New Computer Build Processor and GPU
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I'm sure this topic has been posted and talked about considerably in the past, however looking back through some of the previous threads I was unable to locate what I was looking for. My firm is getting ready to build a new computer for rendering purposes. I have a $5000 - $7000 budget for this build, and am curious to get feedback from the group regarding which is better the I7v3 or dual Xeon processors, and why? Likewise would love to hear recommendations on what you would suggest for this build, inclusions, omissions, GPU, etc... We have multiple slave systems ( in house that all run the I7, and we use these systems for distributed rendering, so our render times are fairly quick. My goal is to build this unit to be fast on the up-front calculations and still use distributed rendering for overall faster render times. Likewise I want to build this computer to last, keeping in mind Vray is always evolving, which is why i'm also interested in your suggestions for GPU's. We all currently use GTX 780ti's, but i'm under the impression that we may want to consider switching to a workstation GPU for this unit.
Thanks for your help, idea's, etc.
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here's some passmark charts. I'd say the high end chart is for you.
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get the xeons
my mac pro with xeons? i'll let that thing render for 7 days straight and i don't even sweat it..
my iMac or MBP with i7? it gets scary after 30 minutes or so.. fans ablaze etc.obviously there are other factors here (fans etc) but still, i just have way more confidence letting xeons run a max capacity for long periods of time.
i guess it could all be in my head though and not real
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There is really no difference between letting run xeons and i7s.
The factor here is in what they're embedded.
iMac or MBP => Case as thin as possible. No surprise there is little air flow. CPUs goes to high temperatures.
Mac Pro => Bigger case, so more air flow, lower temperatures.But even the Mac Pro is not the ideal case. For that I'd go with a Fractal R5 or something like that. (Bonus point, it would be a PC!)
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Definitely not going to be a MAC, we only use PC's. I can use a full or Mid tower if necessary.
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@skgator99 said:
Definitely not going to be a MAC, we only use PC's. I can use a full or Mid tower if necessary.
wasn't suggesting that.
the processors are the same though -
You'll be happier if you get a full tower. I would also suggest going with liquid cooling. Myself I get sli boards and then plan to expand video cards at a later point when the price dips.
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personally I wouldn't go with either one, I would get an AMD. Their benchmarks are pretty much the same, but the price point is ridiculously lower than any comparable intel chip.
::ducks to avoid the flame war::
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@dkendig said:
personally I wouldn't go with either one, I would get an AMD. Their benchmarks are pretty much the same, but the price point is ridiculously lower than any comparable intel chip.
::ducks to avoid the flame war::
I was under the impression that the AMD Processors weren't even close to the Intel as far as performance? I'm building this computer to be fast and strictly for rendering, and was considering the Dual Xeon E-5 2640 8-core, or similar. Does AMD have something comparable? And is AMD reliable??
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@dkendig said:
personally I wouldn't go with either one, I would get an AMD. Their benchmarks are pretty much the same, but the price point is ridiculously lower than any comparable intel chip.
::ducks to avoid the flame war::
he has $7g though.
you're supposed to spend his money, not save it
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@skgator99 said:
I was under the impression that the AMD Processors weren't even close to the Intel as far as performance?
They're not...
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@ Devin - I have both. Some not that new AMD (6 and 8 core) and a newer Xeon Dual core. I'm planning soon to upgrade my AMD mobo and CPU to Intel, since, as Krisidious points out, a high-end i7 will completely wipe out any AMD chip. Hell, my i5 laptop almost matches my 6 core AMD...
Also, since this is a hardware thread, I'd be glad to see what advice people have on CPU coolers. So many choices!
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I use a simple Corsair Hydro closed system. However, my system never takes the kind of abuse a render machine does. I just model houses...
http://www.corsair.com/en-us/cooling/hydro-series
For video cards I use Danger Den and a custom built system.
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@andybot said:
Also, since this is a hardware thread, I'd be glad to see what advice people have on CPU coolers. So many choices!
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excuse me while I clean this mess up....
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@dkendig said:
personally I wouldn't go with either one, I would get an AMD. Their benchmarks are pretty much the same, but the price point is ridiculously lower than any comparable intel chip.
::ducks to avoid the flame war::
Regardless of pure performance, he stated that he wants to use this machine with Vray. And in a few months you should be releasing v3, right? Which means Embree, right? Which means Intel, right?
Right?
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Thanks for all the responses. So Intel is in AMD is out! Any thoughts on GPU configurations? We all currently run the GTX 780ti, my initial thought was to pop three of them in to start (we also use Lumion and Octane on occasion)...
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@jeff hammond said:
@dkendig said:
personally I wouldn't go with either one, I would get an AMD. Their benchmarks are pretty much the same, but the price point is ridiculously lower than any comparable intel chip.
::ducks to avoid the flame war::
he has $7g though.
you're supposed to spend his money, not save it
Yeah, hard to wrap my head around having that budget for just one machine I guess. I can't say how our product performs in a production environment for any particular configuration. I use a macbook pro that's a year or two old, and a desktop I built (amd based) for DR or RT rendering. I don't get too fancy when rendering for my own testing purposes. If I had 7k, I'd build a little 3-4 computer render farm. I haven't tested it myself, but I would think that having 3 or 4 machines contributing to the render job would be better than paying 4-5x to get 2x performance boost. It also depends on what you're rendering. If you're doing more quick renders than big slow renders, then the network lag on DR would probably have an impact on performance when dealing with the farm. Otherwise I would think that having the farm would be the way to go.
One AMD FX-9590 Eight-Core (score 10,194) is $219.95
One Intel Core i7-5960X (score 16,905) is $1,011.99... so there's some improvement here, it's nearly 7,000 higher in the benchmark score (not sure how that relates to V-Ray though)... but you have to pay about 500% for that little bump...I'm also confused why intel server chips (xeon) are listed... but no AMD (opteron)... not sure why they would be omitted...
So for a benchmark that is actually related to what we do, here are benchmarks for 3D Studio Max using Mental Ray: http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/cpu-charts-2013/-26-3DS-Max-2012,3161.html
Again I'm seeing under $200 for AMD, and over $350 for intel, with similar benchmark scores.
Granted, you have a huge budget, and you already have a render farm, so by all means, go on and get the absolute latest and greatest processor you can find (or a few of them for that matter). Like I said, I just have never had that kind of budget for one workstation.
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space and power get to be a consideration once you have many boxes... also noise, heat. Additionally, you have to consider that node licensing has changed with vray 3.0 - you have to pay for nodes now, so it make sense in that regard to have fewer machines (thinking ahead at least
). @ Devin: I don't know if you realize that AMD cores =/= Intel cores. Intel uses hyperthreading, so you pretty much get double the cores in terms of processing power. I.e. - 4 cores Intel = 8 cores AMD, more or less.
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