Any advantage to Ryzen w/ onboard graphics along with GPU?
3WC
Posts: 1,140
I recently was able to upgrade my brother's computer and got him this mobo and cpu: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XH629TV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ; https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07STGHZK8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Because he only does basic computing, no gaming or graphics, onboard graphics are sufficient for his needs.
But that got me thinking, I am looking to upgrade my own mobo and cpu, and having the onboard graphics seems cool, but is it overkill if I already have a gpu? I know I could probably run monitors off it and leave the gpu for renders. I don't care much about gaming, but I use blender for modelling, and render ocasionally with DS. I am in a bit of a slump for using DS, but maybe with a computer upgrade I will get back into it.
Any opinions?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I use multiple GPUs, two monsters for rendering and an older unit to drive the monitor. I find it useful as it lets me do other things while the render is cooking and have the computer still be responsive. Can't really see a disadvantage to using onboard graphics, if they are strong enough to drive Studio's draw modes. Other than the top-end Ryzen's don't have built in graphics.
There is little advantage and the CPU's are low end so if you're going to have a discreet GPU then you'd be better off getting the x600 CPU's or the soon to release 3100, 3300X.
There is a wide spread myth that not using your discete GPU to drive a monitor helps make rendering faster or freesup some VRAM.
All consumer GPU's have a video buffer reserved by Windows.
As to rendering speed, simply driving a screen to just surf the web, watch video or run most productivity programs use no CUDA so it will have no effect on rendering in iRay which uses CUDA primarily.
Having options is often a good thing. When it comes to Iray, there is no such thing as overkill.
While Windows does reserve some VRAM on all connected GPUs, its not much. The Daz app itself will be using some VRAM, too. That is not to be forgotten. Having a free GPU to handle multitasking while a render runs is not a bad thing. Surfing the web is going to take some memory, especially videos. Are you watching 4K videos while rendering? That's going to take some VRAM. I monitor my GPUs with Afterburner. I just closed my browser right now and killed about 500MB off my VRAM use. I then started up my browser again, with a youtube video, and it shot back up again. Modern Windows has a lot of GPU accelerated graphics, it may not be CUDA based, but these are still using some GPU resources. I have not tested for a performance hit on rendering while watching videos, but it does not seem to be too great. The biggest resource is VRAM.
So it depends on just how much VRAM you need for your scenes. Its not a lot of VRAM. But it can count. The main focus with a PC for Iray is going to be the rendering GPU regardless. This where the budget should be focused on. GPU first and foremost. Even if your PC is a potato, a fast Nvidia GPU will still render Iray just as fast as it would in a new PC. My PC is still rocking a 2014 i5 that is losing steam fast. But that does not effect my GPU rendering in any way, of which I have two 1080tis. So unless your PC is so slow that it cannot even run Daz, then I wouldn't be too concerned about upgrading just to save a little VRAM. That is money better spent on more GPU power instead. Now if you have a motherboard that can only do one GPU, then that might be a reason to think about upgrading. What's faster than a 1080ti? Having two of them. Or a 2080ti, but you get the idea. As long as the scene fits into each GPU's VRAM, then each GPU will run and combine their CUDA counts.
BTW, new GPUs are just around the corner. Nvidia has not announced anything yet, but all signs and rumors point to a release later this year, possibly September. That's only 4 months from now! But you have time to think about what you want to do.
Thanks.
onboard graphics are nice and you can't avoid them anyway if you buy an intel CPU; the problem being is the AMD CPUs that come with onboard graphics are a step down in number of cores and speeds. I compromised by getting an AMD higher core count CPU without onboard graphics and an MSI Radeon RX 570 8GB GPU cheap. If you have a couple of extra hundred dollars nVidia RTX GPUs make more sense for DAZ Studio and a couple of other applications.
That's for basic display, but a lot of gaphics applications do more than just send a screen to the GPU - they use additonal APIs both for display purposes and for non-diaply processing, and as far as I can tell those don't use all GPUs equally (though I admit my testign has been quite perfunctory, so no much can be read into it).
As I've mentioned in similar threads on this subject, I'm currently rocking a Ryzen 2400G (4 core/8 thread along with integrated Vega graphics) alongside a Nvidia 1080 Ti. The Vega graphics drive my desktop, and I also use them for light gaming, and it seems to do fine. The Vega graphics even drive my non-Iray Daz Studio viewport modes.
Note that in my setup, the ONLY thing I use the 1080 Ti for is Daz Studio Iray rendering. It sits idle the rest of the time.
I am able to do light gaming while a render is baking, usually in 'windowed' mode so that I can check on my renders between turns (I prefer turn-based games). Some of my renders can take an hour or more, although I usually call it good after 500-1500 iterations at that point. Pretty happy with the setup.
HOWEVER, if you are thinking of doing something along these lines, I'd STRONGLY suggest holding off a short bit, as the 8 core AMD Renoir desktops APUs are expected on the desktop front fairly soon. Possibly as soon as the new AMD B550 boards launch around June 15th, but it may be a couple of months yet. The mobile versions of these 8 core APUs (4700H/4800H/4900H ans HS variants) have been kicking ass in the mobile segment.
TBH, you could probably make do with 4 cores/8 threads, but having 8 cores is more helpful for those rare times that you may have a render drop to CPU only due to lack of GPu memory. You may be better off doing your render in multiple passes at that point, or making a few texture, etc. adjustments to lower the size of your scene, but it might be tempting to just let the render run in CPU only mode while you go cook dinner or something... Plus, if you also do video editing, etc. as well, well having more cores for that is helpful.
Another note. It appears that the next gen Ryzen CPUs which are expected later this year will require a 500 series motherboard, and that 400 series and earier boards will not be getting BIOS updates to support the upcoming Ryzen CPUs. Considering that a few of the B450 boards can support Athlon X4 as well as Ryzen 1000/2000/3000 series CPUs and APUs, that's a pretty good run for slightly older motherboards... but alas the as yet unnanounced desktop Ryzen 4000 series parts (besides Renoir) will not be an option for B450 boards, according to the official AMD press release on the subject.
Of course, if you are looking to move on a system now, this won't help you much, but if you can spend the next month or two doing research on deals on Nvidia GPUs, SSDs, computer cases, etc. we may see more price drops on the older hardware as the upcoming hardware begins to find it's way into the retail channels.
We could even hope to see some price drops on RTX 2080 Ti's, as new Nvidia GPUs are expected in the coming months, but to be honest 1080 Ti prices haven't dropped all that much since the 2080 Ti's launched. In the used market, sure, but I'm talking new units. There are a few cards on Newegg in the $900 range, but a lot of them are still north of the $1000 mark. As the 3000 series Nvidia GPUs are expected to have a significant performance boost, though, at some point you'd think the prices on the older GPUs would drop a bit more... and of course we'll probably have to wait a few months for 'official' support of the 3000 series GPUs in Daz Studio once they launch...
Another option might be to buy a lower end Threadripper system, and stick a cheap video card in for your desktop duties, using the other PCIe 16 slots for multiple Nvidia cards. Daz Studio loves Multi-GPU rendering! And if you like 3Delight for some reason instead of Iray, well more cores good, although the higher core count Threadrippers get a bit pricey... not as pricey as Intel, but still... This'll depend on your budget, but the 'entry level' Threadripper 1900X with 8 cores can be found for around $200 right now... Threadripper has 64 PCIe lanes and 4 memory channels, versus the 2 memory channels and 24+ PCIe lanes on AM4 boards, so if you are looking for more room to upgrade later...
Those 16 core Ryzen 3950X's look pretty good for CPU based rendering though, at least price point wise, but if you do Iray, yeah...
There has not even been a rumor of desktop APU's with 8 cores. The 3100and 3300X are launching in June with the B550 boards.
"Old" new PC parts never seem to drop much in price anymore. It's like retailers would now rather have new parts sitting around gathering dust and taking up space, than sell them at less of a profit margin lol. Kinda weird.
Try again...
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-renoir-desktop-apu-8-cores
Same chip, different link:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/8-core-AMD-Ryzen-4000-Renoir-desktop-APU-on-ASRock-B550-Taichi-motherboard-spotted-on-UserBenchmark-performing-on-par-with-the-Ryzen-7-4800H.464347.0.html
Here's a leak from mid-March...
https://hothardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-4000-renoir-desktop-cpu-b550-motherboard
WCCFTech's sources have indicated a July launch...
https://wccftech.com/amd-ryzen-4000-renoir-8-core-desktop-cpu-7nm-vega-gpu-spotted-benchmarks-leak/
Note that WCCFTech's sources have been wrong before, but their info is generally mostly accurate more often than not... In this case, this would fall about six months AFTER the laptop Renoirs were announced in January of this year, which tracks with the availability of previous Ryzen APUs for desktops. The 2200G/2400G and 3200/3400G desktop parts are functionally similar to their laptop variants, just repackaged for the desktop sockets, and in both cases the Desktop chips trailed the Laptop chips by a few months.
The Renoir chips have been outperforming their Intel counterparts in the laptop space, and even outperforming a number of Intel 8 core desktop chips, according to numerous benchmarks now, so there's no reason to not expect desktop variants of those chips in the Desktop space eventually. Intel has had 8 core APUs in the Laptop and Desktop space for a while now, so there's no reason why AMD shouldn't take them on with 8 core desktop parts here as well.
Note that the Renoir chips have less cache than their 7nm Ryzen 3000 series desktop parts, presumably to free up some space for the APU, and that they are built on a monothic die with the IO integrated into the same chip as the CPU, as opposed to the separate IO dies on the 7nm Ryzens. Shrinking the IO to 7nm and integrating it into the CPU die also saves some space. Dr. Cutress talked about this back in January...
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15381/amd-ryzen-mobile-4000-measuring-renoirs-die-size
BTW, when Dr. Ian Cutress (Anandtech) asked Dr. Lisa Su about the Desktop Renoir parts back in January, all Lisa said was that it was too early to talk about the new desktop parts... read into that what you will.
Problem being it's May 2020 already and those aren't coming out anytime soon at all, if they're not canceled completely.
The Renoir laptops only hit the retail channels at the end of March of this year, and due to their popularity it's been noted that finding them in stock can sometimes be a challenge. In any case, it's only been less than 2 months since said laptops hit the retail channels, and July isn't that far away r.e. Renoir on desktop. This 4700G AOTS result popped up yesterday as well...
More Renoir laptops are on the way soon as well, with several slated to be launched in the next couple of months, such as models from Asus (TUF Gaming) and MSI for example. Originally, a number of manufacturers, AMD included, would have promoted these at Computex at the end of May, but since Computex has been rescheduled to the end of September, various launches are now happening essentially online only, such as AMD's announcement of B550 in June, for those products that are ready to launch now or very soon...
TSMC has noted that COVID19 hasn't delayed their manufacturing all that much, having remained in operation during this time, but of course as for big events such as E3 2020 (cancelled), that's another story...
Well that will be good when they are released.
This is sort of related, so I didn't want to start a new thread--has anyone seen any comparison between the Ryzen 5 2600 and the new Ryzen 3 3300x? The new R3 is cheaper, and I am wondering if it would outperform the R5 2600? Of course, with the new 3300x I would have to buy a B550 mobo.
No, I will be rendering on my GPU, cpu is just for general computing.
You don't need a B550 for any Ryzen 3000 CPU. You can run them on all 4x0 chipsets. You should check for motherboards that have an updated BIOS so it is just plug and play.
Also AMD just announced that the 4x0 boards will support the next gen of Ryzen CPU's, contrary their previous position. Unless you really need PCIE gen4 or are willing to wait and see what the B550's cost there is no reason not to go with B450.
As to the 2600 vs ther 3300x or the 3100 the 3000 chips have a sizable IPC increase so these should be superior in primarily single threaded applications and near comparable in multi threaded. The differences between the 3100 and 3300X are subtle but if you can swing the extra cost get the 3300x. It is a more powerful CPU for a small price bump.
Also to these claims that high core count desktop APU's are coming? Still not announced and since the high core laptop APU's are flying off the shelves their is very little chance AMD will put those chips into desktop packages when they will have a very small market.
Yes, looks like only 20 dollars more for the 3300x. It's a no-brainer to me to spend a little extra.
Interesting about the 450 boards supporting it, I will have to look into that more, I thought I would have to get a B550.
If the B450 says something like "AMD Ryzen 3000 Ready" it supports the full Ryzen 3000 lineup. You just need to check the packaging or the product listing to be sure. I know any MSI B450 board that includes the Max branding supports Ryzen 3k.
So B550 was officially announced today, with a June 16th launch date.
While a few of the B550 motherboard pages that have are now viewable online today pussy foot around r.e which 'future Ryzen CPUs with Vega graphics' they will be supporting, Asrock specifically mentions Renoir:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B550M-ITXac/index.asp
The fact that B550 boards come with integrated graphics ports (HDMI) is also a clue...
The rumormill has been leaking like a sieve about Desktop Renor recently, noting 4 core, 6 core, and 8 core variants of said processors (Igor's Labs mentions 4200G/4400G/4700G). One interesting rumor, however, noted that Renoir may only support PCIe3. PCIe 4 isn't providing a lot of benefit currently, however, since the Ryzen 3000 series CPUs (not APUs) have double the PCIe bandwidth, this is noteworthy and worth keeping tabs on, as we get closer to an official announcement.
https://www.hardwaretimes.com/amd-ryzen-4000-desktop-apus-renoir-to-support-only-pcie-3-0-x8-for-graphics-cards/
In any case, just wanted to note the Desktop Renoir support specifically stated for the linked Asrock board. As I noted in a previous post, we may be looking at a July launch for desktop Renoir processors, if the rumors hold true. And, based on the leaks and benchmarks of said 4000 series APUs that continue to appear on a regular basis, plus the fact that a couple of the articles today noted that the B550's WON'T be supporting Picasso APUs (3200G/3400G), at least at launch, is noteworthy.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-zen-3-b550-x570-motherboard-compatible
On a related note, Intel's upcoming Tiger Lake CPUs will supposedly deliver twice the integrated graphics performance of the current Ice Lake CPUs...
https://www.techradar.com/news/intel-tiger-lake-cpus-will-deliver-twice-the-graphics-performance-of-ice-lake
That's noteworthy for those around here that may be considering a new Intel system...
Quick followup edit:
Just looked over the Asrock B550 Taichi specs, which has 3 PCIe 16 slots. It's showing a Gen 3 lane split of 8 + 8 + 4 with Renoir if all three slots are occupied, with the first M2 slot being Gen 3 as well. That looks much more promising r.e. multi-GPU setups. There's still the question of how the integrated GPU may play into that, but worst case maybe a 4/4/4 lane split for the PCIe slots and 8 lanes to the integrated Vega graphics? I guess we'll find out soon enough!
Specs here:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B550 Taichi/#Specification