Gearing up - Does a monster render rig really make a big difference ?
Sasqwach
Posts: 25
Hey folks, for a long time I've been doing static renders in Poser and Daz but as well as Vue, C4D and Bryce, LuxRender and Octane; thing is tho my heart is in animation, even if it’s very brief ident anims about 1 min long, I long to get my scenes moving, especially to soundtracked music (I compose too)
ok cut to the chase...
My current spec is pretty weak
8Gb memory
Corei5 750 running at 2.67Ghz
Nvidia GeForce GT320
a lousy 4 threads....
A decent render for me can take about 2-4 hours, I do multiple passes, SSS, IDL, etc and while I get good results, 4 hours just is too long for 1 image
So been saving for a long time and looking to get a custom built Rig, here’s the rough
128Gb Memory
Intel Xeon E5-2690, 8 Core, 2.9GHz, 20MB Cache X 2
2GB NVIDIA Quadro 4000 (for display)
Nividia GeForce GTX 690 (for GPU rendering - Lux assisted GPU and Octane)
I can max out at 32 threads..woot..
(it’s a custom job from 3XS built to order)
Question is Any of you out there with similar rigs or would have an idea just HOW fast a rig like this would perform for engines such as
Firefly
3delight
Vue
Luxrender
Octane
Based on calculations 4 threads at a 40 min smaller 720dpi render (for HD video) I am potentially speeding my renders by 8 times - 5 mins per render..that’s potentially worth the 6K GBP I will blow on this system and naturally with GPU assisted render engines I'm looking at a much higher turnaround time (esp. with 3000 cuda cores in a GTX690)
Anyone care to pitch in their 2 cents or vote in my poll ?
Your consul and advice would be greatly appreciated !
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Comments
3XS system - from Scan?
Funnily enough I had one built a few months back - and while it's speed is mental, I think you will always max it out. Nowadays I render everything bigger, so still get renders which take an hour or so, but if you are doing animations, then yea, you need all the grunt you can get.
Bottom line is, if you can afford it, get it.. if not, then make do with what you have :)
I vote you send it to me! :)
Poll removed. We aren’t sure why polls are enabled, they weren’t on the old forums, but it isn’t the intent that they should be there
@ Jack Tomalin - Can I be nosey and ask what machine n spec you went for ? I am personally going fro the HTX30, ramped up a bit with memory and dual Xeons at higher Ghz. I have to get it shipped over here to Tokyo as no international delivery, its a pricey load but I just did 2 dirty months off site work in Seoul with loads of overtime and a healthy bonus, heck I deserve it !
Could I ask how fast mental your standard renders were ? Mebbe do a small 720 with say SSS (EZSkin) on an Elite skin texture ? I am really curious as to turnaround times
Hope you can assist ! and many Thanks!
It's a 3XS SR-2, dual Intel X5690 3.46Ghz, (12 core/24 threads), 48Gb RAM, Nvidia GTX 590 and a Dell 30" monitor. Storage is a mix of HD and SSD in a Lian Li 2120 case.
Speed is quite subjective, but yea, you'll get a good speed increase. I personally wouldn't go for two gfx cards - you wont see much benefit with a Quadro in there using the apps you mention. If you want to blow the cash, get two 690's ;)
I heard good things about Scan's build quality - but while the cable management is good, I've had to do a few things to get it how I liked. Personally, the 4ghz overclock just wasn't worth the heat and noise.. even though they are watercooled with a pair of Antec Kuler 620's. I ended up replacing the fans with some Noctua NF-F12's.
So really, I kinda wished I just built it myself.. but alas.
Also, I would be scared to have it shipped that far!
128gb is quite mental too - I don't come close to maxing my 48gb out. I would suggest investing that money into some really decent watercooling, so you can run the rig cool and stable for extended periods, rather than all out numbers.
Hope that helps.
Cheers Jack, alas the option I go fro comes standard with a quadro, I thought I would go for the least to medium powerful as I do a lot of mesh work in Zbrush and C4D and figured well "what the heck quadro for display" and have the GTX for rendering only via bridge (in octane and GPU assisted progs)
Dont worry about the shipping already have it crated in a flight case and Fed Ex insured for when i make the "decision" for purchase.
So overclocking aint worth it eh? I do have to invest in extra cooling tho...reches 40 degrees here sometime with 100% humidity !
So thats a pretty similar setup; sorry to ask more just I finally foudn someone who has a 3XS machine ! with 24 threads whats an AVG turnaround in 3Delight ? say not too busy scene, medium rez ? 5mins? 10 MIns ? 30 mins ?
Depends entirely on the scene. I can have huge scenes render quite quickly if there's no transparency maps present and no Ambient Occlusion. It's really quite hard to quantify gains without a comparison seen.
Fwiw: 90% of my renders are still in the 2-3 hour range with a rig not unlike Jack's. Why? They got far more complex. ;) A single figure, with hair, clothes and a minimalist background? At say 2000x2000? About 15 minutes.
Hmm 15 mins for a single figure sounds gooooood
For example, this guy here below
UberEnv, 4 lights, custom shaders on armour, PWSurface on skin, skydome and some background scenery....4 hours !
Most of my DS stuff renders out sub 15 mins.. that's around 2000px, 2500px. Test renders at a third of that rez are usually sub 5 mins. If you do daft things such as GI it will kill it - but the majority of stuff renders out pretty much in a 'ok to wait' time scale.
Having such a monster machine though means I'm always doing other things too, so I never really have to wait. I often run a couple of virtual machines, Photoshop, DS, browse the web.. and it doesn't skip a beat.
Jack, I'm SOLD...welcome me to the 3XS club =)
Yea, this.. you will find you render more, at a higher rez.. etc.. then want a faster machine ;)
Hehehehe, damn, pity I don't a cut from their sales!
Keep us posted, I'd love to hear it gets there in one piece. I forgot to mention, they do pack it well - so you need to take the side panel off when you get it and take all the bubblewrap out etc.
Cheers Jack, youve been a great help Ill mebbe PM you later, half tempted to fly over to pick it up.....=) Thankfully making a great saving with high Yen rates vs GBP at the moment so shouldnt dent me too hard..one Tokyo shop asked for 1M yen for a E3 single Xeon...sheesh ! the lengths a guy has to go to for a good render !
Thanks again !
Attached scene was originally rendered in DS3 on a Quad-Core in about 3 hours (that hair is a transparency monster). Had 3 distant lights, one uberPoint, one UE2. Re-rendered on the new rig in DS4.5Rc3 in a little over 22 minutes.
ETA: Everything but the hair was finished in 10 minutes. ;)
No problem, glad to be of service!
AdamR, what spec was that you have ? 22 mins , man I could do a 20 min scene at 720 overnight at this rate !
Almost identical to Jack's... I'm running at 3.2Ghz instead of 3.4Ghz with 32GB of RAM instead of 48... GTX 595 for the video card. Water cooling, etc. Built it myself though.
So on your power rendering machine, do you go for a massive video card? Does it speed renders? Does it speed the display while editing?
(I use a netbook to render. It's what I have and what I can almost afford.)
Yea, the more GPU grunt you have, the more polys you can throw about on screen. Apps like Octane and Lux will utlize the cores on the GPU too - so yes, you will see a rendering performance increase.
Also, it makes sense that if you have such a beast, you don't bottleneck it with a flimsy GPU ;)
Yup, again, Jack has the right of it. I also game on my rig so... ;)