Suggested specs for workstation and other dumb questions

TreyM

Hi All

I am planning on getting a beefed up machine to speed up renders.

I am using a dinosaur i5 2520m with integrated graphics (lol, I know!), so doing iRay renders is something I just leave doing overnight.

I was wondering if the following specs should cut the mustard:

i5 4690k, NVidia GTX 1080 8GB, 16GB RAM?

Also,

1. Does the processor really matter if scenes are rendered by the GPU?
2. What would you expect typical render times to be with this GPU for a scene with 2 figures (let's say)? (For me it would take about 2-3 hours until the image is of sufficient quality via the i5)

Sone

trey_makaveli said:

i5 4690k, NVidia GTX 1080 8GB, 16GB RAM?

Also,

1. Does the processor really matter if scenes are rendered by the GPU?
2. What would you expect typical render times to be with this GPU for a scene with 2 figures (let's say)? (For me it would take about 2-3 hours until the image is of sufficient quality via the i5)

Yes that will cut the mustard.

1. The GPU does the heavy lifting.

2. The typical scene I believe you may be doing (two figure pose basic background) will be well under an hour with that 1080 cofiguration.

Hope that helps

JamesJAB

1.  Yes the GPU does the heavy lifting, but it still relies on the CPU for other tasks.  (For Iray, the CPU handles the intial package and transfer of data to the GPU) In your preview window, the big CPU tasks include morph targets, posing, and dynamic cloth simulation.  I would consider getting something in the current generation for your CPU, that way you will be on a DDR4 memmory platform. (unless you are buying it second hand at a super cheap price)

2.  The GTX 1080 should get the scene DONE to 100% convergence in under an hour.