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Dell Alienware - Core i7, 8GB 1TB GTX1060. A good choice for use with DAZ/Iray?

xmarinexmarine Posts: 47
edited June 2017 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

My seven year old AMD 6 core is showing it's age badly. I have a chance to purchase a new Dell Alienware i7 (Intel 7700 family CPU) desktop. Comes with an Nvidia GTX 1060/6 GB GPU. As this is a gaming system and I am not familiar with the main board I am wondering if this machine would be a good choice for me. I don't game at all. But I do use DAZ Studio 4.9 as a hobbyist a lot. I have always built home brew PC's in the past but the above mentioned machine can be had at a very attractive price. Quite a bit less than a PC I had configured to build. And I just don't feel like assembling another machine at this time. 

Thanks for any comments.

Kurt...

Post edited by xmarine on

Comments

  • JamesJABJamesJAB Posts: 1,766

    If your budget can handle it, you might want to upgrade the video card to one of the following : GTX 1070, GTX 1080, or GTX 1080ti.
    The GTX 1060 6GB will be fine for gaming at less than 4K resolutions, but you will start needing to compromise settings to gat smooth FPS at 4K.
    For Iray, it it a fast card, but the 6GB will be your stumbling block on larger more complex scenes.

  • xmarinexmarine Posts: 47
    JamesJAB said:

    If your budget can handle it, you might want to upgrade the video card to one of the following : GTX 1070, GTX 1080, or GTX 1080ti.
    The GTX 1060 6GB will be fine for gaming at less than 4K resolutions, but you will start needing to compromise settings to gat smooth FPS at 4K.
    For Iray, it it a fast card, but the 6GB will be your stumbling block on larger more complex scenes.

    Hi JamesJAB

    Thanks for the helpful advice. I had purchased a GTX 1060 a few months ago in hopes of adding a bit mote life to the old AMD. But that hasn't helped other issues with the aging system. I had in mind to salvage the GTX 1060 I own now and team it with the 1060 in the Alianware PC. However after more research on the NVIDIA forums I learned that the 1060 does not support SLI. So I am thinking I will do as you suggest and purchase a GTX 1080 selling the two 1060 cards I would have to help finance the new GPU. From the comments posted on forums I read NVIDIA apparently is doing a slow phase out of SLI. I never had occasion to use SLI anyway and am not familiar with it. 

    Thank you. I appreciate the assistance. 

    Regards

    Edit- The GTX 1060 3GB supports SLI but the 6GB version I have does not.

  • JamesJABJamesJAB Posts: 1,766

    So, Iray does not use SLI for multi GPU rendering.
    Iray will be able to use both GTX 1060 cards with no issue.
    As long as both of your GTX 1060 cards are the 6GB version.  I would use both cards for DazStudio.

    Your video gaming experience will just treat the system as if you only have a single GTX 1060
    On the other hand you could use both cards as a multi monitor setup, using one card for gaming and the other for web browsing, or running Daz Studio stuff at the same time.

  • govertvanameide2govertvanameide2 Posts: 0

    Your CPU should be fine, as with the GPU, i have a 1060 6 GB, which renders fine, to speed things up a bit i bought a cheap 980 TI 6 GB. Obviously non SLI, renders great, but a lot of heat and power usage are a price to pay. The dual monitor setup never worked out for me. If you have the budget, selling both cards (good luck with that) i would swap them for a GTX 1080 TI, or wait for AMD to become compatable.

  • xmarinexmarine Posts: 47
    govertvanameide2 said:

    Your CPU should be fine, as with the GPU, i have a 1060 6 GB, which renders fine, to speed things up a bit i bought a cheap 980 TI 6 GB. Obviously non SLI, renders great, but a lot of heat and power usage are a price to pay. The dual monitor setup never worked out for me. If you have the budget, selling both cards (good luck with that) i would swap them for a GTX 1080 TI, or wait for AMD to become compatable.

     

    govertvanameide2 said:

    Your CPU should be fine, as with the GPU, i have a 1060 6 GB, which renders fine, to speed things up a bit i bought a cheap 980 TI 6 GB. Obviously non SLI, renders great, but a lot of heat and power usage are a price to pay. The dual monitor setup never worked out for me. If you have the budget, selling both cards (good luck with that) i would swap them for a GTX 1080 TI, or wait for AMD to become compatable.

    Thanks to both for the input. After thinking it through I have decided to just go my usual route and build a new PC. My son has been looking to up grade his PC. He has a lower end Quadro now so I will give him my 1060 and shoot for a GTX 1080. Budget allowing that is. Asus and EVGA both have 8GB versions of the 1080 for under $600. Always more fun to build antway.

    Thanks and,

    Cheers...

  • JamesJABJamesJAB Posts: 1,766

    You could always sell the 1060 for some quick cash, as crypto currency miners have been buying out all the GTX 1060 and 1070 cards and driven the prices way up on them. (for now)

    You will probably get at least $300 out of that card right now on ebay.  Then you could buy your son a brand new GTX 1060 when the price comes back down in a few months.

    Don't worry, the GTX 1080 and 1080 ti prices seem to be uneffected.   (It's kinda funny because the 1070 as going for more than the 1080 right now.)

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