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Urgent potential crisis - Titan X and my system.. RESOLVED

HamEinarHamEinar Posts: 110
edited July 2015 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Got my Titan X today, and for once I didn't throw myself into an install frenzy - instead I did some surfing on the subject, at ease knowing that I finally had the beast next to me..

Boy am I glad I did - because from the looks of it, I might be returing the Titan...

Apparently this card REQUIRES a MINIMUM of 24GB RAM to work?! All the reviews of the card I've read, are done on PCs with 16GB RAM, and none even mention this requirement. Guess what, my micromachine has 16GB (2x8 in the 2 slots available) - so am I facing having to invest in 2x16GB RAM in addition to the $$$ I spent on the Titan?

Anyone who is currently sucessfully running a DS/Titan X system, please enlighten me!!

Post edited by HamEinar on

Comments

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,588
    edited July 2015

    It no longer says that on the nVidia website, it was just a typo.

    now it says, "...8GB minimum (16GB or more, recommended)..."

    http://www.geforce.com/geforce-gtx-titan-x/buy-gpu

    Post edited by prixat on
  • HamEinarHamEinar Posts: 110

    Nvidia needs to settle the apparent internal dispute then - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2582656/titan-requires-24gb-ram-minimum.html

    + printed on the box of my card it says minimum 24GB recommended 48 or more..

    ..and to add insult to injury, my motherboard does NOT support 16GB RAMs - 2x8 is max. Wow this is depressing, so close, yet no feckin cigar..

  • HamEinarHamEinar Posts: 110
    edited July 2015

    A little update, after chatting with Nvidia support - I am still confused... The chat started with me explaining my hesitations regarding the mis-match between the information on Nvidias website and the requirements printed on the box of my card:

    Me: I need you to verify that I will not be able to take advantage of the 12GB VRAM in my 16GB system - and wouldn't mind an explanation if that's the case as to why you even mention 8 and 16 on the website and in the user manual? 
     Zia: Please give me some moment let me verify this information for you 
     Me: Sure 
     Zia: Thank you for our patience

    I am sorry the wrong specification for RAM mentioned on the Box, the minimum is 8 Gb and recommended ram is 16 GB, please check here : http://www.geforce.com/geforce-gtx-titan-x/buy-gpu 

    ------ I then gave the representative the tomshardware link above..

     Zia: I suppose that not seems to be the right information because in the same thread you will see they ran in the 16 GB system its working good 
     Me: The problem is, they ran it with games and benchmarking software - which does not even come close to utilizing the full 12GB - when used as a rendering GPU, the whole idea is to utilize VRAM (because if the scene is larger than the available VRAM, rendering reverts to CPU) 
     Me: Another quote from that same thread: 
    i posted this on another thread, but this is what happened when i spoke to Nvidia chat.

    Quote "We are not really sure how the people are managing to get it work on 16 GB PC because the card itself is a 12 GB card. With 16 GB card, they might be able to run the card but in future, they will face performance issues. The minimum requirement is atleast 24 GB" 

    I then asked what kind of issues and got "They might face stuttering, lag , tearing or eventually, the card may stopped working." 
     Zia: GTX series graphic card mainly uses for gaming purpose. I am afraid this would not help for professional application because our Quadro series graphic card are made for professional application. 

    As far you use the card for gaming or multimedia purpose with 16 GB RAM there would be no issues

    ------ This is where I'm starting to think that as long as you don't use more than 4-6GB of VRAM, it "works" - so I ask:

     Me: So just to get it crystal clear, and with no way of misunderstanding anything: as long as you use the card for games, 16GB no problem - but if you want to actually use the 12GB VRAM as an IRAY GPU renderer, you need 24+GB of system memory? 
     Zia: No, according to our website the 16 GB is recommended RAM. it will be remain same for IRAY GPU rendering process will utilize the 12GB Vram 

    ------ :-( - so should I risk not being able to return the card for a full refund based on this?

    Crossing fingers that some of the people currently using a Titan X have less than 24GB RAM in their system and see this thread!

    Post edited by HamEinar on
  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604

    I don't know what you have done with the formatting on that post, but it doesn't show up at all well for anyomne using the Dark scheme for the forum, it is unreadable.

  • StratDragonStratDragon Posts: 3,168

    8GB required, 16 Suggested

    http://www.geforce.com/geforce-gtx-titan-x/buy-gpu

    and yea, if you use the dark scheme the above paragaph is a polar bear in a snow storm negetive. 

  • HamEinarHamEinar Posts: 110

    Hope it's fixed now - copied and pasted from the chat, set the font color to automatic now.. I am not arguing against what's stated at http://www.geforce.com/geforce-gtx-titan-x/buy-gpu - heck, that's what made me order it in the first place.

    What's really worrying me is this:

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2582656/titan-requires-24gb-ram-minimum.html

    and the fact that unpacking and installing can potentially lead to me not being able to return the card - making it the most expensive coaster in history...

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    Personally I'd return it and get a card -- a 980ti maybe? -- that causes less stress. Creating art with D|S and Iray is supposed to be fun! The 980 still has close to 3,000 cores, and the 6GB version is a full $400 or so cheaper than a Titan X.

    You mention your system is limited to 16GB. What is the power supply rated at? Both the Titan and 980 are 250W cards. You ideally want 3X if not 4X overhead in your PS to handle it; i.e.750-1000 watts. You probably also need auxillary forced cooling because most power supplies don't move enough air. 

  • HamEinarHamEinar Posts: 110

    The PSU is 750W - and I agree with you that the 980ti is definitely more bang for the buck power-wise; however, try creating a scene consisting of high res HDRI, scenery, props & 3-4 fully clothed characters (Indeed, the nudes / semi-nudes can't be used for everything :-D) and available vram does become scarce..

    I've tried using GPU-Z to try to measure the "size" of my scenes, but I find it hard to believe that it's 100% accurate; a scene simply consisting of The Little Twins Room puts my current 780 in for 2.4GB...

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,961

    If nVidia has firmly told you the card will work, and you obvisouly have a record of that, you should have grounds to argue if it doesn't and the supplier tries to quibble over a refund.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,588

    That link she gave you was where the original typo was back in March. They've obviously corrected it.

    Forget the thread on tomshardware it's just some random stranger supposedly quoting 'someone' from nVidia.
    Plus it's tomshardware! Which doesn't have the best reputation.
    Did you read the 'technical' drivel in some of those threads?

    ...and while you're at it, forget technical sales just trying to upsell you a Quadro! Only doing her job but still a cheeky monkey laugh

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715
    einar33_891261a091 said:

    The PSU is 750W - and I agree with you that the 980ti is definitely more bang for the buck power-wise; however, try creating a scene consisting of high res HDRI, scenery, props & 3-4 fully clothed characters (Indeed, the nudes / semi-nudes can't be used for everything :-D) and available vram does become scarce..

    I've tried using GPU-Z to try to measure the "size" of my scenes, but I find it hard to believe that it's 100% accurate; a scene simply consisting of The Little Twins Room puts my current 780 in for 2.4GB...

    Resolution can make a huge difference; I can take the card from 2Gig to 3.8Gig, just by upping the resolution.

  • HamEinarHamEinar Posts: 110

    Final update:

    Installed the card, fired up DS, loaded a scene which actually crashed DS when using the 780 - set it to render @ 3000x2200 and started GPU-Z...

    Left it to render for approximately 30 minutes, after which the scene was 25% done - card was working at between 98-100% GPU utilization, and settled on using just a little over 9GB of VRAM.. Temp was stable @ 79C.

    You CAN use a Titan X in a 16GB system - furthermore, I did not experience any instability problems (could do other stuff while DS was rendering) - and seeing that it was using 9 out of 12GB I have decided to keep it :-).

    Won't be able to play around this weekend though, but at least I can now leave knowing that I have a beefy Titan waiting for me when I get home :-)!

     

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715
    einar33_891261a091 said:

    Final update:

    Installed the card, fired up DS, loaded a scene which actually crashed DS when using the 780 - set it to render @ 3000x2200 and started GPU-Z...

    Left it to render for approximately 30 minutes, after which the scene was 25% done - card was working at between 98-100% GPU utilization, and settled on using just a little over 9GB of VRAM.. Temp was stable @ 79C.

    You CAN use a Titan X in a 16GB system - furthermore, I did not experience any instability problems (could do other stuff while DS was rendering) - and seeing that it was using 9 out of 12GB I have decided to keep it :-).

    Won't be able to play around this weekend though, but at least I can now leave knowing that I have a beefy Titan waiting for me when I get home :-)!

     

    /sigh

    I just can't justifiy to myself spending that sort of cash; I am, however, planning on a 980ti. I've pretty much talked myself into it.

    Good to know everything isresolved and you're happy with it though.

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