NVidia 40 vs 50 Series
RiverMissy
Posts: 317
I have been trying to buy a computer for far too long. Many problems along the way that I will not bore you with. I like to get my computers from HP and have had good luck with them. I can still get a 40 series card but they are limited and going fast. Do I need to get that card so I can use all my old stuff. I mostly do NPR work and the old stuff works the best for my needs. If I read things correctly and get a 50 series then I will be out of luck for old items, correct? And if I get a 40 series card and run old Daz I should be okay. But what won't work then? Will the new version of Daz eventually work with that card?
This has been quite a dilemma. Video cards have been crazy prices and had limited and difficult availability. Now the prices are better, but still high, but I have been trying to sort out all the problems with what will work or not. Then throw in the whole is AI going to replace us and is there reason to keep going anyway. Lots of work will be eliminated and done by AI. It's already happening. I appreciate input on this topic and thank you in advance.
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Comments
Rendering in Iray is the issue, do you do that? Note that there will soon be a DS update that removes 3Delight if you use that, so you will want to back-up the current installers - see https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/737346/just-got-a-notice-about-3delight-being-retired#latest
If you do use Iray then DS 4 does not and cannot support the 50x0 cards for rendering 9they should be fine for dForce simulation and Filament) while DS 2025/6 does but is in an Alpha stage and will not currently support DS 4 plug-ins nor some scripts - plug-ins, and some scripts, will need updating once it is in a stable state but of course some developers are no longer around to do the updating.
A few years ago I acquired a PC that handles iRay just fine. However, the GPU is a 1060 (plus?!). I'm sure that GPU will soon become deprecated (is that the word?!) and won't work in Daz Studio 2025. And it might not work in future versions of 4.X
I expected this to happen eventually. I already had this computer for about 4 years. Time moves on and technology needs to keep up. It's not easy for people like me who live on a limited, fixed income.
Now comes a time to at least map out a plan. If I "won the Lottery," what would I do?!
As it stands the 50 series of nVidia cards is not a safe bet. We'd be stuck using DAZ Studio 2025. But it's still in Alpha testing. I don't want that kind of limitation.
I don't really want to hold onto an outdated version of DAZ Studio just to keep my old computer viable.
I don't use DAZ Studio all that much. Sometimes that computer just sits around gathering dust. If I spend thousands of dollars to get a new computer, will the investment be worth it?
I almost forgot. I don't use scripts. I don't buy much software from DAZ. I've seen too many apps die after I bought them Carrara, etc. And maybe I'm just to lazy to understand scripts.
Edited to fix my typos
If you need to buy now, buy a 4-series GPU. Put $10 away a week and in 12-months - if/when Daz 2025 is stable - buy a Gen-5 (or by then 6) GPU. You won' need to swap other components to make that change. If you can get a machine with slots for 2 GPUs, do that. You can have both Series-4 and Series-5/6 running in the same machine.
Or hang on until Daz 2025 is a pucker release and stable then get new PC with a 5, or 6 series gpu (but then you can't use Daz v4)
As Richard put, chances are some Daz 4.xx things won't work - and won't get free updates, if updates at all - in Daz 2025. You can keep Daz 4 and install Daz 2025 and have both running on same machine (or, at least, I've not seen it typed anywhere that you can't <-- IF you have BOTH Series 4 and Series 5 GPUs).
DS 4 cannot support a version of Iray that will use 50x0 cards, which tends to be a dealbreaker - however, the application itself will work and things like dForce and Filament will use the 50x0 cards
I am still somehwat angry at DAZ for how this whole situation was handled. It was some random guy on forums who bough 5090 and found out it was not working. Even today I dont think they officialy made a proper annoucement on main page for this, but I could be wrong on that one.
Thankfully because NVIDIA set the prices so high I was reluctant to buy 5000 series initially and ended waiting. Once this info was out I raced to the store to buy best 4000 series card I could, sadly most of that stock was gone at that point so ended with midrange card...
Daz didn't know - there was a release of Iray, 2024.0, that would have worked in DS 4 with support for 50x0 cards. Unfortunately it had show-stopper issues and the fix was 2024.1, which cannot be integrated into DS 4. Until that point Daz had every reason to expect that an updated Iray could be added to DS 4 - though it was never a secret that an Iray update was likely to be required.
Yes, I am finding that the 4000 series cards are about gone and I am having trouble putting together what I want. This is really not going well. Thanks for all the input. I am truly appreciative!
I am thinking of moving my 2080Ti to a new machine for display and DS4 and getting a 50x0 card for DS 2025, but even the 50x0s were still not readily available when I last looked - and of course I am lucky to have a still pretty good older card to consider using for this.
Daz 4 doesn't support 50x0 cards and Daz 5 is Alpha so not really usable. I just bought a 5060Ti for a new build too. Fabulous.
I buy HP machines and it's hard to get anything other than 50X0 cards. I will be looking elsewhere.
So, if I understand everything that has been written, Iray and 3Delight are going bye bye basically. If I get a 50X0 card based machine then I can still use everything but I will have to render in Filament at the moment. Meaning I can load things as old as Cookie or new as Gen9 but would need to use Filament and or maybe Filatoon shaders and render in Filament?
Will the convert from 3Delight to Filament and or the Iray to Filament work? I am trying to figure out how to make this work. I realize that most scripts and add-ons will not be working. Otherwise I need to work hard at getting a 40X0 card based machine and not using new stuff until I get a newer computer in a few years after all of this shakes out.
Just checking, is the fabulous a bit of sarcasm or are you saying the machine is fabulous???
Iray is still present, but if you want to use it with a 50x0 series card you will need the DS 2025 Alpha (for rendering, at least - you could do the rest in DS 4). 3Delight has never been in DS 2025, and the next DS 4 update will remove it (so you will need to back up your current installers if you want to keep access).
Yes that's sarcasm.
My machine is probably going to be OK. Ryzen 9 9950X, 128GB RAM and some SSDs. Plus I'm not sure what now for graphics card. I have a 5060TI in hand.
I get it. There's limited technical resources to code stuff. Nvidia broke Daz 4 and they need to get Daz 5 out so they're not going to spend the time to backport a fix. But... It's extremly painful for people. Do I return my 5060TI and try to get a 4060TI or just not render anything for a while?
I’ve been a dabbler/hobbyist in Daz Studio and similar software since 2008 but I still consider myself a New User. Well, I know a little more than I did in 2008. With so many threads on DS 4.23, 4..24, 2025, I have had a difficult time of putting it all into a format that I can understand as to what basic rendering capabilities I have now and will have with the changes that are here/coming. I prepared the simple table below of basic features that I will have. Please let me know where I am in error and if I have omitted anything substantial for a basic user. I have a Windows 10 laptop with 16 GB RAM and an RTX 2026 GPU with 6 GB VRAM, and have DS 4.21 and 4.24.0.3 Public installed.
RTX
2000 – 4000 series
5000 series
DS 4.23
3DL
Iray
Scripts/plug-ins
3DL
Few/no DS 4 scripts/plug-ins
DS 2025
Iray
Few/no DS 4 scripts/plug-ins
Iray
Few/no DS 4 scripts/plug-ins
I don't think you'll have access to less plugins and scripts with a 5000 series using DS 4.
If so, that would be good.
It is so
OK. I've updated my table.
Have you updated it correctly?
Using DS4.2x with a 5000-series will - AFAIK - give you access to all same scripts/plugins as using a 4000-series GPU (but you can't make iRay renders with it)
That's what the table now indicates.
But 5000 series can't render iray in DS4.
I decided to buy a desktop with an RTX 4070 GPU to have what I thought would be a system with a newer GPU than my laptop (RTX 2060) and avoid the render engine/scripts/plug-in issues that I expected to come with a 5000 series card and Daz Studio 4.x. I set up the computer on Wednesday and today (Friday), I installed Daz studio 4.24. I discovered that the desktop actually has an RTX 5070 GPU. However, it does render in 3Delight and Iray and I seem to have no issues with the two older scripts that I installed to test them.
August 30 Update - I installed the C66 Plugin (Code 66) and the Billboard Builder script which requires the C66 plugin and Billboard Builder worked fine. I noted also in the About Installed Plugins window that the 3Delight Renderer and the Nvidia Iray Renderer are both installed and active.