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Graphics card help

rstewart1117rstewart1117 Posts: 0
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hi,

I am new to Daz 3D (graphics in general) and want to learn how to create some basic scenes based on characters in a series of books I've been writing. They would feature between 1 and 3 characters from the book with some kind of background and would all be static images (.pgn, etc.) with no movement, but obviously, the higher the model/lighting quality, the better. Ideally, I would produce 1 or 2 a month.

Currently, I have an older computer with:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2700K CPU @ 3.50GHz 
16GB of RAM

My graphics card is also now an older AMD card, so even though the performance of Daz Studio itself is good, the renders take 1-2 hours with Iray. Since this is a hobby doing a final render overnight would be fine, but it's a little slow to wait for an hour or two to see the results of some lighting you added or something while I am learning. 

My question is, what would be the difference if I added an NVIDIA card (say around the $400-500 price range)? Would it be night and day or not worth it? And if so, what would you recommend for a budget card? 

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,948

    You could get a 12GB 3060, assuming they are still available - however, 16GB of system RAM is going to be very limiting, even for an 8GB card it would not be ideal (there needs to be enough memory for the scene and for the data generated frorm the scene that is to be sent to the GPU). Almost any RTX cart with at least 8GB, and dieally more, would make a drmatic difference - if you were abole to boost the system RAM to 32 GB.

  • rstewart1117rstewart1117 Posts: 0

    Thank you for the comment. I also just found there were other rendering methods like 3Delight (yes that is how new I am) and this works really well for quick redering when learning something like depth of field.  Would you say it would be worth it to upgrade to 32GB of system RAM before purchasing a new card?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,948

    Probably, yes - though it is possible that your current scenes would fit into 8GB (6GB seems, currently, to be very limiting) given that you can render them on the system. You woul;d also need to check the power supply before trying to make such a big jump in GPU, and indeed check that the case had space.

  • rstewart1117rstewart1117 Posts: 0

    A quick follow up question, it looks like I can get a 3060 Ti for around the same price but it has 8GB instead of 12GB. Would the Ti work better even with 4GB less memory?

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,681
    edited February 2023
    The Ti is faster. But for DS, 8Gb of vram isn't huge - a bit small even - and you'll be more limited in scene size than with the 12Gb version. As a result, it'll be much more likely to drop to the infinitely slower CPU. The 12gb card will continue to work with bigger scenes than the Ti and be a lot less frustrating. With my new machine I went for a 3060 not a 3060ti for that very reason.
    Post edited by richardandtracy on
  • Pickle RendererPickle Renderer Posts: 236

    I concur.  The 12GB is a much better option if you can get that.  Although it's slower than the Ti, the scene you can't render with the GPU due to low memory will take a very long time to render indeed (on the CPU).  At the very least you won't have to run scripts that reduce map sizes and so on, which may also mess up how you manage your assets, so often if at all.  It's just overall more convenient.

  • rstewart1117rstewart1117 Posts: 0

    Thank you. I went with the 3060 and upgraded to 32GB of RAM. Should be here by Friday. Thank you all for your help.

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