Author Topic: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)  (Read 15536 times)

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DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« on: February 22, 2019, 10:55:16 AM »
Does anyone have any experience with this? I've been working up some product animation sequences, but for now I've had to rely on a GTX 1060, which handles things 'just ok'. Looking around for more power, I've boiled it down to purchasing a Titan RTX. It's fairly new tech but looks promising from what I've read. I've also read that (2) RTX 2080 ti's will out perform (1) Titan. The costs of 2 vs 1 are the same, so this is why I'm looking for more info, and hopefully someone with real world experience on the matter and not just a comment section review, which is about all I could find at the moment.

Here's a comparison for (1) vs (1):

Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti vs Titan RTX
Userbenchmark Effective 3D Gaming GPU Speed: 198% vs 225% 
Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti  - 1st / 608 
Nvidia Titan RTX  - 1st / 608

...or maybe I should go a different direction altogether(?). Just looking for options based on experience at this point.

dgorsman

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2019, 11:23:31 AM »
For now, Arnold is CPU only so all of that won't affect rendering.  Reportedly there's a GPU assisted version in development but that could be a while.  It may also have hardware restrictions.
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.

try {GreatPower;}
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DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #2 on: February 22, 2019, 01:23:06 PM »
For now, Arnold is CPU only so all of that won't affect rendering.  Reportedly there's a GPU assisted version in development but that could be a while.  It may also have hardware restrictions.

Thanks for the response. I'm still new to all this, so any help is much appreciated and that explains a lot.

I expect I'll still get better regen times and less lagging on the GUI with a better card than the 1060. I guess I should start looking into a faster processor. I'm currently running an Intel i7-6700 3.4GHz 4 Core 8LP, which is kinda zippy. It seems like more cores would greatly improve rendering times.

dgorsman

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #3 on: February 22, 2019, 07:07:49 PM »
Yeah, you'll also be better future proofed with the 2080.  Even if the RTX functions aren't used now, they should be in a few years.

More cores will benefit Arnold, provided there is sufficient RAM.  For really fast render times, consider getting a second older computer with multiple processors.  It doesn't have to be cutting edge so shouldn't cost that much.
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.

try {GreatPower;}
   catch (notResponsible)
      {NextTime(PlanAhead);}
   finally
      {MasterBasics;}

DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #4 on: February 22, 2019, 09:00:55 PM »
Yeah, you'll also be better future proofed with the 2080.  Even if the RTX functions aren't used now, they should be in a few years.

More cores will benefit Arnold, provided there is sufficient RAM.  For really fast render times, consider getting a second older computer with multiple processors.  It doesn't have to be cutting edge so shouldn't cost that much.

Ok, I appreciate the info. I'm already networked to a similar PC as my main, so for $500 cheaper I can get the 2080, up my RAM to 32Gigs (from 16), and get a Threadripper 1920x (12 cores) and a MB to handle it.

This sounds like a plan. I may owe you a beer.


raut9967

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2019, 02:09:01 AM »
Great post. agreed

DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2019, 09:41:29 PM »
I ended up getting a Threadripper 2950x  (16 cores), the RTX 2080ti (11 GB), and 32 GB of DDR4 all brought to life through dual HP Pavillion 32q's. This thing smokes. I also took the old 4 core PC and set it up as the server to run Backburner Manager and send jobs to itself, as well as one of it's twins, and the Threadripper PC all in glorious harmony.

I do owe you a beer dgorsman. Very good advice indeed.

dgorsman

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2019, 11:11:34 PM »
Cheers.   8-)  That looks like an awesome set up.
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.

try {GreatPower;}
   catch (notResponsible)
      {NextTime(PlanAhead);}
   finally
      {MasterBasics;}

It's Alive!

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2019, 08:44:35 PM »
I ended up getting a Threadripper 2950x  (16 cores), the RTX 2080ti (11 GB), and 32 GB of DDR4 all brought to life through dual HP Pavillion 32q's. This thing smokes.

Dang! nice machine!

It's Alive!

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2019, 10:08:10 PM »
Curious what cooling your using, have you checked to see if your throttling under load with HWiNFO64?

I went with air cooling on my 9900k, running AVX instructions on all cores, my CPU jumps to max temps and begins to throttle, luckily, I don’t use those instructions in my work.

Its worthwhile to check for throttling, dropping to base clock could mean losing 1ghz x 32 threads, which adds up with long workloads.




DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2019, 08:21:35 AM »
Curious what cooling your using, have you checked to see if your throttling under load with HWiNFO64?

I went with air cooling on my 9900k, running AVX instructions on all cores, my CPU jumps to max temps and begins to throttle, luckily, I don’t use those instructions in my work.

Its worthwhile to check for throttling, dropping to base clock could mean losing 1ghz x 32 threads, which adds up with long workloads.

It's the CLX Quench closed loop. I went with a pre-configured to save myself some headaches and get a warranty, but things aren't all well and good right now. It's been randomly freezing on me, so I'm trying to nail down just what the hecks going on. It appears to be a corrupt graphics driver install, but I'm not 100% certain just yet. Ugh.

DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2019, 09:40:36 AM »
Yup. Reinstalled the drivers. Seems to be stable now.

Good grief.

DL'ing HWiNFO64 now. Will report back.

DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #12 on: March 20, 2019, 10:59:20 AM »
Ok, after more freezing, it's nailed down to the GPU. I ran Furmark on the MSI 2080 and it instantly froze up, so I sent it back and have a new Zotac 2080 ti AMP on the way. Currently sporting an MSI GTX 1060 6GB I pulled from the server PC (and replaced it's original), and I've been running stable since. It even handled Furmark really well.

As for the CPU, I'm running AMD Ryzen Master and showing it maxing out at around 62°C for a 3DS Max single frame render with 900,000 faces that took about 60 seconds. It ran all night (15 hours) last night on a 3000 frame (@1920x1080dpi) animation with no problems.

It's Alive!

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #13 on: March 20, 2019, 11:25:37 AM »
Nice! 62°C is a great temp! I should consider going water cooled.  8-)

DeeGeeCees_V.2.0

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Re: Graphics Cards for 3DS Max and Maya (Arnold Rendering)
« Reply #14 on: March 20, 2019, 12:52:51 PM »
Nice! 62°C is a great temp! I should consider going water cooled.  8-)

It just seems like a more consistent approach to me, but I'm still fairly new to the hardware side of things.