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Second Video Card? Help!

Aphrodite_NSAphrodite_NS Posts: 6
in The Commons

After years of using Poser I recently switched back to DAZ. Over all the switch back has gone pretty smooth. But one thing I keep running into are insantly long render times (compared to Poser) and was wondering if a second video card (or a single/different upgrade) would help.

I've never had to run with two video cards before, so not really sure what to look for. Also, I am not really looking to spend $1,000+ on a second video card. I know there are some more affordable ones out there for less. Any help, advice would be appreciated. :) 

Current System Specs:
Intel i7-6700K Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo Boost 2.0, Overclocked up to 4.2GHz on all four cores)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with 8 GB GDDR5X
32GB (4X8GB) DDR4 2133MHz SDRAM 
850W Power Supply
32" Ultrawide Monitor
 

Comments

  • kenshaw011267kenshaw011267 Posts: 3,805

    Something like a 2070 Super, or even a 2060 Super, would speed your renders substantially. You do have to verify that your scenes actually fit in 8Gb of VRAM.  Since you don't say how long renders are taking it is possible they are dropping to CPU which adding another card won't help with.

    BTW if you do add a second card you'll need to reverse the OC on the CPU most likely. While that performance gain is tiny it does draw a lot of power and might strain the PSU with a second card.

  • Aphrodite_NSAphrodite_NS Posts: 6
    kenshaw011267 said:

    Something like a 2070 Super, or even a 2060 Super, would speed your renders substantially. You do have to verify that your scenes actually fit in 8Gb of VRAM.  Since you don't say how long renders are taking it is possible they are dropping to CPU which adding another card won't help with.

    BTW if you do add a second card you'll need to reverse the OC on the CPU most likely. While that performance gain is tiny it does draw a lot of power and might strain the PSU with a second card.

    Thanks! We feared a second card may be to much for our power supply. So an upgrade to a different single card is something we are totally willing to accept. 

    We quickly learned that a scene with say 4 characters + props isn't going to be something we persue in DAZ any time soon (This took an hour in Poser https://www.deviantart.com/aphrodite-ns/art/Azra-dite-and-Raessa-Suicide-Squad-666217444 )  where as our 4 person + props attempt in DAZ didn't even pass 5% after an hour. (we ended up splitting it into two renders and splicing it together in PS later). 

  • kenshaw011267kenshaw011267 Posts: 3,805

    4 people and props, depending on precisely what figures and props, is going to be a bit much for an 8Gb card.

    If you want to do that in DS on an 8Gb you can get something like Scene Optimizer and get very good results.  An hour to an hour and a half on a 1080 should get you to avery spot, if not completely finished.

    That SW render is going to be tough to pull of in DS in iRay in any sort of reasonable timeframe.

  • TheKDTheKD Posts: 2,711
    edited May 2020

    I have a 850W, It runs my 2080 super and 1070 along with 6 hard drives just fine. CPU is a ryzen 5 2600x though, not sure what the difference in power draw is, can't find a comparison on google.

    Post edited by TheKD on
  • kenshaw011267kenshaw011267 Posts: 3,805

    2600x is 95W. 6700k is 91W before OC. Overclocking it to an all core of the boost probably comes close to doubling the power draw.

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643

    https://www.daz3d.com/scene-optimizer is definitely the way to go if you have a few characters to get in a shot.

  • outrider42outrider42 Posts: 3,679

    You can absolutely get 4 characters and props into 8GB of VRAM, you just takes some work to optimize it. There are lot of tricks you can use to save memory. In that pic you posted, all of the characters are not too close to the camera. So you can create alternate textures that your reduced in size and/or compressed. You can save a ton of data just doing this. Scene Optimizer can help automate that task for you.

    Mattymanx's product is another one. https://www.daz3d.com/resource-saver-shaders-collection-for-iray  I suggest you look at the promo pics, because the promo pics actually have a lot of nice tips in them. Possibly the most helpful promo pics ever.

    Optimizing the scene doesn't just help VRAM use, it will also help render faster even it already fits in VRAM. Its just easier for Iray to do its calculations. So you can get a ton of benefits from optimizing.

    Anyway, a 850 W power supply should be decent enough if you don't go overboard. It might depend on how much power your overclocked CPU is using. The 2060 Super would offer 8GB to match you 1080, which is ideal, and its a $400 card. The ray tracing cores it has would provide a noticeable bump in render speed, making render faster than Pascal cards that should be well above its class. The 2060 Super can match and beat a 1080ti in Iray. We have numbers to prove it.

    There is a Iray benchmark thread in my sig. You can download that test scene and take it yourself. Then look at the times other people are getting, try to compare the same version of Daz Iray, because it has changed. It is a little harder to say just how you will fare running a 1080 + specific cards, but you can still get a good idea of what to expect. Of course this does not factor VRAM. If you run out of VRAM, its all for nothing, LOL.

    You don't have many options for more VRAM. You basically only have a used 1080ti with 11GB or a 2080ti. The 2080ti is beyond $1000, and you will not find a Quadro with more memory under $1000 either.

    There is one other possible option, new GPUs are due in September. There is no official announcement at all, all we have are rumors, but rumors do say we could get a 3080 with 10GB. If that happens, then you would have a sub $1000 GPU with a little extra VRAM, and it would be WAY faster. This option has its own drawbacks, since nothing is confirmed yet, it may not be real or it may get delayed. And it may be hard to get one of these when they launch. So it depends on how well you are handling things right now. Either way, you will need to try to optimize scenes to fit into VRAM, even if you buy a card today.

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643
    edited May 2020

    Mattymanx's product that outrider42 mentioned is also a good one to get more characters/objects in a scene and the promo pics definitely have useful tips.

    Post edited by Kevin Sanderson on
  • Aphrodite_NSAphrodite_NS Posts: 6

    Thanks everyone! Appreciate it. Time to do our home work a bit. :) 

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