Hardware upgrade

[M_Jaco]

Hi

 

I currently have a Dell workstation PWS650 dual Xeon 2.40 GHz, 2 gig ram, with a NVIIDIA Quadro FX 3000, running on it Viz2006 + Vray. I manly do stills but I need to render them in high resolution, which could take a couple of hours using vray.

 

I am looking to speed up my workflow, mainly to be able to start modeling a second project while one is rendering.

 

I am looking into buying some Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz, 2 GB ram, for render slaves. How many of those would be equivalent to my current Dual Xeon, in terms of render speed? I’m trying to find out how many of those I would need in order to maintain the same render time as I currently have with my dual Xeon.

 

Please advise, and take into consideration that I am far from a hardware expert,

 

Thanks

[AJLynn]

Since the video card in the Xeon is an FX3000, which is an AGP card, I'm guessing the dual Xeon is a few years old, it's not a dual-daul (4 cores total not counting Hyperthreading) and it's not based on the new (as of last summer) microarchitecture.

 

If that's true, each 2.4GHz Core2 Duo render node will render approximately twice as fast as the dual Xeon. You could get one to use as your workstation as well.

[kainoa]

Actually, i find it alot easier and cheaper to outsource my renderings via ResPower or other third party render farms. I then get reimbursed for the rendering fees (typically only $20-$50 or so per high res still).

 

No upgrade headaches and I save a ton on extra hardware, $oftware, electricity, and office space.

[M_Jaco]

Andrew, will I be able to use my current video card FX3000 in the Core2 Duo?

 

Jason, it’s a something to think about; how do you deal with lighting changes etc…..I think it’s convenient to have my own little farm. However, it could come in useful for billboard stuff, Thanks

[kainoa]

Yes, it's just an alternate suggestion.

 

The workflow is the same as if you had your own renderfarm. As i'm modelling/lighting i'll do low to medium resolution renders to preview adjustments. If i need to preview in a higher resolution i'll only render a small region of the image. These small previews save time and are good enough to give me an idea on how the final will come out. Then i'll upload for final rendering. Reply to emails while i'm waiting, then voila. Worse case, if it doesn't come out good I'll make the adjustment and reupload for another render.

 

$ave a lot of $ this way. Instead of me sweating to buy the latest and greatest hardware/software spending thousands on a 2+ node farm, I have the use of 20+ of the latest rendernodes at my disposal that I pay nothing for.

[AJLynn]

Jason's got a point, and it's something you'd need to research and do the math on, taking into account your own needs. As for the FX3000, no, you would not be able to use it, since Core2 motherboards will come with PCIE insteadd of AGP. However, the FX3000 isn't exactly new, and a large component of screen speed is CPU speed, so putting a reasonably good video card in there with a Core2 chip would more than compensate for the lack of the FX3000 while substantially increasing your render speed.

[M_Jaco]

Respower won’t work for me; I need to have some kind of render farm in my office, clients keep changing their minds as far as design, texture,etc……

 

So, I guess I’ll get one Core 2 Duo E6600 for a workstation as well: which video card would be good for my workstation? What 30” screen would you recommend?

 

Now this 32 64 bit thing; from what I understand, I cant have a 32 bit together with a 64 bit on the same render farm. Is that correct? If so, I guess it only makes sense for me to buy 32 bit so I won’t lose my current dual Xeon from joining the farm, On the other hand, maybe 32 bit is going to expire eventually and viz max will come only in 64 bit versions (am I taking this too far?)

 

Does Viz currently have a 64-bit version like max 9?

 

Thanks for helping me with this confusing decision process

[kainoa]

Not to sound like a salesman (i'm in no way affiliated with Respower or any other third party renderer), but my clients are the same - constistently changing/tweaking design. The way I see it, in going with a third party renderer, the more you render the more time/money you save. Just my five cents. Good luck!

[AJLynn]

Max9 32 bit will install on XP64, so you can consider that future-resistant (future-proof to 100 meters) or just use XP32, which still has the best support for... well, everything. I gave up on 64-bit Max because of compatibility and because I couldn't find any advantages with under 4GB RAM. Viz is still 32-bit but will run fine on XP64 as well.

 

As for the rest. PCIE video cards: at work I have a Quadro 1500, at home a FireGL v5100, laptop is a Radeon X1600 and I find them all to be quite good, even the Radeon. Some people disapprove of FireGL but my home PC is the only one I've used that breaks the 5000 mark in Cinebench OpenGL. There are also the GeForce 8800 and 8600 series and the new Radeon 2900 (the other 2xxx boards don't seem to be out yet but they aren't nearly as powerful - the 2900 is faster than the low-end 2xxx by a factor of 10). The Radeon and Geforce cards are very much optimized for DirectX while the FireGL and Quadro are happiest in OpenGL.