http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desk ... 059686.htm

Thoughts?

Actually flag that, this looks suitable..Opinions?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =444368775

Thanks
AC

Hi Buddy, Im not to sure.

I dont know what kind of graphics card it has.

That seems to have ATI HD4850 graphics card attached. I tested ATI 4890 and Geforce 550Ti in my own PC at home.

Even though ATI got marginally better results in 3DMark Vantage and Windows7 performance index, Geforce was almost twice as fast when running iPiStudio. Tracking 1000 frames with ATI took about 44 minutes, i.e. 2,6 seconds per frame. Computer had enough memory and fast enough processor (Intel i7).

In comparison, Geforce 560Ti (not the latest edition) at my work (has i7 also) tracks one frame in about 0,9 seconds. These were six PS3-camera setup trackings, by the way. With less cameras (or Kinects) it is probably faster than that.

As a summary, make sure you get Geforce. Even in low-budget cards, it seems to be far ahead when it comes to computing with GPU. Note also, that if you have enough (2 GB) memory in the graphics card, you can happily run 3-5 IpiStudio instances parallel and they can perform even faster compared to how much time it would take to run them one at a time - which is great.

Thanks ppe!

I actually brought that second one, ran ipisoft and did a demo capture ok, then loaded the studio software and rebooted and the damn thing refused to power the monitor, so I was lucky enough to be able to return it - its description was over the top for its actual condition as well so the seller was ok to take it back. I think the videocard was suspect causing it to stop working.


Now I'm tossing up between a Quad core with 4 gigs of Ram, or a dual core with 8 gigs of ram. What would be the best investment of those two?

Thanks for all and any advice.

AaronC

Go for the Quad...you can always add more ram.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

Just to clarify, speed is more important than memory. Capturing a constant stream of data from multiple devices AND keeping them in sync is processor intensive. Of course the computer also needs an adequate number of USB controllers (not to be confused with USB ports, though you need an adequate number of ports too.) You will also want fast storage, the faster the better. For single Kinect, a 7200 rpm drive is fine; for dual Kinect you may need something faster (I use an SSD.)

Finally, you'll want a decent graphics card for tracking. Recent Nvidia Geforce GTX cards work very well for tracking.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

:-)

Thanks for that!

AC

I agree with Greenlaw. I haven't used iPiStudio with less than a quad core myself, though. I did one recording with single Kinect outside and was thus forced to use an ancient IBM T42 laptop, which was equipped with SSD and that was enough (for recording). So, it all depends what you're planning to achieve. But personally, I would get a quad core, too.

I purchased a quad core and Windows 7 and my first comment has to be "Please port Ipisoft to Mac!' OMG I forgot how much windows sucks. It auto-updated and as a result wouldn't start up again so I reinstalled the OS and now have 2x Windows 7 OS's, one of which is broken, and the 1TB RAID drive has disappeared..Oh

The windows component of Ipisoft in itself is incredibly discouraging. I hope the developers here can consider a proper Mac port.
AC