What CPU power to drive a single Proj. Magenta (PFD/ND)??

[Guest]

I just read the documentation at the Project Magenta site where they suggest a min. CPU of 350mhz for a single PC to run the PFD/ND module. How accurate is this and would it do the job comfortably? Given that multiple PC's will be needed for optimal PM set-up, I'd like to get good performance but not go over the top if you know what I mean.Thanks.Nick

[Guest Glenn Weston]

I don't run PM here but I have played with the demo's, they do a performance test on the machine as you start the programs up, a good 3D accelerator card is of utmost importance, just make sure the PC has a descent one in it & run a test to see how it goes.Glenn.

[Guest]

Glenn,I read that they require a video card that accelerates Open GL and not necessarily strong 3D performance?? In any case, I too have tried the demos and the testing, however I intend on buying these extra PC's therefore I won't be able to test them first. Just wondering on what kind of PC Power needed witought spending too much $$$ unecessarily.Many thanks for your reply.Nick

[Mats_J 2]

Hi NickYour question made me to do some tests on one of my PCs that I'm considering to run PM. The machine is a Dell P2 333MHz with 64Mb RAM. I equiped it with a no-name PCI graphics board with a nVidia TNT2 GPU w/ 32Mb VRAM. I also installed the latest nVidia FX-Detonator unified drivers. I think it's 44.03.I then ran the PM demo OpenGL benchmark with Smoothed Graphics set to on and these are my results:1024x768x32 -> 1541024x768x16 -> 202800x600x32 -> 195800x600x16 -> 234So this setup seems adequate if you run on 16 bit color depth. (Which I think is what PM recommends.) Funny thing though. When I reinstalled my old ATI Rage PRO AGP card it had support for OpenGL, which I didn't have before making these tests. :-hmmmHope it helps