This is the first time I’m posting so please let me know if I’ve made a mistake or missunderstood any guidelines.
I am in the process of changing workplace and my new employer has asked me to specify what equipment I need. As I will be their first and only Animation & Motion Graphics artist, the setup will be from scratch.
I have previously only used CPU rendering before but i’m interested in trying out GPU rendering now that I have the chance.
I am asking for help to specify my build.
They way I see it, I have two options:
One powerful standalone computer with as much GPU power possible. in this scenario, my understanding is that I can start rendering using all but one GPU in the workstation while still continue working on the computer.
or
One less powerful computer for general work aswell as a seperate render node, specifc for rendering.
My budget is between 10-15k usd, what would you do if you were in my shoes and do you have any tips on specific builds?
General I would build two computers, since if one will stop to work, than you have an emergency machine. I would buy two fast AMD Ryzen computers (best based on 3950x, but it will be available from September only). So you should get two fast machines for CPU rendering. The rest of the money you could spend for GPUs.
This is definitely the way you should go about this, your budget is pretty good. Don’t bother with DR, it can be a lot of headache
And yeah, you will need a separate card for your viewport and windows performance, and maybe 3 other cards to use for GPU rendering.
Here is what I would get,
Threadripper 2990wx
Aorus Extreme X399
64 GB Gskill TridentZ 3200 MHz
Lian Li 011 Air
Corsiar H150i Pro
EVGA Supernova 1600 Watts
4x RTX 2080Tis Asus Turbo
Samsung 970 EVO 1tb for your OS, and feel free to add as many mechanical drives as you want
This is gonna be around 9 to 11k USD, depending on where you are based
If you have experience you can build this yourself, or check out
Send them an Email, tell them about your budget and see what offer you can get. They make nice custom loops and they have a lot of experience in this kind of builds
Don’t go with the new 3950X, as this is a consumer platform, you will have hard time running more than 2 GPUs
Let me know if you have any questions
Hi Micha,
Yes this is correct, the 3950X has only 20 lanes, 4 of which are for m.2 devices and only 16 for GPUs, so max GPUs you can use are 2 in x8,x8 configuration
On the other hand, the 2950X has 64 lanes, 48 of which are for GPUs, you can run as many GPUs as your Mobo allow.. up to 5 in few cases
yes, this specfic benchmark relies more on core frequency, more than having multiple cores
You will need to rely on V-ray benchmark for this, where the 2990wx beats the 2950x by quite a big margin..almost double the performance
thank you very much for in detailed info, it will help a lot. I think, my next machine will based on the 2950x to keep the budget. Using 5 cards sounds good - 4 for rendering and one for display. Wich mobo would you recommend? The setup from post 4 above?
At the moment I use 2x2080ti for rendering and one 1080ti for display. Could be nice to have a machine where I could add two additional 2080ti later.
I never used AMD before, but I like the possibility to upgrade the CPU in the future without to buy a new mainboard.
Yes, the Aorus Extreme is pretty good, you also get 10 Gbit ethernet and nice OC features
It will only house 4 cards, not 5.. the one board that can handle 5 cards is Aorus X399 Gaming 7 but you will need riser cables for 2 cards at least, which is a bit harder
I would recommend you stick to the Aorus Extreme and 4 cards, the setup is very very simple.. but if you are interested in 5 cards let me know, will tell you exactly what to do
You will love it, and yes you don’t need to buy a new board for better CPUs
You can upgrade to 2990wx or whatever will be released next, we will see
Since my 2080ti are 2,5slot cards it’s not so easy:
Option A (Aorus X399 Gaming 7) - I use the 2080ti at slot 1 and 4 and the 1080ti at slot 7 (slot count like at boards with 1 standard slot distance). If I want to use more cards, than I could use raiser cable later. My 4-slot NVlink could be used here. The question is - can the monitor card be used at the last slot or need the monitor connected to slot 1 always?
Option B (Aorus Extreme) - I use the 1080ti at slot 1 and if I want to use NVlink, than both cards needs raiser cables.
The Lian Li 011 Air looks like a nice case, but afraid it’s to wide for my space here. If I should use raiser cable than I need additional wide space. Do you know a good tower in more standard size?
I tend to the Aorus Gaming 7, only the gaming design is not so much my taste, but I suppose so, the lights can be turned off. The board would allow me to use my current cards, NVlink and I could upgrade to five cards.
At the moment at my old workstation I’m using two LAN connectors - one for the internet and one for DR. The Gigabyte X399 DESIGNARE EX seams to be comparable to the Aorus Gaming 7, but I would get two LAN connectors again. What do you think about the Gigabyte X399 DESIGNARE EX?
I have a case here that can house up to 7 cards with Riser cables and with spacing between them, will type you here shortly when I’m at home
The Designare is quite good, but only for the 2950x, not for the 2990wx
You will need the Aorus extreme if you want to be future proof
Your 7-card-riser-cable-case sounds interesting. Do you use an extra power supply at this case, so that you get enough power and short cables? Which board you use to drive 7 cards?
EDIT:
Here my current setup by a local reseller. What do you think, is it ok so far? I chose a housing where I can place the radiator on top. The RAM is quite cheap - is it ok? https://www.mindfactory.de/shopping_…73243262ddb1d1
EDIT2: I don’t know so much about PCIe - can the fifth slot be used for rendering per 2080ti, since it is a PCIEx4 slot only?
I’m curious - why could the 2990wx not work at the Designare? Why it could not be future proof?
It is an entry level board, that was desgined for first and second Gen Threadrippers, but not the 2990wx or 2970wx
The power phases and VRM cooling are not sufficient for these CPUs, you will have stability and performance issues..There are multiple threads about this here on forum
Here my current setup by a local reseller. What do you think, is it ok so far? I chose a housing where I can place the radiator on top. The RAM is quite cheap - is it ok?
RAM is ok, very solid build so far except the case
This case is massive, way bigger than the Lian-Li I recommended above
And you won’t be able to fit 5 cards there with riser cables, maybe if you remove the side panel and place 2 cards on your desk or an external rack
can the fifth slot be used for rendering per 2080ti
Yes, X4 you will be losing like 5% of performance which is not much .. You will be fine
I tried to keep the wide in standard size, but do you mean the Lian-Li allow to use the 2,5slot 2080ti + 1080ti inside the case? Can they free placed/fixed and short cables connect them to the mother board? This would be very interesting and I will find a better place in my small office. What kind of cables should be used?
Your details about the Designare let me tend to Aorus Extreme X399. I understand better now. Thank you for your patient.
Some more thoughts about the case. Here I found a picture of a Corsair Obsidian 750D. The Aorus Extreme X399 is an eATX and so it will be bigger as on the picture. Good to see the 9 slots at the back of the case. I think, this case allow to place a card at the bottom place and have enough space to the power supply. In the Lian-Li it looks like there is not enough space below the last slot, also this case has 8 slots at the back only. If the bottom fans are placed than the space is quite tight.
You are definitely right, the Obsidian has enough space for this setup, for Lina Li, you won’t be able to use the 3 fans at the bottom, but it will do the same job..If you prefer the first one, go for it
And you can install the cables then put the card after, it is not an issue really..
Your 1080Ti needs to be dual slot though, if it is bigger, you will need riser cables
The Aorus Extreme has other cool features like 10 Gbit ethernet and better OC features, it is worth the price
The 2950x+Aorus Extreme … are ordered. Thank you you very much for your great help.
For further needs I think about the cable solution. At my current old machine I use a PCIe cable from thermaltake (60cm). It was quite expensive and some times I have some problems. At an other thread I found you use this:
Are you still happy?
If I understand right for using more cards it is possible to split PCIe 8x to 4x too?
And could I use a second power supply for the external placed GPU? I would it cause a mal function?
Yes, I have used these for years, in many builds.. they never had issues. I have also used the thermal take ones, they worked nicely as well. Your issues might not be related to the brand of the riser cables, but like always more info will be helpful in troubleshooting this kind of issues
Yes, but this won’t work out of box, PCIe splitters will require bios tweaking and sometimes a lot of testing. I don’t recommend this unless you have tested this before, and you know that it works with this specific hardware
X4 is not bad, it is like 5% slower than X8 for GPU rendering
Yes you can, there are 2 ways you can achieve this
-Using a 24pin splitter(because the second power supply won’t start up unless it gets a signal from Mobo)
-A metal paper pin, which is an old trick but works with pretty much all power supplies.
It ships now as standard with any Corsair AIOs, unless your unit is very old stock, which is not likely to happen.
