Serious Hobbyist Setup

[mike_warning]

Hello folks,

I've been getting into V-ray (with Sketchup) for the past couple of months doing interior renderings and quite enjoy it. I'm currently using an old gaming machine (i9-9900k, 64GB ram, RTX 2080) and I'm wondering about possibly upgrade the hardware to cut down on render times. I'm not in a super rush (ie, it's just a hobby), but if there is a mid-tier setup that would speed things up, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks kindly for any suggestions.

Mike

[seandunderdale]

uhhh, that is easily a mid tier setup...Until recently Ive been on a 1950x threadripper, a 1080ti and 64gb RAM. (upgrade to 128 last month) and I do this fulltime and render suuuuper high res cars....current shot is 15k.

I guess the question is, are you going to be GPU rendering or CPU? That is a below average CPU to be fair if you throw a lot at it, but your GPU is more than adequate for decent render times.

If you are set on a new rig, Id suggest a Threadripper 3960 or 3970, 64GB ram (or 128 if you feel 64 is too little) and a 3060 or 3070 Nvidia GPU. This is basically the setup Im getting for my new pc, but I might break the bank and go for the 3990x CPU. If a threadripper CPU is too pricey, Id go with a high end Ryzen.

[mike_warning]

uhhh, that is easily a mid tier setup...Until recently Ive been on a 1950x threadripper, a 1080ti and 64gb RAM. (upgrade to 128 last month) and I do this fulltime and render suuuuper high res cars....current shot is 15k.

I guess the question is, are you going to be GPU rendering or CPU? That is a below average CPU to be fair if you throw a lot at it, but your GPU is more than adequate for decent render times.

If you are set on a new rig, Id suggest a Threadripper 3960 or 3970, 64GB ram (or 128 if you feel 64 is too little) and a 3060 or 3070 Nvidia GPU. This is basically the setup Im getting for my new pc, but I might break the bank and go for the 3990x CPU. If a threadripper CPU is too pricey, Id go with a high end Ryzen.

Thanks for the reply! I guess I need to experiment more to see the differences between CPU and GPU. My understanding is that CPU will deliver better results, while GPU will be faster typically? For the work I'm doing, it probably honestly doesn't matter. I'll have to play around and see. Interactive Rendering is cool and all, but as I'm learning, I like the see the results of the fine details and so faster render times is helpful as it lets me iterate more quickly.

[seandunderdale]

My understanding is that CPU will deliver better results, while GPU will be faster typically?

Thats not really true.....You can get to the same end results (not pixel exact). I find CPU to be more supported in fully stable features, fewer workarounds to remember, no drivers to worry about if things get buggy. Lights and shaders work the same so you can do great images on either, but its just how you get there. If you can find a way to make GPU work for you, you can buy a few 3080tis and tear through renders. Personally Id rather buy a 3990x cpu and not worry about the idiosyncrasies I found when GPU rendering.

GPU might on the whole crunch numbers faster to get the renders done, but its the overall workflow that also counts. I found I was trying to work out why I had issues and that adds to the total project time. Switch on denoiser in RT with any decent rig though and youll have super fast iterations.

[mike_warning]

Thats not really true.....You can get to the same end results (not pixel exact). I find CPU to be more supported in fully stable features, fewer workarounds to remember, no drivers to worry about if things get buggy. Lights and shaders work the same so you can do great images on either, but its just how you get there. If you can find a way to make GPU work for you, you can buy a few 3080tis and tear through renders. Personally Id rather buy a 3990x cpu and not worry about the idiosyncrasies I found when GPU rendering.

GPU might on the whole crunch numbers faster to get the renders done, but its the overall workflow that also counts. I found I was trying to work out why I had issues and that adds to the total project time. Switch on denoiser in RT with any decent rig though and youll have super fast iterations.

I see. Well, in that case GPU rendering sounds like something I can stomach given that I'm not in a busy production environment and can deal with a few quirks here and there. With that said, is there any merit into getting another 2080 or something similar -- would it help speed things up if rendering with the GPU?

[seandunderdale]

Yes, you can add as many GPUs to the mix as your setup allows. (Be aware of wattage, heating, space in the case, motherboard limitations). They wont share memory (you need GPUs with NV link for that), but every gpu you add will add buckets to the render process.

[piotrus3333]

go CPU, if you are not using any real time engine buying GPU now is simply waste of money. and even if you are planning on dipping your toes in UE - 2080 is enough.
also learning VRay through VRay GPU is a bit backwards. you will miss out on a lot of features and get frustrated with troubleshooting (documentation is quite lacking on gpu side).

[mike_warning]

Yes, you can add as many GPUs to the mix as your setup allows. (Be aware of wattage, heating, space in the case, motherboard limitations). They wont share memory (you need GPUs with NV link for that), but every gpu you add will add buckets to the render process.

While doing GPU rendering using my RTX 2080, is there any metric that would help me understand how much faster a render might take if I added say a second 2080?

[seandunderdale]

twice as many buckets....in theory twice as fast? I might be wrong, but when I doubled my 1080ti count that was kind of the result.