Hardware Requirements and Upgrade Questions

ZveroboyPripyat

I am new to DAZ Studio and I have a PC with budget/mid-range components that are mostly two years old. The PC was originally built for casual gaming, but I have found that performance in DAZ Studio is lacking. 

When I try to preview an Iray render in the viewport with a simple scene involving one spotlight, one distant light, and a primitive cylinder object I get very slow/choppy performance when moving the view around.  

I also have very slow/choppy performance in the viewport using the “texture shaded” viewport mode after loading just one complex prop with a higher poly count.

My current PC specs:
CPU: Intel  i5 2500k@3.3GHz (not overclocked)
GPU:  Radeon 2GB R9 270X
RAM: 8GB… can’t remember exact DDR type/specs

 

I have several questions for this forum:

1.) Given my current setup, which component(s) are most important to upgrade for general performance improvements in DAZ Studio… for example regarding viewport performance in texture shaded mode or loading complex objects and larger scenes?

2.) I was initially interested in Iray renders, but I have learned that Iray greatly benefits from using an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA cores. Does the CPU even matter for Iray renders if you have a decent Nvidia card with enough CUDA cores? How many CUDA cores and how much VRAM is enough for reasonable render times/performance with Iray?

3.) Perhaps it would be cheaper to only upgrade the CPU and focus on 3Delight renders instead… Is a GPU upgrade beneficial if I only choose to use 3Delight? What minimum speed or type of CPU is recommended for 3Delight renders?

4.) What benefits would additional RAM provide? Does the speed/type of the RAM matter or is it more about quantity? Is 16GB enough for most purposes?