Ok, can't find %$&@%#$! Any suggestions before I waste money on a new PC? (Video Card)
1gecko
Posts: 309
after 13 *years* (yes, you read that correctly), I finally HAVE to break down and get a new PC - just having too many errors and issues to continue on (not to mention incompatibility issues).
I have NO idea what DStudio is currently supporting (claimed or otherwise) - it has been years since I could run it - and I don't want to waste money on something that won't be used. Looked through pages of the Tech forum and here in Commons and tried searching but couldn't find anything with any details (not saying it is not there - I just didn't find it in the time I had)
Sooooo...
1) Suggestions on which NVidea card (other than just 'the most expensive')
2) Why? Does DStudio actually support CUDA, etc. now (or is it still "will be supported 'DAZ Soon'"?)
3) What CPU / Motherboard would work best? Not really worried about gaming anymore (nerve damage has gotten so bad I don't have the reactions or coordination necessary for anything current)
4) anything special to avoid?
... and apologies to Richard - I will probably be back :)
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Comments
Sooooo...
1) Suggestions on which NVidea card (other than just 'the most expensive')
Anything with RTX in front of it will be fine.
Buying a card earlier than RTX, i would suggest maybe GTX1080 TI or GTX1080 at worst. GTX1060 for example, only has 6GB of VRAM so may struggle to fit basic scenes, let alone complicated ones with a HD (high subdivision) character.
2) Why? Does DStudio actually support CUDA, etc. now (or is it still "will be supported 'DAZ Soon'"?)
no idea but better GPU will have better graphical accelleration and render much faster, and more VRAM of card will mean you can fit more in scene. If you go over VRAM, you will not be able to render on GPU (fast) and will need to render on CPU (slow), or get really creative with splitting up more complex scenes.
3) What CPU / Motherboard would work best? Not really worried about gaming anymore (nerve damage has gotten so bad I don't have the reactions or coordination necessary for anything current)
When buying components, you have to ensure they are compatible. Whatever Motherboard you buy needs to be compatible with the CPU and RAM speeds you have. (Comatibility with GPU should be fine, but also check that PCIE slots and space on motherboard and in PC case will not be an issue, which becomes more important with the bigger cards)
4) anything special to avoid?
As above, i think you just have to figure out a budget and then make sure the components are compatible with eachother. There are PC build subreddits that are active and will help you.
Your system RAM should probably be at least twice your VRAM.
RTX 3060 (not RTX 3060Ti) because it has 12GB memory and is still (relatively) affordable.
An Nvidia RTX GPU with 12GB or more VRAM, 32GB's or more RAM (RAM should be about 3 times the VRAM)
Big enough PSU to power up the system, a 750W is good for the RTX 3060 12GB based system.
In addition to the OS drive, you will need a separate drive for the Daz content. A 4TB drive is a good start and it can be an external USB one.
The rest of the system doesn't matter that much. I'm currently running a i7-5820K with an Asus X66 motherboard and in no hurry to assemble my next computer (i9-9940X with Asus X299) for which I already have all the parts.
I would recommend 3 monitors (vertical resolution 1200 or 1440), as that helps in organizing the interface and leaves one monitor completely for the viewport.
4060ti was the absolute most bang for the buck for me, 16 gig of VRAM for less than many 12gb cards. Of course, pricing by region will vary a TON, which is why the worldwide forums might not be the best place to align both cost and power. Yes, Daz does use Cuda, which is why Nvidia is pretty much a must, otherwise you could just get yourself a powerful AMD card for way cheaper.
Graphics card: If you're doing IRAY rendering with DAZ Studio don't bother with GTX era graphics cards. Stick to RTX. At least an RTX-3060 w/12GB VRAM (~ $300 US), or RTX-4060 or 70 (~ $500 US) with at least 12GB of VRAM.
CPU: At least 6-core Intel, generation 10 or above, model 4xx or above.
Motherboard: Asus, Gigabyte, ASRock, MSI, i.e. big players in the motherboard field, no cheap knockoffs. Suitable for 10th & 11th gen. Intel CPUs, You don't need the "90" level boards, 40,50,60+ will do.
RAM: DDR4 or DDR5 depending on the motherboard. At least 64GB if you have 12GB of VRAM on your graphics card
Too many other variables to advise casually about, here. Check an online configuration tool.
Gaming specs are nice but you wouldn't buy a Mclaren to haul vegetables.
My recent observations and attempts to spec out a new system for myself (just out of curiosity) seemed to indicate that 3xx level motherboards and 8th & 9th generation CPUs are hard to find and getting expensive again.
Whereas 4xx and 5xx level motherboards and corresponding 10th & 11th, 12th & 13th generation, 40, 50, 60 level CPUs are becoming less expensive and generally available.
And the "Gaming" 6xx and 7xx level motherboards and '90' level CPUs are dreamcastles for rich digital gearheads.
Regardless, expect to pay $1500 for a nice stable system, or $850 for a "yes it's functional" DAZing machine.
or $2500 for a power hungry, fiiddly, hot screamer.
Don't go cheap on the case - rendering generates heat. I prefer air cooling over liquid; multiple fans in an intake/exhaust configuration works well. I'm also a fan of the Noctua cpu coolers as well.
I used https://pcpartpicker.com/ and here is a list I put together below for a 2021-22 build. This is an AMD DDR4 build. The site will let you know if things don't look right. Some of the parts here may not be available anymore for DDR4 such as the motherboards (and if they are, they are pretty pricey-also, some items I already owned from a previous build-such as the monitors) and some I know are no longer available such as the case. I am a bit retro and like the old fashioned DVD drives-which I purchased a few with blueray capablilities. Motherboards may have very specific memory lists so I found this site really helpful to see what worked and what didn't; they have a great community to help with your build and you can see other folks' builds.
Depends on how much money you want to spend, and how intensive you plan to dive into 3D rendering.
I also had to bite the bullet recently, and opted for a good gaming PC, with upgrade to 64Gb RAM, expandable to 128GB. It has a 1000 Watts power unit, so it can handle some power stress.
The PC came without a Graphics card, so the one I picked was an RTX4070 with 12GB (ASUS ProArt-RTX4070-O12G NVIDIA), over the 4060Ti for both, power consumption and speed. This sacrificed 4GB VRAM, but since I do large renders using a render service anyway, it's a good trade-off.
For the CPU, in case you are wondering, I selected an AMD. This is my first time working with an AMD, so it's a bit of a gamble. Intel's CPUs usually have more cores and punch, but the benchmarking for the AMD CPU was very similar to the Intel one of the same price level; the Intel one I was eyeing would've blown my budget, and I would've had to sacrifice either on the card or memory. So far, I haven't rued it, and I'm up and running with a 1800 Euro system. Time to start saving money for the next buy in ten or so years, I guess.
(If you can read German language, this one was my base: https://www.arlt.com/PC/Gaming-PCs/ARLT-Gamer-AMD-Ryzen-7-7800X3D-32GB-DDR5-2TB-M-2-SSD-Grafikkarte-auswaehlbar-Win11Pro-RGB.html)
To answer you question: 2) Why? Does DStudio actually support CUDA, etc. now (or is it still "will be supported 'DAZ Soon'"?)
I'm not sure what you mean with "CUDA", but the core render engine, Iray, needs CUDA cores to function at a decent speed. It will only work on nVidea cards, and otherwise render on your CPU in glacial times. A bit faster if you have many cores.. For details, I suggest you check out this section of the forum: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/categories/daz-studio-discussion which has tons of information.
Avoid Intel 13th and 14th gen cpus. Serious concerns over long term relability. Still a breaking story.
Avoid EVGA, don't expect them to survive much longer. They're mostly just selling rebadged PSUs at this point.
Thanks all! I appreciate the advice / feedback... I haven't been keeping up with the tech over the past few years (too much RL stuff unfortunately), so this abrupt necessity has hit me unprepared.
again, thanks!
So off to the rainforest depths to attempt to corner that most elusive beast - a decent computer that is still affordable!
Boy have the prices dropped. Look at the off-site benchmarks. Here is a RTX3060 vs a RTX2080. I own dual RTX2080-Tis in one of my machines that has 128GB Rip-Jaws ram and I do huge scenes. But everything matters the power supply the cooling and vip the motherboard. It's like making lasagna without ricotta, or some other needed cheeses, pasta or marinara (and for meatlovers like me . . . beef.) Decide on the card than make sure you have the other ingredients the card needs. If you can't afford the other ingredients choose a package you can and that will play well together.
Best of luck.
1. Nvidia 4060ti. If you are on a budget, the 3060 12gb is still reasonable to get into Daz with.
2. Because it has 16GB of memory. Unfortunately daz effectively *only* supports Cuda. I would love to be able to recommend AMD, but sadly not.
3. AMD R5 7600(x). B650(e) motherboard. [you don't need the 'x' and 'e' versions unless you want to spend more]
4. Intel I7 and I9's. Because they crash. And are complete overkill for Daz. If you went Intel, anything above an I5 (even I3) is wasted on Daz right now. You might say, "but what if Daz 5 comes out next year and is properly multithreaded?" Pigs might fly, and I would counter with, "just upgrade the AMD 7600 if that happens".
...the total core count need also depends on what other software you use. While Daz and Blender rely on single core performance for most operations (other than animation, supporting simulations ,and CPU based/assisted rendering), other software may take advantage of all CPU threads
One thing to remember if you have a very large scene and it exceeds VRAM, the process wall dump to the CPU and with 6 cores the process will become "glacial" (I have an old 6 core/12 thread Xeon in my ancient system along with a 12 GB Titan- X GPU that effectively has around 10.7 GB available (due to RTX emulation and Windows 7 WDDM), Still faster than CPU based rendering but not as quick as an RTX card with RT cores. I've had some scenes push 10 of VRAM when rendering.