Qualification of Maya 4.5 on supported Windows Operating Systems.

Last Updated: May 30, 2003

Qualification of Maya 4.5 on supported Windows Operating Systems.

Version and file compatibility
Computer Models and Operating System
Graphics Cards & Drivers
General Configuration
Information specific to Operating Systems
Information specific to Computer Model
Information specific to Graphics Cards/Drivers

Products	Version	Software Date
Maya Complete	4.5	200208160001
Maya Unlimited	4.5	200208160001

File Compatibility:

Maya	Maya 4.5 can read Maya 4.x, 3.x, Maya 2.x, and Maya 1.x format files.
Others	Maya 4.5 imports Adobe Illustrator EPS files, OBJ, DXF and IGES, Alias Wire, AIFF, RIB, files. VRML2 files can be read via a standalone translator. Maya 4.5 exports OBJ, DXF, IGES, Alias Wire, MOV, VRML2, RTG and GE2 files.

Computer Models

Maya 4.5 is qualified on Intel Pentium II, Pentium III and Pentium 4 and AMD Athlon processors in the following systems with any of the graphics adaptors listed in the graphics card table using the specified driver on Windows XP Professional (follow this link for information specific to Operating System issues or Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 2. Note, we are unable to qualify all graphics cards on all operating systems. Maya is NOT qualified to run on Windows NT 4.0 or the Windows NT Terminal Server.

mental ray for Maya is qualified for the same platforms as Maya.

Company	Model	Web
Boxx	3DBOXX R1	www.boxxtech.com
Compaq	Professional Workstation 6300	www.compaq.com
Compaq	Professional Workstation AP 400, 500, 550	www.compaq.com
Compaq	Professional Workstation SP700	www.compaq.com
Compaq	Professional Workstation 6000	www.compaq.com
Compaq	Professional Workstation EVO 6000, 8000	www.compaq.com
Compaq	EVO Notebook N800	www.compaq.com
Dell ¹	Precision Workstation 210, 410, 610	www.dell.com
Dell ¹	Precision Workstation 220, 420, 620	www.dell.com
Dell ¹	Precision Workstation 330, 530	www.dell.com
Dell ¹	Precision Workstation 340	www.dell.com
Dell	Precision Workstation 350, 450, 650	www.dell.com
Dell ¹	Precision Workstation M40 (with nVidia Quadro2 Go)	www.dell.com
HP	HP Workstation X1000, X1100, X2000, X2100, X4000	www.hp.com
HP	HP Workstation XW5000, XW6000, XW8000	www.hp.com
HP	HP Workstation XW4100	www.hp.com
IBM	Intellistation E Pro 6836, 6846	www.ibm.com
IBM	Intellistation M Pro 6868, 6849, 6850, 6229, 6219	www.ibm.com
IBM	Intellistation Z Pro 6866, 6221	www.ibm.com
IBM	Thinkpad A31p (with ATI FireGL 7800 mobile)	www.ibm.com
Intergraph	TDZ 2000 Graphics Workstation	www.intergraph.com
[1] Please see below for workaround required for some new Dell systems.

Graphics Cards & Drivers

Maya is qualified with the following graphics adapters (with the specified driver for the specified operating system) with any of the systems listed in the systems table.
Important: Graphics drivers are usually different for different Windows operating sytems. Alias|Wavefront has tested only drivers listed under each OS. While it may be possible to use Maya successfully on earlier or later drivers, Alias|Wavefront cannot guarantee their performance or behaviour. If you encounter problems with a driver, we strongly suggest that you contact the graphic card vendor to report your problem.

Company	Graphics Controller	Driver version on Windows XP Pro	Driver version on Windows 2000 Pro (SP2)
*see below for important details about each of these graphics cards.*
3Dlabs	Wildcat 4110	06.05.03.35	05.05.03.35
3Dlabs	Wildcat 5000	06.05.03.35
3Dlabs	Wildcat II 5110	06.05.03.35	05.05.03.35
3Dlabs	Wildcat III 6110	06.05.04.51	05.05.04.51
3Dlabs	Wildcat III 6210	06.05.04.51	05.05.04.51
3Dlabs	Wildcat IV 7110	06.06.01.06	05.06.01.06
3Dlabs	Wildcat VP870	3.01.0121	3.01.0207
HP	FX5/FX10	NOT QUALIFIED	3.2.2002.118
nVidia	Quadro2 EX/MXR/Go	30.82	30.82
nVidia	Quadro DCC	30.82	30.82
nVidia	Quadro4 550 XGL	30.82	30.82
nVidia	Quadro4 700/750/900 XGL	30.82	30.82
nVidia	Quadro4 780/980 XGL	40.72 or 41.03
nVidia	GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4	NOT QUALIFIED See Note.	NOT QUALIFIED See Note.
ATI	Fire GL2	6.12.10.2088	5.12.2195.2088
ATI	Fire GL4	6.12.10.2088	5.12.2195.2088
ATI	Fire GL4-DUAL	Not yet tested	Not yet tested
ATI	Fire GL7800 mobile (In IBM Thinkpad A31P)	6.13.10.6200 7.79.6-021213a-006958e-IBM	NOT QUALIFIED
ATI	Fire GL8700/8800	6.12.10.3051	5.12.2195.3051
ATI	Radeon 8800 Mobility in Compaq EVO N800	6.13.10.6206 7.77.3-021016a-006195E-1.00C	NOT QUALIFIED
ATI	Fire GL X1	6.13.10.1028	6.13.10.1028

*see below for important details about each of these graphics cards.*

Video Cards without Hardware Overlay Planes

Using video cards without Hardware Overlay planes (or Hardware Overlay planes turned off) can result in poor performance for certain operations within Maya including (but not restricted to) use of tools based on Artisan or Paint Textures technology. There will also be visual differences compared with Hardware overlays that may result in difficulty seeing or manipulating aspects of the scene or Maya interface.

Examples of Graphics cards without Hardware overlays include (but are not restricted to):

NVIDIA based TNT/TNT2/GeForce/GeForce2 video cards

ATI Rage128/ Rage128Pro

Matrox G400

etc.

Examples of Graphics Cards where Hardware Overlays can be turned on/off include (but are not restricted to):

3DLabs GVX210/GVX1/VX1/GMX2000

etc.

Although Maya may be used successfully on systems containing these Graphics Cards, only those specifically listed here have been tested. Please review the notes below carefully as some of these cards have limitations which may make them unsuitable for your purposes.

General Configuration.

Please Read

A three button mouse is required.
At least 128 MB of RAM is required and 256 MB or more is strongly recommended.
It may be possible to successfully use Maya with a non-qualified or partially qualified configuration, but support and maintenance programs will be subject to the Alias|Wavefront Support services guidelines.
The configurations shown are subject to change, and additional qualified configurations may be added after qualification testing has been carried out.
Where Graphics Controllers are configurable, you must have at least 32MB of texture memory (TRAM). Due to the differences in the manner in which hardware vendors approach display memory, we suggest that you consult your hardware vendor to ensure that your configuration will support your required resolution.
The graphics drivers specified in this table are the drivers that were used for the qualification process. While it may be possible to use Maya successfully on earlier or later drivers, Alias|Wavefront cannot guarantee their performance or behaviour.
We do not recommend saving data directly from Maya to NFS or Novell Netware or other remote mounted file systems. We have received several reports of data corruption when saving in this method although we have been unable to reproduce this. We strongly recommend that you save the files locally and then copy the data to the mounted storage system.
When texture images are stored on systems remote from the rendering process; depending on network speed, specifications and load it is possible that the renderer may be unable to access a texture file on demand and may 'drop' individual textures on a frame by frame basis. To reduce this occurrence store textures on a system local to the rendering process.
Windows Compiler Requirement: To build Maya plug-ins, your Windows system must have the Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler version 6.0 installed.
Dual Monitor use is only supported on the specified systems. Be aware that with all dual monitors you may experience problems with windows always popping on or returning to the main screen instead of the alternate screen.

Information Specific to Operating Systems:

Windows XP

*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Under some circumstances, when playblasting an animation, partway through, the playblasting ceases to be updated. Attempting to ESC from the playblast may cause a hang.
Solution	None.
Limitation	Tear-off pull-down menus don't display properly on XP with UI schemes
Solution	Set UI preference to Windows Classic Style. Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Windows Classic
Limitation	Maya on Windows XP has slightly different window focus interaction than on other OSes. For example, if you render in the Render View window and switch focus to another Maya window or another application and back to the Render View, the Render View may not update, or may turn completely white giving the appearance that it has hung. The window will update when the render completes. (On other OSes it updates when each tile is finished rendering.) You may see similar interactions in other windows.
Solution	None.

Information Specific to Computer Model:

New Dell Systems

*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	On some Dell systems, Maya apparently is missing some or all controls in some or all option boxes or dialogs. Specific sliders are not drawn and option boxes may be sized incorrectly or appear empty.
Solution	Change the default system font size, restart your system and change it back (and restart again). On Windows 2000 this is in display properties: (right-mouse on desktop -> properties), Settings-> Advanced -> Display Font size. )

Information Specific to Graphics Cards/Drivers:

3Dlabs Wildcat 4110

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat 4110 (3Dlabs)	Windows 2000 Pro: 05.05.03.35 Windows XP Pro: 06.05.03.35	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Hardware shadows not supported.
Solution	None

3Dlabs Wildcat 5000

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat 5000 (3Dlabs)	Windows XP Pro: 06.05.03.35	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Hardware shadows not supported.
Solution	None

3Dlabs Wildcat II 5110

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat II 5110 (3Dlabs)	Windows 2000 Pro: 05.05.03.35 Windows XP Pro: 06.05.03.35	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Hardware shadows not supported.
Solution	None

3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat III 6110 (3Dlabs)	Windows 2000 Pro: 05.05.04.51 Windows XP Pro: 06.05.04.51	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Hardware shadows not supported. Use of Hardware shadows may crash maya.
Solution	None

3Dlabs Wildcat III 6210

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat III 6210 (3Dlabs)	Windows 2000 Pro: 05.05.04.51 Windows XP Pro: 06.05.04.51	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	Hardware shadows not supported. Use of Hardware shadows may crash maya.
Solution	None.

3Dlabs Wildcat IV 7110

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat IV 7110 (3Dlabs)	Windows 2000 Pro: 05.06.01.06 Windows XP Pro: 06.06.01.06	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	The quality of hardware shadows is not suitable for most uses.
Solution	None

3Dlabs Wildcat VP870

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
3Dlabs Wildcat VP870 (3Dlabs)	Windows 2000 Pro: 3.01-0207 Windows XP Pro: 3.01.0121	Settings > Performance
		Driver Setting: Maya	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation
Solution

HP FX5/FX10

Model	Version	Driver Settings
HP FX10 (HP)	Windows 2000 Pro: 3.2.2002.118 Windows XP Pro: Not Supported by HP	Select the 'Alias\|Wavefront Maya' preset setting configuration in the Display Properties window.
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation
Solution

nVidia Quadro4 550 XGL

Windows 2000	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro4 550 XGL	Windows 2000 Pro: 30.82	OpenGL preset: Maya/StudioTools
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation
	Solution

Windows XP	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro4 550 XGL	Windows XP Pro: 30.82	OpenGL preset: Maya/StudioTools
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation
	Solution

nVidia Quadro4 780XGL, 980XGL

Windows XP	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro4 780XGL, 980XGL	Windows XP Pro: 40.72 or 41.03	OpenGL preset: Maya/StudioTools
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation
	Solution

nVidia Quadro4 (700XGL, 750XGL, 900XGL)

Windows 2000	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro4 700XGL, 750XGL, 900XGL	Windows 2000 Pro: 30.82	OpenGL preset: Maya/StudioTools
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation	Conflict between nview and windows 2000/XP dual screen.
	Solution	May be fixed in an upcoming driver.

Windows XP	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro4 700XGL, 750XGL, 900XGL	Windows XP Pro: 30.82	OpenGL preset: Maya/StudioTools
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation	Conflict between nview and windows 2000/XP dual screen.
	Solution	May be fixed in an upcoming driver.

nVidia Quadro2 series (EX, MXR, Go)

Windows 2000	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro2 series (EX, MXR, Go)	Windows 2000 Pro: 30.82	Driver is optimized for application: Maya.
			Overlays: ON
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation	Minor artisan brush stamp redraw problem.
	Solution	None

Windows XP	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro2 series (EX, MXR, Go)	Windows XP Pro: 30.82	Windows style should be set to Windows Classic (i.e. Not XP) Driver is optimized for application: Maya.
			Overlays: ON
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation
	Solution

nVidia GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3, GeForce4 series

There are many cards based on GeForce256, GeForce2, GeForce3 and GeForce4 chipsets. nVidia and Alias|Wavefront do not recommend these cards for use with Maya 4.5 as you may experience various refresh, display and stability problems and inadequate performance.
We suggest you choose from nVidia's workstation cards instead, such as the Quadro families which are much better suited to highend 3D packages such as Maya.

nVidia Quadro DCC

Windows 2000	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia Quadro DCC	Windows 2000 Pro: 30.82	Driver is optimized for application: Maya.
			Overlays: OFF
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation	Maya will crash on start-up when the resolution is set to higher values, e.g. 1600x1200x32 with the driver's overlay option enabled.
	Solution	Lower the display resolution or turn off the Overlay feature and reboot the system.

Windows XP	Model	Version	Driver Settings
	nVidia QuadroDCC	Windows XP Pro: 30.82	Windows style should be set to Windows Classic (i.e. Not XP) Driver is optimized for application: Maya.
			Overlays: ON
	*Limitations and Solutions*
	Limitation
	Solution

Fire GL 2

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
Fire GL2 (ATI)	Windows 2000 Pro: 5.12.2195.2088 Windows XP Pro: 6.12.10.2088	MAYA	x
*Limitations and Solutions*

Fire GL 4 and Fire GL 4 DUAL

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
Fire GL4 (ATI)	Windows 2000 Pro: 5.12.2195.2088 Windows XP Pro: 6.12.10.2088	Advanced > OpenGL Support > Driver is optimized for application
		MAYA	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	With dual monitors you may experience problems with windows always popping on or returning to the main screen instead of the alternate screen.
Solution	None.

Fire GL 7800 Mobile
in IBM Thinkpad A31P

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
Fire GL7800 (ATI)	Windows XP Pro: 6.13.10.6200 also known as 7.79.6-021213a-006958e-IBM
		MAYA	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation	You may encounter poor performance using Artisan tools with "Show Brush Outlines ON".
Solution	Do not use Show Brush Outlines.
Limitation	You may encounter poor performance using Maya Paint Effects in Canvas mode.
Solution	none.

Fire GL 8700/8800

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
Fire GL8700/8800 (ATI)	Windows 2000 Pro: 5.12.2195.3051 Windows XP Pro: 6.12.10.3051
		MAYA	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation
Solution

Fire GL X1

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
Fire GL X1 (ATI)	Windows 2000 Pro: 6.13.10.1028 Windows XP Pro: 6.13.10.1028
		MAYA	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation
Solution

Radeon 8800 Mobility
in Compaq EVO N800

Model	Version	Driver Settings	ON	OFF
Fire GL8700/8800 (ATI)	Windows 2000 Pro: - Windows XP Pro: 6.13.10.6206 Also known as: 7.77.3-021016a-006195E-1.00C
		MAYA	x
*Limitations and Solutions*
Limitation
Solution