New Workstation

[glorybound]

Sometimes GPU makes more sense than CPU, but other times not so much. I wish I could do everything in GPU, but it is usually a hit/miss.

[dlparisi]

$1,750 for a machine which is half the CPU rendering speed as one at $20,000

As super gnu mentioned, the 3900 is not HALF the speed of the 3990x. The 3990x is at least 3 and more like 4-5 times faster judging by all of the benchmarks I've seen. I'm not saying the price/performance is justified but for some people it does make sense. When you factor in the additional costs of all of the machines, vray licenses, electricity, network overhead, headaches, etc. an uber powerful machine does make sense in some cases. $20k does seem way overpriced though for the entire system, I'd guess somewhere in the $12-13k range.

[dlparisi]

I can't get what I want for much under $20,000. Basically, 3090X Ryzen 32 core, 128Gb of RAM, and 2 RTX 3090's. Is this what I should expect to pay for a decent machine?

In what universe is this just a "decent" machine?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Your comparison and advice is very bad :I

$1,750 for a machine which is half the CPU rendering speed as one at $20,000

That is not true,
3990x scores close to 70k in vray bench, 3950x is around 18k
And like what Super Gnu said, it is 7000 Euros without GPUs.. It is actually a very good value overall in many ways

it's all your eggs in one basket if you get a hardware failure.

This is not how you make a choice in my view. It is like telling someone who is buying a new car that he is gonna crash it ?
Hardware is very reliable nowadays, specially that he is getting a prebuilt from Maingear.. once it is setup there is no reason to think this is gonna fail

The 3950x is half the speed as the 3990x - so 2 of them in DR should be pretty close to the same, except you've spent $1,400 on cpu's instead of $4,000

Nope, again have a look at the scores here
https://benchmark.chaosgroup.com/v5/...ng=desc&by=max
and I wouldn't compare DR to local this way.. This is not how it works, and scaling is not 100% linear
This is not just about final rendering, look-dev is still part of the equation ..

glorybound

You gonna need 4 machines at least with 3950x with DR to beat a single 3990x in final rendering, and for Look-dev and IPR the 3990x comes on top
@7000 Euros without GPUs, the 3990x is a much better choice than having 4 machines and dealing with DR
And @ 12k Euros with 2x 3090s with a custom loop for CPU and GPUs.. this is a very good deal, considering how you use GPU rendering on some projects. This is how I would spend my own money
I get commissions building high-end CPU and GPU rendering machines, it is fucking nuts to tell a client to invest in 6x 3950 machines instead of a single 3990x machine(to save a few hundred bucks supposedly)
Even the technical folks who are used to DR rendering and whatnot.. This haven't happened a single time, everyone goes Threadripper now..These CPUs changed the industry in many ways

[Neilg]

Looks like I was misinformed, so sorry about that.
I do still believe having a second machine to render while you work during the day is critical. rendering in the background while trying to do other things is miserable.

[glorybound]

In what universe is this just a "decent" machine?

Do I sense sarcasm?

[dlparisi]

A little...

[padre.ayuso]

It's 8x $1500 machines. few are rendering full time if they need to, the rest are workstations and going at night. This is 6 people in Miami with multiple jobs on at once.
I think the NY studio has 30 of the same machines.

Edit: i wasn't trying to bang on about that, i was just saying - get a powerful desktop, but maybe ease it back to mid power range - 10k even seems ludicrously high and get a second which can render while you work as a backup. If one goes down you're not totally screwed.

I have a farm too, an old one at that (5 years or older) with a total of 5 machines. My 3K renderings go for about 20 minutes (noise level at .03). I can't agree with Neil enough, render in the background with OK machines. There are companies that will build you a good machine of older generation CPUs and RAM for half the price (I have a company in mind, I'll research the name tomorrow, it skipped my mind). Then super duper main machine for all your work and if needed, you can use that machine for last minute renderings and DR to the back machine, for a super fast final rendering.

[super gnu]

given Bobby already has at least one quite powerful machine ( plus a few older ones i would guess) he alreday has the capacity to offload/use DR for final images

[super gnu]

Your comparison and advice is very bad :I



That is not true,
3990x scores close to 70k in vray bench, 3950x is around 18k

and turn on PBO with a decent cooler and i get 90k in vray bench. (about an extra 3950x for free!) the difference is quite noticeable in ipr and rendertimes.

not sure what the 3950 gets but i know the 3990 is so conservatively clocked (unlike the other models) that its really the only zen2 chip which shows decent improvements with PBO (even allowing 350watts up from the baseline 280 makes a huge difference) . if i had a better motherboard i could probably hit 100k in vray benchmark, but my vrm overheats if i push it too far, and the wattage through that little slab of (very expensive) silicon would make me a bit nervous! .

[Muhammed_Hamed]

super gnu I was talking about Vray 5 Benchmark scores, I had a link in my message. 100k in the old benchmark is like 60-65k in the new one
The ratio is correct though, he will need at least 4x 3950x in DR will be able to match/beat a single 3990x
Also part of the reason I recommend the expensive boards above(compared to the one he had in the screenshot), either the creation or Zenith board I'm able to run all cores at 3.5 and 3.6 GHz, but best is to do the OC per CCX(with PBO off) and have a single high CCX at 3.8 or so for single threaded tasks..
You gonna need to set the voltage manually as well (to control the heat)

and the wattage through that little slab of (very expensive) silicon would make me a bit nervous!

the silicon is carefully selected for this CPU, it is best you can find in any AMD CPU .. as long as your temps are below 80 feel free
In every build with this CPU, I have been limited by thermals .. I think a custom loop would be handy in this case

[super gnu]

ahh ok, yes i am indeed on an old benchmark version.. doh.

and yeah, my cooling system is monstrous (2x mora3 radiators and dual pumps) but the cheapy asrock creator motherboard, despite claiming a 1000w vrm, actually downclocks cpu if it goes much over 400w for a sustained period. -fine for literally any cpu apart from this one.. - im in the process of getting custom vrm waterblocks machined.. might get a bit more "go" out of it yet.

given how fast it is though, i cant quite justify spending on a new mobo, and its rock-solid stable within its limits. dont think ive had a pc crash since building it, which is, frankly, unheard of.


p.s. sorry Bobby for the thread hijack... tldr: get a 3990x

[JezUK]

Each time I’ve upgraded my machine, I’ve pondered whether to continue using the old machine as the main machine and have the new, more powerful machine with its faster CPU’d as the one for sending renders to....

I’ve never actually ended up doing that (in my case I have two identical machines right now), but it does seem to make some sense (if your display and viewport performances have never been a problem).

[super gnu]

Each time I’ve upgraded my machine, I’ve pondered whether to continue using the old machine as the main machine and have the new, more powerful machine with its faster CPU’d as the one for sending renders to....

I’ve never actually ended up doing that (in my case I have two identical machines right now), but it does seem to make some sense (if your display and viewport performances have never been a problem).

i could never do that.. i spend too much time waiting for my pc to do stuff as it is..not just rendering. to know i have a faster machine sitting idle..?

i could maybe understand swapping to the slower machine to work if you have a big render to get out quick.. but in that case id probably be putting both machines on it and going out for lunch, or to bed.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Part of getting stuck to GPU rendering, I can have a 5k render on GPU and my machine still would be usable fully (using a different GPU for monitors/viiewport)
I have a 3070 and 3090 now, Only using the 3090 for rendering...
Even for CPU rendering, I leave 4 threads off so that I can do modeling or Nuke.. leaving 4 threads (2 cores off) barely affects rendering speed

And nice build you have super gnu I think we talked about your build in the past?
If we did, then I'm sure I mentioned VRMs and Mobo choice for this CPU..
Even back at the 2990wx, High-end Mobos were necessary .. Creator and Zenith as well