HARDWARE RECO for 4.9

Tig-71

Hey all..  I'm on the cusp of buying a new computer.  

I'm really sick of 2-6 hour rendering times..  I figured I might as well get something that is pretty fast, and the proper graphics card.

Im currently using a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor, 8 GB RAM, and an Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536MB Card.

At the same time I don't want to spend a crap load of money for minimal changes in render times.

Any suggestions?  

alexhcowley

Which render engine are you using?

If 3delight, simply buy a computer with a more powerful processor and at least 16GB of memory.

If Iray, I would suggest adding an Nvidia graphics card.  Minimum specification would be one with 4GB of memory and the largest number of CUDA cores that your budget will allow.

The new Pascal cards from Nvida (the 1060, 1070, 1080 and Pascal Titan) do not support Iray as yet but this should be coming some time over the next few months.

I started rendering in Iray using a 3.5 ghz i5.  I upgraded this to a 4.0 ghz i7 with a 4GB Nvidia 970.  The differences in render times were dramatic.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Alex.

Tig-71

Alex.. THANK YOU!!  I am using Iray.. but I've never thought of using anything else like 3Dlight...  Do you think my render tmes would be shorter if I used 3Delight?  

Now that I think of it. What would happen if I used 3Del engine, with .duf files that have Iray selected items.. most of the items I have in Daz have both a 3Del and an Iray option.

I'm guessing the Iray is just more detalied?

Thanks again.

Tig-71

btw.. love the ALF avatar.. Classic.

Silver Dolphin

Tig-71 said:

Hey all..  I'm on the cusp of buying a new computer.  

I'm really sick of 2-6 hour rendering times..  I figured I might as well get something that is pretty fast, and the proper graphics card.

Im currently using a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 Processor, 8 GB RAM, and an Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536MB Card.

At the same time I don't want to spend a crap load of money for minimal changes in render times.

Any suggestions?  

Who makes your PC? Is this a Notebook or a Desktop? If Desktop what kind of video card slot does your Motherboard have? Have you ever opened your PC to clean it or make upgrades like adding Ram or HD? If you are not able to do work on your PC yourself find a reputable shop or person who will guarantee their work in writing. I would make sure if you upgrade to a new PC that you have at least 4 cores and 4 ram slots(the more cores and memory slots the better for system longevity). Intel is my recommendation but AMD makes cheaper stuff if you are looking to save some money. IF your PC is upgradeable I would increase the ram to 16gigs of ram and install a Nvida 1060 or a 1070 video card into your system. To make things work faster I would install a SSD to replace your primary drive> The SSD will make your system boot and move faster. Note keep your data and 3D content on your original HD after reformatting it as secondary storage.

Good luck

nicstt

If you're looking to save cash, an SSD will add nothing to render speeds; although helpful for general PC speeds, they are not essential. 10 series cards do not yet support IRAY, but should soon(ish); maybe september, and maybe later.

Don't get less than 4GB of memory on the card, and as many CUDA cores as you can; do not compare CUDA cores from different generations of nvidia card, it is nor reliable when doing it; it is great for comparing in the same generation.

16GB of System RAM is a minimum, and a decent i5; preverably an i7 and preferably 32GB RAM.

A laptop will cost you a lot more than a desk top for the same spec; a desktop should last longer if it is adequately cooled.

jerham

Tig-71 said:

Alex.. THANK YOU!!  I am using Iray.. but I've never thought of using anything else like 3Dlight...  Do you think my render tmes would be shorter if I used 3Delight?  

Now that I think of it. What would happen if I used 3Del engine, with .duf files that have Iray selected items.. most of the items I have in Daz have both a 3Del and an Iray option.

I'm guessing the Iray is just more detalied?

Thanks again.

Iray and 3delight are different renderers both have there own reqruiments (Materials/Lighting). Both have there own strong and weak points.  Using Iray materials with 3delight does not work that great (materials can look "weird").

 In regard to you're hardware question;

- 3Delight is CPU only

- Iray is build for GPU rendering (nvidia cuda) and has CPU support.

From what i understand you are using Iray. And looking at you're system specs,i think you are using the CPU only option (since you dit not mention a nvidia card). Adding a Nvidia GPU could already mean a perfomance boost in iray rendering compared to rendering with the current I5 CPU. And a quick way to bring the render times down. 

For example (both times the same simple scene (default settings and G3F figure):

Iray render with a MSI GTX 760 only (a 3 year old mid range card), Total Rendering Time: 1 minutes 16.93 seconds

Iray render with CPU only (I7 6700k @ 4,0 GHZ), Total Rendering Time: 6 minutes 7.7 seconds

Basiclly a 3 year old mid range card (at the time) is almost 6 times faster than my I7 CPU..it might be a good option to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

alexhcowley

jerham said:

Tig-71 said:

Alex.. THANK YOU!!  I am using Iray.. but I've never thought of using anything else like 3Dlight...  Do you think my render tmes would be shorter if I used 3Delight?  

Now that I think of it. What would happen if I used 3Del engine, with .duf files that have Iray selected items.. most of the items I have in Daz have both a 3Del and an Iray option.

I'm guessing the Iray is just more detalied?

Thanks again.

Iray and 3delight are different renderers both have there own reqruiments (Materials/Lighting). Both have there own strong and weak points.  Using Iray materials with 3delight does not work that great (materials can look "weird").

 In regard to you're hardware question;

- 3Delight is CPU only

- Iray is build for GPU rendering (nvidia cuda) and has CPU support.

From what i understand you are using Iray. And looking at you're system specs,i think you are using the CPU only option (since you dit not mention a nvidia card). Adding a Nvidia GPU could already mean a perfomance boost in iray rendering compared to rendering with the current I5 CPU. And a quick way to bring the render times down. 

For example (both times the same simple scene (default settings and G3F figure):

Iray render with a MSI GTX 760 only (a 3 year old mid range card), Total Rendering Time: 1 minutes 16.93 seconds

Iray render with CPU only (I7 6700k @ 4,0 GHZ), Total Rendering Time: 6 minutes 7.7 seconds

Basiclly a 3 year old mid range card (at the time) is almost 6 times faster than my I7 CPU..it might be a good option to look at.

As noted above, I went from a 3.5 ghz i5 to a 4.0 ghz i7, with a 970 gpu. I've never done any precise timings but my experiences suggest a speed improvement of 12 to 15 times!  I suspect that the size of render and the complexity of the scene may be factors but this is still quite spectacular.

Cheers,

Alex.

Tig-71

To all.. Sorry for the lack of info.. 

I am using an Apple MacBook Pro / Retina Display / 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 / Memory 8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3

Heres a System Report from my computer of my Graphics Card.

Intel Iris Graphics 6100:

  Chipset Model:    Intel Iris Graphics 6100

  Type:    GPU

  Bus:    Built-In

  VRAM (Dynamic, Max):    1536 MB

  Vendor:    Intel (0x8086)

  Device ID:    0x162b

  Revision ID:    0x0009

  Metal:    Supported

  Displays:

Color LCD:

  Display Type:    Retina LCD

  Resolution:    2560 x 1600 Retina

  Retina:    Yes