Good Nvidia GPU (Video Card) under $700?
jukingeo
Posts: 693
Hello All,
I am new to DAZ having signed up last December (2018). I have Daz Studio 4.10. My machine is running Windows 7 with 16gig ram and an i7 6700k 4ghz 8 thread processor with on board graphics controller. Yes it is fast machine, and up to now I been good with the on board graphics. While rendering single characters is OK by themselves, when it comes to multiple characters in indoor environments. Things slow down drastically, sometimes taking up to two hours for a render to complete.
I know that I am going to look in to a graphics card soon and it is (obviously) going to be an Nvidia card. Taking a quick peek at current cards and also some threads here, it does seem like the GTX 1080ti seems to be the favored card. However, it is pushing my price limit. The 2080ti is out of the question. But the 1070ti seems to fall right where I want it in price.
So the questions I have are these? How is the 1070ti over the built in CPU graphics? How is the 1080ti over the 1070ti? Out of the associated brands, which is best? EVGA, MSI, Zotac? Or should I foot the heavier bill and go with an actual Nvidia brand?
I am curious to hear the input from those that have used these cards with version 4.10 of Daz Studio.
Thank you.
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Comments
The partner cards are fine. Buying an actual Nvidia card is pointless. The partners usually make better cards just avoid no name chinese ones.
The 1080ti is sold out at any reasonable price. I doubt you'll find a 1070ti either. Your best option under $700 is the 2070.
Newegg (www.newegg.com) had 1070TI in stock for ~$550 USD. Amazon show several in stock for ~$500 USD.
Okay, but what about performance over my processor speed? That is what I am looking for. Will the 1070 or 2070 half that time,quarter it? Etc
Thanks
cut it by 80 or 90%. something like that.
Really? The improvement is that drastic? So I can get my Hour long renders Dow n to 10 minutes?
How is the 1070 with using the viewport in Iray mode? I like to adjust the skydome in this mode since I can see the sun angle, it is very stop and go with the processor only.
Thanks!
I can only compare between my R7 1700 and 1080ti but renders that run in less than 10 minutes or less on the GPU run overnight at least on the CPU only when I experimented with that. There is a benchmark thread that you can look up your cpu and a 1070 and compare the times for.
Using the viewport is another matter. It's usually very smooth but sometimes I'll have a scene where it simply won't respond or gets flaky. I can't figure out why.
Would you happen to have a link to that thread?
As for the viewport, I can only use it on a single character in a fairly small and open backdrop. If it is an enclosed room and I use extra lights, nada. It drops right to textured mode. Outside of that I do get a heavily pixelated rotation in Iray, but that is enough for me to see the position of the sun. I mainly just want something to.at least half or quarter my render times, so I don't kill an entire Saturday for just four renders.
Thanks
I never use the viewport in iray mode. Even with my GPU that's awful. There's and aux viewport which I use on the rare occasion that I need to preview the render.
Benchmark thread:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53771/iray-starter-scene-post-your-benchmarks/p1
It's very long. Your best bet since your CPU might not be easy to find is find a 1070, they're all roughly the same, and then run the benchmark on your system and compare.
Newegg in Canada, had the 1070ti for $500Can a few weeks ago. Keep an eye on them for decent prices. If you are buying from the US in US dollars you will save even more.
Thank you. I been going through it, but like you said, it is pretty long.
Yes, I have seen a few here in that price range as well.
But my concern now is this. What is the performance difference between the 1070ti and the 1080ti. If the 1080ti is only marginally better than the 1070ti then the 1070ti is the better bet, but if the 1080ti is twice the performance or better, than it might be the better bet.
Thanks!
1080ti is not twice the performance of the 1070ti.
1070ti has 2432 CUDA
1080ti has 3584 CUDA
So with clockspeed and other things being roughly equal the 1070ti should be about 2/3rds as fast as the 1080ti.
You can get an RTX 2080 for $700. Not so much under $700, but it's not over...usually.
Thank you for that info. So considering that 1080ti is almost twice the price of the 1070ti and not double the performance, probably my best bet is the 1070ti. I am still researching it though. I just want something at least 4 times faster than the CPU. Since most of my renders average about an hour long now just using the CPU, if I can get that down to 15 minutes, then I should be good.
The 2070 is still your best option in that price range it is faster at rendering than the 1070ti abd that is before the RTX and other features are enabled in iray.
Yes, overall I would agree, but supposedly I heard that the 2070 doesn't support Iray...currently. I would really feel like a kick in the rear if I buy this card and it never gets Iray support and Nvidea releases...lets say a 2070ti which does support it. That is my concern. BTW, would you know of the ill effects of using a card that isn't Iray compatible?
Thanks
The version of Iray in the Public Build of DS, 4.11.0.236, dos support 20x0 cards (as long as you don't use the 418.x drivers, currently).
One has more RAM; scenes that don't fit on card make card an expensive paperweight.
the 2070 works just fine for iray there are people have benchmarked them. I'm giving some thought to picking one up as a second card sometime soon.
As to the downside of a card that is not iray compatible? Daz won't use it at all for anything.
I am in the same boat as jukingeo; and spent all weekend researching this; so glad I finally found this thread--(Thanks for this info Richard Haseltine).. however, not before I sprung for the GTX 1070 Ti hybrid- got it on Amazon for $600 - (which is more than I have ever spent on a card in my life )
I had the same worries. I am coming from a GTX 960 so I am certain I'll see a jump in performance and render times. The RTX would have been nice but ultimately compatibility and price was a factor for me as well keeping things cool--I read that someone had used the card for Rendering with Octane spending several days rendering yet the temperatures remained stable--not going over 45c--so that was a selling factor for me. I recall trying to do a few renders with the current card and the thing would start humming 
This card has a DVI too, so is a bit backwards compatiple with some of my aging monitors
Hello! Glad to see you jumping on board with me on this. I been doing more research on my own and overall the 2070 is faster than the 1070ti, BUT I have been reading some of the reviews on Amazon and using one of the better brand names, EVGA for the card. It seems that the 2070 has some initial 'going bad after a few days' problems...more so than the 1070ti. Granted at the price point in question, for less than $100 more, the 2070 seems to be the obvious choice, since it is newer. But I am kind of leary about updating my Daz Studio program for a beta version just to get the Iray compatibility. And like I said, my greatest worry is that what if Nvidia comes out with a 2070ti soon and THAT gets the Iray support, then I will be shoving my boot up my own rear end for not waiting. So it does seem like we are both sitting between a rock and hard place not wanting to make a wrong decision here. Also it seems that the 2070 is so new, that there are quality issues with it. So for me, it seems like either get the 1070ti and experience render times that are 10 times faster than I have now, or deal with it until the next full version of Daz comes out and / or a better video card in that same price category. So if that happens a year from now and I have the 1070ti, then I will not feel so bad as if I bought the 1070ti and then next month an upgraded version of the 2070 comes out and/or an update for Daz.
Like you, I am putting my arms and hands palms up saying, "What do I do?"
The 1070ti is a card that has never existed in previous generations of cards. There wasn't a 970ti etc. There may or may not be a 2070ti and there is no reason to expect it in the near term. The 1070ti launched well over a year after the 1080ti, 1080, 1070 launch.
Also the 2070 is compatible with iray. Daz just hasn't updated DS to a version of iray that supports them except in the beta yet. They work just fine in the beta based on all reports.
How will the 2070 work with version 4.10? Will it partially work, will it not work at all, or will it blow up my version of Daz? LOL!
It simply won't work for iray, and won't be seen as a valid CUDA device to select in the Advanced tab of Render Settings. It shoud, as far as I know, work normally in other respects - even as an OpenCL device for dForce.
I don't understand the reluctance to use the beta. I've been using it for 6 months or so without a single problem. If anything it works better than 4.10. The denoiser by itself makes it superior to 4.10. the fact that a bunch of minor bugs are fixed is just gravy.
Well, it isn't too late to send this EVGA (great brand BTW) GTX 1070 TI back - I hope it will work with DAZ existing software (if it isn't good please someone let me know!)--I know there is 1070's big brother, the GTX 1080 TI, or others with 11GB memory, however, I dont have $1200+ to throw down and even if I did.. not doing it--I watched a friend once throw down 4K on a computer only to have that company go belly up 6 years later. That said..I have learned the hard way about being an "early adopter".. It is really a tough call because computing technology almost trips over itself. I built my current rig in summer 2016 and they are already out with the core i9 processor! Ha.. and I am barely affording a vid card upgrade that is now going to be left on the back burner for RTX!.. In 5 years.. the RTX may be sitting where the GTX is, who knows?
Haha.. get a load of this one.. it cost more than an entire computer.. for this price you could really build an entire beast of a rig:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/titan/titan-rtx/
and now my new card's specs:
Oooo, that seems anti-climatic to spend that much money and still not get the desired performance.
It is because it is beta...I just don't trust it. BUT you said you been using it for 6 months without an issue? Everything works? Usually with beta, something someplace doesn't work. That's why I am reluctant.
The price was the issue I was having with going with the 1080ti as that seemed to be the defacto standard here for Daz Studio. BUT at that price I had to justify that the 1080ti was twice as fast (or faster) than the 1070ti since it is about double the price. Since the 1070ti is 2/3rd the performance of the 1080ti, that is enough for me. As for the Titan...I hear you.. I actually DID build a beast of a rig for around that price. Granted a beast by 2017 standards when I put this thing together. Back then the i7 6700k was the rage and I bought that. I was actually impressed with the on-board graphics up to now and I tell you, Daz renders pretty fast for V4 characters. It is still fast for up to Gen 2. But getting to Gen 3...things slow down. Gen 8 is even slower. So I figured it is time for a dedicated GPU.
My decision (for now) is to hold off until the next full release of Daz comes out and has the Iray support for the 2070. I will get the card then and more than likely it will be cheaper then. For now I am just going to continue what I been doing. Just let my computer sit and render and I grab my tablet and surf the internet, or do something else in the meantime.
If something is buggy in 4.11 I haven't found it. It's still Daz3d so it's not professional grade software but you get what you pay for.
It seemed pretty - 'pro' to me, but I know what you mean if you compare it to something like Maya, Blender or Photoshop. I have to laugh when you say you get what you pay for as that is quite literal with Daz. I certainly spent quite a bit with Daz, but as such, I can do quite a bit with it.
How difficult is it to do an upgrade?
Yup I hear ya..
I don't blame you..I kinda wish I wouldve invested more in the GPU initially when I built this .. I had no idea the price was going to go bonkers on vid cards.
However, I guess I am tired of waiting.. I want to get some play time in this year
I literally cannot render much of anything without my machine hissing and whining and the temp jumps. BTW I got my card in the mail today.. for what it is.. is a pretty hefty card.. in size that is.. was kinda surprised at that. I like the fact that it has a built in water cooling system and has 2432 Cuda cores--- as opposed to 3584 Cuda cores in the 1080 TI.. but..the 1080 TI costs anywhere from $1200 (twice what I paid) to $1800. I am sure I will see a difference in some of my other GPU driven 3D software and games. Wow, I just cannot see spending that on a card. If I had to spend that much.. I would do what you are doing.. wait for the updates and go for the RTX when the price comes down.
You pick it out as a free product from the store, and assuming you use DIM, follow the directions. It downlioads and installs alongside 4.10. You don't have to change where your content is installed or anything like that. Since 4.10 remains installed if there is a problem you can fall back on it.