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Request for help choosing the right and best system to run DAZ.

hilbertvanderstaalhilbertvanderstaal Posts: 22
in Daz Studio Discussion

Hello people,

I'm a very happy DAZ user for many years now. But since yesterday I've been finding myself lost in some sort of maze.

I started DAZ back in the days when Apple iMacs still supported Nvidia cards. Two months ago, when I purchased my new iMac 2020, I had no clue that Iray wouldn't support AMD cards which is the default for iMacs nowadays. And obviously it's also the other way around with Apple not supporting Nvidia. I bought my iMac especially for rendering purposes and 3D-work. I feel stupid now that I've found out my brand new computer is pretty much useless.

Anyway, long story short, I'm thinking about buying a PC, which is a big step since I've been a Mac user for years! And I have no idea where to start. Like absolutely no idea. 

I dont know anything about technical terms, I don't know what's required, what I should buy and with how much RAM, GPU, CPU, memory, cores, etc. You get the point. I'm a complete noob when it comes to this.

 

If anyone could help me out with this, it would be much appreciated. 

 

(Budget is not important yet, I'll decide on that later.)

 

Kind regards,

Hilbert 

Comments

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024

    "Right and the best"... Depends on who you ask.

    If I were to build one for my self from the ground up, it would be based on Intel HEDT platform (Asus made motherboard/X299 chipset/LGA2066 socket) with i9-109xxX processor and 64GB RAM.

    I would imagine the Nvidia RTX 30xx series cards become available still before christmas

    2-3 1TB SSD:s inside the case and at least one 5TB+ external USB drive

    3 monitors with 1200/1440 vertical resolution

    The result should turn out to be a powerful workhorse, which may not beat everyone under the sun in benchmarks, but which you can throw with everything and the kitchen sink and it just keeps on going without compatibility problems...

  • AscaniaAscania Posts: 1,855

    The best system is always one that costs more than you can afford. How much are you willing to spend?

  • hilbertvanderstaalhilbertvanderstaal Posts: 22

    Thanks for your answers already. This really is beyond hard to understand for me.. I literally don't know what those specs mean. 
    anyway. I'm running my content library on a 2TB ssd already. 
    I'm willing to spend about the same I spent on my iMac, which was roughly €4000, which translates to about $4700. 
     

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,273

    How big/complex are your scenes? That affects how much memory you want on the GPU, and if you have very complex scenes they may still occasionally drop to CPU in which case you need to think about a better CPU.

    Do you use 3Delight, or do other things which make heavy use of the CPU? if not, and if your scenes should rarely drop to CPU, then you can get away with a slower, cheaper CPU. With a Windows machine you can consider AMD CPUs as well as Intel - currently AMD are doing better than Intel for many purposes.

    Scene complexity, and the GPU (or GPUs) you choose to get will hav a bearing on how much memory you need.

    What other features do you need - wireless networking (it tends not to be a default on Windows boxes)? Good sound? Do you play games? How many USB devices do you tend to have attached?

    One obvious question is are you prepared to build it yourself, or would you prefer to have it built for you? Building a PC is not usually complex and may save a bit of money.

  • TomDowdTomDowd Posts: 198

    Another option for you could be an external GPU for your iMac. An eGPU running an RTX 2080 is about $2,200 at Newegg. I don't have any experience running them, but I'm sure others here do and can chime in. An eGPU would allow you to maintain your iMac investment and access an NVidia card for Daz and other purposes (NVidia CUDA core acceleration is supported now on many Adobe products, for example.)

    TD

  • hilbertvanderstaalhilbertvanderstaal Posts: 22

    I've looked into eGPU. Apparently that won't even work because Nvidia cards get "blocked" by Apple. 

  • hilbertvanderstaalhilbertvanderstaal Posts: 22

    My scenes are pretty complex i think???? sometimes I wonder if I'm pushing it too much to its limits. Mostly multiple characters, architecture and props. But sometimes also small little portraits as well. Depends on my creativity. 
    i use Iray. 3delight isn't working for me. 
    thanks for bringing up these points, often overlooked i bet. 
    And no, there's no way I'm gonna build it myself, I would ruin it big time. 
     

    thanks!

  • hilbertvanderstaalhilbertvanderstaal Posts: 22

    Exactly how do you know how complex you scene is and what GPU you need, not to drop to CPU again?

     

    A company I'm in touch with is recommending me an RTX 2070 Super 8GB. Will that be enough?

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024
    edited October 2020
    hilbertvanderstaal_1918b8a3d1 said:

    Thanks for your answers already. This really is beyond hard to understand for me.. I literally don't know what those specs mean. 
    anyway. I'm running my content library on a 2TB ssd already. 
    I'm willing to spend about the same I spent on my iMac, which was roughly €4000, which translates to about $4700. 
     

    My grocery list with prices from a major finnish online retailer (VAT 24% included), total price with one monitor = 3898eur +70eur if they put it together and install the OS

    Motherboard = Asus WS X299 SAGE Intel LGA2066 CEB - 560eur
    Memory = Kingston HyperX PREDATOR DDR4 2666 MHz CL13 64 Gt - 302eur
    Processor = Intel Core i9-10900X 3,7 GHz LGA2066 - 674eur
    Fan = Processor fan - 90eur
    Display adapter = Asus TUF-RTX3080-O10G-GAMING - 849eur

    Storage1 = Kingston KC2500 1 TB M.2 PCIe SSD - 212eur (for the OS)
    Storage2 = Kingston A400 1,92 TB SATA3 2,5" -SSD - 205eur
    Storage3 = Seagate Backup Plus Portable -USB 5 TB - 150eur

    Case (wo PSU) - 90eur
    Corsair HX1000i, 80 PLUS Platinum -ATX-PSU - 256eur
    Keyboard+mouse - 50eur
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit OEM - 160eur
    Together = 3598eur

    Monitors = Asus PB278QV 27" WQHD - 300eur/pc

    Post edited by PerttiA on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,273

    You might want to hnag on a bit - supposedly nVidia is going to release a 20GB version of the 3080, which might be expected to split the price difference between thee xisting 3080 and the 3090. I'm not convinced, by the entity or the timing, but if you had 20GB of memory on the GPU that should be ample room for many scenes.

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024
    hilbertvanderstaal_1918b8a3d1 said:

    Exactly how do you know how complex you scene is and what GPU you need, not to drop to CPU again?

     

    A company I'm in touch with is recommending me an RTX 2070 Super 8GB. Will that be enough?

    1. There is no easy answer... Depends on the number of characters, their clothing, hairs used on them, the architecture, props, lighting and the size and number of textures/maps used for the materials. I have pretty capable machine and I start digging in to how much resources the characters and objects in the scene are using if the computer starts lagging or acting weird, one useful tool is GPU-Z that can show the amount of RAM and VRAM the scene is using.

    2. RTX 2070 super 8GB is enough at the moment (I have one) for scenes with 1-4 characters, architecture and "normal" lighting when the objects have been made "sensibly", takes 15-45 minutes to render in IRAY as opposed to 8-12 hours with my old GTX 960

    I agree with Richard, this is not a good time to buy - If the rumored 12/16/20GB RTX30xx models will be announced/released, the situation looks quite different, 16-20GB VRAM would be good for at least 4-5 years, 8-10GB:s not that long.

  • hilbertvanderstaalhilbertvanderstaal Posts: 22

    Thanks a lot for your replies again. I'll further look into it tomorrow. I learned a lot already about different components and what I should pay attention to. Sadly, i think not everything is available in my country without having to assemble it myself. 
    I was wondering what the difference would be for intel and amd ryzen. Hoping you would be able to explain. 
     

    Also on the rtx 30xx models, after being insanely enthusiastic looking up stuff on google, I found a rumor literally one hour ago that these models are canceled. 

    Super sad. 
    So what would be my next best buy with models available?

  • PerttiAPerttiA Posts: 10,024
    hilbertvanderstaal_1918b8a3d1 said:

    Thanks a lot for your replies again. I'll further look into it tomorrow. I learned a lot already about different components and what I should pay attention to. Sadly, i think not everything is available in my country without having to assemble it myself. 
    I was wondering what the difference would be for intel and amd ryzen. Hoping you would be able to explain. 
     

    Also on the rtx 30xx models, after being insanely enthusiastic looking up stuff on google, I found a rumor literally one hour ago that these models are canceled. 

    Super sad. 
    So what would be my next best buy with models available?

    Sorry, can't really help you with that one, I'm into reliable, compatible, problem free work horses. Over the years I have seen alternatives that have been hyped by gamers come and go with people listening, asking in vain for help with their systems when trying to do something that does push the limits of the technology - My logic has been "What systems have for sure been used in testing this?", so far the Intel HEDT (High End DeskTop) platform hasn't failed me.

    One thing you should try to avoid, is display adapters that are integrated into the motherboard - You will not be using them anyways and they can introduce a number of problems.

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