I would say lots of polys lots of crazy vray mats. However I believe the problem would be graphics card related. Obviously you have tried different driver's?

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Several, they all crash. We're gonna swap the graphics cars over and see if it makes a difference to try and diagnose the problem. If it still crashes I'll be stumped.

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check the memory with memtest86 ( run it for a couple of passes on all tests) might take a couple of hours....i used it the other week because i had trouble too...my machine worked on xp and max ...but it was glitching....i tested the ram and it failed on test 5 ...i RMA'd the board and the shop said i was right and have refunded me.

then run prime95 , this forces you machine to work hard and lists if there are any errors.

you can max the cpu with 3dsmax but it doesnt give you feedback like prime95.

prime95 is used by overclockers . its safe if you have your machine at default/stock values in the bios ...if you are overclocking your machine at all, its best to keep an eye on temperatures with a prog called coretemp.a great free prog that tells you your cpu temp whist your rev up your cpu as it were.

hope this helps , itcertainly helped me....if i didnt have those programs i would still be here struggling and i wouldn't have sent my components back , i would have sat infront of the machine for months till it was right ...but it never would have been. faulty ram!!
but these progs also made me realise how unstable my machine was in other areas. such as voltages to the cpu and northbridge ( i was overclocking my q6600 to 3.2ghz which is perfectly fine with proper cooling) a tweak here and there made it run better ...just waiting for the new ram now.

if your machine is stable you should be able to run prime95 for at least 10hrs as a full test.
by the way i run xp ....and i used memtest86 off an ubuntu (linux) install cd, just incase you have one about your studio.

peace

freqz

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also cpu-z is a great little prog to show you lots of info about your system frequencies ect..

all free simply search google...

what components did you get?

i was just reading on another forum that some people are using server motherboards specifically for 3ds max....twin quad xeon motherboards ...wow must be cool to work with one of those.

one day in the future we'll make the most complex scene hit render and it will be done in a millisecond.

fweq

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* RMA'd the board and ram. (twas a bit of a nightmare , hence i found those progs)

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Cheers for the advice, but I've just had the video card sent off to get fixed. Hopefully they can do it locally so it should only be away for a week or so. If they have to send it overseas to get fixed it could take 4 - 8 weeks I'm told. Meanwhile I'm stuck with an 8500GT which is hardly comparable to an 8800 GTX.

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