What To Do With A New Computer!
exstarsis
Posts: 2,128
I have a new computer arriving tomorrow, hopefully! And I picked up a new monitor for it on Friday, a Samsung 4k monitor and the computer is something from Costco with a 7th gen Intel chipset and a 1080/8gb Nvidia card. And an SSD! I've got my Daz library copied to an external drive so I can transfer it easily. And all this upgrade is solely because of Daz!
I'm upgrading from an older Costco Dell with a 745 Nvidia card. Now, I've experienced CPU renders and I've experienced 745 renders and I've experienced post-latest-Daz-release renders (which are faster) and I'm USED to waiting 45min-1hr to render-- or overnight (but I hate waiting 1.5-2 minutes just to see what lighting looks like). I'm not quite sure what to expect with this new machine. Heck, it's probably the closest to a high-end machine I've ever had-- I usually end up with some midlist piece that is 'good enough' to play the occasional MMO-- but I've played those at 15fps and not been bothered.
Anyhow.... what should I render to put it through its paces? What would you/did you render to really appreciate a new computer? How much of an improvement should I expect? Will the newer Intel CPU make any difference? How about the upgrade from 16 -> 32gb of system RAM?
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Comments
Congratulations! Be sure to install the latest NVIDIA graphics drivers to go with the latest DS 4.9.3.166. Remember to set up your Content Directory Manager in Daz Studio to point to your content on your external drive. Remember to setup your DIM paths.
I'd render something that took a long time before, or something that I couldn't render at all.
Thank you very much! I'm honestly dreading something going wrong. Actually-- there's an unexpected six inches of snow expected. Oh dear.
If you're used to hour long renders, I think you're in for a real treat with the new computer! :D
Congratulations on the upgrade! I look forward to seeing more renders from you. :)
...hour long renders, I can only dream....
The big problem I've been running into with hour long renders is that I'm starting to do a lot in postwork and I render multiple parts at 1hr+ each and because of kids and household those renders can stretch out over a day or three, and then I've lost focus on the postwork I wanted to do so they just sit in a folder waiting for me to come back to them someday. I have this hope that if I can render multiple layers in an evening I can make more progress on the postwork and self-education.
export your database user data if you've done categorizations and such so you can import on the new rig (from inside Studio).
Also the dim manifest files and thumbs.
C:\\users\'name'\Public\Public Documents\DAZ 3D\InstallManager
edited to modify path
You could always send it my way when they deliver it.
Depending on your scene and the exact reasons you're doing multiple renders, you may be able to use canvases to get multiple renders in a single pass.
Be careful which driver to use. Latest isn't the best. Read this thread. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/146231/has-anyone-found-a-stable-nvidia-driver-with-latest-4-9-update
Donnn't get me started on stupid blasted canvases for relighting. :-)
User data export is "Export Metadata?"
I DO have an Nvidia card with 4 gb, it's just a very old one. :-) A basic portrait with two lights and a HDRI and no clothes (bare chested guy): 2 hours for a 1.5kx2k image.
Checking out that driver thread now. Meanwhile, there really is six inches of snow outside. Haven't seen THAT for a few years....
...I usually render full scenes overnight because of how long they take on my old 1st generation i7 and 12 GB of memory.
Unless I hit the Megabucks Lotto, no Titan X or even a 1070 for me.
...you're not in the Olympia - Tacoma - Seattle area ar you?
I am indeed in Puget Sound. And the mail made it through!
After a couple hours of setting up lots of cloud stuff I finally started working on Daz. My Content Library was redirected just fine and I have a rather large scene rendering. But my Smart Content (and my DIM) are convinced I have nothing downloaded. Any ideas, anybody, on syncing up my Smart Content/DIM with the stuff I actually have?
...down here in P-Town myself. We were supposed to get hit by nearly a foot of the white stuff here but apparently it headed your way instead. All we got was a very heavy soaking of very cold rain (feet are still cold from yesterday).
...how on earth are you even able to run Daz 4.8 (or 4.9) with only 3 GB? My old 32 bit notebook has 4 GB of memory and trying to run the 32 bit version of 4.0 on it was pretty futile. I was lucky to be able to render a single character with a simple backdrop and a three point light set up.
My wife sent me a bunch of pictures of the snow you guys got yesterday my time over here. Big fluffy flakes.Our Boxers loved it.
So did my kids. Man, all I could do tonight was run user-calibration tests (wherein I render stuff and calibrate my expectations appropriately). I have to come up with some great new project to make this rig worth it instead of just playing games in 4k. Whooeee!