GTX 970 series - which would be best for Iray?
Dark-Elf
Posts: 956
OK, so I've been having issues because it appears that, for some reason, Iray renders are causing my CPU to shut down at the end of a render. Therefore, I have come to the decision that perhaps an nVidia card would be worth investing in, as I can then use the GPU rendering instead of CPU.
So, the question is, which of these would be the better option for Iray rendering please:
- MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
- Gigabyte GTX 970 OC WINDFORCE 3X 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI 3 DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
- Asus GTX 970 Strix DirectCU II OC 4GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Or are they all much of a muchness for rendering with Iray? And would they work better for Iray rendering than using my CPU because I have an AMD Radeon R9 graphics card at the moment.
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Comments
they are all going to be the same really. Only difference is the brand reliablity and maybe better cooling..maybe.
would a 980 series be better?
whatever has the most cuda! Frankly I find sometimes older cards are better simply because of the cuda count. So newer isn't always better. And TI series tend to have more cuda than non-ti versions. Just depends on your budget and where you like to shop.
But I would expect all the cards you listed to be identical basically. A970 has about 1600 cuda, 980 has about 2000 cuda, a 980ti about 2800 cuda
CUDA?
Sorry, CUDA is the tech Iray uses to render on GPU. The different cards have different amout of CUDA cores to speed up these tasks. The more CUDA, the faster Iray.
More CUDA is good to compare on the same generation, but less useful between differnet generatoins. Other factors come into play.
CUDA cores can be likened to threads (or cores) on a normal CPU; not the same, but similar enough for our purposes here.
Because Iray is so memory sensitive I think the differences in memory are a bigger concern over the generations than the cuda performance variance. Older cards tend to have less memory, not many with 4GB.
cool, so a GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB with 2816 cuda cores might hopefully help me to resolve my Iray issue by being able to use the GPU to render my promos?
Probably, but it depends on the size of the promos you produce, and the complexity of the scene.
I posted in another thread the difference in memory requirements by just changing the resolution of the output image, although it was a big increase.
You understand that the GTX970 is about $340 USD and the GTX980TI is about $650 USD, right? The GTX980TI is a much better card: many more cuda cores and more memory, but about twice the price and twice the power requirement. How big is your power supply?
BTW, there are several threads discussing graphic cards.
I render promos at 1000 x 1300 and they are usually a single figure (or 2 in a bikini if I'm showing a front and back view) with hair and some clothing, usually skimpy (ish) to show off plenty of skin as it's characters I'm advertising. I'm so very hoping this fixes my issue because at the moment, I can't render Iray renders without my pcswitching off (as if the power has gone out) when it gets to the end of the render :(
I have a 750w power supply. And yes, I understand the price difference, it's about double the price of the 970 but I am hoping it will be worth it
Better is relative. Money no object; titans or better. On a tighter budget, the 970 is likely the best value. the TI is a good compromise between the two.
well, i have a Ti on the way, thanks to hubby looking through the forums while I went to the loo lol
This sounds like a CPU cooling issue. If so, getting a GTX for render will help, but won't have fixed the real issue.
I know but it's never the same twice. Sometimes I can render up to 2 hours using Iray and it'll work, other times it'll die at the end of a render. And I game a lot so should it not affect that if it's a cooling issue? All fans are working fine, room temp is never the same day to day and the days it has shut down the room hasn't been warm and my cpu monitoring software is not warning of any overheat :(
If it happens with any type of regularity, something is up. Even if it is not consistant and you haven't found a pattern yet.
I'm going to add my two pennyworth.
First off, you're looking at the
as being the problem.
Troubleshooting involves determining symptoms and problem(s); it looks like the CPU shutting down is a symptom of something else; it is causing you a problem, as opposed to being the problem. Changing how you think of it can help focus.
A new graphics card may mask the issues more, or may indeed make them worse. I'd recommend finding the problem just incase; it is not likely to do any problem to your new card, but I can't be certain of that assurance as I don't know what the problem is.
Rendering is one of those processes that stresses computer, which might be why the 'fault' is occuring when using IRAY.
Do you currently use a CPU for rendering?
If you use a gfx card, then try rendering with the CPU.
Posting your system specs might help, but is of limited use due to our distance from the hardware.
I'd be tempted to run a stress test on your memory with Memtest86. Running it overnight - making it at the very least an 8 hour test - is a good way of testing that. It isn't unusual if you test memory for long enough it finds the occasional fault though.
Running stress test software on the CPU can also highlight issues; OCCT is one such piece of software; there are others.
Just bare in mind, if there is a problem, stress testing can actually cuase more damage; it isn't impossible for it to cause damage anyway, just much less likely.
Basically, I'd be interested in testing the CPU, Memory, PSU and current Graphics Card; those are the more likely candidates. PSUs are harder to test and are somewhat more specialist, not to mention there can be a real danger to anyone not experienced in troubleshooting them, and who starts tinkering. So please don't.
Well, great news
Hubby bought me a 980 Ti and we've popped it in. All I can say is OMFG!! No more shutting down at the end of renders 
I can now render at MUCH higher quality and it's done in less than an hour! Well, 3 1/2 hours for the shot showing back and front of the skin for my new cahracter 
It's blinking BRILLIANT!!! Thank you guys for suggesting stepping up a level and getting the one with more CUDA cores 
Congrats. Great card.
Yeh, I love mine; happy rendering. :)
The 980Ti is a great card. Did you get the one with 6GB? My wife has it and she render in half the time of me. I have the 960 w/4GB and render decent. Not as fast as I'd like but good enough for now.
Yep, got the 6GB one and it's brilliant!!
Great choice! Fiddle with your settings a bit and you will get to the point where you can render in minutes!
well, I managed this in 34 minutes using 10,000 iterations, rendering quality 3 and 100% convered ratio :)
Nice!
Looks good. I usually aim for a convergence of 81%; if there are areas to clear up, I find increasing the quality normally - though not always - clears it up without increasing the convergence. Shadows can be a serious pain.
I agree with Dark-Elf the older cards are sometimes better, I have two GTX 970's (non-SLI) just for renders. I just put the settings on 15K max samples, render quality on 2, and max time on 10K. They perform well, I like the ASUS brand it may just be taste but all ASUS gear has treated me well. But as Dark-Elf said its all about the CUDA cores, so two GTX 690's (around 275.00 to 300.00 on ebay) have 3000 cores each. I have two of these in my other rig (non-SLI), and they outperform the GTX 970's. Remember its CUDA cores not product line so the older Tesla GPU's only have like 480 CUDA cores, unless you want to spend 5K for the latest and greatest! I have been thinking about the Titan line for a while just because of the memory foorprint (12Gb). Oh one last thing if you use like lux rendering or 3delight the first one runs real good with AMD cards (like two 7990's which i think were the best) and 3delight is a CPU only renderer so you need more cpu cores and maybe another CPU, my oldest rig has two AMD opterons (16 cores each) and 128GB of DDR3 ECC, but they dont out-perform the i7 LGA 2011 chips which in my opinion are the best unless you go Xeon multicore and spend a fortune! A well rendered 3delight frame is stunning, I think Lux is kinda a hit and miss. Also, I think iray has the benefit of GPU rendering and that makes it attractive (Lux does too). I think if 3delight could GPU render and not cost alot, I would go back to it and use it as a primary. I own a multicore/multiplatform license for the older version of 3delight. My two cents and just my thoughts, I use computers at work and for hobbies.
You're not really comparing like with like there; it is useful when comparing cards of the same generation, but much less so with different generations. The 690s (btw no apostrophie as the s is indicating plurality not posessiveness
) were top of the range back then, a 970 has three cards above it, so is more of a mid-range or mid to high card. The architecture improvements will take up some of the slack, but obviously not enough. Compare two 690s with two Titans.
Great points (BTW its spelled APOSTROPHE :) ) but hey im an engineer. The Titans have been on my radar for a while.