Similar to other software developers, Autodesk keeps track of the Autodesk Maya system requirements, which you can use to make sure your computer's hardware is compatible with their software. But most "system requirements" lists simply address the minimum amount of hardware needed to run the software, not what will truly perform at its peak. In addition, these lists occasionally include substandard hardware on them, are out of date, or display obsolete hardware versions.

Although Maya is mostly used for single-threaded tasks like modeling and animation, you ought to look for the fastest CPU possible; core count is not as important. To display the 3D visuals you generate smoothly, you'll also need a powerful video card.

Creating, editing, and animating 3D models are among the design tasks in Maya that can only make use of one CPU core. This makes a high-frequency CPU the best option for certain jobs, no matter how many cores it has. This kind of workload is the main emphasis of our Maya Design & Animation workstation.

However, multiple rendering engines—such as Arnold, which comes with more recent Maya versions, as well as Mental Ray, V-Ray, Keyshot, and others—are quite effective at making use of a large number of cores. Since most of these engines scale nearly perfectly, a CPU with twice as many cores will operate nearly twice as quickly. For individuals who are more interested in that kind of CPU, we provide other choices.

Intel Core i7 13700K (16 Core) and Core i9 13900K (24 Core) or newer generations of these CPUs top the charts for Maya single-core performance and are among the CPUs with the fastest clock speeds available. The i9 offers a few more "efficient" cores and a marginally faster clock speed than the i7. You may also check out AMD's next-generation models of Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 if you wish to switch to their platform.

While the exact quantity of RAM you require can vary depending on your specific projects, we usually advise at least 16 GB for Maya. Although it is uncommon for Maya to require more RAM than 32GB, extremely complicated situations may require up to 32GB.

However, you could require 64GB or even more RAM if you plan to perform a lot of difficult, high-resolution CPU rendering.

The video card plays a major role in determining how many frames per second (FPS) the viewport in Maya can display a model at while it is being created, edited, and animated. It will be smoother and more enjoyable to rotate, zoom, or pan around the model you are working on if the frame rate is higher. Generally speaking, 60 frames per second is the optimal framerate, while 30 is the minimum that may be allowed.

Both NVIDIA's professional and GeForce cards are now included as supported GPUs by Autodesk in their lists of compatible graphics cards for 3ds Max. They do, however, distinguish between the two by referring to the pro-grade (formerly Quadro) cards as "Certified" and the GeForce as just "Tested."

Primary Drive: OS/Software (SSD/NVMe): Includes your operating system and the base Maya installation. An SSD is highly recommended as it will greatly improve how fast the OS and programs startup, but you can also upgrade to a faster NVMe drive for a small performance benefit. The recommended storage for installation of software is not more than 15 GB.

Since the primary drive will primarily be used to store Windows and software, including all software (except large Game), it doesn't need to be that large for the majority of users; a 500GB SSD will be enough for Drive C.

Secondary Drive: Project Files (Platter/SSD/NVMe) Having a second storage (either SSD or HHD) for storing assets and effects is a wonderful alternative if you have additional money to spend or keep a lot of them around for use on different projects. Of course, an internal or external hard drive is a more cost-effective option than a high-capacity SSD if you need more mass storage and preservation.