CPU vs GPU on a new system

[Stirling]

I'm at a point where the system I set up some 7 or 8 years ago could do with an upgrade. The CPU was an Intel Xeon E5-2687W v3 3.1Ghz and added a second one a few years ago so in total that made 20 cores/40 threads. Also upgraded to 128GB RAM and changed the Quadro K6000 that I had originally to a 2080Ti when the motherboard blew and potentially it was the graphics card that did it. Annoyingly had to go with what was available at the time and soon after all of the new line of Geforce graphics cards came out.

I produce almost exclusively Arch Viz images (exteriors mainly) but would like to be able to do animation work in future if I could ever find the time. I use a lot of 3D vegetation with Forest Pack which is the main reason I'd like to upgrade to improve the speed of rendering this and also use Railclone a fair bit too. Also often have to render at around 9000x3000px due to the guidelines I work to where I often have to present the images at A1 so render times can really grow, especially with lots of veg.

So planning to build a new system and thinking to go with a Threadripper, maybe the 3990X or possibly the Pro 3995WX if it's worth the extra money. But should I be looking down the GPU route? I was heading that way a few years ago but there was something (can't remember what) that didn't work so stuck with CPU. Presumably it's all moved on a lot since then so is GPU a better way to go with the kind of work I do or should I stick to CPU?

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Hi Stirling

maybe the 3990X or possibly the Pro 3995WX if it's worth the extra money

If the price difference is 500 or 600 Euros go for 3995WX, and if it is +1000 Euros it will not be worth. Both CPUs are close in performance
Keep in mind that the 3995WX uses a completely different platform, and will require a more expensive Motherboard.

But should I be looking down the GPU route?

GPU rendering makes a lot of sense for animation rendering and dealing with massive resolutions, the biggest issue is memory limitation in your use case dealing with exterior scenes, if you still have the 2080ti you should invest some time into testing the GPU workflow
3090 or A5000 will offer 24 GB of memory, could be doubled with NVlink to 48 GB. It is not bad at all
Even if you end up investing in a good CPU, you can still test V-Ray GPU with Hybrid mode. And add more GPUs to the setup later on
Another factor is how expensive GPUs are at the moment, and in some places it is not possible to find GPUs at all. I would say if you can get a 3090 for less than 2500 Euros, go for it
3990x + 3090 should be great if it fits in your budget, then you can add a second GPU later if it all works out.

I used V-Ray GPU for 6 years in high-end Print. It helped massively dealing with 8k and 10 resolutions and it is easier to scale, adding more GPUs to the same machine

If you have questions on the GPU workflow, let me know

Best,
Muhammed

[Stirling]

Thanks for coming back to me about this. Much appreciated and very useful info.

I'll definitely have a look at the GPU workflow using the 2080ti. The issue with memory will be interesting, particularly with scenes heavy with Forest Pack objects.

[digitarch]

Muhammed, same here - we are stuck with archviz stills and cpu rendering for may years now, using 12 core ryzen 9 5900x which where a good bang for the money. we did not look at gpu rendering at all, still stuck with standard geforce gtx1660ti. With nowaday high gpu prices, should we think about new graphics card? Does a small RTX3050 (350 euros) make ANY difference? Does investing in RTX3070 or higher make sense? Really appreciate any comments...
Matthias

[Muhammed_Hamed]

With nowaday high gpu prices, should we think about new graphics card?

Hi Matthis,

GPU prices are going down in many places now, Germany, US, Australia and others. It is still higher than MSRP specially for the high-end GPUs, 3090s and 3080s but eventually it will settle this year.
It is not a bad idea to look at GPU rendering now in my view, to see if it fits your rendering needs. Even if you don't use it for production right away, you can test the GPU workflow for your needs, and you can ask us questions

Does a small RTX3050 (350 euros) make ANY difference? Does investing in RTX3070 or higher make sense?

I would recommend a 3060 12 GB at least, it is a great value GPU for rendering. It should be around 500 Euros at the moment, it is quite affordable, doesn't produce much heat and doesn't draw much power
12 GB of VRAM is not bad for Archvis, it should serve you well(unless your scenes are gigantic)
Keep in mind that an RTX 3060 offers 12 GB of GPU memory, more than a 3070 8 GB and 3050 8 GB and 3080 10 GB, this makes it a great value GPU for rendering

Another point is how you can use your CPUs in rendering with our Cuda mode on CPU. If you have a local CPU farm, you could use all your nodes to render your GPU scenes, and achieve identical results.

I have a 5900X as well, an RTX 3060 is twice as fast in GPU rendering. And a 3090 is more than 4 times faster
You can stack 4x 3060s in one machine and you cannot stack 4x 5900x CPUs in the same machine, this kind of expandability as well as rendering speed has been always the advantages of GPU rendering
Let me know if you have more questions.

Best,
Muhammed

[digitarch]

Hey Muhammed, thanks a lot for your fast replay. That really helps!
Matthias

[Stirling]

Dredging up this thread from back in March. I never made the upgrade at the time - someone advised that it would be worth waiting as there were going to be better options towards the end of this year. Who knows what that meant but I guess it could possibly have been the latest Threadripper processors.

I now have a decision to make between at 5995WX or the 5975WX. Is the astronomical price difference worth it?! I'm wondering whether it would be better to save on the processor and buy a 3090. If I went down that route, which 3090 card would be good to pick up? I get lost in the number of options out there.

[Micha]

I'm very happy with two MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GAMING TRIO 24G. I'm using it on factory speed and I'm happy about the noiseless fans if I don't render an image.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

I now have a decision to make between at 5995WX or the 5975WX. Is the astronomical price difference worth it?! I'm wondering whether it would be better to save on the processor and buy a 3090. If I went down that route, which 3090 card would be good to pick up? I get lost in the number of options out there.

the 5995WX is 9800 Euros here, it is super expensive. If you can find 3990x or 3995wx Pro at less than 4000 Euros that should be cheaper(feels odd calling this price cheaper, 4000 for a CPU is still very expensive)
on the other hand a 3090 or a 3090ti is less than 1000 Euros. Check out this post if you wanna know which 3090s to buy, I talk about this in details

The gamingX Trio cards that Micha has are excellent

Best,
Muhammed

[yusofadibmanesh]

In general, GPUs are much more expensive than CPUs!

Now the latest version of the 13th generation Intel CPU is around $800.

While with this money, you can buy an average graphics card like RTX 4070