IT is suggesting:
Threadripper 7970X (32 cores) with 256 GB RAM
Whatcha all think? Is the RAM overkill? Mainly stills and a few animations. What is the recommended video card nowadays? (Vantage)
I’m still waiting for my NVidia RTX 5000 Blackwell card. Actually it has arrived to reseller, but it need to be installed with the designated fans. I have ordered the fans two months ago, but those have not yet arrived to our country. In the mean time, without fans, I have 79 dB sound volume whenever rendering something.
For a new system — and knowing the kind of projects you work with (I’ve tested a few) — I’d say 256 GB of RAM is a solid choice.
If you want to save some money, an alternative is to go with a Ryzen 9 9950X and 192 GB of RAM. You’d be roughly ~30% behind a Threadripper 7970X in performance, but you’d likely spend about half the money compared to that workstation configuration.
Best,
Muhammed
I thought you were mainly using your laptop?
I took on a Director’s role for a large firm in Dallas
They have two machines in-house, on loan from DELL for four months to test.
Intel 24 9 Ultra 24 core with an RTX 4000 24Gb card ($8000) and a Threadripper 9975 with 32 cores with a RTX 4000 20Gb card ($13000) - both 128Gb
I think I am leaning towards GPU rendering - thoughts?
Thoughts…after some wine and thinking back to using GPU for stuff…don’t do it 
GPU in my experience throws just too many inconsistencies into the mix, making it a headache, unless you want to change your workflow to accomodate them.
That’s my experience, so others may have a different POV.
I am talking Vantage - Interior renderings take minutes. This company does design work for the largest home builders in the country, and they churn out dozens of renderings a day (for small houses, and the model is provided) with 8 people. My job is to increase quality and reduce render time, which is the only way I know how, which is something like Vantage.
Ok, if it’s vantage focused then yes, change the workflow and make it a fast pipeline that utilises GPU stuff at the cost of whatever finesse you lose from CPU I guess.
My guess is that any quality difference won’t matter, as we all know that the bottom line is eyes on the bottom line.
I haven’t seen any quality loss with Vanatge as of late. Earlier versions I did, but not these latest ones.