New to DAZ, need help with new computer

martinovstebo

Hello everyone.

I'll start off by saying I'm all new to DS. But want to continue rendering, but I dont think my current computer is up for the job.

So I need some advice to what system I actually need.  

I've been reading alot in the last couple of weeks, and only get more questions for each day.

And I'm sick and tired of reading ''oh I've heard this'' or ''I've read that'' and ''my buddy told me this''  etc etc

Hard facts are hard to come by...

 

What I want:  I want to set up and render pictures in somewhat small scale.  I dont want to necessarily render 4K images.   Full HD 1920x1080 or even smaller will do just fine. 

I dont render animations, only still images.

What system I have now:

Laptop. 

Lenovo Y520 with i5 7300HQ 2,4 GHz CPU (Max boost 3,1 GHz)

Nvidia GTX 1050 2GB VRAM (with 640 CUDA cores)

16 GB System memory

 

I can render images with only 1-3 genesis lightly dressed figures and a simple scene, but it takes ages. After 1 hour (ish) the image looks good enough, and I cancel and save it.

Rendering in 3Delight isnt really any problem, it just doesn't give the same quality as the IRAY engine.

So

 

What are your recomendations for what system to buy?

Should I buy a desktop even though I want a laptop more?

What GPU card should I actually get? 

Is a GTX 1060 6GB plenty for ''small scale rendering'' ?

How much does the amount of CUDA cores effect the render times/quality ?

Should I invest in a i9 proccessor, or is i7 good enough ?

I have so many questions I cant find answers to, but these are the most important ones.

I'd be really happy if someone could share their thoughts on this..

Thx

//Martin

 

Edit: fixed typos

Richard Haseltine

How are you lighting your scenes? An hour doesn't sound excessively long, but if you have areas that look clean quickly and others that you have to wait for a chnage of approach to lighting may be all that is needed (you might also look at the new denoiser in the current Public beta, as long as your scenes fit into the GPU memory).

martinovstebo

Thx for the reply. As I mentioned, Im pretty new to Daz. I've tried uber lights, ghost lights and all the deafult lights from daz. But I'm still figuring out how they all actually work. We're talking seriously newbie here...  I dont even know how to set up HDRI lights, probes and stuff.  I just figured out the basics of point light and spot light in Iray.

And when I say a simple scene, I mean very simple: 3 genesis figures in their underwear, statick background and a small room with lights.  About 4.5 Gb of texture according to the Iray ''render/loading screen''

 

But again, Im so keen on learning this stuff that I want to do more.

Only problem is, when I set up a scene Im happy with, (more clothes, props, backdrops,HDRI etc... it wont fit to the GPU, and start rendering with CPU

And by the time it'll finish, I could have wrote a book about how frustrating it is...

tiger.smurf_07389be958

A few thoughts:

Should I buy a desktop even though I want a laptop more? All I'll say is, generally, money spent on a desktop goes further than money spent on a laptop. An equivilently priced laptop will be less powerful than its desktop counterpoint. Get a laptop if you really need to take it with you places. But if rendering or other hardware-intensive hobbies are a major factor, desktop is usually prefferred.

What GPU card should I actually get? I use a GTX 1080. I'd stick with Nvidia, obviously, for the Iray rendering.

Is a GTX 1060 6GB plenty for ''small scale rendering''? Probably. But it's already a little dated. The RTX 20 line just came out a few days ago, so if you can afford to wait a bit, I'd check to see how much the inevitble price drop of the GTX 10 series will be because they might soon be a lot less.

Should I invest in a i9 proccessor, or is i7 good enough ? i7 is plenty. CPU doesn't affect rendering nearly as much as GPU. I use a Ryzen 7 2700x, which I think is pretty much the best card for multi-processing out right now. PLus, it's a bit cheaper than the i7 8700k and it comes with its own aftermarket cooler.

Kitsumo

If you really want to use your laptop, you can certainly do so. If you're already rendering scenes with 3 people plus an environment, and you're happy with the results, I'd say stick with it. No point spending money on hardware you don't really want when you'd rather have a laptop.

If you don't have enough RAM for a scene, you could try doing it in layers. Render the environment first and save it, then render 2 or 3 characters with shadows and save them as a png file. You can put in tons of characters, just pay attention to which ones are in front/middle/back and where the shadows fall. Then you can combine all the layers in Photoshop or Gimp. It takes a little practice but its worth it.

People fall into the trap of thinking spending money will make their renders better. I'd say keep the laptop, since that's what youlike using. If you want more GPU power, you can get an external.

martinovstebo

Thank you both so much for your thoughts. tiger.smurf: I agree on laptops vs desktops. Desktops tend to be better overall, and can easily be upgraded later on if needed. This point is actually the only thing keeping me from buying laptops. Sure you can use eGPU's and upgrading RAM, but in the end...thats it. But I love having a portal machine. I travel around a bit as well, and bringing my computer with me is alpha and omega. And I dont always want to sit in the same room in my house. So, I'll take your advice and wait. See if any laptops with a decent Nvidia GTX 10 series GPU is for sale. I'll aim for an i7 CPU and see if anything turns up. I dont want to buy a new laptop again for a couple of years. Kitsumo: while I save and wait for any high end PC, I'll practice my skills on the one I have. I really am happy with some of my renders, and the 1050 card does an okay job if you got patience, but I still feel like I'm always reducing textures, reducing size, reducing quality etc... to make the scene fit my GPU. 2gb vram just isnt enough. But I'll try some post work in photoshop. Never used photoshop either, so theres a learning curve there as well. Good advice, thanx. Why I really want to buy a new computer, even though my current is a 2017 model, is the fact that around 5 minutes after I bought this one, the 1050 GPU came with double VRAM of 4gb and 750 cuda cores. That pisses me of ! And to top it of, it doesn't have thunderbolt, which also came on the Lenovo Y 520, 5 minutes after I bought mine. The computer cost 7000 NOK (norway) which is around 450 USD. The one I want now is around 15000 NOK (900 USD) If I still feel the same after new year, I'll buy something better. I play alot of games as well, and I'd really like to run a game on ultra some day...some day maybe... Edit: written on android phone

martinovstebo

Decided to update this thread.

 

I ended up buying a new laptop. I got a pretty good deal on a new Acer in exchange for my old laptop.

Cost the equivilent of about 1200 $

Acer Predator Helios 300

Intel i7 - 8750 H CPU  2.2 Ghz (4.2Ghz boost)

Nvidia GTX 1060 6 GB GPU

144Hz screen

 

All I can say is wow (!!) 

To call the GTX 1050 2GB GPU an entry level GPU is an overstatement by a looong way.

It outperforms the 1050 hugely.  I saved some of my older scenes, and the new 1060 GPU uses mere minutes to render scenes the 1050 used hours on.

I can render big scenes with multiple characters in full HD or bigger.

 

I'm also surprised to notice that it uses less VRAM than the 1050 on the same scenes. I dont know how this works, if its the double amount of cuda cores or something. But I'm pretty sure the same scenes used more VRAM on the 1050

 

As I said before, I travel a bit, and bring my computer along alot. I rearly sit in the same spot in my house, and I dont want to be locked to a single stationary spot with my computer.

All in all very happy with the results from the laptop.