I am totally new to UE, in fact, need to buy a computer to give it a try! But the aim is to do annoyingly detailed interior cgi’s professionally …one day.
So im about to get a new machine built, but i’ve got a right headache from all the information i’ve gathered and im not sure if im not overdoing it.
Can you please tell me what do you use …or comment on these parameters for example similar to wired2fire diablo
Processor: Intel i7 6700k
Ram: 16 or 32 GB ?? DDR4
Graphics: 6GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti … or two “weaker” graphic cards? do you have 1 ot 2.
Storage: 250 or 500 GB SSD ?(+1TB HD)
Is it enough / or a waste for interior CGI’s + animations?
Also, 3ds max, zbrush/mudbox, aftereffects, postproduction-wise … are there any parameter tweaks i should look out for?
As far as if you’re overdoing it, that depends on how much you want to spend. The CPU will improve your building times, that’s for building lighting, and other programs like 3ds Max/After Effects/Zbrush/etc. rely a lot on the CPU.
The RAM controls the amount of content for rendering–when you build lighting in UE4, or you render something in 3ds Max, it loads the geometry and textures into memory, if you have a lot of stuff then you can run out of memory. If you do a large map with lots of plants in UE4 then you can easily run out of memory since it also has to create lightmaps that are loaded into RAM. 16GB is probably fine.
The GPU is very good, a good value for what it can do. Using multiple GPU’s doesn’t help usually, since most programs can’t take advantage of multiple graphics cards, including UE4, so it’s better to get the fastest single card you can afford.
256GB solid state drive is probably fine to install Windows and your most important programs. Note that UE4 can end up taking a large amount of space, the engine install is like 6GB, but the assets and projects can take a lot if you have things downloaded or if you want multiple versions of the engine installed.
Also keep in mind what things are easy to upgrade later if you choose to–memory and GPU are easy to upgrade, CPU not so much since it might require a new motherboard.
I would get an i7, 16 GB of ram (with room to upgrade to 32 GB), 1x 980ti (no SLI support in UE4 out of the box), and a 500 GB SSD. That’s the best experience you’ll get without “over-doing it.”
ZacD is on the right track, although I’d bump up to 32GB at once (there are a lot of uses for that much ram if you have complex scenes you plan on building). I have a i7 (desktop cpu), 32GB ram & a gtx 980 (desktop gpu) + 1024GB SSD (two x 512 GB) in my laptop & that handles pretty much anything I throw at it without sweating much.
But the aim is to do annoyingly detailed interior cgi’s professionally …one day.