Could I run Daz on my crappy laptop?
I've always wanted to work with 3D stuff and after using Source Filmmaker, I found that it wasn't for me. The thing is SFM runs pretty well for me, I'm able to render posters on my crappy laptop with multiple characters just fine, but I just don't like using SFM. So I was wondering if my laptop can run Daz, render images etc.
Specs :
Ram : 4GB
Processor : AMD E2-7110 with AMD Radeon R2 1.80 GHz
I think I already know the answer, but I still want to hear what you guys have to say. Thanks.
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Comments
Maybe, maybe not. That CPU sounds a bit underpowered, and 4GB of RAM is definitely marginal — I have 8GB and I've found that's not enough at times. The next time I upgrade my system, I'm going for at least 16GB.
One other vital vital statistic, especially if you want to render in Iray, is your graphics card. Iray will only work on NVidia cards, if yours is a Radeon like your CPU, then DAZ|Studio will fall back to rendering with the CPU, which is much slower than using the graphics card. Alternatively, you can render in 3Delight, which was the old default render engine before Iray was introduced; this uses only the CPU, it doesn't use the graphics card at all so it doesn't matter which you have.
Is there a downgrade rendering in 3Delight vs Iray?
Its not a downgrade its just different. It also depends on what type of art you do. Do you like to make things that look more realistic or do you do more fantsy typetype scenes? (not that realistic and fantasy can't go hand in hand but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say).
3Delight just works very differently than Iray. Its not good or bad, and you can achieve a very high realism with 3Delight if that's what you are going for it just takes a bit more work. Both render engines havea bit of a learning curve.
I would prefer to make things realisticly as I can, I think i'm going to test out Daz for a few weeks. Just to see if it will run properly on my shit-box of a laptop lol and if not, idk I'll just sit around with my thumb up my ass saving money for a proper PC lol
I'm a beginner. Both my RAM and my CPU are better than yours, my graphic card is Iray able, and I've troubles sometimes when scenes are bit "heavy". I suspect you'll have difficulties rendering in Iray.
I use generally Iray, but sometimes 3Dlight either because my computer can't handle a scene in Iray or because the assets I'm using don't work well (or even not at all) in Iray (only part of the assets you can find, mostly the most recent, are intended to be rendered in Iray). Like you, I'd prefer in theory "realism" over the "softness" (not sure how to qualify it) of 3Dlight but I'm not exactly good at what I'm doing, being a beginner and all, and not always happy with what I've done. It's hit and miss. And in fact, it turns out that I'm as likely to be happy with a 3Dlight scene than with an Iray one in the end. I'm just not good enough for the engine I use to matter that much. And presumably, if I was good enough, I'd be able to overcome the limitations of the 3Dlight engine.
So, I think you could perfectly enjoy Daz3D even if you can't use Iray.
A word of warning - make sure that you have proper heat management in your laptop. I managed to fry my laptop CPU while rendering.
Now, that's something I wouldn't have expected and is going to worry me.
Well, different from gaming, wenn Rendering your CPU will run at 100% for a long time. That creates a lot of heat and if your vents are clogged this can happen. Also, the CPU s heat distribution gel can fry away over time.
Is there a way to notice this issue before the CPU fries? Because my laptop is most definitely struggling at time when I do a render. However, by default, I uncheck "CPU" for rendering. Would that be enough to prevent this problem? Also since it doesn't prevent my computer from grinding to a halt when I render, I assume that Daz3D is using the CPU anyway, even when I uncheck it?
FWIW, the differences between 3Delight and Iray include (but aren't limited to) 3Delight being generally faster by default because it uses lots of shortcuts to fake actual lighting and material effects. Iray by contrast actually simulates real-world lighting and materials, which takes a lot longer to get right.
Note that this is only if you compare renders using the CPU. 3Delight can only use the CPU, but Iray can make use of the massively parallel architecture of NVidia graphics cards to turbo-charge its rendering process. One of the drawbacks of this is that all the data for the render must fit in the NVidia card's memory; if the render blows past the card's memory limit, then it falls back to running on your CPU, and render speed drops like a large and heavy rock.
Also note that "by default" I put in the first paragraph; it is possible to fiddle with the materials and render settings in 3Delight so that it will simulate real-world effects very much like Iray. This eliminates the calculation shortcuts and slows the render down so much there's very little difference between the two render types.
Since you don't have a an NVidea card, iray will always render on CPU, no matter if you uncheck it.
I don't know if there are any tools to check on the heat, though.
There may be apps online that will allow you to monitor the heat your laptop is putting out.
I'm not the OP. I have a NVidia card.
In a word, No.
Although you might be able to, you really shouldn't. 4GB of RAM; with that you should be running 32bit not 64bit OS; IRAY needs (iirc) 64bit.
It will be a terrible experience, and may very well put you off 3D.