 2-3 times more than a similar build stationary PC.

Display
The diagonal is needed more for convenience. Obviously, a 32-inch monitor will be more convenient to work than 17 inches. But the resolution of the screen is more important. 4K, 2K, FullHD. If you charge to the maximum, the graphics need a 4K monitor. However, FullHD is enough, and 2K can be considered a normal resolution.

In addition, you need to pay attention to the bit – it’s the depth of color or the number of colors transmitted. The eight-bit monitor supports 16.7 million colors, and on a 10 bit monitor we will be able to see 1.07 billion colors. That’s why you should choose 10 bit models for serious work with graphics. They provide a smoother color gradient.

It is also recommended to use monitors on IPS matrix to work with professional graphics packages. They have high quality color, contrast and precision shades.

GPU/CPU
To generalize, most 3D software works more on the GPU and 2D on The CPU. But in many 3D programs on the video card there is a rialtaim render, that is what we see in the viewport. And the final render is still calculated by the processor. Therefore, you can put a slightly weaker processor to please the graphics card, but it is not necessary to discount it.

When choosing a GPU, you need to pay attention to the architecture of the map. The newer it is, the lower the energy consumption, the less heat, cooling costs and the risks of fatal overheating. The amount of memory should be at least 2GB, preferably 4GB and above. Nvidia is a quadro and GeForce GTX. AMD is Radeon R9 and Radeon Pro.

As for the CPU. The processor should be 64-bit, the number of cores is more than two, preferably 6, and the clock frequency is not lower than 2 GHz. You should pay attention to multithreading. It improves processor performance by parallelizing calculations. In other words, it makes better use of the CPU’s resources.

RAM
There are no special requirements for RAM. The best solution is the 8GB DDR4, but to avoid a problem in the render, it’s best to take 16GB and up. This type of memory is supported by all Intel processors, starting with 6th generation or AMD Ryzen/threadripper.

HDD/SSD
The software is better installed on a 240GB SSD drive to get in the entire software and project-important files. If you already take HDD, then with a speed of 7200 rpm. This provides the best stability.

SSDs have different types of memory. The most common home solutions are TLC and MLC. TLC is cheaper, but it has a short lifespan of 3,000 to 5,000 rewrite cycles. In addition, it does not work well with a large volume of small files. MLC is significantly more expensive, but lives 2-3 times longer – about 10,000 cycles and has no problems with large amounts of small data.

The system requirements of the most common CG software
“Brush 2019”
Windows:

OS: 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and above
Processor: Intel Core2duo/i5/i7/Xeon or AMD equivalent
RAM: 4GB (recommended 16GB and above)
HDD: 8GB of free space (recommended 100GB and SSD)
Screen resolution: 1280/1024 and up
Video card: most of the maps produced in 2008 and later. Should support OpenGL 3.3 or higher.
Mac:

OS: Mac OS 10.10 and up
Processor: SSE2 Core2 Intel i5/i7/Xeon or AMD equivalent
RAM: 4GB (recommended 16GB and above)
HDD: 8GB of free space (recommended 100GB and SSD)
Screen resolution: 1280/1024 and up
Video card: most of the maps produced in 2008 and later. Should support OpenGL 3.3 or higher.
Maya 2018
OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 (with Update 1) and Windows® 10 Pro
Apple® Mac OS® X 10.11.x, 10.12.x, 10.13.x, 10.14.x
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 6.5 and 7.2 WS
CentOS 6.5 and 7.2 Linux
Processor: 64-bit Intel or multi-core AMD with SSE4.2 instructional support
Video card: 1GB, 64 bits and above. The full list of certified graphics equipment is available on the official website page
RAM: 8GB (recommended at least 16GB)
Place on the drive: 4GB of free space on the hard drive
Pointer: Three-point mouse
Photoshop CC (2015)
Windows:

Microsoft Windows 7 with Update Package 1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
Intel® Core 2 or AMD Athlonprocessor® 64; 2 GHz or faster
2GB of RAM (recommended 8GB)
2GB of free space on the hard drive to install the 32-bit version; 2.1 GB for the 64-bit version;
The monitor with a resolution of 1024-768 (recommended 1280-800), as well as 512MB of video memory (recommended 1GB) (3D functions will be disabled at less than 512MB)
OpenGL 2.0-enabled system
Mac:

Mac OS X version 10.9, 10.10 or 10.11
Intel’s 64-bit multi-bit multi-core processor
2GB of RAM (recommended 8GB)
2GB of free space on the hard drive to install
The monitor with a resolution of 1024-768 (recommended 1280-800), as well as 512MB of video memory (recommended 1GB) (3D functions will be disabled at less than 512MB)
OpenGL 2.0-enabled system