Video Card Upgrade for Rendering

[Aaryn]

Hey all,
I'm looking to potentially upgrade my video card and my knowledge of hardware is pretty rusty. Here's my current setup:

Windows 10
RAM= 16 Gig
Processor = AMD X6 1055T 2800 Mhz
Video= Nvidia GeForce GTX550 TI

I'm currently developing a game and use DAZ3D for rendering. An average render, right now, takes me between 9-12 hours to do. It's horrible. Basically, like many others, I'm trying to get that rendering time down a bit so I can more efficiently update my game. I'm looking for suggestions on a video card upgrade in the neighborhood of around $200 budget or so that will give me the best rendering times for the money I spend. Any advice on what to get and how you think it would impact the render times for the setup I got? Thanks in advance

 

[Phoneman73]

There are multiple things that will improve your render times, unfortunately none of them are in the 200 dollar price range except adding a second video card if you haven't already. Rendering with Daz uses your processor and memory as well as your video card's processor and memory. Adding a second video card greatly improves rendering time. I suggest upgrading each component as you have the funding. Save for the best hardware you can find, don't buy cheap to get a small upgrade. To give an idea of how rendering times can be improved with hardware upgrades, I have an AMD Ryzen processor and MB with 32 GB RAM and 2x Nvidia 1070 vcs. My rendering time was around 30 minutes for a complex scene. I upgraded to 2 Titan Xi vcs recently and rendering times were cut in half.

 

[a meme]

Don't. Cryptoshit fucked up graphics card prices. With normal prices, you'd need at least $400 for a 1070 for example.

 

[Phoneman73]

@a meme which is why I mentioned that $200 wouldn't give much of an upgrade.

Saving for the better hardware is the best bet. I know not everyone can go out and drop $500 or more for a video card, or $800 for a high end processor and motherboard. I should also mention that any Nvidia card that ends in X50, X60 or X70 is not recommended for rendering, they burn up. Happened to me. A 980 GTX would be better than a 1070 Ti for example.

 

[Frank01]

Saving for the better hardware is the best bet. I know not everyone can go out and drop $500 or more for a video card, or $800 for a high end processor and motherboard. I should also mention that any Nvidia card that ends in X50, X60 or X70 is not recommended for rendering, they burn up. Happened to me. A 980 GTX would be better than a 1070 Ti for example.

Cards don't just "burn up." My 570 still works after 8 years of use. The biggest issue right now is that coin miners have caused a price bubble for new cards.

 

[Aaryn]

There are multiple things that will improve your render times, unfortunately none of them are in the 200 dollar price range except adding a second video card if you haven't already. Rendering with Daz uses your processor and memory as well as your video card's processor and memory. Adding a second video card greatly improves rendering time. I suggest upgrading each component as you have the funding. Save for the best hardware you can find, don't buy cheap to get a small upgrade. To give an idea of how rendering times can be improved with hardware upgrades, I have an AMD Ryzen processor and MB with 32 GB RAM and 2x Nvidia 1070 vcs. My rendering time was around 30 minutes for a complex scene. I upgraded to 2 Titan Xi vcs recently and rendering times were cut in half.

Thanks, all.
I appreciate the responses. First off, a 30 minute render time aroused me more than any game on here EVER has. However, like I said...I'm at 12 hours right now...I'd be stoked with a 2-3 hour time because that will substantially increase my productivity. I agree with most of you that saving for a better end card would be more efficient, but it seems that a shitty card (like a 1030 or 1040) would still be substantially better than the geriatric shit I'm running now. No?

 

[TMWSTW]

My personal recommendation would be to wait until GPU prices start to level out again. Especially if your budget is a measly $200 (might actually get a decent card at that price if you wait for people to realize that the crypto ship has sailed).

 

[Phoneman73]

Considering that you have a 550 currently, then yes, a low end 10XX series card would be an improvement. I mostly suggest weighing the options. If waiting a couple of months will net you enough money to get an even better card, then wait. It's all a cost vs. reward decision. Like I mentioned before, I understand that most people do not have the disposable income to make large purchases without careful planning. Just set a roadmap for any planned upgrades and stick to it. Also, research any potential purchases. Two cards from two manufacturers with the same basic hardware can be worlds apart depending on the type of cooling that they provide. Best of luck and hope we all helped.

 

[pk2000]

@Aaryn maybe this thread from daz3d forums will help you decide

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[Studio Errilhl]

Depending on need (amount of renders), an option might be to outsource the renders (there are render-farms where you can rent time, for instance). If not, what is important is CUDA-cores (so only Nvidia cards are an option for use with DAZ) and VRAM (more is always better). You want a card with an absolute minimum of 4 GB, which for newer cards means 6 GB (as they come in 3 or 6 GB versions) or more.

 

[Cyan]

I recommend buying a completely new pre-built PC if you need a new GPU(something I typically wouldn't recommend). The processor you currently have is pretty terrible, and even though Iray is pretty much completely GPU, I think a 9/10 series Nvidia GPU is going to be pretty heavily bottle-necked in almost every application.

Buying a pre-built mostly means the price you pay for the GPU is somewhat... "normal". (buying a 1070 is ~800$, buying a full system with a 1070 is ~ 1000$) Prices are beyond fucked atm.

 

[PandaPenguin]

I did some test renderings on multiple cards by now

some hair and clothing uses an insane amount of texture memory when rendered
I set up a scene that uses ~1GiB of geometry and ~16GiB of texture memory, clearly too much for a single 1080ti
and my strongest horse is the 1080ti with 11GB of VRAM

here are some interesting results:

test rig 1:
32GB DDR4 and dual 1080ti

Spoiler: render initialization

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Spoiler: render progress

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as you can see at the memory load of both GPUs the total load got split between them aprox 50/50

this will only work if the GPUs have the same amount of VRAM as my next test showed:

test rig 2:
32GB DDR3, 1060 6GB (main display driver) + 1080ti (render card)

Spoiler: render initialization and progress

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same scene as for rig1 and DAZ did not split the load on both GPU this time but reverted back to CPU rendering

and now for the strange part of the whole testing:

test rig 3:
16GB DDR4, 5x 1050ti
I changed the test scene a bit cos this "rig" is a mining rig and only sports a rusty Celeron 3930 but it still has a whopping 13GiB of texture memory

Spoiler: DAZ advanced render settings with 5x 1050ti

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Spoiler: render initialization and progress

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as you can see, it managed to GPU render this scene on the 1050tis
it only used two of the available 5 for some reason despite detecting all 5 in advanced settings (my guess is on CPU limit here, that Celeron supports 16 PCIe lanes only)....

so apparently you can render bigger scenes on dual 1050ti too if you got some system memory to back it up too (which in your case with 16GB of existing sys memory is a good start)

 

[Rich]

I'd be real careful with some of those numbers.

"as you can see at the memory load of both GPUs the total load got split between them aprox 50/50"

That's not my understanding of how iRay works - everything I've seen says that it loads the entire scene into all the cards. The memory numbers can be quirky, as Daz frequently compresses textures as it puts them into the GPU, so the space it occupies in the GPU may not be what you think it will be. (There's been a HUGE thread on the Daz forums about the inability to exactly calculate how much GPU is being used.) But the "the whole scene is loaded into each card" has been a definitive statement by the Daz folks. Thus, the GPU memory is not "additive".

"so apparently you can render bigger scenes on dual 1050ti too if you got some system memory to back it up too"

Again, Daz either does its rendering in GPU or CPU, not split. If you have multiple GPU's, it will attempt to use them (not sure about more than 2), dropping out any GPU that can't fit the scene. If none of the GPU's can hold the scene, it will fall back to CPU rendering.

 

[PandaPenguin]

the GPU memory is not "additive".

ofc it is not additive, I never said that.
VRAM will never addup, all there is to it is how the application will distribute its load onto available VRAM

Again, Daz either does its rendering in GPU or CPU, not split. If you have multiple GPU's, it will attempt to use them (not sure about more than 2).

DAZ can use more than 2 GPU, I have tested 3 and more 1080ti as long as the CPU has enough PCIe-lanes to support them.
Also I did not say anywhere it would split between GPU and CPU as you can clearly see on test2 that it reverted to CPU only cos the 1060 had less VRAM than the 1080ti which made it impossible to share.

the reason why it's only using two of the five 1050ti really comes down to PCIe-lanes of that Celeron but I will be able to hook them up with an i7-7800X soon (28 lanes) or my other dual Xeon system with 40 lanes (this one was used in triple 1080ti testing).

what these numbers show is that DAZ will and can use GPU VRAM in combination with system RAM if you have two GPUs (or more) with the SAME amount of VRAM which explains why I can render a huge 13 or 16GiB render on dual 1050ti (4GB VRAM) and dual 1080ti (11GB VRAM) but not on the 1060/1080ti combo

also no RAM/VRAM share will happen when you only run a single GPU only

my whole point with this was to show that you can render on budget 1050tis and don't have to worry about their 4GB VRAM if you got at least two

 

[Rich]

all cool - I clearly misinterpreted what you were trying to say.

 

[PandaPenguin]

all cool - I clearly misinterpreted what you were trying to say.

I might have done a bad job making my point by throwing around so much data okerFace:

 

[Aaryn]

Hey all,
So some closure:

First, I appreciate all the thoughts and feedback. After a bit of research, being stuck with the limited budget, and dealing with the ongoing frustration of 12 hour renders. I went to Best Buy today (not my first choice) to look at video cards. I was looking at the 1050 TI because it was within the budget range. Given the Crypto-shit, it was legit the only card they had in the entire store so I guess it was fate or some shit. I elected to purchase it because, if it sucks, I can just take it back. Did my first render tonight in 1.5 hours-- a huge upgrade (and well within what is acceptable to me) difference from the 12 + hour renders before. It was within my budget and sped me up good enough for the type of money I'm making for my current game. You guys rock and I appreciate all your time and opinions

 

[Deleted member 167032]

I had this problem where this one scene kept crashing my DAZ application randomly when rendering. I then selected to use both GPU/CPU and works like a charm. Most of my scenes i can get away with just GPU selected. My card is a GTX1060 3GB version.

Depending on need (amount of renders), an option might be to outsource the renders (there are render-farms where you can rent time, for instance). If not, what is important is CUDA-cores (so only Nvidia cards are an option for use with DAZ) and VRAM (more is always better). You want a card with an absolute minimum of 4 GB, which for newer cards means 6 GB (as they come in 3 or 6 GB versions) or more.