What is the best and most important hardware for FF ? CPU ? RAM ?

Lots of CPU for speed.

Lots of ram for large FF images. (I think)

Gpu doesn't matter.


^^Speaking purely in terms of FilterForge

I've been shopping around lately, the i7 is a good choice. 12 GB might be a bit on the high side unless you find yourself running very ram heavy tasks, but it can't hurt anything (except your wallet.)

Definitely go 64bit windows. There are no drawbacks if running 32 bit programs.

As for video cards, it all depends based on what you are doing. Are you gaming, doing 3d modeling work, or just using photoshop?

Thanks very much for your answers

I Know that 12 GB is a hugh amount of RAM but as I will be using it with large images in Photoshop so as GMM said for FF of CPU, You cannot have too much of RAM power for Photoshop. I am not doing 3D in this moment, but have plans to begin using Poser 2010 software. I will not buy a QUADRO card.

CPU POWER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT

So, raw CPU processing power is what is needed and most important for FF to work faster.

I think that like any other professional and power hungry software what is important is the speed of the CPU ( how many

Would it benefit from having 6 cores or does not go beyond Quad Cores ?

I have seen that having 6 cores (in AMD style) is not so important because there are other things that are important too that you can find in intel i7X980 6 cores and are not in the AMD 6 cores as you can see here that AMD 6 cores is behind many quad cores.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

GPU DOESN´T MATTER

I think that perhaps the GPU doesn´t matter because FF does not have yet any GPU accellerated programing with Open GL or CUDA, like other sofware are having now or like the new photoshop.

Will in the future FF have support for GPU accelerated programming ?

RAM IS NOT IMPORTANT NOW

If Filter Forge never uses more than 1.5 GB is like the previous photoshop version and other software that can´t use more memory because they are in 32 bit, so I think that the only way to be able to use more ram is to convert FF into 64 bit, but:

Would FF 2.0 benefit from having more ram available if it was 64 bit optimized ?

I mean if it would be able to use ore ram to go faster and smoother although as said the CPU is most important

Yes, Totte I think also that 6 cores is better than 4 cores or 2 cores, BUT is not as easy as that, because it greatly depends if the software and OS can be able to use them and get benefit from them or not, I mean if they are made and optimized for multiple cores.

Also is important to have a balanced computer and not just a 6 core computer with 2 GB RAM, a slow or bad hard drive without defragmentation, and things that make a bottleneck in the computer.

Also is important the PRICE, as intel i7X980 cost more than 900$ or 900€ so the benefit speed amd perfomance you would get from having a 6 cores is not justified with the price, you could get probably in every day tasks much more speed and perfomance buying a i7 920 or 940 and buying more ram and a SDD drive for the same price of i7X980

And as said before, AMD 6 cores is much cheaper at +300$ but it does not give the same perfomance that could give the intel, and is even is nearly the same level than a quad core inte perfomance.

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GMM wrote: It can't. Filter Forge never uses more than 1.5 GB RAM, regardless of its overall amount, regardless whether you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit OS.

what's the reason for that, gmm? i can sort of understand it for an XP machine with the ram limits it has, but a number of us are going 64 bit in win7 and wouldnt the extra ram help render things a bit faster?

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Kraellin said what's the reason for that, gmm? i can sort of understand it for an XP machine with the ram limits it has, but a number of us are going 64 bit in win7 and wouldnt the extra ram help render things a bit faster?

As far as I know, this is a problem of the application not being optimized for 64 bit, and can not use more than 1,5 GB on 32 bit OS. And as you say if you put it in the 64 bit OS where there is not a limit for the memory the the OS is able to use, I think the applications still runs as a 32 bit in 64 bit compatibility mode, so it the same. It needs to be a native 64 bit application to use more ram.

Please, correct me if I´m wrong, as I do not know much about this.

This thread here in this other forum I found on google could help, as it says that Windows gives 2 GB to 32 bit apps.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/micro...n-2gb.html

FF was designed to utilize only two cores, right??? Was the FF framework redesigned to now utilize more than two cores??? If FF can only utilize two cores, then obtaining maximum GHz core speeds becomes the issue.....or you can get into overclocking, but that can be unstable.....

Here is a processor view, all 16 cores almost at max

thanks all ( I am the original poster) - so more specifically for the geeks out there

I already have a Intel i7-9700K (CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 8 Cores) and need more speed for my current FF jobs - what is the best bang for the buck cpu I should get in a new system. I have been intel all my life but ready maybe to try AMD.

I just check with a benchmark site for adobe video editing (and one for photoshop) and it looks like that I have to pay twice the price in a cpu to make a dent from my current cpu - maybe I have as good as it gets without unlimited moneys: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/arti...2019-1633/

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stevedipaola wrote: I already have a Intel i7-9700K (CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3600 Mhz, 8 Cores) and need more speed for my current FF jobs - what is the best bang for the buck cpu I should get in a new system.

Here is the newest (from 23 June 2020) CPU comparison between Intel and AMD and it seem that your i7-9700K is really among the best ones you can get because it gets a 96.77% ( 100% is the maximum) so you would not see any difference buying the faster 10900X
CPU Hierarchy 23 June 2020: Intel and AMD Processors Ranked

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stevedipaola wrote: I just check with a benchmark site for adobe video editing (and one for photoshop) and it looks like that I have to pay twice the price in a cpu to make a dent from my current cpu - maybe I have as good as it gets without unlimited moneys: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/arti...2019-1633/

Yes, you are right, that as it is now, according to what you have, you would need to spend on the expensive 1999$ AMD to get a noticeable difference in speed from your own 9700K, so really for now there is no available faster CPU that is affordable better than your own 9700K that could make a difference in speed in FF

Thanks for the link , interesting and useful to know

I have found this CPU comparison that is from May 2020 about the best CPU for workstations but they are expensive as usual for a powerful computer

Best workstations CPU of May 2020 by Anandtech

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Sometimes choosing a CPU is hard. So we've got you covered. In our CPU Guides, we give you our pick of some of the best processors available, supplying data from our reviews. Our Best CPUs for Workstations guide mostly covers workstation processors available to consumers, although some server products cover both segments.

Here I have just found an interesting and useful long explanation about what is a good computer to buy in 2020 for 3Drendering, that as FF, is the software than needs more power

Best buy workstation for 3d rendering performance

See screenshot below

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GMM wrote: in 2010 Quote SpaceRay wrote: Is it the CPU with multicore ? Definitely the CPU. You cannot have too much of CPU power for Filter Forge Quote SpaceRay wrote: I think it could benefit from having 12 GB RAM, or not ? It can't. Filter Forge never uses more than 1.5 GB RAM, regardless of its overall amount, regardless whether you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit OS.

I have to say that it seems that it has never been told here that FF is now able to use more than 1.5GB RAM and can be configured on options