PC spec for high end 3d rendering

Banzai_Joe · 15 Feb 2007 at 16:24

Hi all, Not sure if this is the right place for this, so apologies to the dons if you have to move it for me.

I'm looking to build a new pc for work that will render 3d images fusing Max and Viz, faster than our current setup of:

AMD X2 4200
ATI FireGL T2 128
2Gb ram (ddr2)

I won't bother listing all the other bits, cos its mainly the cpu, gfx and ram that i'm concerned with.
I'm looking at 64-bit quad core opterons and Intel quad core cpu's also.

When i changed the gfx card from a cruddy old ati 9550 to the FireGL T2 128 it obviously increased performance considerably when using 3D Max and Viz.

Just wondering how much weight is placed on the gfx card for these applications if you buy a really good mobo, cpu, ram, hdd bundle.

Any advice, as always is most appreciated.

PinkFloyd · 15 Feb 2007 at 16:29

Core2Quadro. No more I need to say really, best thing you'l be able to get for rendering at the moment without looking at servers.

I've got more core2duo at 3GHz atm and it blows the Opteron I had before it out of the water at rendering in max.
A single scene that took about 16 minutes on my 2.4GHz Oppy170 took 7 minutes earlier on this rig.
Would imagine it will be around 4 minutes on a quad core (depending on the clockspeed of course)

From what I can tell the only difference a better graphics card makes in Max is better imagine quality (textures mainly) in the 3d viewports, it seems to make no difference to render time or final rendered quality.

Banzai_Joe · 15 Feb 2007 at 16:50

Excellent thanks PinkFloyd.

I'm gonna install Max and Viz on my rig (see sig) and see if it beats the 9mins 12secs that the X4200 rig clocks up.

Also, do you think going from 2Gb to 3 or 4Gb ram will help?
Will let ya know.

Incidentally, our renderer guy often uses other pc's to network render using viz (hope that makes sense). He asked me if it could be put on one of our less busy servers too. What do you think? Good idea?

PinkFloyd · 15 Feb 2007 at 16:57

Yeh need to set up network rendering myself, will save me a load of time on my uni project this semester.

In my experience 2gig of ram has been plenty, but Most of the stuff I have done is single images, and simple videos.

Messiah Khan · 15 Feb 2007 at 17:01

The idea of having two machines, 1 for working on and 1 for rendering on is very good IMO. Even if you go for a quad core(Which is a very good suggestion) that machine will most likely be at 100% load while you render, stopping you from doing more work. If you however have two machines, you can carry on working while rendering long scenes. It might even be worth looking at cheapish second hand rack mount servers with dual core/dual cpu setups. But ultimately your looking at multi core cpu, a decent amount of ram (2Gb should be fine), no need for over the top GPU (Mid range Nvidia should be plenty) and lots of harddrive space (especially if your rendering to uncompressed frames).

Banzai_Joe · 16 Feb 2007 at 10:23

So.....
if i go for the Intel Core 2 Quadro Extreme Edition QX6700 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.66GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

What mobo-hdd-ram configs would you folk recommend?

I'm not gonna oc it due to it being a works pc and i need to keep the warranty intact.

approx. £1000 should see me right for the actual pc, don't need a monitor.
2Gb ram should be enough i would have thought. Even a SpinPoint 2504c HDD like mine should be ok.
But what mobo? I know its a '775' but all the mobo's on OCUK say 'core 2 duo ready'. Not actually say 'Quad Core ready'. Am i missing something?
Would the QX6700 work on a Gigabyte DS4 like mine?

Messiah Khan · 16 Feb 2007 at 11:42

I think your DS4 should be fine. As for harddrives, I would choose something like 2x500Gb Seagates and run them in raid1 for the added security. Im not sure about ram though as thats not my forte' im afraid.

Banzai_Joe · 16 Feb 2007 at 12:51

messiah khan said:
I think your DS4 should be fine. As for harddrives, I would choose something like 2x500Gb Seagates and run them in raid1 for the added security. Im not sure about ram though as thats not my forte' im afraid.

Thanks for the input. The rendering will be done on the pc standalone. Then moved onto the server for backup and security, so raid isn't really necessary tbh. I'm not even sure if striping will give a noticeable performance boost either. Thats why i thought of the SpinPoint 2504C sata, like mine. I'm very impressed with it. Its 250Gb which is enough, to say that the data will be copied to the server on a daily basis.

Banzai_Joe · 16 Feb 2007 at 15:00

Got the hardware spec sorted, but OCUK don't seem to sell XP Pro 64-bit edition anymore. Crazy decision imho! :rolleyes:

Anyone know if the Vista 64-bit will be ok? I've heard bad rumours about it.

fester · 16 Feb 2007 at 16:32

Wait a couple a months for Amd quad core KL8.

Banzai_Joe · 19 Feb 2007 at 09:48

fester said:
Wait a couple a months for Amd quad core KL8.

Well.....the longer i wait, the more money we waste.
Currently we pay £800 per visual from an outside source. We've sent out 3 last week. That would have more than paid for the pc we need to do it ourselves.

Bummer is, can't find XP Pro 64-bit anywhere, and by all accounts it increases rendering performance on 3dmax9 and viz (both 64-bit apps) quite conisderably, thus reducing time taken.

See my predicament?