Pick the right tool for the job

In general, subdivision surfaces have many advantages but sometimes you actually need a polygon mesh.

Subdivision surfaces

• Pros
  • Perfectly smooth at any resolution.
  • Can have sharp or semi-sharp features with creases and corners.
  • Can be very lightweight in memory.
  • Less displacement cracks (watertight)
• Cons
  • Different modeling techniques/skills
  • Need to tag sharp edges and vertices
  • Some topological constraints (no holes or non-manifold geometry)

Polygon meshes

• Pros
  • Great for heavy geometry like 3D scanned mesh
  • Best for geometry that will be fractured / simmed.
  • Good for models with only sharp edges that don't need displacement
  • No microploygon generation is not displaced.
• Cons
  • Heavy models use a lot of memory, however small they may be in the image.
  • Shadow terminator may be visible on low resolution smoothed objects
  • Displacement cracks may be visible

Subdivision modeling

• Always model the simplest control cage possible.
• Always view your model with smoothing or render it using PxrVisualizer.
  • You can even model in a live PxrVisualizer render !
• Use creases to make sharp or semi-sharp edges without adding extra edge loops.
• Corners 

Model detailing