How do we know if a graphic card is Iray capable?
LeatherGryphon
Posts: 11,680
OK, wonderful! DAZ now supports Iray rendering. Yea! Sounds cool. I didn't ask for it but it sounds cool.
But what if one doesn't have intimate knowledge of graphic card models and internal functional details. How does one know if their present card is Iray capable, or when buying a new one that it is Iray capable and to what level?
How about letting us in on the secret of determining, or at least providing for us a list of current NVidia models along with a 5 star rating scheme and price range?
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Tomshardware and the forums over at autodesk are a good resource along with anyone on this forum who uses a card you may be interested in but since this is Nvidia's baby they are the ones who should make a list and yes it would be useful.
I'll point out that you don't need an 'Iray capable' card to do Iray renders. It'll be slower on CPU, sure, but Iray is still WAY faster than a bunch of other unbiased renderers (like Luxrender holy cripes)
I mean, sure, it's still frustrating to have the 'wrong card' and so be unable to get the cool speedup of GPU rendering.
But I'll ALSO point out that if you don't want super ultrarealism, you can skip a number of things that slow down rendering. (SSS, translucency, etc)
With 3delight I had been moving to using meshlights and fog cameras and... let me tell you, I ended up with render times a lot longer than most of my Iray stuff.
There are some Iray renders, particularly when fog/translucency isn't used, where render times can be as short as a few minutes.
There's a very informative thread here dealing specifically with the topic of buyin an nVidea card: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/56583/
You can see if your card is supported if you go to the Render Settings and look for "Advanced" (marked as 2 in the image below). If your card works with Iray, you will find it listed there.
I'd recommend checking "OptiX for the CPU btw., it makes rendering times for Iray a bit better.
(But you don't need a card to do Iray. It works with CPU just like 3Delight. And if your graphic card has less than 4GB RAM (like mine), chances are that the scene you are trying to render wont fit into the graphic card's memory anyway... in which case it switches to CPU by default.)
DAZ has to say this about the cards (and what system you are supposed to use to get best performance out of DS):
https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/67520170-System-Recommendations-for-DAZ-Studio-4-
I think not that many of us can afford such a machine... :roll:
Useful information all, I'm sure. Thank you.
Unfortunately, after perusing those threads I feel like a patient listening to a panel of specialist doctors discuss my ailment in unintelligible jargon, thinking that I have a Congressman's health insurance plan.
Or an Amish farmer asking for a buggy whip in a NASCAR garage .
Has anybody boiled this down to mush yet?
Can anybody point to an off-the shelf system for less than $1500 that will benefit significantly (hardware wise) from Iray?
What I would like to know is when the scene exceeds the card's memory, and most will, does it just sit there like a useless lump or can Iray continue to use the CUDA cores like math co-processors?
I read somewhere informally it will default to CPU, but I don't know how accurate that is. My GPU has CUDA but trying to use it for the most simple of scenes is instant BSOD. Granted its a 6 year old card and I still breath a sigh of relief when I see Nvidia continues to make drivers for it but it's otherwise useless in Iray.
Check it out that are set of the best card performances with Iray .. http://www.migenius.com/products/nvidia-iray/iray-benchmarks-2015
Daz spookey recommended this card somewhere in one of the threads: EVGA NVIDIA GT 740 SC 4GB
This card need 400 Watt or greater power supply with a minimum of 20 Amp on the +12 volt rail , where GTX TitanX or GTX 980 just 250W
there are just 300 cores .. the worse recommendation ever
it may cost just $99.99 but the energy cost .. no thanks and if you render often it will die soon
plus it will render FOREVER
keep in mind the minimum power supply requirement on a Titan GTX is 600W, not 250.
250 WGraphics Card Power (W)
600 WMinimum System Power Requirement (W)
One 8-pin and one 6-pinSupplementary Power Connectors
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan/specifications
I don't mean to butt in but my current video card has 96 cores. My old one only has 16 CUDA cores and 512 MB of DDR3 VRAM. :D Ok, carry on.
so like me you can render posette and dork in about 18 hours at 320x400 - theoretically because I get BSOD's
I know that, I wrote It use 250W not as power supply .. ;) if you use 2 Titans X the minimum is 750W not 1200W
but this no matter, as everyone have own budged on this ..
but I would never recommend anything bellow GTX 590-580 for GPU rendering
keep in mind the minimum power supply requirement on a Titan GTX is 600W, not 250.
250 WGraphics Card Power (W)
600 WMinimum System Power Requirement (W)
One 8-pin and one 6-pinSupplementary Power Connectors
http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan/specifications
Lol I remember the times hahaha
so like me you can render posette and dork in about 18 hours at 320x400 - theoretically because I get BSOD's
It's wonderful to see so many people proving my point.
Cores, price, watts, CUDAs, RAM, amps, 12v+ rails, 8-pin, 6-pin power connectors, arghhhhh.... :-S
I repeat but broaden my question.
Can anyone point to an off-the-shelf or manufacturer customizable computer system for under $1600 US, that will take significant graphic hardware advantage of DAZ's support for Iray rendering, and be adequately powered and reliable?
Or do we all have to become computer hardware engineers and Beta test our own concoctions?
Yeah, I can render Genesis 1 in a bikini with the Octane demo. I can barely fit a simple scene with Genesis 2 in 1 GB of VRAM. I can see why the Daz staff recommends a video card with 4 GB of memory. CPU rendering isn't too bad for simple scenes. I hate to try a scene with glass or water though. Eek.
I would imagine that a complex scene with reflections and refractions will render very slowly on a video card with less than 1,000 CUDA cores. I wish I had access to a fast card to run my own tests. I really should update my video card drives so that I can try Iray on the Nvidia Geforce 630.
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_IV/
or check this
: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/landingpages/intel/i7/?gclid=CjwKEAjw-ZqrBRDt_KjhjcbzhhISJAAlRGvlMYRsp6GscGzRGrtRAEWz6bqMV7dRDVkgggSYycq45hoCkw7w_wcB
good system
Alienware X51 with GeForce 960 costs about $1400. It won't be the fastest thing ever, but it'd render a lot of cool stuff. (I have an Alienware X51 with a GeForce 970, but it's older and my harddrive isn't as good as a new X51, among other things)
You can, of course, do amazingly better if you go and mine all the materials yourself and cast them together like Tony Stark. Or something.
(making fun of all the 'you're an idiot if you don't put it together yourself! all you have to do is spend five months researching all the components and hope you don't mess up because you can't give yourself a warranty')
Thank you for the pointers to real systems. I now have a little bit better idea where I stand.
I'll see if I can get Tony Stark to pop over sometime and get his help. Although I'm a bit shy about doing that. Destruction seems to follow him like a puppy.
Good luck LeatherGryphon. Have fun with Iray. :)
Greetings,
One of my personal favorite custom system designers is Puget Systems; that's a link specifically to their design page for a simple system. You'd want to pick the 'NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB (Asus, EVGA)' video card, and probably bump it up to an i7, which (once you remove the OS from the build) brings it to about $1,740.
Wish I had the money to do it up right... :)
-- Morgan
Sorry Morgan but this is so over priced system when I put everything what I have it is over $2000 and I changed only RAM processor and Video card .. not to mention the rest , and I paid for that $1.400 one year ago
Greetings,
It's entirely possible; what kind of specs did you put in?They are a custom system builder; it'll be more than if you do it by hand, but their components are typically top-notch.
I'm not affiliated with them; I just have three systems that they've built which have lasted me around 5-8 years. At the really high end, it's very likely their price is a lot higher than self-built; I've never bought a high-end system from them. (I've never really bought a high-end system...in any computer. Eh; maybe my 17" MBP counted, when I first got it...)
Did handmade Windows/Linux boxes for years, but I don't have the energy to run on the build-it-myself treadmill anymore, though. :(
-- Morgan
They have good stuff , just the prices are to high for each component
It's entirely possible; what kind of specs did you put in?for example You can get already Titan X for $999 they listen it $1200
the same for memory and other stuff
The set they ask for $2000 you can buy in store for $1000 already but only if you are handy enough to set it by yourself
They are a custom system builder; it'll be more than if you do it by hand, but their components are typically top-notch.
I'm not affiliated with them; I just have three systems that they've built which have lasted me around 5-8 years. At the really high end, it's very likely their price is a lot higher than self-built; I've never bought a high-end system from them. (I've never really bought a high-end system...in any computer. Eh; maybe my 17" MBP counted, when I first got it...)
Did handmade Windows/Linux boxes for years, but I don't have the energy to run on the build-it-myself treadmill anymore, though. :(
-- Morgan
You may also want to look here at designated Iray pages where Iray users have been asking and answering on many topics of interest.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/56788/
I know that you are trying to keep all the Iray-related stuff all together, Chris, but some of those threads are running to 40 pages and counting! Trying to find an answer to one specific question by wading through all that can take forever, without even knowing if the answer is there. If the search engine was a little more refined,, maybe, but its not.
So anyway, perhaps this might help sort some of the confusion out. I have taken the benchmark results that Mec4D linked to and added some additional information that may shed some light on what to look for in terms of a video card. It is not straightforward, however, since I only included three metrics: the amount of installed Vram, the memory bus width and the number of CUDA cores. Other factors, such as GPU clock frequency and memory frequency, can affect performance as well, but the three things I have shown will have a direct bearing on Iray render speeds. Lastly, in the case of the amount of memory, that will affect whether the scene can be rendered by the GPU at all, of course. If the scene is too large, the engine will default to the CPU no matter how fast the card might be.
You will note that it is the combination of factors that tends to determine performance. A card with lots of memory can render larger scenes, but if the memory bus width is narrow, or if there are fewer CUDA cores, it will be slower (albeit perhaps still faster than the CPU).
One final note: the next generation Nvidia architecture, codenamed "Pascal", that is planned for sometime in 2016, is supposed to feature the ability to access system ram in addition to video ram, so that bottleneck should be eliminated. :)
Yup, this is where I buy my PC's these days. They are right down in San Jose from me, less than an hour away from Redwood City, where I live. Good deals and if you keep an eye out they often times offer free shipping along with their sales, can save you $100.00 or more.
A simpler approach...ask a teen gamer to come up with a system for the latest hot game...but say it must have an Nvidia graphics card.
I'm allergic to teen gamers and besides they don't speak anything but Geek. %-P I actually do understand Geek but not at 2x speed. I've discovered much to my dismay that old people listen slowly! :down: I believe that is why we old people invented DVRs. So we could replay things over and over until we get the words we missed. :cheese:
I'm allergic to teen gamers and besides they don't speak anything but Geek. %-P I actually do understand Geek but not at 2x speed. I've discovered much to my dismay that old people listen slowly! :down: I believe that is why we old people invented DVRs. So we could replay things over and over until we get the words we missed. :cheese:
And here I thought it was to skip all the damn commercials telling us how old we are...
I've been speccing out/putting together gaming systems for years (sort of stopped, a couple years ago, when my son started doing it himself)...and right now, I'm not seeing much difference between building a renderbox for Iray enabled DS and one for the latest games. Except for ignoring the gaming claims that high memory video cards are 'cash gimmicks' for Nvidia.
And as to which video cards are Iray capable...any Nvidia card that is a GT/GTX 400 series or newer...with a couple of the later 200 series cards, but they either have too few cores/not enough memory to even think about them. The lowest I would even attempt to use is the one in my main machine...a GT430, at 1 GB...it's only got 96 cores, so while it won't be a screamer it will handle small scenes and do them faster than CPU alone. For any serious work, a 700 series or newer...up to and including the Titans. Basically any Fermi or newer card...