looking for new pc options - more power on cpu or gpu?
thell_michael
Posts: 28
sorry in case this was already discussed earlier but i didn t find any current thread....
i m new to DAZ and working with 3D graphics so my current pc is not built for the requirement. so i m planing to build a new machine for rendering in summer.
question is, invest in an amd threadripper with 128gig memory or in an a4000 or a5000 nvidea card? or are multiple cards supported?
originally i was leaning on NVidia but i ve noticed currently most rederings im playing arround with (single gen 8.1 figures) are mostly not using my GPU (nvidea 1650)
i found some forum posts, that in case the model/scene that s rendered doesn t fit in the vram it simply ignores the GPU und falls back 100% on the CPU
as i intend to render bigger scenes with 3D terrain and multiple Gen8.1 models i m now afraid that i might spend 2-3k in GPU but the rendere is only using the CPU and will die a painfull death ;)
i ll get a rtx3050 tomorrow for the learning period in the next months
i ll appretiate any insights or suggestions
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Comments
If you're planning to mostly use the Iray renderer, you want the best Nvidia GPU you can afford (and find).
The question of what is "best" is slightly complex, and I'll let people who know more about it than I do fill you in on the details. However, as you've learned, if the scenes you're rendering don't fit in VRAM, then Iray will drop back to using the CPU and any benefit from the GPU will be lost. So in that case an RTX 3060 with 12GB of VRAM might actually do more for you than a theoretically more powerful RTX 3060 Ti with only 8GB.
Note that you may not be able to invest only in the GPU, as higher-end GPUs also demand more main memory to work effectively. I seem to remember reading that if you have a 3090 with 24GB of memory, you'd need at least 64GB of regular RAM in your machine to make use of it. Again, others can probably tell you the exact numbers, but depending on what card you choose, you may need to bulk up the main memory in your box as well.
To slightly elaborate on Bytescapes's comments, a hugely powerful main processor is a waste of money if you're rendering in Iray. I used to render quite happily on a 4 core Intel i7. I'm now on an 8 core i7 but only because that is the new standard.
Spend your money on the graphics card, not the main processor. And it must be an Nvidia GPU, not AMD. Iray is written by Nvidia and it is closely tied into their Cuda Cores and RTX ray tracing architectures.
Broadly speaking, the more memory the GPU has the bigger and more complex the scene you can render. The more Cuda cores the card has, the faster it will render.
Cheers,
Alex.
Minimum 12GB's of VRAM on Nvidia RTX GPU and 64GB's of RAM (or more)
thx so far
just got my 3050 for now and with 8gig it s way better
enough for learning and till i build the new pc
for the main system i anyway plan
64-128gig ram
and 2-3 tb m2 ssd
so as i understand i m basicly "forced" to go for the 3090 with 24gb vram (please make the price go down a bit the months)
but on bonus question, if anyone has experience with it
is there any point in using 2 graphic cards?
i assume the ll work parallel but each one has to have enough ram for the scene?
thx again
If the two cards are not connected with NVLINK, the scene must fit the VRAM of both individual cards, but if it does you do get faster renders.
On the RTX 30 series NVLINK can only be used with the 3090, on the previous generation cards the NVLINK connectors were on 2080 and 2070 Super. If one has two identical cards connected with NVLINK, the VRAM on the cards is combined for the textures but not for geometry.
The 12GB 3060 is a good and cheaper choice as is the 16GB A4000
With the RTX 3060 12GB being expensive and/or hard to find, I would get a pre-built system. I would recommend one of these two systems. Their prices just went up by about $200, but they could come down again:
https://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gaming-RDY-SLHRG214 (got this one for my granson in early Feb) or
https://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/cty/pdp/spd/alienware-aurora-r10-desktop?~ck=mn
no rtx 3050 is good enough for your use. i use an 3060 ti with 40 gb vram and everything work good so spending money just for vram is useless because you can convert ram to vram
Not with stand-alone, desktop GPUs. It may, at least to an extent,m be possible with a laptop and integrated GPU but even there it is, as far as I know, limited.