Threadripper or mainstream CPU with multiple GPU’s ?

[CTRL SPACE]

Hi,

As I’m currently in the process of gathering info for a new PC build, one question I have is the relevance of a multicore high-end CPU (Threadripper) vs a multi GPU setup on a more mainstream (and cheaper) CPU/motherboard with RTX 4090/5090’s etc. Some considerations:

V-ray GPU rendering becoming more advanced but still missing CPU functionalities – will this change to a complete similarity over time?

Project file size with large amounts of objects and materials, Forest Pack for major landscaping etc. – Performance on Threadripper CPU and its large amount of ram vs multi GPU on mainstream CPU (with a possible video ram bottleneck?).

Software multi thread functionality vs high single core clock speed.

Max possible number of large GPU’s on non-threadripper motherboard? PCI lanes and support/speed.

Cost of adding/upgrading GPU’s along the way vs CPU/motherboard.


So TLDR: Where does the Threadripper shine vs a mainstream CPU with multi GPU’s today or in 5 years time, - according to Chaos Group maybe?


Software being used for the above considerations:

3ds Max 2025 with Vray 6 and Forest Pack 9
Autocad Mechanical 2025
Revit 2025
Unreal 5.4 (or Vantage in future) for VR
QGIS - Rhino 7
Photoshop - Illustrator - Indesign


Thanks in advance for any input,

[glorybound]

Occasionally, I dip my toes into GPU and always find myself back in CPU. I purchased a second 4090, tried with GPU, and am still back in CPU. I would say invest in CPU power.

[Vizioen]

Depends on which type of projects that you're doing, if you're doing interiors and occasionally some small houses, or product visualization, then I would test if GPU is for you. I'm used to CPU (Threadripper) and 256GB of ram, which I occasionally almost fill up. Granted I could optimize my scenes a bit more to shave of maybe 20GB but that's not going to make a lot of difference on GPU and the time that I spend optimizing is the time that it's rendering. You have out of core memory, or shared memory between multiple GPUs (I think), but that slows things down apparently. You would also need a couple of good GPUs to be performant enough to match that of a threadripper on more heavy scenes. But GPU for some use cases is a lot faster, just not for mine, so it's up to you to decide which projects you do and if GPU is a better choice for them. I tested a (very) simple scene GPU (1 x 3080ti) vs my Threadripper 3990x and it didn't come close in performance.

You also have Vantage and soon Envision, which also run on GPU, so if you want to be able to use those, go for (multiple) GPUs. If not and you have big and heavy scenes like I do, go for CPU.

Vantage on my setups (threadripper 3970x + GTX2080Ti / threadripper 3990x + GTX3080Ti) is just too slow for me. You need multiple GPUs to make it behave nicely I find.