CPU versus GPU rendering in DAZ Studio 4.12

contedesfees

I know little about graphic cards and often find the discussions about them and 3D rendering incomprehensible. Would someone more competent than I please comment on the following?

What I can gather is that, in the absense of a NVIDIA RTX or GTX video card with 4GB of memory, DAZ Studio 4.12 Iray rendering will default to the CPU, with a corresponding penalty in rendering time. If that is true, then, given that I can't afford an NVIDIA RTX card or an intermediate level NVIDIA GTX card, I have concluded that my best option is to upgrade my CPU and install more RAM memory. A more modestly priced, entry-level NVIDIA GTX card will have to serve, and I must content myself with rendering overnight on the CPU when I use DAZ Studio 4.12.

Any fault in my reasoning? Thanks one and all.

nonesuch00

If you can manage upgrade the RAM to 32GB. 

StratDragon

What type of cpu are you looking at? 

the overall advantage of the GPU is not just rendering time. You can get accurate texture and lighting results in your preview windows without having to stop and start rendering over CPU renders to make adjustments 

I went from LuxRender on a quad core i7 with 12GB RAM to LuxRender on dual Westmere Xeons 8 core with 64 GB, then transitioned to Iray over CPU and finally broke down and got a $270 1660ti with 6GB RAM. Once the GPU was added to the mix my ability to experiment and get the results I was aiming for with Iray was drastically leveraged. Despite both my i7 and Xeon computers are closing in on 10 years old they work with the GPU and once I plan on building another PC I already have a great entry level card to put in there.

RAM and CPU will help, especially if you hit the wall with your GPU RAM but Iray's flexibility with CPU can be counter productive. 

 

contedesfees

Thanks for yours, StratDragon & nonesuch00. I'm looking at the AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or 2600 and a second stick of RAM, say 8GB or 16GB (I'm trying not to go overboard, a budget is a budget after all). I'm very much encouraged to learn that you are pleased with the MSI GTX (?) 1660ti. I'll investigate and see if that's an option for me. Seems a decent option, as long as it does the job.

StratDragon

there are a few of these from about $265 US to $319. the price seems to be due to slightly higher boost speeds but how that translates to what you see on the other end of the computer may not be much of anything but bragging rights.

if your rendering needs are not crazy ambitious this is a great card for the price. The 1660 (non Ti) is anywhere from $229 to $239, you loose a little over 100 Cuda cores, drop down to DDR5 RAM but you still have a 6GB card. I'm not entirely sure you can run this card with other cards, I know you can't use it SLI, but in many cases (possibly all cases) you can run multiple GPU's to provide greater speed, the caveat is once you hit the RAM limit of one card it's no longer used. Say you have a 3GB card and a 6GB card, the scene goes over 3GB when rendered, the 3GB card effectively goes dormant. 

10 years ago 16GB RAM was decadent, now it's like the bare minimum so if you can't go GPU or if it's between CPU and RAM I would suggest RAM as the 1st priority. 

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shop/geforce/?page=1&limit=9&locale=en-us&gpu=GTX 1660 Ti&gpu_filter=TITAN RTX~1,RTX 2080 Ti~30,RTX 2080 SUPER~18,RTX 2080~55,RTX 2070 SUPER~18,RTX 2070~47,RTX 2060 SUPER~20,RTX 2060~56,GTX 1660 Ti~40,GTX 1660~16,GTX 1650~25,GTX 1060~88,GTX 1050 Ti~79,GTX 1050~65

 

contedesfees

Thanks again, StratDragon. My M-Board won't support two graphic cards and, candidly, that combination is beyond my means. RAM is a priority for me, it's time to install more.  Thanks again.

Psyckosama

Honestyl it might be a better idea to get something older used.

For example, the 1080. It's a bit faster with more ram and you can get them for about 350 used.

 

 

Silver Dolphin

Psyckosama said:

Honestyl it might be a better idea to get something older used.

For example, the 1080. It's a bit faster with more ram and you can get them for about 350 used.

 

 

That or a used Titan X (Maxwell chip) has 12gb of video ram and if you can get it with fresh thermal grease and pads and install MSI afterburner to turn up fans to 100% while doing Iray you will have a great Iray render platform. Older gaming cards need fresh paste and if you have the skills you can do it yourself otherwise find a pc repair shop and have them do it for you. Sure the Nvidia RTX cards are fast but they are expensive and they don't come with 12gb of video ram.

contedesfees

@Psyckosama, @Silver Dolphin. Thanks for yours. I will take your suggestions under advisement, as the saying goes. Excellent advice and much appreciated.