Hardware Requirements for a PC to run only DAZ3d
roshand13
Posts: 0
Hello Guys i am looking to replace my old dell workstation. Could you guys sujjest pc that would make quick work at rendering in DAZ.
Thank you
Roshan David
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
© 2026 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
For Daz Studio the ideal part is a good (lots of memory) nVidia RTX graphics card, plus enough system memory to handle both the scene in Daz Srtudio and the data to be sent to Iray. CPU is less important using Iray, as long as your scenes don't exceed the available memory, and dForce but is used if the graphics card runs out of memory or for 3Delight. Content wil potentially eat up a lot of disc space - I think it's fair to say that most people find a high-capacity mechanical HD best. Without more detail on your budget and the sort of scenes you render it's hard to be more precise.
If you have atleast 16 gigs of RAM and a Nvidia RTX 3060 card you can have decent completed renders in about 2 minutes. More RAM (say 32 gigs) and a faster card (3070-3090) the render times would be shorter.
The concensus is that there should be three times more RAM than VRAM, 16GB's of RAM is not much.
What's the difference between Nvidia RTX 3060 and Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti?
The RTX 3060 Ti has just 8GB's of VRAM as the RTX 3060 has 12GB's
at least two pci express slots with enough room for double wide cards.
----
I built my machine before (just) iray arrived so I got dual xeons and 64g of ram. (and at that point a 980 ti 6g.. should have gotten the 12
Daz doesn't use the cpus (unless it's a 3dl render) and the only time the ram has been stressed was when I forgot to reset the speed setting for using ultra
but I can have both my titanX and the 980 in the machine at the same time and if the spacing had been right a third video card ... could do it but have to use riser cables etc.
but when I get the money for a 3080 or better the card will drop right in.
---
even if you don't feel positive about building your own... check to see if a friend does.
when I did mine (this is not a mac bash but that was my comparison at the time)
the mac pro tower was $2000 for a e1630v2 16g ddr3 and 4g of vram memory was 4 x 4 in 4 slots so you had to dump ram to upgrade
---
my machine asus server board $500 est cost of one 2630v3 $800* 64 g ddr4 4x16 in 4 of available 16 slots $450 and $500 for the 980ti
*I ended up getting two of the 2630v3 for $650 on ebay (i figured that one ... I'd never had an intel processor die and two if I lost one I'd still be equal to just having one (6 years and both are still chugging along)
If you're anywhere with used computer places I got my thermaltake server case used for $25
----
with dell and some others you used to get issues with upgrading systems or restores because they tend to put a proprietary file on the hard disk
Hi!
Which matters most during rendering? The number of cuda cores or the size of VRAM?
For example:
3584 cuda cores with 12 GB VRAM vs. 4864 cuda cores with 8GB VRAM?
Thank you!
Amount of VRAM is pretty important as if your scene doesn't fit in the card VRAM then the card can't be used at all.
If the scene fits and you can use the GPU to render, more CUDA cores (when comparing cards of the same generation) means it will render faster.
If you tend to create memory heavy scenes which use lots of elements / textures for example, go for more VRAM.
With the newest versions of DS, using assets released within the last 2 years, 8GB's of VRAM is very limiting. The speed difference is negligible, so why pay more for less?
Do not go to the gaming community for advice on this, as DS is nothing like a game.
OK, a disclaimer first: your mileage will vary. I started using DAZ 3D with a computer using a GTX 1060 and 32 gigs of RAM. Lockups, CTDs, and my video card would cease to function. Using single figures and simple backgrounds at lower resolutions solved that mostly. That didn't help that I wanted to do more complex renders. So, the simple thing was to increase RAM, which enabled more complex pictures. Well, that worked sort of. At 64 RAM, I was still getting CTDs, and my system would still forget it had a graphics card. I then purchased an RTX 3090. My checkbook was screaming, but it solved issues. And it caused issues. My old 1200-watt PS couldn't handle the RTX 3090 and blew, taking out the motherboard and CPU. OK, new motherboard, new AMD CPU, and I jumped the RAM top 96 gigs. Still, on complex setups, I'd get GPU lockups and CTDs, Admittedly, on very difficult renders. I went and got 128 gigs of RAM, and everything worked all the time. 4K renders, particle effects, and reflections, all at the same time, no problem at all. The render might take 90 minutes, but by God, they work. No crashes, no GPU lockups, not ever.
Now, what does that mean to you? Well, if you are doing simple sets at low resolutions, a rig like this isn't going to do much but give you 90-second renders. Secondly, this is a single dataset experience. Will it happen to you? I can't say. I will say that if you go and get an RTX 4090, make sure you get a brand-new 1500 power supply. These high-end cards can and will eat old, or weak power supplies for lunch and may do some serious damage doing so.
I generally work with multiple models in a scene. Over the last few weeks, I've been experimenting a little. I run with a 12gb RTX3060, 64GB Ram and an i7 intel CPU. As long as my scenery isn't too complex or high poly, I can generally run renders with 4xG8 midels in about 10-20 mins. The less models I have, the faster it goes. The more detailed the scenery, the slower it goes. At 5xG8s in a scene, I'm usually falling over into CPU rendering. So, as the wise folks have already said, it depends on what you intend to do. The more models you want to use, or the more complex the scenery, then the chunkier the vid card memory you'll need. If you can afford it, then an RTX40 series is ideal. 16gb RTX4060s will give a lot of flexibility. If you're rich, then get a 24gb RTX 4090. If your budget is more limited, then a 12gb RTX 3060 isn't a bad choice.
Of course one can bring a super computer to it's knees if one doesn't know how much resources which element and which materials take, but a 12GB RTX 3060 does go a long way.
This scene had at one point two more G8 characters and a Dog 8 in it, nothing is hidden, the whole town is there and it still rendered on GPU (RTX 3060 12GB)
Rest of the setup; Asus X99, i7-5820K, 64GB's, 6 internal SSD's and 7 external USB's, powered by 750W PSU - Never had any stability issues with this, not in DS and not in any other program.
Note that with something like scene optimiser, you can do double digit number of characters if you're prepared to forego all the 4k/8k maps, etc. And if you have that many characters you're surely not doing a close-up portrait, so it's all good.
Absolutely. My thoughts were just to give a benchmark with no tricks or techniques applied. For my private projects I just get lazy and let renders run, but I know there are lots of things I can do to speed them up.
I had run DAX on basically a gaming rig for a few years then decided to get serious during the early stages of the pandemic and built a rig to run a RTX 3090 but was never able to get one (kept missing when EVGA had them in stock). Ran mt GTX 1070 for a while and finally settled on a RTX 306012GB that worked well for most of my scenes but when Genesis 9 came out I decided to get REALLY serious.
Original Build:
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X @ 4.3 Gh (mildly overclocked)
Gigabyte X570 Aorus PRO WIFI motherboard
EVGA 3060 12GB using Nvidia Studio Drivers
32 GB (2x16 GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR-4 3600 memory
Samsung 870 EVO 1TB SSD
2 Western Digital Blue WD20EZRZ 2TB HDDs in a mirrored array
EVGA Supernova 1200 P2 PSU
CoolerMaster H500P Mesh Wihte case
AOC 27G2G4 G-Sync Monitor @ 1080p
Windows 10 Professional 64
After the upgrade:
System Specs: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X @ 4.3 GH (mildly overclocked).
Gigabyte X570 Aorus PRO WIFI Motherboard
Gigabyte RTX 4090 AERO @ stock speed using Nvidia Studio Drivers
64 GB (2x32GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR-4 3600 memory
Samsung 870 EVO 4TB SSD
2 Western Digital Blue WD20EZRZ 2TB HDDs in a mirrored array
EVGA Supernova 1200 P2 PSU
CoolerMaster H500P Mesh Wihte case
AOC 27G2G4 G-Sync Monitor @ 1080p
Windows 10 Professional 64
My 4090 AERO cost almost as much as the rest of my puter put together but was worth it. It is almost night & day in the difference a really good video card makes. If you can swing it, get the fastest largest Nvidia card with the most cuda cores you can afford and run the studio drivers.
well there is always cloud rendering services too
I don't use them but quite a few people do
I would know what DAZ Studio Pro version do I need to run it properly with my nVdia GTX 970 graphic card (and the newest drivers (NOT the Studio drivers))?
Since DAZ Studio 4.20/4.22, I am having problems when viewing in 'Iray Render' and clickin on 'Render' to render my work. Soon, Microsoft Windows 10 begins to make loud noises, slows down other applications, so that it is not possible to work properly while DAZ is rendering in Iray.
I would know where I can get older DAZ Studio versions that work(ed) with nVdia GTX 970 (too). I do not know where to ask for older DAZ versions (here on DAZ Forum). Sorry.
At the moment, I use 4.24+. But the nwever the version (since 4.22) the more problems happen(ed) with Windows and nVidia.
By the way, I really do not understand, WHY it is not possible to get older DAZ version here? Is it "illegal"!? I ask it because I do not have nVdia RTX (that is required by DAZ Studio, if I'm correct, since version 4.20).
Thnak you! . .
* * *
My system specs:
Microsft Windows 10
Intel i7 (4 cores / 8 threats)
16 GB system RAM.
nVidia GTX 970 (with 6 GB DEDICATED RAM)
SSD hard disk drive (250 GB), plus 1 TB SSD hard disk drive.
* * *
Daz doesn't offer older versions of DS for download, they never have since DS was introduced.
You can try asking the support team by opening a support ticket in Help Center, but they likely won't be able to provide you with the old version you want, especially now that they don't have a license to distribute 3DL anymore (which would be included in that older version).
No one else can legally provide you with a copy of DS since the license doesn't allow redistribution.
My best guess, you're system is dropping to cpu rendering, cause you're running out of vram on the gpu and/or you're running out of system ram and it's going to the Page file(hdd).
A couple things to check, see if "Allow CPU Fallback" is enabled in Render settings and have Task manger open to see what your cpu and sysram usage are during rendering.
If "allow cpu fallback" is enabled, turn that off, so if you exceed your available vram the render will just fail.
It's generally a bad idea to try and do anything else when rendering and you only have a single gpu. It can cause all sorts of problems, upto a full system crash.
There's not going to be much of a difference in drivers for a 970 on windows 10, as they are designated "legacy" and are only getting security updates at this point.
Latest driver, for win10, is 582.66 released in june of this year.
Greetings, Leana!
I didn't know it that DAZ never allow(ed) older version, because of what ever easons. Now, I know. But, it's too bad to 'live' with newer versions!
I already asked (weeks ago) to the support team. But it's very, VERY complicated to find out WHERE to write to the team!
Bottom of every page in the black area, click on "Help Center". When that page opens, click "Sign In" at the top right, then click the "Submit a Request" button next to it. Follow the steps from there.
Hallo and greetings, Drunkmonkeyproductions!
I did NOT allow 'Alow CPU Fallback' in the settings. ONLY the GPU is allowed - no CPU. IF I allow it my computer begins to stutter and make loud noises and slows down everything - as long as I view in 'Iray Render' mode and click on 'Render' (Iray) that opens opens new window..
I have the lates nVidia graphic card driver.
Wheen I had older DAZ Studio version (like 4.14) I had almost no CPU/GPU issues or slow downs.
Thank you both of you for helpful information(s)! It looks like I can do nothing to get older version. But I hope to get answer from the Support Team.
Don't use the viewport in Iray mode when starting a render, this will swallow up even more VRAM. Switch to one of the line views before clicking to start the render.
If you are still struggling to render, allow CPU fallback but limit the number of cores it can use. I have a 16 core processor and have the fallback limit set to 14 cores. This prevents system freezing.
Hallo, dear friend.
What you mean eaxctly with "line views"?? Where is this?
I start in Viewport mode (1920x1080) first as long as I am not yet ready to render. Then...I change to Iray (to start Iray render).
But... I do not know what a 'line view' is!
Like I said before, when I activate processors (CPU) my Laptop begins to stutter (MOSTLY audio) and Windows slows down to a 'turtle speed'!
When I render in Iray, a picture (1920x1080) takes approx. 10 minutes to finish. But it can take up to 20 minutes too (when I render two figures).
But I will try any-thing and every-thing (from users like you who try to help me).
I expect Line means the wireframe Drawstyles, only one (Hidden Line) mentions lines as such. However, I am not sure how much beenfit in choosing one OpenGL mode over another - they all reduce the load on the GPU compared to Iray or even Filament.
Just ordered a new system and installed DAZ6 Premier; and I have to say, it's a brand new world. I have been running up-to-date Daz4.xx on a Dell Precision 7710 laptop and was getting frustrated with the performance and the extremely long rendering times. Couldn't experiment, couldn't learn because of the limitations of the system and extended times of the renders. Frustration to the MAX! Well, I then decided, what the heck, it's only one life, and time is money! And the 7710 is not upgradable to Windows 11. Needed and new system anyway, so........
I called up Dell and ordered an new Dell Alienware Area-51 AAT2265:
CPU
Bluetooth(R) wireless card
Loaded up Daz6 and started with old projects. OMG this thing is a F..ing MONSTER! Yes I have noticed some compatibility problems with older content with the new Daz6, and I am sure that there are more issue that will discover as I progress into the new world. But the fact is IT IS AN ALL NEW WORLD! Older projects that would take up to 2 hours to render now finished in one or two minutes! Some that just never finished now take maybe 5 minutes. Thanks to the new AMD processor, I can preview my scene in the viewport in Iray, and yes it does run the CPU for the main viewport in Iray, but the new processor kicks on all the cooling fans and clocks up to 5.6Mhz and handles it smartly. No problems with the RTX 5090 support so far, and it renders my projects 100 percent in the Graphic card. I have not had any issues in rendering older finished .DUF files on the new machine that were done on the old one with Daz 4.xx. I will keep the 'old' Dell laptop and run the Daz 4.xx releases for compatibality to the old content products until they catch up (if ever), and render them on the new system. The 7710 seems to design just fine and quickly, it just cannot render or view in Iray like the new Alien.
The new GRAPHICS BOARD makes all the difference, I ordered this processor purposely around and to support that Nvidia Gforce RTX 5090. Everything else is secondary. While rendering the graphics board goes to 100% utilization, and the CPU loafs around at about .6 to 1%. It doesn't seem to load the main memory very much at all (normal operating system loading), so one might get away with less main memory than 64GB. One of the other forum comments is correct; DO NO leave the viewport in Iray mode while rendering, change it to anything else or you will eat up CPU time (and raise your electric bill). The CPU and the Graphics board seem to work independantly; that is, the graphics board handles the renders while the CPU handles the main viewport. Very little if any GPU activity while designing in the viewport.
Some of my more complex scenes with a lot of background and multiple characters and lighting took up about 12 to 13 gb int the GPU while rendering, but well within the GPU capacity.
In conclusion, I was extremely reluctant to invest in such a system because of the cost, but after this experience, I shall NEVER look back; it was worth every penny. I expect that as DAZ6 becomes more matue, it will get even better, and the content vendors will catch up eventually. Patience and the experience is WELL WORTH IT!!
Things that I found: You can save money if you hunt around to find a unit that comes installed with the RTX 5090 as part the build. It's a lot less expensive than trying to buy the 5090 on it's own (God awful expensive) to install in a new or existing unit. The 5090 requires approximately 580 watts on its own and will demand a very healthy power supply. I found some pretty good deals on other computer brands including Dell with smaller AMD and Intel processors, for less memory (couple of thound $'s), and as I said, the processor and memory may not be such a big issue, so don't go overboard on these counts. Oh, and by the way, the 5090 is a big chunky subsystem (saying it is a graphics board understates the size). It requires a big case, big power supply, special support bracing, and lots of cooling fans!
After shopping around a LOT, I finally settled on the Dell because of the warranty and service package.
And,,, it runs Flight Simulator, Excel, Word, and Visual Studio pretty good too :-). And I can even check my E-mail while the render engine is running! Actually anything else in the forseeable future.
Please forgive my enthusam, I had to share the positive experience with Daz 6 and support for the Nvidia 50xx GPU's.
Good luck and good rendering!