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Hi! Finally registered here after lurking around for quite a while :)

So we all know where to find the minimum hardware requirements to be able to run Painter 11.

But it isn't that easy to find the optimal hardware setup to be able to run Painter as smooth as possible, without spending an overkill budget.
On top of that, most information available on the internet concerns systems that will be used for both 2D and 3D.

So I am planning to build a system to use as a workstation.
This workstation will be used as a 2D workstation for working with Painter 11 mostly. (I actually waited for Painter 11 to be released)
No 3D work will be done on it. This is important as it will determine the choice of gpu (and thus influence the budget significally)

Concerning budget... let's try to limit our answers to "best value for money solutions".
We don't need a top ranged highend quadro card for 2D operations, for example. So "the faster the better" isn't really the best answer in this case. Let's say an i7 based system is possible but it is stretching the budget somewhat.

Anyway, following questions arise...

1. Did the Corel Devteam work specifically for certain hardware parts when writing Painter 11?
2. What would be the ideal hardware setup for a i7 bases system? (Amount of RAM, type of graphics card for mono/dual monitor setup,...)
3. What would be the ideal hardware setup for a similar system based on a less powerfull cpu? (Dual core, Quad core,...)
4. Is it worth spending a the extra money on an i7 base system, or will the performance be negligible?
5. Are there any compatibility issues with certain hardware, specifically with Painter 11?
6. What operating system is the best choice? WinXP or Vista? 32bit or 64 bit?
7. Is there any specific hardware to avoid due to known bugs? (Compatibility issues with certain types of graphic cards, etc)

Note: I'm trying to make a general post which can be adressed to in the future in case other people have one or more of the above questions concerning hardware and Painter 11. Due to this, some questions may seem a little "basic" for someone who intends to build a custom system. (eg: I know a 32bit OS cannot handle more than 4GB of RAM, which would make a 64bit a better choice to allow for more RAM memory)

Thanks in advance for your kind help

Hi Johan,

Welcome to The PainterFactory!

I'm going to move your thread to the Got a Question/Technical Issue/Bug Report for the Painter Team? forum since it involves feedback from the Corel Painter development team.

Since Painter 11 was just released a couple of days ago, users probably won't be able to give you much advice based on experience, at least not for a while.

Thanks for posting these questions. I'm sure the thread will be helpful to a lot of Painter 11 users.

Jinny

 Hi Jinny,

thank you.
Yes, the idea is to have some sort of "reference" for people thinking about what hardware to buy and what not, when planning to use that hardware mainly for running Painter.

I'm not really in a hurry to upgrade my pc (it's never good to compose a workstation in a hurry), unless my current system will give up on me.
So yes, I'm hoping within the next couple of weeks/months, some useful information will be gathered here.

Thanks again!

Kind regards,
Johan

 Ok I've decided not to go for a Core i7 system to keep a rather low budget possible.
here's the post I made at cgtalk...

On my current system, I mainly use Painter, GIMP, ACDSee, OpenOffice, Firefox, IE on WinXP.

The same software will be ran on the upgraded system, though I want to upgrade to Vista to allow 8GB RAM usage.

Following parts from my current system are still very decent so I plan to keep using them:

Dual Monitors (1 DVI, 1VGA)

SATA HD 320GB

Keyboard, mouse, printer etc

Intuos 3.

Pantone Huey monitor calibration

Parts I plan to upgrade:

CPU:                            AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE

CPU-cooling:                 Scythe Mugen 2

Board:                           Asus M3A78-T

Memory:                       2x Kingston ValueRAM KVR800D2N5K2/4G (thus 8GB in total)

GPU Card:                    Club3D HD 4650 512MB GDDR2 Passive Heatpipe or
                                    Nvidia Quadro NVS 290x16 or
                                    Ati FireGL V3600

Sound:                          Onboard

SATA contr:                  Onboard

SATA HD:                     Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT HD642JJ, 640GB

DVD-burner:                  Samsung SH-S203P

Graphics:

Do you think an Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 x16 would be a better choice?

In any case I want a passively cooled card to keep noise down.

I've no problem with giving in on speed to keep the system quiet (it's in our living room)

I think a FireGL V3600 card would be overkill to use Painter, no?

PSU:

I have a 400W PSU now.

Do you think that is enough for above hardware?

Case:

I have a Chieftec full tower (about 4 years old)

Will all this fit in it?

Operating System:

8GB RAM so an upgrade to Vista is required.

Which version would be the best solution for such a system?

If you have any suggestions or you just want to share your opinion on improving the price/quality, I'd really appreciate it. I don't like overkill but I want to keep a decent upgrade path open for the future.

Thanks in advance!

A few thoughts..

1. Why AMD and not Intel? The current (i7) and last generation (Core 2) pretty much spank AMD, and the price at the low end is similar. The E8500 (dual core) is a beast chip, and Painter doesn't seem to use more than one core anyway. That said, I like AMD and this combo will run Painter fine, I'm sure. I am just playing Devil's advocate.

2. Are you overclocking? Why do you need such a big heatsink? A stock cooler would be plenty if not OCing. If you are going to spend money on a cooler in your situation, get a "quiet" cooler (http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/silentcpu.html)

   EDIT: I see that Scythe is listed as a "quiet friendly" cooler, so disregard.. that said, the stock HS's for these procs are very quiet... maybe try the stock out and if it's too loud, go for the silent type?

3. Any medium size case should hold the list of stuff you have there. You will need 2 drive bays, so that's the thing to check for.

4. The only reason that you might want to consider a 3D "capable" card is to make sure that you can run Vista in Aero mode. The UI is much snappier if you do. I know this from experience.

5. Speaking of Vista, you will need the Vista 64 bit edition if you want to use your 8GB of RAM. XP 64 is pretty useless (no driver support) and a 32 bit OS is out if you have more than 4GB. Painter is not a 64bit app in any case, so it cant use more than 4GB while it's running. That isn't to say that more ram isn't better.. you will be able to run, say, Photoshop (or any other RAM intensive app) and Painter at the same time with little trouble.. I currently do this and it works great.

6. Power Supply. A new one is pretty cheap: a 700 Watt can be had for under $100, so do upgrade if possible. What you have is starting to get a little long in the tooth. It may be ok, though.

Hope this helps.

 Hi eludwig.
First of all, thanks for your quick reply!

1. i7 is just too expensive. i7 920 cpu+mobo+memory costs as much as all the amd stuff I need, and that AMD cpu is not that much slower.
   The 965 is amazing, but... well... I don't want to spend more than my budget on cpu alone ;)
   The E8500 is indeed a lovely cpu, but even slower than the AMD PII. Also, I think I can upgrade more easily with the AMD in the long run.
2. Nope, not OC'ing. Thanks for the tip on this! Will definitely think about how to solve this best.
3. Yep, thought so, just wanted to be sure :)
4. That's a good enough reason for me. I don't want to be bottlenecked by my OS
5. I didn't know that Painter cannot handle more than 4GB? I was under the impression Painter 11 would be able to handle up to 12GB?
   Can someone from Corel confirm this please? How much RAM can Painter IX.5, X and 11 handle? If Painter11 can't handle more than 4GB, I don't see why I should upgrade from IX.5, so that would save me 200€+ another 60€ coz I only need 4GB of RAM then. In that case I can keep my current winXP as well so that's another 200€ saved.
6. Yes, you're right. I'd better get a newer, more powerful PSU.

Thanks again for your help!
Already know a lot more!

Johan Derycke:

I didn't know that Painter cannot handle more than 4GB? I was under the impression Painter 11 would be able to handle up to 12GB?
Can someone from Corel confirm this please? How much RAM can Painter IX.5, X and 11 handle? If Painter11 can't handle more than 4GB, I don't see why I should upgrade from IX.5, so that would save me 200€+ another 60€ coz I only need 4GB of RAM then. In that case I can keep my current winXP as well so that's another 200€ saved.

Hi Johan:

Painter IX.5 and Painter X were limited to running on systems with less than 8 Gb of ram - Painter would crash on launch.  However, Painter 11 does not have this limitation - it will be able to run on your 12 Gb system.

Thanks,

Wendy

Johan Derycke:

I didn't know that Painter cannot handle more than 4GB? I was under the impression Painter 11 would be able to handle up to 12GB?
Can someone from Corel confirm this please? How much RAM can Painter IX.5, X and 11 handle? If Painter11 can't handle more than 4GB, I don't see why I should upgrade from IX.5, so that would save me 200€+ another 60€ coz I only need 4GB of RAM then. In that case I can keep my current winXP as well so that's another 200€ saved.

Painter 11 is not a "true 64bit" application. Until it is, it cannot address more than 4GB or ram. This is because internally, all pointers used by the program are 32bit (4 bytes) wide. That said, Painter will run fine on a 64bit OS. It just can't address more than 4GB of memory. The latest version of Photoshop isn't 64bit yet either, btw.. This limitation is not really that important, in my opinion. Unless you are opening HUMONGOUS images, 4GB is fine (at least for me). The extra ram allows me to keep other resource hog apps open at the same time, i.e. Firefox, Photoshop, etc.

If you are basing whether or not to upgrade hardware based on whether Painter 11 is a 64bit application or not, then I can tell you it isn't. One other thing to keep in mind: right now, under WinXP, you cannot use all of your 4GB. This is because the OS has to reserve some memory for itself that is not available to applications. The most you can see is approximately 3.5GB in WinXP.

EDIT: Oh, yes. Also - what Wendy is saying. Painter 11 will run fine on a system with more than 4GB - I actually have 12GB and all is well. My only point is that Painter is not actually a 64bit app. Everything above still apllies in that regard.

Hi Wendy,

Can Painter 11 use more than 12 GB ram. I run Vista 64 and would love to be able to use 16 GB for Painter 11! :-)

Cheers

Doug

So Painter 11 will run on a 64 bit system like my Vista 64 but it cannot USE more than 4 GB you say? And Wendy says it will USE 12 GB ram?

Ok, I am now officially confused! :-(

In previous versions of Painter, you could not launch the application on systems with more than 8Gb of ram.  With Painter 11, there is no limit on the amount of ram on your system - you should be able to launch the application on your 16 Gb system.  However, it will only be able to use 2 Gb of ram.  So, there is still a limit on the amount Painter can USE, but not no limit on the amount to launch the application.

Sorry for the confusion, I hope this helps...

Wendy

Edit: corrected the amount of ram painter can use.

Thanks Ludwig and Wendy.

It's very clear to me know.
I am seriously thinking of upgrading to Vista 64b because I use a dual screen setup and on my 2nd monitor I usually drop all my other open applications like ACDSee (which eats RAM like I eat chocolate... LOTS), FF, msn, etc.
Having 8GB would indeed allow my Painter to use all 4GB.

I may reconsider upgrading my Painter though... 11 seems to be suffering some bugs that can seriously hinder the workflow... and my IX.5 runs so smooth if I don't go too big in brushsize and I don't use impasto, I'm not too willing to give that up.

Btw Ludwig, yes I will try the stock cooler first and if it's too loud replace it. You wrote down my exact thoughts after reading your first comment on the cooler :)

Thanks again for your quick help!
Lovely, you are :D

"The latest version of Photoshop isn't 64bit yet either, btw."

The latest Mac version of Photoshop isn't. The latest windows version is. 

And it will run with as much memory you can throw at it plus utilize cuda.

You won´t need a killing GPU at all. Get any dual CPU , Intel better than AMD right now; fast and abundant RAM ( more than 4   2 (corrected) gb is irrelevant exclusively for Painter; but you willl run more stuff true? so get much RAM) fast drives, and good Wacom and monitor.

Being a dual Win/Mac user, and knowing both OS well I would recommend you a Mac Pro and Leopard, of course. But that´s another story. ;)

Mark3M:

"The latest version of Photoshop isn't 64bit yet either, btw."

The latest Mac version of Photoshop isn't. The latest windows version is. 

Yeah, I keep forgetting - I'm a version behind on Windows (CS3). As you say, CS4 (Windows version) is 64bit.