Best comp specs to run daz?
Trisha
Posts: 86
Hello,
I'm just throwing this out there, hoping to get some advice. I've had a bit of a stroke of luck and it's put me in a position to get a new computer (which is great, mine can barely run 4.8) and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what would be a really good computer to get to run daz? I'm not much into gaming, although I have my moments, but I love using daz and making really complex scenes so that's what I'd really like a computer to be spec'd for. I would even like to try some light animation (with a computer that doesn't crash if I even look at it lol). Does anyone have any ideas or recommendations please?
Thanks in advanced for any help! :)
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I would recommend a PC with at least 16GB, preferably 32, and a very good nVidia graphics card if you want to render using iRay.
I got a "gaming computer". You pretty much have to if you want the sort of graphics card that really helps with iray. I got a cyberpower myself. A Z97-I7 I think. I added more ram (to bring it up to 16) and didn't get the lights and so forth but did max the fans as the computer can get hot even with the liquid cooling. I also found a coupon on line and saved more than the on sale price. I've been very pleased with mine so far. So don't let the idea of a computer being for gaming throw you off. They tend to have the sort of specs we are looking for.
Thanks for getting back to me. :)
ONE bit of advice - get your content on PCI based SSD - a 128GB - 256GB should be fine as the big on board drives are expensive.
3 Months ago I built a new computer for my DAZ - as a hobbyist budget I knew it would not be as good as my work computer which has 24 cores and 2 x E5's...
Built it using a new Haswell-E board running an i7-5820K (12 Virtual Cores), Solid State Disks etc and Nvidia GTX920... It nearly hit the spot ...
BIG THEN... (2 months after building it) I discovered I could put a PCIe m2: SSD direct onto the motherboard - into the PCI...
THEN it rocks .... why??? my content library is like 100 GB of half a million files.. and they are all in chips sitting on the Motherboard in effect..
Was going to put my Win 7 Operating System on the on new PCI drive, BUT it is already on a Sata III SSD in a drive rack and ... the bottle neck was loading content not booting up..
This is the board I built on - VERY STABLE - a lot of slots for memory expansion: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/X99S-XPOWER-AC.html#hero-overview
With regard to processor - that is a budget decision... i7-5820K was my budget limit but better ones are released and prices drop accordingly. This gives 12 cores, and I use them all.. The new 8 core -16 Virtual cores i7 series would be better still.
The board is built for over clocking - but I am not a fan of OC, the ability to OC means the hardware is slightly more robust for heat etc.
I LOVE stable computers that last forever and never give blue screens even when you run 3 sessions of DAZ and render and then try to do something in Gimp even though you have a 100 GB note page displaying in Outlook and your Excel is running.... etc.. Yeah I abuse my gear with software not OC lol
Normally I run extra sessions to partition of scene / character / texture / render experiments into sub-scenes
Conclusion - The i7 on Z99 is better than my work computer for 2 - 3 sessions of DAZ at once...(The Xeon with 2xE5 will run MORE sessions and softwares than I could focus on, but each one with less cycles from the processor which is UNDER clocked on a Xeon)
..a lot depends on your budget.
When I set out to Build a 64 bit system several years ago for 3D CG, I could have gone "budget" with a Core2 Quad, DDR2 memory, and a 256 GB GPU. That would have been sufficient for Daz 3.1 but the Core2 quads were nearing the end of the line with the new i7 CPUs in the wings. Did some more research and realise that I would be better off stepping up to the then "newer" tech even though it meant putting out a little more. Being on a tight income was an issue, though not an insurmountable one, considering I was building it myself so I purchase the individual components as I could afford them.
So making a long story short (I hope) I moved up to the i7, DDR3 memory (12 GB) an MB with the X58 chipset that supported tri channel (instead of dual channel) memory configuration, a Fermi GTX 460 (1 GB) GPU along with both a 1TB library and 256 GB Boot/Application drive both 7200RPM). The i7 had a memory pipeline 3x the width of either the Core 2 quads or AMD CPUs of the time (AMD CPUs were also straight core rather than hyperthreading). That along with the tri channel configuration (more efficient memory bandwidth) gave me surprisingly decent rendering performance.
Today, the system is now considered "legacy" hardware however, I don't regret the choice I made. It meant a bit more scrimping and saving but it still does the job well (even with Iray) I designed it with both longevity and upgrading in mind and am actually looking to max out the memory and possibly even install an I7 980 extreme CPU (6 core/12 threads). Yeah it won't be SOTA but again it's been a "trooper" still reliable and does the job admirably even if it isn't as fancy or fast as the newest rigs out there today.
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So as to your situation. If you can afford it I would look at a system based on an X99 Motherboard with the LGA 2011 socket. and 288 pin memory slots for DDR4 memory in quad channel mode (DDR4 is roughly twice as fast as DDR3). For the CPU you can go with a standard quad core i7 however, Newegg has a 3.3 GHz Haswell 6 core for about the same price I paid for my old i7 930.
If you go this route I would recommend 32 GB of memory.
If you are looking to do GPU rendering in Iray, this is where it can get expensive as the best card for the money is a GTX 980TI (about 650$ - 700$) which gives you 6 GB of Video memory and 2816 CUDA cores (the cores/threads are what govern the speed of the render process).
If you are working with Reality and LuxRender (or Luxus) Then an AMD Sapphire Radeon R9 290X would be an excellent choice as it has 8 GB video memory and same number of processor threads as 980TI at about half the cost. LuxRender 1.5 (which will be integrated into Reality 4.1) will have full GPU rendering mode.
For drives this is pretty much up to personal preference. I would go with a 256 GB SSD Boot/Application drive and a 1 - 2 TB 7200 RPM HDD for your library drive (where your content would go - this is the setup I have) as large capacity SSDs (1TB) are still fairly expensive. PCI SSDs also tend to be more expensive than their SATA III counterparts (about twice the cost).
For the power supply, this is one place not to scrimp, better to have the "overhead" and not use it than cut corners and risk literally blowing your system up. Prices are not that high so I would look at least for a 850W unit. If you are looking to run multiple GPUs either now or in the future (particularity Radeons) to get the extra speed from the additional cores/threads, I would then go larger 1000w or more.
For the case, I'd go full tower unless there is some severe space requirement, This not only allows for easier access to the components, but gives them more "breathing room". Also look for one that has multiple fans including on the top of the case as well as filters on the air intakes. The case I have (and old Antec P183A which has a large vent fan by the GPU) has 6 fans built in with provision for several more and looks very clean & elegant (not into those windowed cases with all sorts of lights in them or ones that look like Decepticons in disguise). I also don't use any exotic liquid cooling system (they are fairly expensive and if you don't overclock it really isn't necessary). I do have a fairly hefty aftermarket CPU cooler that does a very good job of keeping the temps down even during heavy or extended render jobs.
Apologies if I got a bit technical. I find self building or having a system custom built is the only way to go to get what you want and need for the specific job at hand. Though a bit more expensive than "off the shelf" or BIY, the benefit of going with a custom house is you can get support plans/warranties and the system is pretested and ready to go when it arrives. If you build it yourself like I do, you are on your own.
Oh, and go with WIn7 Pro if you can.
It is not possible to fit a quad core i7 into an X99 motherboard (LGA 2011-v3 socket).
Matching CPUs are 5820K (6 core), 5930K (6 core) and 5960X (8 core).
Memory speeds are massively hyped. In comparative benchmarks where the testers matched platforms as close as possible, there was little significant difference in normal programs between any spec of DDR4 vs any spec of DDR3.
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...yes, noticed that the Haswell quad core I7s all use the LGA 1150 socket There is an Ivy Bridge quad core which requires the LGA 2011 socket.
LGA 1150 MBs have only x4 240 pin memory slots, support only DDR3 memory in dual channel mode and will support up to 32 GB.
LGA 2011 MBs have x8 288 pin memory slots, support DDR4, in quad channel mode. and will support up to 64 GB.
Newegg has a 3.3 GHz 6 core LGA 2011 Haswell CPU currently priced at 389$, The LGA 2011 3.7 GHz Ivy Bridge (last generation) quad core they have is 322$. 67$ difference for the extra 4 processing threads
Ivy Bridge is the previous generation architecture.
Sandy Bridge (LGA 1155 which has been replaced with LGA 1150) is pretty much "Legacy" hardware now.
Intel also just rolled out the "Devils Canyon" i7 quads (the update for Haswell) however the one I saw is still LGA 1150 as well.
For service life, performance, and upgradability, I would recommend the following:
--An X99 LGA 2011 MB
--The 6 Core Haswell i7 for 389$ (doesn't come with cooler but I always use a heftier aftermarket unit)
--32 GB DDR4 Memory (expandable to 64 GB)
--x1 256 or 480 GB SATA III SSD as the Boot/Application drive
--x1 1 or 2 GB (both are fairly inexpensive) 7200RPM HDD for my content library drive
--A second 7200 RPM 1 or 2 TB HDD as a storage/backup drive
--Power supply: minimum 850w. if multiple GPUs will be installed 1000W or more.
GPU dependent on which render engine one will be using.
For Iray/Octane*: (CUDA)
--An Nvidia GTX 980TI GPU
For LuxRender/Reality (open CL)
--A Sapphire Radeon R9 290X 8GB Vapor-X OC
*Otoy will have open CL support with the release of OctaneRender 3
Multiple GPUs will reduce rendering time, and where Iray is concerned, enhance viewport performance in interactive mode.
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Personally, the next workstation I am designing is a much larger step up
--X10 Server MB Dual LGA 2011-3 Socket with 8 x 288 Pin memory slots in Quad Channel Mode x4 PCI 3.0 16 slots
--x 2 Xeon v3 Haswell 8 core CPUs
--128 GB DDR4 2800 memory (8 x 16 GB)
--x1 512 GB SSD as boot drive.
--x1 2 GB 7200 HDD for Content Library
--x2 2 GB 7200 RPM HDD for storage & backup
--Power supply 1600W
--x 2 Nvidia Titan X 12 GB in non SLI with provision for two more as upgrade.
That was a year ago now. Time flies!
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...yes, but the Sapphire R9 has 8 GB of video memory (which would be handle most of my scenes), the same number of processor threads as the 980TI and is about half the price.
Of course that would be contingent on Lux having a stable GPU rendering mode in ver. 1.5.
If I could afford Octane (and ver 3 were out) I could then have real hybrid rendering that actually would actually work with my dual HD7950s.
Whole bunch of new AMD cards launched + announced just today, meaning "current" just got broader.
Hopefully they'll be competitive with Nvidia and we'll see prices fall and technology brought forward.
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...well their "flagship" GPU, the Fury X only has 4 GB Video Memory whereas the 980TI has 6. for GPU rendering no contest there.
Even the yet to be released Fury X2 will only have 4 GB (of what AMD refers to as HBM or "High Bandwidth") memory available for rendering as it is s dual processor unit (like the Titan-Z). It will also be expensive with a suggested retail of 1,499USD (about on par with the 2 x 6 GB Titan Z)
The bottom line, they may be faster with all the Stream Processors (4096 on the Fury X and 8192 for the FuryX2) but as I mentioned in my analysis, if it can't hold the full scene in memory all those threads will mean nothing.
I was going to mention about floating point precision, however in looking at several reviews it is confusing as some mention GFlops while others mention TFlops.
Now the 390/390X series GPUs will have 8 GB of GDDR5. Original plans called for the 390X to have 8 GB of HBM memory, however AMD has run into a limitation issue (which they are not publicly discussing) with the new stacked memory configuration which only allows for 1 GB per stack and 4 stacks per GPU.(total of 4GB). The next generation "HBM2" will allow for Stacks of 2 GB (originally intended to be 4 GB per stack) yielding 8 GB of memory which will be available in 2016.
The main issue is the form factor as there can be only 4 stacks of of 4 memory chips on what is called an "Interposer" which holds both the GPU chip and memory stacks. The idea behind the concept is less wiring and distance between the GPU and memory along with massively improved bandwidth, however the latter tends to be more important for gaming purposes than it is for 3D graphics work and rendering.
Nvidia apparently has no current plans for HMB development.
So it appears that AMD is still in a game of "catch up" with Nvidia when it comes to a "flagship" GPU and GPU technology. Once they get the issues worked out concerning HBM stacking, then they might gain an edge. The 390/390X is a marked an improvement over the 290X with 8 GB standard and will probably see decent sales considering the price and specs even though they still use GDDR5.
Where Iray is concerned however this is all moot as AMD uses OpenCL.
Hoping for Nvidia (or one of the GPU vendors) will counter the 390/390X with an 8GB GPU of their own but not holding my breath.
Wow, thanks so much for all this info guys! I'm going to print all this out it out to take to the pooter shop! Thanks heaps, I'm so excited! lol .