Some help for a hardware amateur?
yinliang9
Posts: 40
Thanks to the lovely people on this here forum, I've pretty much decided what my GPU upgrade will be. In preparation for that, I'd like to ask a few questions in hopes I can go into this armed with all the knowledge I'll need to make a smooth transition.
1. Is there anything I need to know about upgrade requisites? Anything I need to check with my motherboard, for example, to make sure it can take the new card?
2. Is there anything I need to know about setting up a card to run with Daz? For example, let's say I left my old video card in. Does Daz know which card to ping for VRAM when rendering, or do I have to install the cards a certain way?
3. Is there any point to leaving an outdated card with 240 CUDA cores in at all?
If there's anything else you think I should know, I'd greatly appreciate the heads up. As a man scraping by to afford this hobby I love, I need to make totally sure this upgrade process is going to be money well spent, and that means knowing the blasted card will work the way I need it to. :)
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Hello!
1. Make sure that the motherboard supports the type of interface your new card has (PCI Express 3.0 for example). Also make sure that the card will physically fit into your box. Many new cards are quite wide and long and some smaller cases will not be able to accommodate them. And lastly make sure that your power supply can handle the new card and has sufficient connectors. Many cards need two power connectors of the 6 or 8 pin type and you cannot use a splitter in most cases.
2. As long as you install the correct drivers for the new card (either from the CD that comes with it or from online) everything should be fine. You can select which card is used in the IRAY settings.
3. If you have the space and power, I would keep the old card to run your display(s). That way the new card will be fully available for rendering. If you use the new card to also drive the display, you will loose 300-500 Mb of memory to this task. I am using 3 cards in my box, 1 GTX 780ti and 1 GTX 980 for rendering and an older GTX 480 for the displays.
Ciao
TD
If you like how your current card displays things, and your motherboard will handle two cards, and your power supply will handle both the old card and the new card there is a very good reason to leave the old card in your computer.
Place your old card in the slot closest to the CPU (In most cases this is the default place for the monitors to be connected to.)
Place your new card into another slot, the fastest slot you have remaining. (check your Motherboard manual to make sure you put it in the right one.)
This will mean your old card is running your monitors, OpenGL and things like your browser.
This will leave virtually the entire video ram on the new card available for Iray rendering.
Okay, thanks for the details on that particular. :D My computer is (well, was) a gaming rig put together by Digital Storm, so the manual might be hard to find, but I'll dig through the binder they gave me. Failing that, I did read that placing cards side by side (such as for SLI) could increase the heat of both cards. If I can't find the fastest slot, do you think it might be prudent to instead put the new card as far as possible from the old?
In regards to point 1, I'm not too worried about the size because my chassis is pretty massive, but the power supply has concerned me a bit. However, the card I'm looking at takes less power than my current card, so worst case scenario I'll just have to do a complete swap. Is there a way to test it? If I try using both and there's not enough power for them, it won't fry my computer, will it?
As for 3, I see! Then I'll definitely do my best to keep my old card for my monitor. Though in theory if I were to want to use the new card say for gaming... Do you know if it matters which card is running the monitor? (Not that it matters; I'm gonna prioritize Iray rendering, so either way, I'll probably leave the monitor on the old card.)
You can look up the power requirements on the NVIDIA site. Just look up your card type and on the specifications page under "Thermal and Power Specs" you can find the power use of the card and the required minimum power for the PSU to run it. For example my card use 250W, 165W and 160W. You always need a good amount of head room on top of the minimum power. I am using a 1050 W PSU. If your power is insufficient, you typically won't damage things if you do not let it go on that way. If you are very much short of power, you will usually get a low power or over load alarm upon start ( often a high pitched beep). If it is borderline, it will start and run but you will likely get random crashes (blue screen).
For 3: The better the card that drives the display, the smoother the display. For graphics work you can likely use the current card for the display without much problem. For gaming you might want to switch to the new card. I am doing that by using the new card via its HDMI output and the older one via its digital video ports. That way I can switch between the monitor inputs and use whichever card is bets for the current application. In the nvidia settings you can disable and enable the video output of each card and that way you can dedicate the newer card to rendering when needed.
Ciao
TD
Greetings,
This is my setup, and it rawks. I don't worry about my display conflicting with my rendering.My biggest warning (because it's what bit the heck out of me) is to make sure you have a power supply that can handle it. Usually there's a max amount on a +12V rail, which I was shocked to find was particularly hard to find. I ended up having to go to the 'gaming' section of the store I was visiting, and they had a special power supply for my needs.
...and a special price. :-/
-- Morgan
My biggest warning (because it's what bit the heck out of me) is to make sure you have a power supply that can handle it. Usually there's a max amount on a +12V rail, which I was shocked to find was particularly hard to find. I ended up having to go to the 'gaming' section of the store I was visiting, and they had a special power supply for my needs.
...and a special price. :-/
-- Morgan
I second the warning; I bought a Dell T7400 in 2008 just before retiring to have an expandable server-grade box. I killed it late last year, upgrading the video card. For reasons known only to Dell, the +12v supply had 5 rails at 18 amps each - and these video cards are looking for 22 to 24 amps.
I second the warning; I bought a Dell T7400 in 2008 just before retiring to have an expandable server-grade box. I killed it late last year, upgrading the video card. For reasons known only to Dell, the +12v supply had 5 rails at 18 amps each - and these video cards are looking for 22 to 24 amps.
Hmmm... Scary stuff... Thanks for the warnings. I know my power supply is 700 watts, but in terms of voltage etc I wouldn't have the slightest clue. The good news is that this was originally built as a gaming computer, and was stress tested to hold up under extreme circumstances. The bad news is, it's six years old now, and a lot of the cutting edge technology that was put into it is not-so-cutting-edge anymore... I'm gonna have to learn more about my power supply before I commit, I think.
Edit: Ahhhh, crap. Looks like I have the same deal; four +12 rails at 18 amps each. So I'm probably gonna need a new PSU too... Waah, this is not a good time to be a poor man... Regardless, thanks again to you both for the warning. I'd have seriously screwed up had I not known what to look out for on the power supply front.
Yeah, power supplies are a critical part of a work station and often overlooked. I am using a Corsair HX1050 in mine. That provides up to 87.5A on the 12V rail. It has been running great for the past year and a half while driving the PC with water cooler, fours drives, 8 fans and three GPU. If possible, get a modular PSU design, that way you can add and remove power cables as needed and minimize the "spaghetti" in your case.
Ciao
TD
Status update: Card is in and rendering well! Due to size constraints I had to run my monitor off the card as well, but it renders... easily six times faster than my previous setup, without any CPU help at all. For now. I'm paranoid about technology, and it was very hard to install, not to mention the fact that I once had a video card burn out on me so I'm especially touchy about this particular topic.
But for NOW it works like a charm. I'd definitely recommend the GTX 970 to anyone looking to upgrade for Iray for a reasonable price.
My thanks again to everyone who helped me through this process! I'd have been twice the wreck I was had you guys not been there to help. :)