{"id":17605,"date":"2022-05-25T17:21:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T15:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/g100.us\/?p=17605"},"modified":"2022-09-03T12:43:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T10:43:28","slug":"autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Autodesk 3ds Max System Requirements &#038; PC Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_39 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">TABLE OF CONTENTS<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-66844dbd734a0\" class=\"cssicon\"><span style=\"display: flex;align-items: center;width: 35px;height: 30px;justify-content: center;direction:ltr;\"><svg style=\"fill: #7f11e0;color:#7f11e0\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\" \/><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #7f11e0;color:#7f11e0\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\" \/><\/svg><\/span><\/label><label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-66844dbd734a0\" class=\"cssiconcheckbox\">1<\/label><input type=\"checkbox\" id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-66844dbd734a0\" checked><nav><ul class=\"ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 \"><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#3ds_Max_Official_System_Requirements\" title=\"3ds Max Official System Requirements\">3ds Max Official System Requirements<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Our_Take_On_the_Official_3ds_Max_System_Requirements\" title=\"Our Take On the Official 3ds Max System Requirements\">Our Take On the Official 3ds Max System Requirements<\/a><ul class=\"ez-toc-list-level-3\"><li class=\"ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#CPU_Processor_Requirements\" title=\"CPU (Processor) Requirements\">CPU (Processor) Requirements<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#GPU_Video_Card_Requirements\" title=\"GPU (Video Card) Requirements\">GPU (Video Card) Requirements<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#RAM_Memory_Requirements\" title=\"RAM (Memory) Requirements\">RAM (Memory) Requirements<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Performance_Demands_of_Different_Applications_of_3ds_Max\" title=\"Performance Demands of Different Applications of 3ds Max\">Performance Demands of Different Applications of 3ds Max<\/a><ul class=\"ez-toc-list-level-3\"><li class=\"ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Low_Poly_Modeling\" title=\"Low Poly Modeling\">Low Poly Modeling<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#High_Poly_Modeling\" title=\"High Poly Modeling\">High Poly Modeling<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Animating_and_Rigging\" title=\"Animating and Rigging\">Animating and Rigging<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Texturing_and_Shading\" title=\"Texturing and Shading\">Texturing and Shading<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Simulation\" title=\"Simulation\">Simulation<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Rendering_ArnoldARTScanline_or_Third-party_Renderers\" title=\"Rendering (Arnold\/ART\/Scanline or Third-party Renderers)\">Rendering (Arnold\/ART\/Scanline or Third-party Renderers)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-13\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Our_PC_Build_Recommendation_For_3ds_Max\" title=\"Our PC Build Recommendation For 3ds Max\">Our PC Build Recommendation For 3ds Max<\/a><ul class=\"ez-toc-list-level-3\"><li class=\"ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-14\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Entry-Level_3ds_Max_PC_Build_1500\" title=\"Entry-Level 3ds Max PC Build $1500\">Entry-Level 3ds Max PC Build $1500<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-15\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#High-End_3ds_Max_PC_Build_3500_-_AMD\" title=\"High-End 3ds Max PC Build $3500 \u2013 AMD\">High-End 3ds Max PC Build $3500 \u2013 AMD<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-16\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#High-End_3ds_Max_PC_Build_3500_-_Intel\" title=\"High-End 3ds Max PC Build $3500 \u2013 Intel\">High-End 3ds Max PC Build $3500 \u2013 Intel<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-17\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#How_to_Check_Your_Current_Specs_to_See_if_You_Can_Run_3ds_Max\" title=\"How to Check Your Current Specs to See if You Can Run 3ds Max\">How to Check Your Current Specs to See if You Can Run 3ds Max<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-18\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#How_to_Upgrade_Your_PC_to_Run_3ds_Max_Faster\" title=\"How to Upgrade Your PC to Run 3ds Max Faster\">How to Upgrade Your PC to Run 3ds Max Faster<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-19\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#FAQ\" title=\"FAQ\">FAQ<\/a><ul class=\"ez-toc-list-level-3\"><li class=\"ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-20\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Can_3ds_Max_Run_On_2_-_4GB_of_RAM\" title=\"Can 3ds Max Run On 2 - 4GB of RAM?\">Can 3ds Max Run On 2 - 4GB of RAM?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-21\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Does_3ds_Max_Require_a_Good_PC\" title=\"Does 3ds Max Require a Good PC?\">Does 3ds Max Require a Good PC?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-22\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Is_RAM_Important_for_3ds_Max\" title=\"Is RAM Important for 3ds Max?\">Is RAM Important for 3ds Max?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-23\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Can_a_Laptop_Run_3ds_Max\" title=\"Can a Laptop Run 3ds Max?\">Can a Laptop Run 3ds Max?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-24\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Can_I_Run_3ds_Max_Without_a_Graphics_Card\" title=\"Can I Run 3ds Max Without a Graphics Card?\">Can I Run 3ds Max Without a Graphics Card?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-25\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Does_3ds_Max_Use_the_GPU_or_CPU\" title=\"Does 3ds Max Use the GPU or CPU?\">Does 3ds Max Use the GPU or CPU?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-26\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Are_4_Cores_Enough_for_3ds_Max\" title=\"Are 4 Cores Enough for 3ds Max?\">Are 4 Cores Enough for 3ds Max?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-27\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Why_Is_3ds_Max_So_Laggy\" title=\"Why Is 3ds Max So Laggy?\">Why Is 3ds Max So Laggy?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class=\"ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2\"><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-28\" href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-3ds-max-system-requirements\/#Over_to_You\" title=\"Over to You\">Over to You<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>Autodesk 3ds Max, the more &#8220;industrial&#8221; alternative to its older brother, <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/autodesk-maya-system-requirements\/\">Maya<\/a>, and one of the major titans of the 3D landscape.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17606\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17606\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17606\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-39.png\" alt=\"Autodesk 3ds Max Logo\" width=\"610\" height=\"66\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-39.png 610w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-39-300x32.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\"><\/noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17606\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17606 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20610%2066%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"Autodesk 3ds Max Logo\" width=\"610\" height=\"66\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20610%2066%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-39.png 610w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-39-300x32.png 300w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-39.png\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-17606\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Autodesk 3ds Max Logo<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If Maya was the creative sibling in the family with all its tools for animation and digital artistry, 3ds Max would be the more logical one, giving you easy access to truly model and create everything from architecture to games to even engineering tasks in an efficient and clean way.<\/p>\n<p>Used by people and companies around the world, 3ds Max is a wonderful tool to create the 3D world of your dreams.<\/p>\n<p>So, in this article, I will go over the details of what you need in terms of PC horsepower to actually make that dream happen.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3ds_Max_Official_System_Requirements\"><\/span>3ds Max Official System Requirements<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Taken from <a href=\"https:\/\/knowledge.autodesk.com\/support\/3ds-max\/learn-explore\/caas\/sfdcarticles\/sfdcarticles\/System-requirements-for-Autodesk-3ds-Max-2023.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Autodesk\u2019s official website<\/a>, these are the latest system hardware requirements for 3ds Max:<\/p>\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-147\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-147 tablepress-responsive\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1 odd\">\n\t<th class=\"column-1\"><strong>Operating System<\/strong><\/th><th class=\"column-2\">- 64-bit Microsoft\u00ae Windows\u00ae 11 and Windows 10.<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>CPU<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">- 64-bit Intel\u00ae or AMD\u00ae multi-core processor with SSE4.2 instruction set<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>Graphics Hardware<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">- None given. Only a link to \"3ds Max Certified Hardware\" provided.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4 even\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>RAM<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">- 4 GB of RAM minimum (8 GB or more recommended)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5 odd\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>Disk Space<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">- 9 GB of free disk space for install<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-147 from cache -->\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Our_Take_On_the_Official_3ds_Max_System_Requirements\"><\/span>Our Take On the Official 3ds Max System Requirements<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It's awful. But I shouldn't be surprised.<\/p>\n<p>Following in its brother's footsteps, 3ds Max also has an absolutely useless set of system requirements.<\/p>\n<p>Take the RAM requirements: 4GB minimum. Really? 4GBs of RAM was on the lower end of what you needed a <em>decade ago<\/em>, let alone now.<\/p>\n<p>Both the OSs that it touts support for, Windows 10 and 11, <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-much-ram-do-you-need\/\">eat up at least 4GBs of RAM<\/a> after you install all the software that you would need for a personal PC.<\/p>\n<p>If you followed Autodesk's advice, you'd be choking the poor thing.<\/p>\n<p>So disregard it. It's useless and misleading. Let me tell you what you actually need <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/best-workstation-pc-for-3ds-max\/\">in a machine made for 3ds Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"CPU_Processor_Requirements\"><\/span>CPU (Processor) Requirements<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Like pretty much every other program on the planet, most 3ds Max operations\u2014everything from interacting with the UI, creating and modifying geometry, most of the modifier stack, etc.\u2014are single-threaded.<\/p>\n<p>This means that it all runs on 1 - 3 cores on your CPU and pretty much completely ignores the rest of it.<\/p>\n<p>It all flips, however, if you start talking about <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cpu-vs-gpu-rendering\/\">CPU rendering<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>CPU rendering is extremely multi-threaded. Meaning that there's pretty much a linear increase in performance as you add in more cores. E.g. twice the cores equal twice the performance. You can't have enough.<\/p>\n<p>So picking what CPU you want depends on those two factors.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Are you not looking to CPU render and just want something that allows you to run 3ds Max without spending too much?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Get something from either <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/intel-core-vs-amd-ryzen\/\">AMD or Intel<\/a> with at least <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cpu-cores-vs-logical-processors-threads\/\">6 cores\/12 threads<\/a>. That'll be more than enough for your needs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you plan on CPU rendering, however, your CPU requirements go up drastically.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would recommend you get a CPU with at the very least 16 cores\/32 threads\u2014I recommend the i9-12900K.<\/p>\n<p>Though if you are truly serious about CPU rendering, getting something with 32 or more cores would immensely speed up your workflow.<\/p>\n<p>I would recommend looking at <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/amd-threadripper-3990x-review\/\">AMD Threadrippers<\/a> in that case.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind, however, that there is an inverse correlation between the number of CPU cores and single-core performance.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17543\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance.jpg\" alt=\"Single-core vs multi-core performance\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17543 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201500%201500%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"Single-core vs multi-core performance\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201500%201500%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance-768x768.jpg 768w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Single-core-vs-multi-core-performance.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>As you add in more and more cores, you lose more and more single-core performance.<\/p>\n<p>The sweet spot for this is around 16 cores, however, that might not necessarily be enough to properly render at a reasonable rate depending on what your use cases are.<\/p>\n<p>Still, even if you get a 64-core CPU and lose around half your single-core performance, you will still have <em>good enough<\/em> single-core performance for most tasks.<\/p>\n<p>It might not be ideal\u2014you will see performance drops here and there when doing resource-heavy single-threaded tasks such as high-poly modeling, animation previews, etc.\u2014but it'll work.<\/p>\n<p>The obvious solution to this is to get two PCs where one is the creation PC with a CPU with at most 16 cores, and then one rendering machine with all the cores you can afford.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-to-build-your-own-render-farm\/\">a setup like this<\/a> would cost you a very pretty penny, so it's not economical for a large majority of people unless they're working in a professional capacity.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"GPU_Video_Card_Requirements\"><\/span>GPU (Video Card) Requirements<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>For most &#8220;normal&#8221; operations that you might do within 3ds Max, the GPU definitely takes a backseat to the CPU.<\/p>\n<p>It's mostly just relegated to the task of showing you what your CPU calculates, so you don't need all that much GPU performance when you're doing &#8220;active&#8221; work like modeling, texturing, animating, etc.<\/p>\n<p>So even a moderately powerful GPU like an NVIDIA RTX 3060 or AMD RX 6600 XT is more than enough to help accelerate everything that might need the GPU.<\/p>\n<p>But that changes if you're talking about <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/best-hardware-for-gpu-rendering-in-octane-redshift-vray\/\"><strong><em>GPU rendering<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17544\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17544\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17544\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads.jpg\" alt=\"Why is VRAM Important in 3D workloads\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\"><\/noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17544\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17544 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"Why is VRAM Important in 3D workloads\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/Why-is-VRAM-Important-in-3D-workloads.jpg\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-17544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: AMD<\/p><\/div>\n<p>First of all, you won't be able to use any AMD cards to render in Arnold, 3ds Max's default render engine. So half your options are gone right there.<\/p>\n<p>Second of all, you need a considerably more capable GPU to properly utilize GPU rendering\u2014especially something with more <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-much-vram-do-you-need\/\">VRAM<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cuda-cores-vs-stream-processors\/\">CUDA Cores<\/a>. Minimum an RTX 3070, preferably RTX 3080 Tis or even multiple GPUs.<\/p>\n<p>These cards are obviously more expensive than an RTX 3060 but will provide you with far faster GPU render time, and arguably, more importantly, give you more VRAM to work with so that you don't run into VRAM limitations when you try to render a complex scene.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"RAM_Memory_Requirements\"><\/span>RAM (Memory) Requirements<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>As always, picking the amount of RAM you need is the easiest. Get 16GBs+.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16480\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use.jpg\" alt=\"RAM For everyday use\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16480 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"RAM For everyday use\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/RAM-For-everyday-use.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Your OS, browser, and whatever else you have running in the background can and will usually eat up about 4 - 6GBs worth of RAM.<\/p>\n<p>If you follow Autodesk's recommendation and go with 8GBs, you will only be left with half or even less left for 3ds Max.<\/p>\n<p>And that'll definitely give you some performance hitches.<\/p>\n<p>16GBs aren't that much more expensive than 8 but would give you a lot more breathing room.<\/p>\n<p>If you plan on creating really complex scenes or working with post-production tools like After Effects, Nuke, or Fusion, I would recommend getting at least 32GBs, or even 64. You can never have too much RAM.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Performance_Demands_of_Different_Applications_of_3ds_Max\"><\/span>Performance Demands of Different Applications of 3ds Max<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>3ds Max has a ton of functionality. It's a whole 3D production suite. Everything from modeling to animating to texturing and everything in between can be done in it.<\/p>\n<p>All that makes it so that the computational requirements of 3ds Max change dramatically for all its different use cases.<\/p>\n<p>So, here's a list of the most common uses for 3ds Max and why you need hardware-wise to run them.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Low_Poly_Modeling\"><\/span>Low Poly Modeling<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Low-poly modeling is just about the most simple thing you can do with any 3D program.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17610\" style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17610\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17610\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43.png\" alt=\"3ds Max Low Poly Modeling\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43.png 1600w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-1536x1152.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17610\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17610 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201600%201200%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"3ds Max Low Poly Modeling\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201600%201200%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43.png 1600w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-1024x768.png 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43-1536x1152.png 1536w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-43.png\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-17610\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artstation.com\/artwork\/qoLPN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vlada Romaieva<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>If the scene\/model you're working on is under 10k polys, then pretty much any somewhat modern PC will handle it just fine.<\/p>\n<p>Any system with at least 4 cores, core frequencies of at least 2GHz, 8GBs of RAM, and a mid-range GPU or iGPU will allow you to do pretty much any sort of low-poly work you want to do without any hitches.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"High_Poly_Modeling\"><\/span>High Poly Modeling<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The biggest things when it comes to high-poly modeling are single-core CPU speeds and RAM.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17611\" style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17611\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17611\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44.png\" alt=\"3ds Max High Poly Modeling\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44.png 1920w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-1200x675.png 1200w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-825x464.png 825w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-594x335.png 594w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-420x236.png 420w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\"><\/noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17611\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17611 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201920%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"3ds Max High Poly Modeling\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201920%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44.png 1920w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-1200x675.png 1200w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-825x464.png 825w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-594x335.png 594w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44-420x236.png 420w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-44.png\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-17611\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artstation.com\/artwork\/RY3QWA\" target=\"_blank\">Annelien Heyninck<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>You need a fast CPU in order to quickly calculate all the geometry and a large amount of RAM to store the data for quick access.<\/p>\n<p>Get a CPU with at least 8 cores\/16 threads\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cinebench-r23-scores-updated-results\/\">that also has good single-core performance<\/a>\u2014and at least 16GBs of RAM\u2014preferably 32.<\/p>\n<p>You don't have to worry much about the GPU side of things. Any somewhat decent GPU like an NVIDIA RTX RTX 3050\/3060 or an AMD RX 6600 would be more than enough.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Animating_and_Rigging\"><\/span>Animating and Rigging<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>When it comes to animation and rigging, the important thing is good <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cinema-4d-viewport-performance-benchmark-scores\/\">viewport performance<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Without it, you're gonna have a rough time previewing your animations and enhancing them. You can't exactly properly judge animations at slideshow speeds.<\/p>\n<p>The most important piece of hardware for this is the CPU as it is the thing that's responsible for calculating all of the animation data and giving you a smooth viewport.<\/p>\n<p>So I recommend a PC build similar to what I suggested for high-poly modeling.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Texturing_and_Shading\"><\/span>Texturing and Shading<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>When it comes to texturing and shading, it's mostly dependent on your CPU, RAM, and storage.<\/p>\n<p>The CPU is what actually calculates everything. Having a fast CPU with good single-core performance is especially critical for shader trees as they aren't parallelized.<\/p>\n<p>Having a faster CPU will mean that you spend less time for shaders to compile.<\/p>\n<p>And RAM and storage come in handy for quickly accessing textures.<\/p>\n<p>It isn't all that important if you're using lower resolution textures, but if you venture into the realm of 8k or 16 textures, you will definitely need fast and plentiful RAM and storage to feed 3ds Max the information it needs.<\/p>\n<p>I'd recommend any modern CPU with at least 6 cores\/12 threads.<\/p>\n<p>And as for RAM, 16GBs would be enough for most things, but I recommend getting at least 32.<\/p>\n<p>And for storage, an SSD is paramount, preferably an <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/best-nvme-ssds\/\">NVMe drive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Simulation\"><\/span>Simulation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Simulations are one of the most resource-intensive parts of 3ds Max. You need a lot of computational power to accurately simulate reality, so a fast CPU is especially important.<\/p>\n<p>You also need lots of RAM to cache the simulation data for fast playback and storage to actually store the huge simulation files.<\/p>\n<p>I'd recommend getting a PC similar to what I suggested for high-poly modeling. If you do a lot of simulation-based work, I'd suggest getting something even better.<\/p>\n<p>A CPU with 16 cores would benefit simulation speeds tremendously.<\/p>\n<p>And as for RAM, I recommend a minimum of at least 32GBs. And storage can be just about anything as long as it's big\u2014though I suggest getting an SSD or NVMe drive if you plan on storing other files on it as well.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Rendering_ArnoldARTScanline_or_Third-party_Renderers\"><\/span>Rendering (Arnold\/ART\/Scanline or Third-party Renderers)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Finally, we come to rendering, another extremely resource-intensive part of the 3D process.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17612\" style=\"width: 1500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17612\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17612\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45.png\" alt=\"3ds Max 3d Render\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1090\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45.png 1500w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45-1024x744.png 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45-768x558.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\"><\/noscript><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17612\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17612 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201500%201090%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"3ds Max 3d Render\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1090\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201500%201090%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45.png 1500w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45-1024x744.png 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45-768x558.png 768w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/word-image-45.png\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-17612\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artstation.com\/artwork\/1qdRq\" target=\"_blank\">Andor Kollar<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>It's hard to just suggest one kind of PC when it comes to rendering. It all depends on the type of rendering you plan on doing.<\/p>\n<p>For example, 3ds Max's older default render engines ART and Scanline used the CPU and only the CPU to compute its renders.<\/p>\n<p>But 3ds Max's newest render engine, Arnold, has the ability to use both CPU and GPU rendering\u2014and so do most <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/best-3d-render-engines\/\">render engines<\/a> these days.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, if you plan on using a CPU render engine, get a CPU with at least 16 cores\/32 threads. CPU render speeds go up almost linearly with CPU cores. So double the cores equal double the performance.<\/p>\n<p>I would suggest looking into AMD Threadripper PROs as well if you plan on doing lots of CPU rendering.<\/p>\n<p>And if you plan on using GPU render engines, get at least an RTX 3080 Ti. And if you plan on doing <em><strong>lots<\/strong> <\/em>of GPU rendering, looking into getting <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/best-hardware-for-gpu-rendering-in-octane-redshift-vray\/\">multiple GPUs<\/a> might also be important to you.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Our_PC_Build_Recommendation_For_3ds_Max\"><\/span>Our PC Build Recommendation For 3ds Max<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>And finally to the build recommendations.<\/p>\n<p>All of these PCs are designed to run 3ds Max, and pretty much anything else you might throw at them, at a very high-performance level for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>If you want even more performance for CPU rendering, I would suggest that you change one of the high-end PCs to accommodate an AMD Threadripper.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Entry-Level_3ds_Max_PC_Build_1500\"><\/span>Entry-Level 3ds Max PC Build $1500<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><noscript><iframe class=\"pcbuilder-embedd\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/G100-pc-builder\/pcBuilder_embedd.html?=6N9TP\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" align=\"left\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/noscript><iframe class=\"pcbuilder-embedd lazyload\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" align=\"left\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/G100-pc-builder\/pcBuilder_embedd.html?=6N9TP\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"High-End_3ds_Max_PC_Build_3500_-_AMD\"><\/span>High-End 3ds Max PC Build $3500 \u2013 AMD<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><noscript><iframe class=\"pcbuilder-embedd\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/G100-pc-builder\/pcBuilder_embedd.html?=6NauS\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" align=\"left\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><iframe class=\"pcbuilder-embedd lazyload\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" align=\"left\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/G100-pc-builder\/pcBuilder_embedd.html?=6NauS\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"High-End_3ds_Max_PC_Build_3500_-_Intel\"><\/span>High-End 3ds Max PC Build $3500 \u2013 Intel<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><noscript><iframe class=\"pcbuilder-embedd\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/G100-pc-builder\/pcBuilder_embedd.html?=6NauV\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" align=\"left\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><iframe class=\"pcbuilder-embedd lazyload\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" align=\"left\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/G100-pc-builder\/pcBuilder_embedd.html?=6NauV\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_Check_Your_Current_Specs_to_See_if_You_Can_Run_3ds_Max\"><\/span>How to Check Your Current Specs to See if You Can Run 3ds Max<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you think you already have a machine that should be capable of running 3ds Max but you don't know the details to confirm yet, I would suggest you take a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-to-check-your-pcs-specs\/\">our article that explains everything you need to know<\/a> to figure out what exactly is inside your PC.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_Upgrade_Your_PC_to_Run_3ds_Max_Faster\"><\/span>How to Upgrade Your PC to Run 3ds Max Faster<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Sometimes you don't need a whole new computer. Maybe you have a computer that just needs some touch-ups instead.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15124\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start.jpg\" alt=\"Where should beginners start\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15124 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"Where should beginners start\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/01\/Where-should-beginners-start.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>If you want to figure out how to properly go about upgrading your PC, I would suggest that you take a look at <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-to-upgrade-your-pc-beginners-guide\/\">our article that explains all about it<\/a>!<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_3ds_Max_Run_On_2_-_4GB_of_RAM\"><\/span>Can 3ds Max Run On 2 - 4GB of RAM?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>3ds Max will not run on 2GBs of RAM. Barely any modern OS or application will.<\/p>\n<p>4GB might fare <em>slightly<\/em> better, but it won't be a fun experience. 4GB is the minimum you need to run an OS, trying to run a resource-heavy application on top of that obviously won't work too well.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_3ds_Max_Require_a_Good_PC\"><\/span>Does 3ds Max Require a Good PC?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>It needs a relatively good PC. As long as you don't need to render in a professional capacity or want to create extremely intricate and detailed 3D scenes, you can get away with a lot.<\/p>\n<p>I would say that any PC build <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cheaper-build-own-pc\/\">made\/bought<\/a> in the last 5~ years that was at least $1000 will be able to run 3ds Max just fine for most tasks.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_RAM_Important_for_3ds_Max\"><\/span>Is RAM Important for 3ds Max?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>RAM is quite important for any 3D application.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17542\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling.jpg\" alt=\"RAM for 3D Modelling\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17542 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201500%201500%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"RAM for 3D Modelling\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%201500%201500%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling-768x768.jpg 768w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/05\/RAM-for-3D-Modelling.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>When you're modeling something, all the details of that are cached in your RAM for quick access.<\/p>\n<p>And when you don't have enough RAM, the PC has to store it all in your much slower hard drive or SSD instead, which can lead to a lot of slowdowns.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_a_Laptop_Run_3ds_Max\"><\/span>Can a Laptop Run 3ds Max?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/category\/laptops\/\">Laptops<\/a> have really come into their own as very capable productivity machines lately.<\/p>\n<p>Any productivity\/gaming-focused laptop that was made in the last 3~ years that was at least $1000 would be more than powerful enough to run 3ds Max at a very reasonable level.<\/p>\n<p>You won't be rendering out movies with it, but it'll be more than enough for most modeling tasks and other less resource-intensive tasks like it.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_Run_3ds_Max_Without_a_Graphics_Card\"><\/span>Can I Run 3ds Max Without a Graphics Card?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Technically, but I wouldn't recommend it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/igpu-vs-dgpu\/\">Integrated graphics<\/a>, as powerful as they have gotten, still aren't very capable compared to actual dedicated graphics.<\/p>\n<p>You won't have too many issues as long as you have a powerful CPU, but your GPU bottleneck would be more and more apparent as your scenes get more detailed.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_3ds_Max_Use_the_GPU_or_CPU\"><\/span>Does 3ds Max Use the GPU or CPU?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>As with pretty much any program, 3ds Max uses both the GPU and CPU in tandem to give you the smoothest experience possible.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16348\" src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture.jpg\" alt=\"Difference between CPU and GPU Architecture\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\"><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-16348 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" alt=\"Difference between CPU and GPU Architecture\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%202048%201080%22%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-1024x540.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-768x405.jpg 768w, https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture-1536x810.jpg 1536w\" data-src=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/media\/2022\/04\/Difference-between-CPU-and-GPU-Architecture.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>That, however, changes when it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/best-3d-render-engines\/\">render engines<\/a>. Unless you use a hybrid render engine, you will have to choose one or the other.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Are_4_Cores_Enough_for_3ds_Max\"><\/span>Are 4 Cores Enough for 3ds Max?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>4 cores is the minimum needed to run 3ds Max without too many hitches. As long as the processor still has relatively high <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/cinebench-r23-scores-updated-results\/\">single-core performance<\/a>, it shouldn't be too bad.<\/p>\n<p>You won't be doing much CPU rendering, however. It would be extremely slow.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_Is_3ds_Max_So_Laggy\"><\/span>Why Is 3ds Max So Laggy?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>There are many ways that might lag out 3ds Max.<\/p>\n<p>It's hard to say anything exactly without more information, but here are some of the most common reasons why it might be lagging for you:<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Do you have a lot of very high-poly models in your scene?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best way to deal with this is to try and reduce the poly count of the models in your scene.<\/p>\n<p>You could try to do this by perhaps baking the high-poly details of your models into normal maps or, if possible, instantiating parts of your scene to make it lighter.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Do you have a lot of very high-quality textures loaded?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best way to deal with this is to either upgrade your computer, specifically your RAM or CPU, or switch to using lower-quality\/compressed textures.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Do you have complex shader setups running?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Shaders need a lot of computational power to be calculated. Especially dynamic shaders or complex shaders.<\/p>\n<p>The best way to deal with this is to bake your shaders into textures and only use real-time shaders for things that absolutely require it.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Do you have a lot of background apps running?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best way to deal with this is to close as many of the background processes as possible and <a href=\"https:\/\/windowsreport.com\/task-manager-set-priority\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">give 3ds Max higher priority<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It might also benefit you to consider <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-much-ram-do-you-need\/\">upgrading your RAM<\/a> if you're running out of RAM due to the background processes.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Is your computer overheating?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The best way to deal with the heat is to <a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/how-many-case-fans\/\">increase the cooling and airflow of the PC<\/a> or by increasing the ambient temperature around the PC.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Over_to_You\"><\/span>Over to You<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Hopefully, that helped you figure out what you need to run 3ds Max!<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Have any other questions about 3ds Max? Feel free to ask us in the <a href=\"#comments\">comments<\/a> or our <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/g100.us\/forum\/\"><strong><em>forum<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Autodesk 3ds Max, the more &#8220;industrial&#8221; alternative to its older brother, Maya, and one of the major titans of the 3D landscape. If Maya was the creative sibling in the family with all its tools for animation and digital artistry, 3ds Max would be the more logical one, giving you easy access to truly model...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2343,"featured_media":17616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[112,232],"tags":[123,124,270],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17605"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17658,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17605\/revisions\/17658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/g100.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}