PC component recommendations?
wclaxtonphoto
Posts: 0
in New Users
Hi,
I'm having a PC made, and I'm having a tough time figuring out what components are recommended for making a PC that can handle Daz Studio well. So far, I'm planning a gaming computer, with:
NVIDIA 8GB GeForce RTX 3070
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core 3.7GHz
16 GB RAM
LG 34GP83A-B Gaming Monitor
144Hz
WQHD (3440 x 1440, 21:9 aspect ratio)
Windows 11
Should all of this work well with the current Daz Studio version, or will Daz work at a very slow pace? My goals with this computer are to use it with some gaming (like Forza Horizon 5) and make some realistic renders as a fun hobby.
Thanks for your help!
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Comments
How demanding are the games? A 12GB 3060 would give iray more room to work, though an 8GB card should be usable.
You need more VRAM and RAM, 12GB's of VRAM and 32GB's of RAM, and in addition to the drive that holds your operating system, you need one big enough to hold DS content (external 4TB USB drive)
They make 12 GB 3070's or 30 series video cards? I only see up to 8 GB cards for the 30 series. (I could be mistaken)
The other option would be to use a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti with 12GB ?
4 TB external USB drive?
Just how big is the average high quality Daz render?
The specs I originally listed will work with the games I'm interested in. I'm just checking in with what Daz Studio needs.
I was saying that if you can step down, performance-wise, to a 3060 you can get an extra 4GB of VRAM as PerttiA suggests.
Using the latest versions of DS with relatively recent content, one is shooting oneself in the foot with an 8GB GPU, sadly the 3070 and 3070ti just don't have enough VRAM.
It' not for rendering, but for ones content library, which will grow pretty fast and require more space than one has on the C-drive, a 4TB drive is a good start.
Is there an official PC spec recommendation list from Daz 3D? I couldn't find it anywhere on the website or online.
I have a 3060 with 12Gb. When I bought it, I had to choose between a 3060ti with 8Gb and a 3060 (not ti) with 12Gb but slightly slower. After reading a lot, I got the latter and NEVER regreted it, not only because of Daz but also because of Blender and Stable Diffusion (with 8Gb you can't train Dreambooth models; with 12Gb you can).
Before Daz, my video boards were only for gaming. OK, VRAM makes a difference in gaming, but you CAN run the game with both 8Gb or 12Gb (not with the same visuals, but it WILL run). After I started using Daz, and then Blender, and now Stable Diffusion, I realised how much more important VRAM was, as there are things you simply CAN'T do without more VRAM.
I don't know if there are 3070's with 12Gb, but if they exist, go for it, even if it means a little less speed.
When one wants to have a good laugh, one can look at this;
https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003568443-What-are-the-System-Requirements-to-run-Daz-Studio-
In practice with a recent version of DS, using somewhat recent assets and rendering in Iray, the minimum is 32GB's of RAM and 8GB's of VRAM, but as far as the VRAM is concerned the minimum gets you minimum results and when one of the cheapest GPU's out there, already has 12GB's which provides twice the VRAM for Iray rendering than an 8GB version does, why not take the bigger VRAM? The insignificant speed difference means nothing when the scene doesn't fit the cards VRAM, in that case the GPU is just as useful as any generic display adapter one can buy with the lint in ones pocket.
I would wait for more news on the RTX 4060. Also, I would build my system around the new Ryzen Zen 4 (7900, 7700, 7600) CPUs.
Example configuration:
something like the below or similar:
Total: ~ £ 1450 (I have taken middle prices from idealo not the cheepest ones - a few weeks ago)
CPU fan: ~ £ 50
(a high end model like the Noctua NH-D15 would be ~ £ 100)
plus case, case fans etc.
Notes:
CPU:
The i7-13700KF is extremely fast, has 18 cores and offers max. 24 threads. I use it in my new build and can say it is a lot faster in daily operation than the AMD Threadripper 3960x I used before. If you don't need the build-in GPU you can go with the i7-13700K (not ...KF) which comes without gpu and is a bit cheeper. Alternatively an Intel i7-13600K or KF is a bit slower, has a few cores less but is cheeper.
Regarding the build-in GPU. If you attach the monitor to that one, and use a current Windows 10 build you save a few 100 MB of vram. The latest Windows 10 interations do not reserve as much vram in general anymore but on top they reserve even less, if no display is attached to the gpu.
Mainboard:
It is a DDR4 not DDR5 board and has one lan port 2.5 GB speed. If you need two lan ports or 10GB speed, expect higher board prices (as I wanted a 10GB connection to my NAS, I simply bought a 10 GB lan card for 87 € and put it in a free PCI slot - this was way cheeper than to go for a board that comes with 10 GB build-in).
DDR4 ram is expected to depricate in the next years. So, if you go with DDR4 (Ryzen 5 is also DDR4) buy the needed ram timely to not get hit by limited supply in the future. Alternatively go with Ryzen 7000 series or buy an intel board with DDR5 support (e.g. MSI PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR5). But board and ram will be more expensive.
Regarding the Intel LGA-1700 socket: Rumors say, the 13th gen of Intel CPUs is the last one to use the LGA-1700. It is expected that the next gen of Intel CPUs will require a new mainboard with a new socket.
AMD: Same situation with AMD. Ryzen 5000 series uses socket AM4. The new Ryzen 7000 series uses socket AM5. So, if you buy a Ryzen 5000 CPU now you can't just replace the CPU with a Ryzen 7000 in the future. You need to replace the mainboard as well.
If you prefer to have a simple upgrade path (just replace CPU) it might be better to go with Ryzen 7000 and not Intel 13000 or AMD 5000. Ryzen 7000 uses AM5 socket and AMD wrote they will support AM5 at least until 2025 with new CPUs. Disadvantage is, that Ryzen 7000 needs the more expensive DDR5 ram and the AM5 mainboards are also more expensive than the older DDR4 boards with socket AM4.
RAM:
min. 32 GB and see mainboard
Storage:
If you want to use it for many years you might want to read about experience with long term use before buying something. I personally have good experience with Samsung and Crucial SSDs and M.2s but that was just luck maybe.
GPU:
The RTX 3060 12 GB is considered the sweet spot of processing speed, vram and price theese days. Alternatively there is the RTX 3060 Ti. It is faster but has less vram and costs more. In case of a decision I suggest to always go for more vram instead of more speed. Or better: try to get a used 3090 with 24 GB of vram (I use this one and it is hell of fast and has plenty of vram - good for DS and stable-diffusion).
Or wait for the lower end RTX 4xxx GPUs.
PSU:
Don't go for the cheepest models. The most simple models tend to fail more early than higher end products and they could struggle with power demand peeks form the PC (CPU and GPU can request way higher watteges from the PSU than their official TDP values suggest - those peaks are only lasting a few milliseconds but very simple PSUs might cause a PC shutdown or blue screen because of it - it is rare, but it happens). Some vendors offer extended warranty for their higher end models. E.g. I got a 10 years warranty for a Corsair AX1600i PSU.
Power cosumption and cooling:
The 13700KF at default settings in my board and at a high load (Cinebench R25 benchmark) consumed nearly 250 watt. That creates is a lot heat to be handled by the CPU cooler. But, those CPUs (Intel and AMD) and mainboards are set to very high voltage values at stock. In my case I just went into the MSI bios and lowerd the "CPU lite load" setting. As a result the CPU is now at 194 watt under Cinebench R25 with no reduction in speed and stability. Temps went down from around 90 degree C to around 75 degree C (watercooled system).
The RTX 3090 is similar to this regard. Default was 330 watt in Iray rendering at around 1950 MHz clock speed. I lowered the clock curve to a max. of 1800 MHz and reduced the allowed voltage quite a bit (can simply be done with the MSI afterburner tool). Result: before around 330 watt, after 245 watt. Speed wise it does not make a relevant difference in DS.
If you go the intel route with LGA-1700 socket and build the system yourself, google for "LGA 1700 bending issue" before doing so. A lot of overheating, throtteling, bluescreen issues have to do with it (it's about a bend of the CPU when attached to the board so that the cooling plate does not have good contact the CPU die - this causes bad heat transfer to the cooler and results in overheating of those CPU areas that are not well covered). I had this issue and got above 100 degree C in my first Cinebench run because of it.
P.S. this post is partly a copy from another post I wrote in another forum for another software :-)