new computer!
Whoo-hoo! I'm thinking of getting a computer I will use primarily for 3D art. My Mac is not working so well. :(
Can anyone give me some guidance/thoughts about the best GPU to look for, or other features that are important? I'm not looking to spend an arm and a leg, but would like a reliable lower priced computer that has the features that work best with DAZ.
If anyone has a particular recommendation, I'm all ears.
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If you search the forums (search bar at top right) for computer you will get a ton of discussions on this very subject.
Depending on your artistic needs, bascially you will need the best NVidia video card you can afford (2080 ti), the most memory you can afford and and is supported by your MB (16 standard, 32 good) and a good CPU in that order. Then there are the other bits, SSD or harddrive, how much space for storage, what size PSU do you need depending on the GPU, etc.
In general a good system is around 2K and great system 3K with the bulk of the cost being the GPU and the CPU
Hope that helps.
I don't know how much you want to spend and how much GPU cost in your country!
But I can tell you there's a nice benchmark thread in "The Commons" forum (if I remember correctly). It's very chaotic, but there are a lot of benchmarks to see how a particular GPU performs.
I wouldn't go for used GPUs, unless you find a very good deal, because the new technologies that went out with the RTX cards will probably be implemented in the next 6 months (random users say in that thread), and they should get you a nice performance increase!
It depends by your country! For example in Italy RTX 2060/70 are affordable, while 2080 and above cost way too much.
You should look at your VRAM too! If the scene will be bigger than it, you'll have to render with your CPU (much slower). The bare minimum is 6Gb, the higher you go the better. For this same purpose is better to have a CPU with integrated graphic, if you don't want to have a 2nd GPU: that way, you'll use your CPU to let you see your screen, instead of using around 700Mb of VRAM (for a 1080p monitor).
You shouldn't have less than 16Gb of RAM! When I had 8, it was a bottleneck. Of course you want 2 sticks instead of 1, and the frequency shouldn't matter that much.
Go for a nice SSD! Daz Studio loads its content from your drive, and a classic hard disk is definitely too slow. I'd go with a M.2 NVME SSD of at least 500Gb.
If you have other questions, feel free to ask, but remember to quote me or I won't receive any notification! :D
Thanks for this really helpful response. I'm wondering now specifics on the GPUs. Primarily I do still images. I never do animation. From what I see, some of the main differences between 2080ti and 1080ti seem to relate to gaming and action. Is that correct? Are there other really big gains with the 2080ti? There is a big cost difference here. The 2080ti is about $1200 USD and the 1080ti is about $600. I'm just trying to understand how much better it will be. Also, you mentioned that there would be new technologies coming out that could boost performance - will those primarily affect the 2080ti, and not the 1080ti? Thanks again for your help.
A 2080ti isn't going to fit well into your plan if you are going for a "lower priced computer". And as far as I know they are no longer sell the 1080ti new as it's now superceeded by the 2000 series.
I change rig about every 3 years and buy the best stuff I can afford. The avantage of this is that your MB and CPU, like in my experience, will usually be up to dropping in a new GPU without excessive bottle-necking.
My 3 year old rig was quite able to handle a 2080 without any problems and the increase in render performance was roughly 80% better over my old 960, and that is with its RTX cores sitting idle. Once NVIDIA and DS gets to take advantage of those idle cores the promise is that there will be a further performance boost. So like many people say, get the best you can to avoid redundancy because you basically get what you pay for.
You're welcome! ^^
So you're going for a very high-end system? Are you sure you want to spend 2/3k for a software you've not still used completely?
Maybe a good idea could be to buy a used 1080/1080Ti, and if that won't be enough you could sell it again and take a RTX card!
I think in the future there will be a noticeable difference, but 1200$ for a GPU is a lot nowadays. A 1080 Ti is still a great GPU, and it's centuries away from what you're currently using!
For example, I've used a GTX 1060 3Gb to make 500+ renders...it has 1152 cuda cores and just 3GB of VRAM (2,4 avaiable, because my CPU doesn't have an integrated graphic), while a 1080 Ti has 3854 cuda cores (between the same generation you can compare cuda cores to imagine their render speed), and 11GB of a faster version of VRAM.
So yes, the 2080 Ti will probably become faster than a 1080 Ti by a fair margin, but I don't think it's worth twice the price! ^^
That's really helpful information - no, I'm hoping not to spend an arm and a leg. I'll start with the 1080ti, which probably will do just fine for me. Speed is not that important to me, but renders are. My Mac has crashed four or five times just trying to do a dforce simulation recently.
Actually, I have found a number of dealers selling the 1080ti. But I'll keep researching. Thanks for your help!
One final question - I'm looking online at two computers that cost the same. (I'm actually finding that there is not too much price difference on some sites between the 1000 series and the 2000 series Nvidia GPUs.) Of the two computers, one has an Nvidia 2070, 1TB SSD, 32 gb RAM. The other has a 2080 GPu, about 500 gb SSD and 16gb RAM. So you're sacrificing some storage, but getting a slightly beefier GPU. What's more important to you?
Hi :D
Don't worry, ask everything you want, when I'll have time I'll answer you! ^^
Most prebuilt PCs don't have a good value at all! I would think about building it yourself (it's not as hard as it seems) or ask to a friend who knows how to do it! Or, if you want a prebuilt, a reliable channel called "Linus Tech Tips" has tried out every important company that does it in the US, and here are the results:
Actually those info don't tell much! A 2080 is much better than a 2070, but 500Gb of storage could be not enough (I would also look at the quality of those SSDs), and 16Gb of RAM is good (I have that), but could be not enough sometimes.
What CPUs do they have? How much do they cost? Actually nowadays I think you could find a nice 1Tb SSD for something around 120$, and another 8Gb of RAM (if your motherboard has 4 total slots) for just 70$ (I don't know where you live, the prices may be different), and those are easy updates to perform by yourself!
Keep in mind that Daz sometimes crashes anyway, and that dForce is a relatively new technology! But I think even a GTX 1660Ti would be a great improvement for Daz Studio compared to what you've used until now! ;)
My husband is actually a computer guy! :)
I am trying not to bother him too much. He's got a lot of other stuff going on. I don't know much at all about computers. He had recommended I buy a decent off-the-shelf desktop and then get the GPU and add it. I don't know much about building systems at all, and not sure I want to become an expert at that right now, but I really appreciate the tips. I can keep working at it.
No problem, let me know if you have other questions! ^^
I'm curious about the gpu requirement for 3delight rendering. Is it the same requirements as for iray in terms of best performance, or does a 3delight gpu need less horsepower?
Hi :D
I may be wrong, but I think that 3Delight just uses your CPU!
That's correct, 3Delight is not GPU-accelerated (in DS at least).
Ok, thanks. I'm running Windows 10 with 16 gigs of RAM. If I changed it to 32 gigs would that improve rendering speed etc, or is it still all dependent on the cpu?
Speed depends on the CPU, as long as the scene isn't complext enought o force the process to page to disc. If it is paging then (enough) more memory would help.
Ok. I'm doing a fairly heavy render now and the hd light isn't flickering so 16 is enough on my machine.
16Gb is a good amount, but the hard disk light doesn't mean anything! :)
Go to the task manager with ctrl+alt+canc while you render, if it reaches something like 14Gb it's possible that with 32Gb it would use more RAM!
Task manager says for Daz Studio 99% cpu, 2.5G memory, 0% disk. So I'm good, I think. Unfortunately, my cpu temperature gets pretty high 54 degrees versus normal 30-35.
Yes then, if that's your average scene 16Gb are more than enough! ^^
54°C are completely fine! Modern hardware shut down when they reach a temperature that's too high themselves anyway.
When I do some overclock, I always test my system with AIDA64 (a stress test) and I see if the system is stable. My GPU once got to over 90°C (massive overclock, I tuned it down)...2 years later is still fine! ^^
Wow, 90! Well, I be keeping cool at 54 then. Thanks for all your helpful comments, Kamenko.
You're welcome Random! :)