Spec me a 3D rendering PC

[SuperSaiyan4]

Hi all,

What spec would I be looking at for a PC that can do 3D rendering? It has to be AMD as that is the preference and obviously a motherboard that can take the new upcoming Bulldozer.

I think overall it boils down to the graphics card? Would an AMD HD 6970 do the job?

 

[stulid]

a motherboard that can take the new upcoming Bulldozer.

Have you seen the reviews?

 

[shootersam]

Have you seen the reviews?

+1

 

[iBSOD]

2600k and a Firepro/Quadro GPU.

 

[ed79]

As above, it also depends on your budget. What software are you going to run on it?

I did a lot of 3D rendering years ago but things have moved on and my knowledge is quite out of date. However I don't think the Gfx card is anywhere near as important as the CPU and amount of RAM.

I think OpenGL is still used for the 3D display so you may want to look at Nivida Quadro or FireGL from ATI - though these are NOT cheap!

 

[SuperSaiyan4]

Well budget is around £1000 for that I know I can build a system with 8gb ddr3, six core amd 1100t and a hd 6970.

But would the 6970 be able to do it or do i need to go for a 6990? Those other cards are just too pricey.

It won't be 3D rendering on the level of gaming if thats what you mean.

Also to the others what reviews? Good or bad? Either way I stick with AMD for life sorry.

 

[stulid]

Also to the others what reviews? Good or bad? Either way I stick with AMD for life sorry.

Its crap and its clock for clock performance is worse than the Phenoms.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18328158

Also you will be better of with an nvidia card so you get CUDA, whether your programs use it or not.


What are you needing for this? tower unit/os/speakers/monitor/keyboard etc?

 

[shootersam]

Don't be a fanboy. Go intel. Their processors are leaps and bounds above AMD at the moment.

 

[ed79]

But would the 6970 be able to do it or do i need to go for a 6990?

Would the 6970 be able to what?

If anything a 6970 is over kill. I'd go for something with plenty of VRAM, but features that help in games will not be much use in 3D rendering (raytracing).

Like I said 3D rendering is all about the CPU. It's not like games where you need a fast Gfx card.

The 6990 is a dual GPU on a single card and this would make absolutely no difference to 3D rendering applications as they are not "Crossfire enabled"

Is this system for you or are you putting it together for someone else?

Finally bear in mind that any PC today is hundreds of times faster than the ones used to create Jurassic Park for example.

 

[ed79]

Here are the system requirements for Autodesk 3D Studio. It looks like VRAM is useful (I guess for storing textures) but remember in gaming you want a high frame rate for response etc. If a 3D model or scene only rotates at 1 frame per second it really doesn't matter that much.

64-Bit 3ds Max 2012 or 3ds Max Design 2012 for Windows

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional x64, Microsoft Windows Vista Business x64 (SP2 or higher), or Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 (SP3 or higher)

For general animation and rendering (typically fewer than 1,000 objects or 100,000 polygons):

Intel® 64 or AMD64 processor with SSE2 technology*
4 GB RAM (8 GB recommended)
4 GB swap space (8 GB recommended)**
3 GB free hard drive space
Direct3D 10, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card† (256 MB or higher video card memory, 1 GB recommended)
Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive††
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher browser
Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk Subscription-aware access

For large scenes and complex data sets (typically more than 1,000 objects or 100,000 polygons):

Intel® 64 or AMD64 processor with SSE2 technology*
8 GB RAM
8 GB swap space**
3 GB free hard drive space
Direct3D 10, Direct3D 9, or OpenGL-capable graphics card† (1 GB or higher video card memory)
Three-button mouse with mouse driver software
DVD-ROM drive††
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher or Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher browser
Internet connection for web downloads and Autodesk Subscription-aware access

† Some features of 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2012 are enabled only when used with graphics hardware that supports Shader Model 3.0 (Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader 3.0). In addition, Quicksilver hardware rendering requires additional GPU resources to work effectively. A minimum of 512 MB of graphics memory should be used. A minimum of 1 GB is recommended for the most complex scenes, shaders, and lighting modes.

The integrated iray® rendering technology from mental images runs well on CPU processing alone but can be accelerated by NVIDIA GPU CUDA technology. Check to see if your graphic card is CUDA ready here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_gpus.html

http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/system-requirements/

 

[SuperSaiyan4]

Ok thanks all, I am building it for someone else so I will stick with the 1100T 6 core cpu from AMD and the system will have 16gb of ram and an SSD hard drive.

 

[ed79]

Good choices - if you want to stick with AMD then it seems that the older 6-core is cheaper and pretty much the same speed as the new Bulldozer 8 core.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested/7

16GB should be good too. If they're rendering animations you may want to make sure there is plenty of HD storage space.

 

[SuperSaiyan4]

Good choices - if you want to stick with AMD then it seems that the older 6-core is cheaper and pretty much the same speed as the new Bulldozer 8 core.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4955/the-bulldozer-review-amd-fx8150-tested/7

16GB should be good too. If they're rendering animations you may want to make sure there is plenty of HD storage space.

Hi, thank you, I checked out the reviews so will stick with the AMD 1100T.

Also multiple monitors will be used so will get the 6970.

 

[Orcvader]

You really want to stick with AMD? For 3D rendering the 2500K/2600K is more worth the money and perform better than current AMD offerings. CUDA will especially help as it will speed up the rendering, so if he's running multiple monitors just grab another Nvida card or use the 2500K/2600K IGP as well to get a total of four outputs.

 

[Greedydog]

Also to the others what reviews? Good or bad? Either way I stick with AMD for life sorry.

You're building it for someone else and you won't choose the better option because of your fanboism? Hmmmm!

 

[SuperSaiyan4]

You really want to stick with AMD? For 3D rendering the 2500K/2600K is more worth the money and perform better than current AMD offerings. CUDA will especially help as it will speed up the rendering, so if he's running multiple monitors just grab another Nvida card or use the 2500K/2600K IGP as well to get a total of four outputs.

Ok thanks.

Which Nvidia card can support 4+ monitors that also has cuda?

 

[Tokin]

I hate people that ask a question then refuse to listen to solid advise.

 

[SuperSaiyan4]

I hate people that ask a question then refuse to listen to solid advise.

I didn't ask which processor to use I asked with parts that I would like to get which one would be best for 3D rendering in turn I was advised on an Nvidia card with cuda however which Nvidia card that can support 4+ monitors would be best.

Just because some of you like the Intel processors doesn't mean everyone should follow suite.

So in turn let me guess you all also think that iPods are the best music players? Because they are not.

I am not a sheep I don't get what everyone else has got, I go for AMD because they offer very good SSE instructions, very good value for money AND couple that with an AMD HD graphics card Eyefinity.