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Suggestions Please - Optimum Graphics Card for Faster Renderings

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  • Rendering
  • Graphics Cards
  • Design
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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July 17, 2014 9:00:02 AM

I need advice on what graphics card if any, would improve our rendering speeds. We currently operate both 20-20 Design for Cabinetry Design and also Autodesk Revit 2015. When generating renderings in 20-20 using the highest quality settings, it can take 5 - 10 minutes to finish the rendering.

We currently use desktops with AMD FX 8320 (8 Core) 3.5 GHz and 8 GB onboard memory, with Windows 8.1 (64 bit)

Current graphics card is a GeForce GTX 650

Can anyone provide more info or suggestions? Would a Quadro be better (K4000) or a higher end GTX (690 or 780)... It would greatly improve our efficiency if we could speed up the renderings.

Thanks!!

Brian

More about : suggestions optimum graphics card faster renderings

a b U Graphics card
July 17, 2014 9:12:16 AM

I would probably advise against a Quadro and/or FirePro card, even though they're meant for professional grade applications such as this, you're pretty much paying through the nose for reliability over actual performance.
They're intended for scenarios when any down time at all costs a considerable amount of money.

With that said if your company has the funds they will work a treat.

Given your work case I would say a relatively decent, but not extremely high end card would be in order.
I think you're right in suggesting the 780 from Nvidia, it's a gaming-orientated card but at the end of the day, gaming is 3D rendering on the fly.

I'm positive you'll also be fine with a 770 or 280x from AMD. As for choosing brands, I would suggest looking in to which general architecture your software prefers. Most of the time for rendering applications they like the CUDA tech on Nvidia cards.

While that covers the GPU portion, you would gain the most in terms of rendering time by adding as much ram as possible. With an 8320 most AM3+ boards would be limited to 32GB. That'll be 4 8GB sticks in each slot. However, I'm sure you'd get the best price/performance returns using 16GB.
Keep in mind speed limits also, the 8320's memory controller initially limits ram speed to 1866MHz, you would need to overclock the FSB for higher headroom. This would require a decent board.

I would also advise slightly overclocking that 8320 to 8350 levels. Most Piledriver chips will go about 400-500MHz extra at stock volts, meaning no extra power draw or chip degradation.
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July 17, 2014 10:53:43 AM

Distello said:
I would probably advise against a Quadro and/or FirePro card, even though they're meant for professional grade applications such as this, you're pretty much paying through the nose for reliability over actual performance.
They're intended for scenarios when any down time at all costs a considerable amount of money.

With that said if your company has the funds they will work a treat.

Given your work case I would say a relatively decent, but not extremely high end card would be in order.
I think you're right in suggesting the 780 from Nvidia, it's a gaming-orientated card but at the end of the day, gaming is 3D rendering on the fly.

I'm positive you'll also be fine with a 770 or 280x from AMD. As for choosing brands, I would suggest looking in to which general architecture your software prefers. Most of the time for rendering applications they like the CUDA tech on Nvidia cards.

While that covers the GPU portion, you would gain the most in terms of rendering time by adding as much ram as possible. With an 8320 most AM3+ boards would be limited to 32GB. That'll be 4 8GB sticks in each slot. However, I'm sure you'd get the best price/performance returns using 16GB.
Keep in mind speed limits also, the 8320's memory controller initially limits ram speed to 1866MHz, you would need to overclock the FSB for higher headroom. This would require a decent board.

I would also advise slightly overclocking that 8320 to 8350 levels. Most Piledriver chips will go about 400-500MHz extra at stock volts, meaning no extra power draw or chip degradation.



Thanks for the response. So assuming a GTX 780, I should expect to have faster render times? If so, would it be significantly faster? Speed in rendering is very important to us especially for presentations to clients.

Thanks,

Brian

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a b U Graphics card
July 17, 2014 11:21:11 AM

carsonscab said:
Distello said:
I would probably advise against a Quadro and/or FirePro card, even though they're meant for professional grade applications such as this, you're pretty much paying through the nose for reliability over actual performance.
They're intended for scenarios when any down time at all costs a considerable amount of money.

With that said if your company has the funds they will work a treat.

Given your work case I would say a relatively decent, but not extremely high end card would be in order.
I think you're right in suggesting the 780 from Nvidia, it's a gaming-orientated card but at the end of the day, gaming is 3D rendering on the fly.

I'm positive you'll also be fine with a 770 or 280x from AMD. As for choosing brands, I would suggest looking in to which general architecture your software prefers. Most of the time for rendering applications they like the CUDA tech on Nvidia cards.

While that covers the GPU portion, you would gain the most in terms of rendering time by adding as much ram as possible. With an 8320 most AM3+ boards would be limited to 32GB. That'll be 4 8GB sticks in each slot. However, I'm sure you'd get the best price/performance returns using 16GB.
Keep in mind speed limits also, the 8320's memory controller initially limits ram speed to 1866MHz, you would need to overclock the FSB for higher headroom. This would require a decent board.

I would also advise slightly overclocking that 8320 to 8350 levels. Most Piledriver chips will go about 400-500MHz extra at stock volts, meaning no extra power draw or chip degradation.



Thanks for the response. So assuming a GTX 780, I should expect to have faster render times? If so, would it be significantly faster? Speed in rendering is very important to us especially for presentations to clients.

Thanks,

Brian



Honestly I couldn't say.
I've never used the software you listed before, nor the 780. It's just an extremely fast and (with the ti version now out) quite affordable card.
A faster card is of course, going to aid 3D rendering. Whether or not you need one that fast is another issue.

I think you'd garner the most gains from a CPU overclock and added ram.
What's the board?
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