# Best Computer Setup for Rendering and 3D Work



## Irythros

Depends on the rendering engine. Some of them take advantage of Nvidias CUDA GPGPU language and can speed up rendering a few hundred times over dual octocore setups. If that's the case what you could do is get a new setup with:

32/48 gigs of ram
1 or 2 titans (this is the main rendering part)
Quad core Intel with hyperthreading (whichever fits your budget)

The titans max your budget of $2k right off the bat, but the speed would be great assuming the engine supports CUDA. If not then you're just stuck with CPU rendering. Slowly.


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## parityboy

*@OP*

A very quick startpage search turned up these:

*Maya*
GPGPU Cloth simulation using GLSL, OpenCL and CUDA

*3DS Max*
How to use CUDA GPU to accelerate rendering in 3ds Max?

Basically, what it comes down to is knowing your software and what it can take advantage of; there's no sense in spending money on hardware that isn't going to be utilised.

As far as the hardware is concerned, I would go for stability over everything else which in my book means maximum performance at default speeds. Multi-core Xeons are pricey and a Mac Pro is even pricier. I would say start with an S2011 board from ASUS, add some normal Crucial, Corsair or Kingston RAM (how big are your models?) and either a 3820 or a 3930K.

For a GPU, Titans are a good choice but also look into previous generation Teslas and Quadros; also note that the previous generation GTX580 has better CUDA performance than the GTX680. Question: can Teslas with no video output still render 3D models? I assume so, but can someone verify?

*EDIT:*

Also found this concerning Maya.


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## Mopar63

For the CPU go with an Intel Extreme 6 core and max out the RAM. Even a budget socket 2011 can hold 32 gig. As for the 6 core I would save the money and get the 3930 but then would overclock as far as you can and be stable.

As for the video it depends on your software. If it is using Cuda then an NVidia card is the obvious choice. Ideally you want to use one of the professional grade cards because they are using drivers optimized for the professional grade packages. If however your software is using OpenCL then I would go with AMD, they have better optimizations for OpenCL than nVidia.

This is one of the few times I would say a heavy overclock as a real tangible benefit to your system. Even a little 5% boost can mean a savings of hours in some of the larger renderings. The key though is to get enough RAM that all of this or as much as possible is done in memory. 32 Gig is the lowest I would shoot for and would spend the extra for a board that will support 64 gig.

Now this all presumes high end professionally 3D work. You can obviously get by with less if the work is less intense.


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## Irythros

The "Professional" ATI and Nvidia cards are only optimized for certain tasks in the 3D pipeline such as *viewport* rendering. There is no practical difference between final rendering between the top end professional and its equivalent consumer grade version.


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## AlphaC

If the program uses CUDA or is optimized for CUDA go NVIDIA. Examples: AutoCAD, Adobe Premiere, Revit, anything using iray such as CATIA Live render / Bunkspeed , ArcGIS, etc.

If it is optimized for pure compute or OpenCL, go AMD. Examples: Maya , Luxrender (Luxmark benches), Solidworks, PTC Creo, any form of password hashing, Folding (at least I think so, HD7950 gets more PPD than GTX 670 ... GTX 580 may be better than both of those), etc

Irythros makes a good point in that the professional stuff (Quadro/Firepro) is mainly for viewport rendering. That means what you see on the screen. However, iray/Octane/Vray RT allows for GPU rendering.

edit: Check out http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-1088540.html


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## wolftain

I am going to do a new build - still a newbie at that
I am thinking on an ASUS Z87-deluxe motherboard
Thinking of getting the 32gb of ram as well
I was thinking on the i7-4770k processor but that is where it stops
I would love help from anyone on the forums to give me advice
Thanks in advance


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## hammong

Wolf - The last post in this thread is almost a year old. The advice in the thread is still valid, however, and hasn't changed in the last year.

You need to identify what rendering packages you're going to run -- some support Cuda, some OpenGL, some support both and give you a choice.

GTX Titans are still a strong choice for 3D modeling with Cuda libraries. The GTX 780 and 780 Ti are nice, but the DP precision is crippled, and the DP on the Titan is not. Titan also has 6GB of VRAM, which is sort of a waste for gaming, but is perfect for things like Blender GPU rendering (which is why I have three of them). The AMD boards do OpenGL a little better in my opinion, but prices on the higher end (290, 290X) boards are inflated due to people doing mining, and the FirePRO boards are out of the realm of most people's budget.

Greg


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## wolftain

Thanks Greg
I will be using 3ds max and solid works and a few 3d animation programs


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