Help picking a computer

authorgscarr

Hello everyone! I am brand spanking new to DAZ and the entire 3D Modeling world, but I love learning new things so I am ready to take on the challnege. My current computer doesn't have the specs for DAZ. I tried to render and it was horrible. What computer would you all suggest being the best to use to get the most out of this program? I was thinking of getting a Microsoft Surfacebook or a Macbook Pro. Or you might know  of something better. 

Thanks for the help!

Richard Haseltine

Current Macs do no have nVidia GPUs, so they will be a poor choice for Iray rendering. Although some of the developers do, I know, run DS on Surface Pros they offload the rendering to a separate machine running Iray Server. Assuming you are wanting to do Iray rendrs you want a system with an nVidia GPU, idally fast and with plenty of dedicated memory. What are your current system specifications? There are tricks that can be used to get around some hardware limitations.

authorgscarr

Richard Haseltine said:

Current Macs do no have nVidia GPUs, so they will be a poor choice for Iray rendering. Although some of the developers do, I know, run DS on Surface Pros they offload the rendering to a separate machine running Iray Server. Assuming you are wanting to do Iray rendrs you want a system with an nVidia GPU, idally fast and with plenty of dedicated memory. What are your current system specifications? There are tricks that can be used to get around some hardware limitations.

Well my current comupter doesn't even have a graphics card so I need a new one. No way around that. But I want to make sure I get one that will do Iray renders. Do you have any suggestions for a good computer? 

Richard Haseltine

That's a tricky questuon. What is your budget, where are you (at least what nation), and does it need to be a laptop or will a desktop system be OK?

rrward

I would stronlgy recommend a desktop unit. That way you can put the best video card you can afford in it and even upgrade later. And you will need to stay in the Windows PC world as Apple doesn't make anything that can run IRay without very expensive accessories. (I know, I was a Mac user for a number of years and watching in dismay as Apple decided t opart ways with Nvidia.)

A good gaming rig will probably be your best bet. You don't need the fastest CPU out there, but you do need a powerful video card and fair amount of RAM. And disk space, at least 500GB as your DAZ content library will start to grow by leaps and bouns if the rendering bug really bites you. You want a PSU of at least 750 watts to drive your video card with room to spare. And speaking of video cards, the RTX 20x0 cards are not fully supported by Studio (the 4.11 beta supports them), and they are, IMHO, way over-priced. A good GTX 1070ti or 1080ti would make a great render station. I've seen people get good results from old GTX 970's if you can beleive that.