2 smaller graphics cards or 1 big one?

pancreasboy

Honorable
Dec 9, 2013
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10,510
Hey there all, looking to update either my work's mac or pc with a graphics card to render in Blender's Cycles renderer (since I'm relying on the CPU at the moment and want to use GPU).

So since Blender's Cycles only supports certain Nvidia cards I guess I have these questions:

1) Would 2 smaller graphics cards be better off for faster rendering compared to one large one, eg would 2 GTX570's be better than one Titan in regards to rendering speed and cost?

2) Since my mac is my main work computer could these kinds of graphics cards be put into it, if it's a:

Model Identifier: iMac12,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 3.1 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB

whereas my pc is:

ACPI Multiporcessor x64 based PC
Intel Xeon CPU
2.26 GHz
12 GB RAM
XP
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800

3) Does anyone else have a similar setup and could recommend me graphics cards to render from GPU in Blender's Cycles?

Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
As long as the mobo in either computer has pcie 2 or 3 with around 600w psu either computer can handle a Titan. The Titan is nvidias bridge between gaming and workstation card. It has extra features that no other card under it has which is why even though the 780ti is better for gaming, the extra cost of the Titan is justified. So for rendering a Titan would be best.
As long as the mobo in either computer has pcie 2 or 3 with around 600w psu either computer can handle a Titan. The Titan is nvidias bridge between gaming and workstation card. It has extra features that no other card under it has which is why even though the 780ti is better for gaming, the extra cost of the Titan is justified. So for rendering a Titan would be best.
 
Solution

pancreasboy

Honorable
Dec 9, 2013
11
0
10,510
Ok thanks woltej1,

so from all the posts I've read so far here's what I've discovered...

No to the mac in regards to 2 graphics cards or fitting in a card of my choice (unless I maybe wait for the MacPro).

For my PC I need to check a few things, like do I have 2 PCI Express x16 length Slots to hold the cards and a good enough PSU (since dual cards might overheat), and is my CPU a single, dual, quad core?

I'll try to get a photo inside my PC, but the damn thing is locked shut thanks to the uni I work for. But here's a few screenshots of my setup...

screen1.jpg


screen2.jpg


The other option is make a render farm or use a online render farm service.

Another question too is can CUDA in Blender use SLI graphics cards, cause I'm getting mixed reports...
http://oenvoyage.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/blender-cycles-best-hardware-using-the-benchmark-spreadsheet-analysis/
http://www.systemagnostic.com/faqs/
 
"In short: do not use SLI, but feel free to use as many independent GPUs as you like!"
This is a quote from a website about blender cycle- http://www.systemagnostic.com/faqs/

Also, the titan has 6gb of vram for its gpu, if you go SLI with nvidias other cards, you well have either 2-4GB of vram, not both cards added together since each card has to render on its own and must load everything it needs.