Limiting to 1366x766 or 1280x720 (Iray) and using the scene optimizer -> Mid-range card enough?

RAMmer

Hi all, I've started using DAZ for creating a couple of scenes and that is one of the reasons why I now think it's time for a new PC (desktop or notebook). However, since I have limited resources, I somehow always end up with a trade-off between video card RAM, system RAM, and hard disk size. I can't really get what I want for all three of them with my budget. There are two things which I can state with certainty:

- I will always use Iray (so preferably an nvidia card; I don't know how long scenes would take with a Zen2/3 or i7 eight-core when using CPU rendering)

- My scenes will have a resolution of 1366x766 or 1280x720. No full hd for the time being.

I know that notebooks are inherently evil for the usage with DAZ, but I'd prefer getting one, if possible. If I'd get a notebook, I could afford an RTX3060 with 6GB or an RTX3070 with 8GB, but in the latter case, I would have to live with a smaller SSD or another restriction due to my budget.

I've learned today of the existence of the scene optimizer. That brings me to my question: If I limit myself to 1366x766 max, have a 6GB graphics card, and use the scene optimizer, will I be generally speaking on the safe side that the rendering does not fall back to CPU? I mean with using maybe 3 or 4 characters max within a medium-complex scene? Or should I go straight for an 8 GB or more graphics card and a desktop pc?

EDIT: System RAM would be 32 GB. Currently, I have 8 (yes, it's awful with DAZ) and I've decided to "skip" 16 GB.

PerttiA

Iray rendering... There can't be too much RAM or VRAM (on Nvidia RTX GPU), I would consider 8GB's of VRAM the minimum - The amount of VRAM available for IRAY rendering will be almost double to what you get with a 6GB card.

Size of the SSD is not important, 500GB's is enough for your OS and programs, get an external USB drive for the content, something like 4TB's can be bought relatively cheap.

As far as the processor goes, considering that it should be on a budget, anything comparable to I5 or better.

Dropping back to CPU is all about the content you load into the scene and lately the heaviness has been going up (fast), often without giving any benefits and you cannot tell the heaviness of a scene by number of people and/or structures/props in it, it may take just one insignificant item to bring down even the higher end systems.
Sometimes even the Optimizer can't help as the problem lies in the way a product has been mapped.

margrave

A render's image resolution has no impact on your system requirements, since the textures and geometry will remain the same regardless of what size it is. It will only affect the time it takes to render.

You can choose how much you want to shrink your textures with Scene Optimizer. All the way down to 16x. That'll definitely fit four characters inside your card. It'll look absolutely terrible, but they'll fit. You'll need to play it by ear how much you want to reduce it by, but luckily SO makes it easy to restore your textures.

As to your hardware, I would strongly recommend a desktop with the best video card you can get. As PerttiA said, you can store your Daz files on a 4TB external hard drive (that's what I do) and it works fine, so hard drive space should be the least of your concerns.

RAMmer

Thanks, yes to be better safe than sorry I think I will go now for 8GB VRAM. It will be likely a Comet Lake instead of Tiger Lake CPU then but I guess I'll survive. Content would probably end up on an external drive as you suggested (I've seen that I can set the location in the content manager).