*A:M User* Roger Posted May 16, 2014 *A:M User* Share Posted May 16, 2014 Does anyone know what the last version of AM that ran on NT 4.0 was? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted May 16, 2014 Admin Share Posted May 16, 2014 I would seriously pity anyone that had to use NT4 nowadays... but the last version I can find that specifically stated support for NT was released in 2009. Later releases might run but not optimally. I believe the primary issue at that point was that NT was long out of the support cycle. Keep in mind that Microsoft was trying to move folks away from NT in the WINME/Win2000 era. (As I recall Win 2000 being the update/replacement for NT) So, most drivers were no longer being supported. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted May 16, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted May 16, 2014 Fun fact: the packaging for Windows NT had to include a notice that "NT" was a trademark of Northern Telecom, the company I worked for at the time. One logistical problem with Windows NT might be that although it can use a multi-CPU computer there's no version of NetRender that would run on it that can make use of more than one CPU on a machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted May 16, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted May 16, 2014 Fun fact: the packaging for Windows NT had to include a notice that "NT" was a trademark of Northern Telecom, the company I worked for at the time. One logistical problem with Windows NT might be that although it can use a multi-CPU computer there's no version of NetRender that would run on it that can make use of more than one CPU on a machine. I think you're right, although I doubt it would work with anything more than 2 cpus or 2 cores. I'm sure hyperthreading would confuse it. The netrender thing would be a problem. I'm just looking for a low dollar, low resource resource for Windows licenses. XP is a bit too pricey on E-bay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted May 16, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted May 16, 2014 I stand corrected. Apparently XP licenses are cheaper than I thought, found several for $10 or less. How much longer is AM supposed to keep working on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted May 16, 2014 Admin Share Posted May 16, 2014 How much longer is AM supposed to keep working on it? Twelve years, three months, seven days, twenty two minutes and 17 seconds. (Disclaimer: the margin for error in this estimate is calculated to be greater than 99%) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted May 18, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted May 18, 2014 That seems like an awfully specific estimate. Did I miss the joke? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted May 18, 2014 Admin Share Posted May 18, 2014 Did I miss the joke? It's hard to estimate how long software will operate on any given operating system. We could narrow the variables down to make an estimate (which is what I did). The 17 seconds is a joke but the rest is my honest-to-goodness guess as to how long (previous releases up to and including the current release of) A:M will operate on XP given the change of technology we are sure to see in the next 12+years. Even given that however someone could probably dust off an old computer with XP installed (or install XP) and get it up and running with A:M. The issue then might be that *all* applications have moved on to some far better operating systems. (or whatever is equivalent in a world that doesn't require operating systems as we understand them today) In such a case very few application might run outside of an emulator specifically designed to run legacy programs. Now, there are other variables to consider but I don't know how serious you are about actually knowing the answer. Perhaps more importantly than any estimate we might arrive at would be your own perspective. How long do you think you can keep A:M running on XP? The question I would ask would be, "Why use NT or XP in the first place?" I can think of a few good reasons (to use XP... not so much NT) and the top reason would be to save a few dollars but in my estimation that would constitute a move in the wrong direction. Primarily because saving a few dollars often ends up cost more (in money and frustration) in the long run when using older technology. Ultimately, the answer to the question of 'How long will A:M run on XP?" is, "It depends." From an entirely different perspective the answer could (legitimately) be: "one year". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 How many computers do we talk about? If you want to get 10 it may be a difference, but if we are talking about 1 computer, you should get Windows 7. Using Windows NT or XP will always mean, that you are not using anything close to the OS the developer, beta tester or other users are using and that can be problematic additional to the security issues you get with Windows XP, since the support from Microsoft just recently stopped. How much is Windows 7 for you? I can buy it beginng at about 25-30 Euros. Compared to 10 Euros for XP, this should be close to a no brainer... (sorry if it is not for you... I just can't know...) See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted May 18, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted May 18, 2014 As always, my advice is to not build the render farm until you have a continuing need for it. How much longer is AM supposed to keep working on it? I got caught when A:M stopped working on Win 2K, during v16 I think. Steffen had switched to a new compiler that didn't support Win2K. He hadn't planned on not supporting Win2K but he did have to move to the new compiler to keep advancing A:M, so that was that, I had to build a new PC if I wanted to stay current with A:M... and I did. Shorter version... you really don't know how long something will last. Eventually some essential system thing will have to give up on an old OS and there's nothing A:M can do about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted May 18, 2014 Hash Fellow Share Posted May 18, 2014 The advantage of the new stuff occurs to me when I think about this... My current PC with a Q6600 cpu does the teapot benchmark in about 5 minutes, but the people putting together the machines with the i7-4770 are doing it in only 1.5 minutes. One core on their machine does almost as much as the four cores on mine can do... and they have four cores too! It wouldn't make sense for me to build another machine like I have now for render farm purposes even if it was half the price of the newer machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Roger Posted May 18, 2014 Author *A:M User* Share Posted May 18, 2014 The advantage of the new stuff occurs to me when I think about this... My current PC with a Q6600 cpu does the teapot benchmark in about 5 minutes, but the people putting together the machines with the i7-4770 are doing it in only 1.5 minutes. One core on their machine does almost as much as the four cores on mine can do... and they have four cores too! It wouldn't make sense for me to build another machine like I have now for render farm purposes even if it was half the price of the newer machine. Wow that is just nuts, that a single core is almost 4x as fast. I didn't think there was that big a difference in instructions-per-clock between the Q6600 and the i7 series. I can only imagine the people that bought those shiny new Macs with the FireGL Pro GPUs are champing at the bit waiting for AM to support OpenCL, that would really speed things up. I guess I am not in any huge hurry to build the farm, at this point I don't know that I really need to unless I start rendering to 2k or 4k or use some really time-consuming render technique. When I am ready to build it I guess I can get by with Win 7 licenses, it probably doesn't make sense trying to be too cheap. As Robcat pointed out, you end up paying in other ways. Fuchur where are you getting Win 7 licenses that cheap? I'm not sure what the conversion rate is but I think that works out to like $35-$45 US? That seems to be too good to be true. The cheapest I have found so far online for Win 7 licenses is $75 US (I only really need 3 licenes tops, right now, and ideally they should be Win 7 Pro licenses so they support two sockets). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted May 18, 2014 Share Posted May 18, 2014 The advantage of the new stuff occurs to me when I think about this... My current PC with a Q6600 cpu does the teapot benchmark in about 5 minutes, but the people putting together the machines with the i7-4770 are doing it in only 1.5 minutes. One core on their machine does almost as much as the four cores on mine can do... and they have four cores too! It wouldn't make sense for me to build another machine like I have now for render farm purposes even if it was half the price of the newer machine. Wow that is just nuts, that a single core is almost 4x as fast. I didn't think there was that big a difference in instructions-per-clock between the Q6600 and the i7 series. I can only imagine the people that bought those shiny new Macs with the FireGL Pro GPUs are champing at the bit waiting for AM to support OpenCL, that would really speed things up. I guess I am not in any huge hurry to build the farm, at this point I don't know that I really need to unless I start rendering to 2k or 4k or use some really time-consuming render technique. When I am ready to build it I guess I can get by with Win 7 licenses, it probably doesn't make sense trying to be too cheap. As Robcat pointed out, you end up paying in other ways. Fuchur where are you getting Win 7 licenses that cheap? I'm not sure what the conversion rate is but I think that works out to like $35-$45 US? That seems to be too good to be true. The cheapest I have found so far online for Win 7 licenses is $75 US (I only really need 3 licenes tops, right now, and ideally they should be Win 7 Pro licenses so they support two sockets). Windows 7 Pro is a little pricier, but still at about 30 Euros on ebay here. Conversion rate is about 1 Euro = 1,37 Dollar. But since this is a German version and it may come to duties if you get them delivered to the US, I am not sure if it still is cheaper... > Windows 7 pro on ebay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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