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Sorry to bump an old thread but I came here from google and it's had some interesting info.
Some questions about the extra vram used by optiX. Is this extra vram also used on RTX cards or justs for emulating hardware on GTX cards?
I also don't quite understand if the optiX is used for just viewing or if it's required for the render. I guess what I was thinking is, would it be possible to mitigate some vram usage by viewing things on an older cheaper and dedicating a more expensive one to the render.
I have a GTX 1060 6GB now and I am concerned it's going to be rough going for just starting out. I'll probably give it a go anyway, but I like thinking ahead on things.
I am going to answer your question after a short rant as well as clear things up for the general public. ;)
Okay, so I just spent the last 2 weeks doing research for myself as I am trying to move up from a 1080ti to a 3000 series. The 4000 series are coming out BUT you might as well plan on building a whole new computer before you go that route with the power demands and the size of the cards, the PCIe stuff, the new DDR5 RAM costs, etc. Everything I am reading on the Nvidia RTX 4000 series also pretty much says the converter cables are junk and a serious fire risk and some of the cards (depending on the brand and model) want 1,200 to 1,500 watt PSU. Plus, the new PSU models (ATX 3? I think) are what the cards are actually designed for and the converters for older PSUs are just not a good idea. The new PSU models are designed to "talk" to the graphics cards in addition to supplying the power.
I just read this whole entire thread in one go. I saw a lot of back and forth. I saw a lot of people not picking up what was being put down. A TON of talking in circles.
My goal is to ditch the 1080ti for a 3060. Originally the plan was to do a 3090 but I have case limitations on a Dell Aurora R8. I have pushed it to the max with my own upgrades and a 3090 would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I have been upgrading and building new PCs for people for a long time. I am by NO MEANS an expert but I am also not an idiot.
Takeaways from this thread and in general:
1. Decide if you are making upgrades for gaming or for rendering. If gaming is your primary choice, then the card you choose is going to be based on that and nothing I say will matter. Stop here. If you are choosing rendering as your primary card decision then read on.
2. Using one card for viewing and one card for rendering is not going to make a difference on available VRAM. Daz will only use the VRAM from the card with the most VRAM (theoretically the newer card but not always). They do not share it and Daz will not switch back and forth between it. The cards (if both NVIDIA) can work together in rendering the image but the card with Max VRAM will be the one that handles that part. SLI (linking the cards) is not necessary and I have read that it can cause problems in Daz. Put both cards in if you like, but do not link them with SLI.
3.The VRAM, when rendering, is going to be the exact same amount used in the preview. Realistically, you want to make sure your rendering GPU will not kick back to CPU rendering before you render. The preview panel is great for assessing this (For this reason I would not recommend using a different card to preview than what you use to render with). With my 1080ti, if I am in the preview pane and I notice my CPU is now going 100%, I know I need to trim back the size of my scene before even attempting to render. Simple as that. I highly recommend using GPU-Z to track your usage though. (Free program, frequently updated by the developers and totally safe to download from them directly. Do not get it from a third party site).
4. GTX cards definitely suffer from OptiX. So my 1080ti has 11 GB VRAM. An empty scene loaded into Iray using Daz Studio 4.21 (4.20 and previous builds were the same after 4.15) is using up 2.5 GB of my VRAM before anything is even added to the scene. There is no way around this on GTX cards. I would imagine your 6 GB of VRAM is going to be more like 3.5 GB of useable VRAM once iray is done with it. This seriously limits your scene. I have hair models that eat up 2 GB easily (I have watched it happen in real time via GPU-Z when loading them into Daz). An expensive (in VRAM) or high polygon model can just render an older card like that useless in an instant.
5. According to the people in this thread, RTX cards do not force OptiX on the user which would free up some serious VRAM. So, even though the benchmark of a 1080ti, for gaming purposes, is going to beat the 3060 if your primary goal is to render in Daz Studio, a 3060 will give you a serious boost in performance and a major jump in VRAM (12GB). I do not view moving from a 1080ti with 11GB to a 3060 with 12GB as gaining only 1 GB VRAM but realistically closer to 3 GB VRAM. I feel like before OptiX was forced I was only using 500 MB in Iray before anything was loaded but don't quote me on that. It was definitely a minimal amount at any rate.
With the 4000 series nearing launch the 3000 series will become a viable option for a beginner. I do recommend a 3060 for someone who wants to render moderate to high quality images with iray. You won't be rendering massive scenes with 20 character models but if I can render 4 Genesis 8 models inside a house with furniture and all the dressings on a 1080ti, I would imagine you can easily do the same with a 3060. The upgraded architecture alone will give you a boost. But moving up from a 1060 to a 3060 you also have to make sure your mobo and psu can handle it. I personally am going to be happy with the energy saving of the 3060 from my 1080ti which runs full blast for 12+ hours daily just rendering 4-6 frames.
I know this is 8 months after your original post but I am sure someone will come across this eventually and hopefully it helps them. So many aspects of Daz Studio are cryptic to the point where people argue because honestly, a ton of it is speculation.