Loading...
> >

128GB in Studio or other 3D?

SnowSultanSnowSultan Posts: 3,596
edited August 2023 in The Commons

LOL, it seems ridiculous, but I have a chance to upgrade my 64 GB of RAM to 128 for a decent price and was just wondering if that much RAM would be of any use at all for 3D work. Recommendations I've read pretty unanimously say that would be extreme overkill, but I just wonder if it would help with unusual instances like having many 4K textures in a complex Studio scene or when dealing with Zbrush meshes with tens of millions of polygons. Thanks in advance for any input.

Post edited by SnowSultan on

Comments

  • AllenArtAllenArt Posts: 7,169

    I have 256gigs of ram. I don't see much difference in DS from when I had 96 gigs. It does seem to make a difference in Blender and Photoshop (I have an older version of PS, not the online version).

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,948

    It will help if you push the limit (in DS, most likely when preparing data for a complex scene to be sent to a high-memory GPU - the general advice is that to take full advantage of a GPU's memory you need about three tiems as much system RAM, so 128GB would cover roughly up to a 48GB - if you actually had scenes that used all of its memory)

  • SolitarySandpiperSolitarySandpiper Posts: 566

    Richard Haseltine said:

    It will help if you push the limit (in DS, most likely when preparing data for a complex scene to be sent to a high-memory GPU - the general advice is that to take full advantage of a GPU's memory you need about three tiems as much system RAM, so 128GB would cover roughly up to a 48GB - if you actually had scenes that used all of its memory)

    So if i've got 24gb vram i could definatly benefit from increasing my 32gb system ram to 64gb?... (just that its on offer at the moment)

  • DustRiderDustRider Posts: 2,744

    In addition to what has already been said, it also depends on how you tend to work. If you typically tend to have (need) more than one memory intensive application open at the same time so it can be a huge plus to have 128Gb.  If you are working with large complex models in Blender you may need the extra ram to cache "undo" data. You didn't mention photogrammetry (making 3d data from photos), but it is typically very RAM intensive,  so 128Gb is a huge plus for it. 

    Several years ago I did come close to DAZ using 64 Gb with an 8Gb card, but it hasn't happened again, though I have seen it go over 40Gb several time. As Richard noted, a GPU with more memory will require more RAM. Using the often quoted minimum 3x the GPU memory for RAM, a 24Gb GPU should have 72Gb RAM. I would guess a 16gb GPU cold easily use up 64Gb on a really complex scene. I have 128Gb,  but that's more for other things I do, not for DAZ. It is nice to be able to have several applications open at the same time and not worry about RAM (i often use 70Gb-80Bb while working on things).

  • SolitarySandpiperSolitarySandpiper Posts: 566

    DustRider said:

    In addition to what has already been said, it also depends on how you tend to work. If you typically tend to have (need) more than one memory intensive application open at the same time so it can be a huge plus to have 128Gb.  If you are working with large complex models in Blender you may need the extra ram to cache "undo" data. You didn't mention photogrammetry (making 3d data from photos), but it is typically very RAM intensive,  so 128Gb is a huge plus for it. 

    Several years ago I did come close to DAZ using 64 Gb with an 8Gb card, but it hasn't happened again, though I have seen it go over 40Gb several time. As Richard noted, a GPU with more memory will require more RAM. Using the often quoted minimum 3x the GPU memory for RAM, a 24Gb GPU should have 72Gb RAM. I would guess a 16gb GPU cold easily use up 64Gb on a really complex scene. I have 128Gb,  but that's more for other things I do, not for DAZ. It is nice to be able to have several applications open at the same time and not worry about RAM (i often use 70Gb-80Bb while working on things).

    My 12/32 memory was restrictive on occasions, i'll be surprised if 24/64 will hold me back anytime soon even if it does fall a little short... the primary role of my GPU is gaming.

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131

    If you ever get into doing AI locally on your computer some of those algorithms can use 128GB or 256GB.

  • SnowSultanSnowSultan Posts: 3,596

    Thank you everyone, you convinced me. I had not heard of the 3x the VRAM suggestion. I am slightly short of meeting that, so I think I will upgrade. Much appreciated.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,948

    SolitarySandpiper said:

    Richard Haseltine said:

    It will help if you push the limit (in DS, most likely when preparing data for a complex scene to be sent to a high-memory GPU - the general advice is that to take full advantage of a GPU's memory you need about three tiems as much system RAM, so 128GB would cover roughly up to a 48GB - if you actually had scenes that used all of its memory)

    So if i've got 24gb vram i could definatly benefit from increasing my 32gb system ram to 64gb?... (just that its on offer at the moment)

    The memory isn't used gratuitously, so by the rule of thumb 64GB should be good if you use up to 21 1/3 GB of memory on the GPU - which isn't far short of the maximum it will allow.

  • GoggerGogger Posts: 2,399
    edited August 2023

    And don't forget that if you are doing more than "just DAZ" it comes into play much more.  I usually have DAZ running while Photoshop and Bridge are open and doing stuff, sometimes with MANY files open, and typically 50 FireFox browser tabs open, running either Filter Forge, Luminar NEO, or Topaz Labs while in Photoshop, Discord with MidJourney, AI Art and Photo Enhancer (upscaler) and whatever else. So, don't calculate just for DAZ, but for your entire work profile.  The Joy is in The Work!

    Post edited by Gogger on
  • SnowSultanSnowSultan Posts: 3,596
    edited August 2023

    >>and typically 50 FireFox browser tabs open<<

    LOL, what on earth do you need that many tabs open for while also working in Photoshop and Studio? I'll need all 128 GB to even open half that many in Chrome.  ;)

    Post edited by SnowSultan on
  • TimberWolfTimberWolf Posts: 288

    We run two slightly older RTX A6000 48GB workstation cards in our rendering machine which is used for commercial Daz/Unity/Max work and we have once... just once... blown through 128GB of RAM and crashed the entire thing when an animator got slightly overambitious. Pixar we are not! Most of the time the memory is rarely pushed beyond about 90GB.

    If your CPU can handle it and you want to have a fair few other video editing, modelling or rendering applications open then the upgrade to 128GB will be worth it. The thing to note is - can your CPU handle it? It's all very well having the RAM but if the machine slows to a crawl because you use mostly single-threaded applications which don't take kindly to being assigned a CPU core (we have some of those!) or your CPU has average or low average multi-threaded performance, what's the point? 64GB of RAM is enough if you have a 24GB card and don't plan to be opening Premiere Pro or ZBrush whilst you're rendering.

    At the end of the day if it's a good value upgrade and you can afford it, why not? Might turn out to be wasted, might turn out to be hugely useful if your workflow changes. I don't think you *need *it right now based on the info you've provided but if you want advice from a commercial perspective - I'd get it. I'm assuming this is DDR-4 you're talking about and the industry expects some hand-waving vanishing acts of this stock towards the end of this year or early next year to boost DDR5 sales. DDR4 prices have been dropping but the rate of those drops is slowing. If you're going to buy DDR4, now's the time to do it.

    If you're talking about DDR5? I wouldn't bother. The price of that has one trajectory and it's downwards but not for a little while.

  • GoggerGogger Posts: 2,399

    SnowSultan said:

    >>and typically 50 FireFox browser tabs open<<

    LOL, what on earth do you need that many tabs open for while also working in Photoshop and Studio? I'll need all 128 GB to even open half that many in Chrome.  ;)

    HA HA! I know, I know. I'm BAD. I am shopping DAZ with Forum tabs open, windows open for each 3D item I am considering and three or four other 3D sites as well, then Amazon if I am in a shopping mood - researching and reading reviews, comparing things, a couple dozen windows open at any time with MidJourney AI images that I have generated, usually a music site in YouTube, or two, or three, and before I know it I have A LOT of windows open.  I am usually so busy that the thought of shutting everything down to reboot/refresh and then try to bring everything back up is just awful.  Yeah, I stress my machine out, but I am SUPER PRODUCTIVE with my monthly DeskToppers project.  Amidst all that I am usually processing photographs that I have taken as well.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,058

    SnowSultan said:

    LOL, what on earth do you need that many tabs open for while also working in Photoshop and Studio? I'll need all 128 GB to even open half that many in Chrome.  ;)

    My computer, much like my brain, is never doing only one thing at a time. Hell, I frequently have multiple 3D programs running at a time as well. Back when DS natively supported multiple instances (and, crucially, before I had an NVidia GPU), I would regularly have multiple Iray renders running concurrently.

Sign In or Register to comment.