Building a Custom PC for Autodesk Maya

Building a custom PC for a software can save you hours of frustration from working on a laggy and unoptimized program. We regularly get customers asking for component recommendations for Maya, a popular 3D animation and rendering software. Our sales team is always standing by to give you product recommendations, but if you’d like to read up on building a PC for AutoDesk’s Maya you can see some helpful tips from us below!

What is Maya?

Used by Animators and Visual Artists, Autodesk Maya specializes in 3D animation, modeling, simulation and rendering.

Maya is a great choice for those looking to take their 3D Designs to the next level. Engaging animations and intuitive modeling tools are right at your fingertips with Autodesk Maya.

What are the Minimum PC Specs I need to run Autodesk Maya?

Below are the requirements straight from Autodesk themselves! Autodesk only provides some very basic information when it comes to running Maya.

Other than the extensive GPU list, Autodesk doesn’t really give that much information into what components will help run the program more efficiently. The only recommendation they give is 16GB or higher of RAM, which is a bit of an understatement if you plan on rendering a lot.

How can my PC run Maya better?

Look, if you’re actively using Maya to complete projects then you know the importance of your program running smoothly and working quickly. No one likes when a program closes unexpectedly or takes half a day to render. However, Maya has a variety of uses and each of them tax different components of the PC. Depending on the projects you typically do (Animation vs Rendering), another RAM kit may be more beneficial than a CPU upgrade. Our sales team has researched and worked extensively with the Autodesk Suite and can give you optimized recommendations within your budget, but we’ll go over a basic understanding of optimizing your custom PC for Autodesk Maya.

What CPU should I get for Maya?

Well, do you plan on doing a lot of Animation or do are you using Maya primarily for rendering purposes?

For animation, Maya prefers CPUs with a higher thread count, rather than cores. We recommend an Intel Core i9-10900F. You’ll typically see better performance opting for RAM, GPU or storage upgrades than you would from upgrading to Intel’s Xeon platform. It’s usually better to allocate more of your budget into other components.

However, when it comes to rendering, Maya utilizes extra cores extremely well to help cut rendering time up to half. To save hours of your time, we highly recommend going with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X. This processor offers the highest core count available, and works quite well with Maya to keep rendering times reasonable.

What GPU works best with Maya?

Autodesk provides a giant list of approved GPUs here. In short, it’s just about all of them.

Performance-wise, Maya loves GPU power. Animation focused machines can go for something with a little less power before you really notice any difference. We recommend an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 to help you save a bit on the your budget. Rendering based systems we’d recommend going with the recently released NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.

Using a workstation GPU with Autodesk tends to have marginally increased performance and workstation class GPUs usually have better longevity. However, the performance isn’t really worth the price increase and your money can be better spent on storage or memory. If you’re particularly worried about straining your graphics cards, then Quadro RTX cards are always an option!

How much RAM does Maya need? 

Maya requires 8GB of RAM, but recommends 16GB… which is still selling it a little short. Animation users should opt for 32GB of RAM if possible, which is what we recommended in our 3D Modeling and Animation Maya Custom Computer. We’d recommend going with 64GB of RAM for a Maya Rendering PC.

AVADirect’s AutoCad Maya 3D Animation Recommendation

Our configurations come with options to upgrade components without the help of our sales team.

Maya Design and Animation Workstation PC

• Socket: 1200
• CPU: Core i7 , Core i9
• Chipset: Intel Z490
• Memory: Up to 128 GB
• Storage: Up to 8 hard drives or SSD drives
• Graphics: Supports up to 2 video cards

Our custom Autodesk Maya Design and Animation PC features components optimized to run Maya efficiently, while still remaining budget friendly. This PC comes base configured with an Intel Core i9-10900F, with the option to upgrade up to an Intel i9-10900K if you’d like a higher frequency to better optimize your system. We also chose an ASUS ProArt Z490-Creator, which is optimized for workstation use. Choose from a wide variety of graphics cards, with the base configuration coming preselected with a ASUS GeForce RTX™ 2070. Mentioned above, the base configuration comes with 32 GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4. Opt for a larger memory kit if you plan on multitasking. You might want to swap out the fan cooler for an AIO if you plan on overclocking your CPU or pushing your system for hours on end.

Storage wise, we offer plenty of options! Feel free to upgrade the 250 GB m.2 Samsung SSD or swap to a SATA-based SSD for better write speeds. The base configuration comes with plenty of storage with a hefty 4TB HDD, but you are sacrificing a bit of speed for this budget.

Want a Maya custom PC optimized for your use-case and budget? Our knowledgeable sales team is available by phone, email and livechat during our usual business hours. They’d love to discuss your work and provide feedback on which components will optimize your workflow depending on your specific projects.