3d Studio Max and 2+CPUs - Core limit?

Question

I am scouting for parts to put in a new machine, and in the process, while looking at different benchmarks I stumbled upon this benchmark and it got me a bit worried.

Quote form it:

Noticably absent from this review is an old-time favorite, 3ds Max. I did attempt to run our custom 3ds Max benchmark on both the 2009 and 2010 versions of the software, but the application would simply not load on the Westmere box with hyper-threading enabled. Evidently Autodesk didn't plan far enough ahead to write their software for more than 16 threads. Once there is an update that addresses this issue, I will happily add 3ds Max back into the benchmarking mix.

Since I was looking at dual hexa-core Xeons (x5650), that would put my future machine at 24 logical cores which (duh) is well over 16 cores and since I'm mostly building this for 3DS Max work, you can see how this would seriously spoil my plans. I tried looking for additional information on this potential issue, but the above article seems to be the only one who mentions it. Could anyone who has access to a >16 core machine or an in-depth knowledge about 3DS Max please confirm this ?

Thank you all in advance !

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Edit: If you have any additional info on this like if a fix is in the making if confirmed true would also be much appreciated as it would help me plan ahead.

Answer 1

The problem is the mental ray limitations – if you want to lunch 3ds max in more than 16 threads you must remove metnalray.dlz (in the %max root%/stdplugs directory). Unfortunately, you can only use an external render engine (like V-Ray) if you remove mental ray. If you don't rename or eliminate metnalray.dlz, 3ds max will not start.

Answer 2

you can switch of the HT then you will get 12 (actual) cores rather than 24 (half cores)

Answer 3

I'm using a twin server (2 motherboards dual-xeon 6-cores 5650 in only 1U server blade (supermicro) it gives me 4*six-cores = 24 cores > 48 cores/bucket with hyperthread enabled. V-ray loves it using V-ray spawner to distribute the job. http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/6016/SYS-6016TT-TF.cfm

This blade is combined with my 3 8-cores workstations (24 cores) so when I need fast, big renders (5000 to 10000 pixels images), I get a total of 48 + 24 = 72 cores .

I managed to get the blade with four 5650 Xeons and 24GB DDR3 RAM for about 4000 Euros.

Answer 4

I'm using dual Xeon E5-2687W rig based on Asus Z9PE-D8 WS, on more than 16 cores 3ds MAX 2012 x64 + Vray didnt work properly, and it not depends on cores kind - no matter 16+ HT (8+ real and 8+ HT or 16 real cores), shadows in extra buckets (16+) everytime calculates wrong...