Best choices for a 10,000 budget for content creator/render PC
ArtAngel
Posts: 1,797
I have changed my mind three times on how to make best choices for a 10,000 budget for content creator/render PC, and it is driving me and my local guy nuts. He is a big time gamer and specializes in gaming PCs. I am into animation 3D and music. I am not into gaming ( the closest I came was guitar hero lol).
My current 2nd render PC is i9-9980XE CPU (18 cores 36 Threads) MEG X299 (MS7c06) 128GB RAM Dual RTX 2080ti (11GB and 4352 Cuda Cores each) and a NVLINK which works for me in DAZ Studio. I need something that can push out huge scenes with hairy characters galore. even thinking about two 3090tis with NVLink vs 4090s or 5090s. Been changing my mind for two solid months. Feel like ghosting myself. Any thoughts on rigs for content creators?
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...I thought Nvida scrapped the idea of NVLink for the 4090 as PCIe 5 was considered fast enough.
Also as I understood, memory pooling was only possible with the pro series (Quadro) GPUs..
Given that 4090s are triple slot and some even quad slot cards that would require a full tower case. just to have two
Sources: Nvida forums and Tech Power Up (card size)
Can you wait? 5090s may become more available (and so less price-gouged), and any real issues with the power delivery may be resolved, and the next major version of DS is required for 50x0s to work in Iray.
Check PCpartpicker.. there's probably a few examples of decent machines around that budget.
Indeed, I'm waiting too. I have an RTX 4070 that works just fine, and by the time we can use the 5090, I agree it'll become a lot less. Richard, is this situation putting the development of the legendary Daz 5.0 higher on the priority list?
I've tried the 4070 ti super and also the 4090. The 4090 is well worth the extra dollars if you do a lot of 3d rendering or ai work. Every minute saved waiting on slow hardware is a minute more for art, and it adds up.
4090 may be the price/performance sweet spot now that 5090s are out, but use 5090s if you can afford (especially if you go with a single card) since the bigger memory will hold more textures (thus bigger scenes). Imo all the high end nvidia cards are currently overpriced due to strong demand. GPU is critical for 3d work, but don't neglect your cooling, CPU, RAM, and disk speeds/caches since those can all become bottlenecks too depending on your use case. And you'll want a PSU/household wiring able to safely power it all. :)
My guess is you'll be hitting your budget quickly if you do a 5090, gaming motherboard, very efficient water cooling, four high end m.2 SSDs (recommend the latest samsnug pro evos and consider RAID config for parallel read/write), maximum supported capacity gaming RAM, a PSU able to power it all, and a snazzy full tower case. Might be worth it to liquid cool your GPU because it'll throttle itself and run slower if it gets hot under high load.
I'll add that ai is a likely rabbit hole since there are tons of up and coming art tools, audio tools, 3d tools you can host locally, as well as local Large Language Models that can help with technical questions, prompts, etc. All the ai tools benefit from stronger CPU; the image and video ai's need GPU memory; and the LLMs need both GPU and RAM and in the current landscape more/newer is usually better. So if you're future proofing for that, aim for nvidia 4090 or 5090 GPU, intel CPU with large cache size, great cooling, and plenty of RAM.
There's some really cool stuff you can do in Daz if you combine it with ai image generation. A light pass of ai would likely enhance your hair/fur renders.
That I don't know, sorry.
Thanks everybody. I almost went with the 4090 and 14900k last year but backed off when I heard about the 14900k's getting hot. The whole rig was based on the 14900k. I know there is a patrch either out or soon to be out.Also I am hoping to get new parts which as of now are still availklable
The thing is Richard I am really nervous that DAZ 5x will be rent ware. Which would mean I would be hanging with the current versions and not able to utilize a 5090. I need it for three projects but I could wait if I new DAZ would be business as usual. My NVLinked cards did not always cut it for oversized renders and at those times the cpu was running hot over 99% for some of the excessive workloads. Some renders I spliced into three. I don't want to fry that machine so I was hoping for a better solution ASAP.
You are right. That and also because they wanted the NVLink I/O space for extra AI processing power. But the 30 series and 20 Series do have NVLink, which which unlike SLI, does pool RAM if cards are same chipset. It works for my RTX2080tis but still not fantastic like a 5090 would be.
Thank you I had not heard of them. My PC guy seems hooked on NewEgg. I found a video about PCpartpicker. As soon as I get rid of an army of ants I just dicovered on my counter, by spraying soapy water over everything, I'll check it out. providing I don't break my neck with the drippings from a spray bottle of water and dawn soap.
I realise that this isn't an argument as such, but I can't see and do not believe Daz will charge for the equivalent of the current free features in the next major version of DS - and I would be amazed if there were not further featus added to the free/Pro/whatever version. Of coruse I'd also be pretty surprised if there were not new Premier-only features.
Good. I hope the same because I do love DAZ Studio and the wide variety of products found here, but I also love the ability to work offline for the duration of a project. I respect DAZ's choices, I just dislike subscription software. I don't mind DAZ+ as I still can work offline while using this machine to shop. I wish I knew what rig ingredients PW-Productions has because that PA's products are massive. I am actually leaning toward two new 3090s (not because of cost) because NVLink would seemingly provide 48 pool RAM. I can't stand being so indecisive. Grrrrr.
...I use them. as I've designed built my own.systems
Did you just decide to try building the first one out of the blue? Or were you semi experienced in a related industry? Just last week I thought, if I change my mind one more time my PC guy is going to think I am not serious and ignore me. Then I thought, why not try to build one myself. And then I thought just because you built an aviary and a few walls does not men you can build a PC. If I tried I bet it would take me more than my lifetime LOL. Then my thought was why not ask some people who know what will work best with DAZ? Why not try the forum? And you guys have been helpful. So I have changed my mind again. This is what is texted my PC Guy and I am sure he hates me right now for being so wishy-washy.
ProArt Z890 Creator because it takes the Kingston 256 Ram (64GB DDR5 AE MP 4Dimm) andf Intel Utra Core 285k (24 core). I don't know how many GPU's or types so I was leaning toward the 5090ti because Richard is usually always right. I figure I could use Blender until DAZ catches up or use whatever in DAZ works with the 5090. I know I have to get a high quality cable because some melt with the 5090. By the way I really am truly gutless when it comes to building a rig. Awesome that you can.
My mind can't work past $2k or so, sorry, nothing to offer you.
...yeah, it is a bit different than building an aviary. The most important part is that the components are compatible with each other like making sure the memory slots match the memory type (DDR4 or DDR5) and CPU socket matches the generation specified for the CPU. It's also important to have the proper tools (a set of computer electronics tools) and of course proper workspace putting a computer together is a more of a delicate process than an aviary or bookcase..
Like I did, you can find the information you need online and/or at the library.
How I got into this....
15 years ago I realised I needed something more than an off the shelf notebook with 4 GB memory as renders would c rash eve particularly when UberEvironement was introduced. Notebooks back then had pathetic cooling for rendering purposes as they only had a single "hamster wheel" fan on the side that served as both intake and exhaust, hence heat buildup was a serious issue (the top row of keys no longer work as the switches burned out which required using an external keyboard)
I realised the best solution would be a desktop tower which had far better airflow and more interior "breathing room".. After shopping around I came to the conclusion that off the average "off the shelf" PCs of the day were not really designed for graphics work Gaming PCs were not as common and prebuilt workstations ridiculously expensive. The only other options available were either a custom build house (also fairly expensive at the time) or doing it myself. So for the next 14 months I sat down in my off time from work and researched what was all involved to do the latter.(which turned out ot be time well spent). Once I had the configuration set I ordered the components and put my first system together. It was a monster (for the day) with one of he new hyperthreading i7 CPUs, 12 GB of memory (maximum of 24), dual HDDs a 1 GB GPU to drive the display, all in a case with 7 fans. and a 750W PSU (this is one area I overbuild as that is the heart of your computer (if it goes it can take everything else with it)
Since then I've tweaked it here an there, expanded the memory, added in a bigger CPU, a more capable GPU for Iray rendering and a second display. . Granted it is still for the most part "legacy" hardware but has faithfully served my needs for years. Though it is no longer the beast it once was compared to today's systems, it gets the job done...
However, I have kept up with hardware trends and put together the specs for a major upgrade for Win 11, as I hit a ceiling at Daz version 4.21.0.5 (which has the last Nvidia driver that supports Win 7) and Blender 2.92 (which is also the last version that runs on Win 7). Even though the upgrade is last generation tech (DDR4 memory PCIe 4.0 and AM4 MB). it will more than suffice as the Motherboard has the required TPM capability required by Win 11 (my current MB doesn't)
The parts I need are a new motherboard, CPU and cooler, memory (128 GB DDR4), an M2 boot drive and a Win 11 OEM install disk. I will be keeping the current drives, case (the one mentioned above) and a fairly new 850W PSU as well as a 12 GB 3060 (EVGA) GPU (still in the box). The one roadblock is the cost, about 920 USD which is about 75% of my monthly pension cheque.
Yeah, need a minor windfall.
Can you knock up the build on pcpartpicker - then if you want to PM me the link I'm happy to take a look and give you my opinion.. I say that as you're always going to get a million different perspectives, so maybe outline what you have, and why you have it, and then I'll try and come at it from that angle.