Do Render Engines use the GPU?

Zoom123

Thanks.

Regarding CPU, how much difference would a core i7 2600K make over core i5 2500K when it comes to rendering times?

Similarly, would 16GB of RAM offer a noticeable performance benefit over 8GB of RAM?

notareal

Thanks.

Regarding CPU, how much difference would a core i7 2600K make over core i5 2500K when it comes to rendering times?

Similarly, would 16GB of RAM offer a noticeable performance benefit over 8GB of RAM?

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288
For CPU I'd go with i7, it has 15-30% difference, based on multithreaded cinebench and powray. For RAM I'd take at least 16GB. If you run out of RAM, you basically cannot render no longer, but otherwise 8 to 16GB will not give any speed. To benefit all that RAM you need naturally 64-bit OS and 64-bit renderer. Note, most renderers that run actually inside contexts of SU are 32-bit. If you want 64-bit renderer, it must be outside of SU (data transfers by pipe/file/...). In that case a studio renderer is a good option.

Zoom123

Thanks. I will start by using something like Twilight or Maxwell for SU on Windows 7. How much RAM will they be able to access?

notareal

I don't know certain for Maxwell for SU, but if it works in contexts of SU, it's limited to max 4GB. Same goes with Twilight. Only 64-bit programs access more RAM (mainly render studios).

Zoom123

@notareal said:

I don't know certain for Maxwell for SU, but if it works in contexts of SU, it's limited to max 4GB. Same goes with Twilight. Only 64-bit programs access more RAM (mainly render studios).

Thanks. Would something like Twilight that works within Sketchup also limit the CPU, or if I get the i7 2600K instead of the i5 2500K I will get the full 15-30% difference?

Gaieus

No, CPU (and all its cores) can be utilized - at least by Twilight that I know.

brodie

Maxwell does not use GPU at all. It will, however use any and all CPU you throw at it.

How much ram it uses depends on a few things. The biggies are what resolution you render at and how high your polygon count is. Unless I have other software open I usually keep it under 8gb of ram - probably more like 4-6gb. But that depends a lot on what you're doing.

-Brodie

Zoom123

Thanks. So say an interior scene of a room with several artificial lights and everything that is needed to produce a photorealistic result at a resolution of 1920x1080, could it need more than 8GB? I am not planning to print anything so 1920x1080 is probably the max I will ever need.

brodie

If you're rendering at 1080 directly from SU you'd have to try really hard to get to 8gb. Even then you'd probably have to be running other software in the background to get that high. If I wanted to save a few bucks and was in that situation I might even start with 6gb with the option of buying a little more later if the need arose.

-Brodie

Zoom123

@unknownuser said:

If you're rendering at 1080 directly from SU you'd have to try really hard to get to 8gb. Even then you'd probably have to be running other software in the background to get that high. If I wanted to save a few bucks and was in that situation I might even start with 6gb with the option of buying a little more later if the need arose.

-Brodie

Thanks Brodie. I think I will go for 8GB then.