Sloooooow Iray Renders

Jayne Wilson

I'm currently trying to render a simple portrait - single Genesis 3 Female, using the IDG Easy IRay Studio which has a paper roll backdrop and a 3 point light set.  I'm just doing a small render for testing purposes, but so far it's taken 4 1/2 hours and is only 4 percent done.

I know I don't have the most powerful computer, iMac with 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 processor (quad core) and 6 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory, with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB video card, but it shouldn't be that slow should it?

The IDG studio has render settings from Draft to Promo included, but even the draft took forever (and the end result was grainy)

I have been able to do some Iray renders using HDRIs without too much trouble, but this one has me flummoxed.

agent unawares

Jayne Wilson said:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M 512 MB video card

Oof. Only half a gig of VRAM?

Yes, your computer is not optimal for Iray. If I had to guess, your scene is too large to fit on your video card and is trying to render on the CPU, which is slow even with very fast CPUs.

nonesuch00

It sounds like you have a 3rd gen i5 CPU which is 2 core & 4 threads. I recently upgraded a similar computer to a 4 core 8 thread 3rd Gen i7. The i5 you have, expect it to take about 60 hours at 4K resolution to render your portrait. At lower FHD and HD resolutions it would take substantially less time.

The 3rd Gen i7 I upgraded to will do the same scene in about 27 hours. You likely can upgrade your CPU too if you do a bit of research. Just buy a used CPU on eBay. Find out the model CPUs you can you, find sellers that will take best offer for the CPU are selling and offer what you think is fair price. For such an old CPU I offered $50 including shipping but was turned down about a half a dozen times before one excepted $50. The prices for a 3rd Gen CPU can by all over the place from typically about $80 to $200 and even $300. Always avoid the very highest CPU speeds though as they are almost always priced well beyond their worth. 

The only thing you can do to speed it up is to render in Sun & Sky which is faster than indoor 3 point light setups & HRDIs. Some recomend supplying excess light to your scene but those typically look not so great as all the drama of the light & shadows contrasting is washed out.

Jayne Wilson

Thanks for the responses.  

ETA - I remembered I also had Render Studio's Pro Studio HDR and that is rendering a LOT faster.  Guess I wasted my money on the other one.