GPU Rendering Questions

[Matt Sugden]

So I'm contemplating the money pit which is a hardware upgrade once again, and while I'm on with it I was wondering about adding a new GFX card and monitor to the setup as I've been reading a little about GPU rendering in VRay. But I'm not clear on a few things:

 

Firstly, am I right in thinking that I could configure a new system to have my old GeForce7800 card assigned to a newer bigger monitor (for the tasks of modelling, photoshopping) and then have a GPU card (maybe a GTX580/590) assigned to one of my older 17" monitors, purely for the task of previewing renders?

 

Secondly, is it the case that I really ought to try and get as big a memory as I can on the GPU? am I going to start running into problems soon if I have say a 1.5GB card?

 

Also, I've not read anywhere about GPU performance improving production render times, is this the case? is the GPU specifically intended for previewing, rather than producing final images? If not, how does the GPU performace work with an animation workflow?

 

Finally, has anyone here been using GPU rendering, does it make a significant speed up in effeciancy and work rate. I'm forever waiting for renders and making tweaks.

Thanks

[notamondayfan]

Check out Jeff Patton's blog, there's quite a bit on there regarding GPU rendering with iray.

[Scott Schroeder]

Unless your production pipeline involves real time rendering, the GPU won't help your render times. That's where your CPU comes into play for traditional renders of stills and animations.

 

Lighting and texture tweaks with Vray RT or iRay is indeed a fantastic thing when you want to try tweaks as it's nearly instant if you have even a semi-decent GPU (along with the proper settings of course). For final rendering, I'm on the fence a little. But, as Dean mentioned, check out Jeff Patton's site as he as a lot of iRay stuff on there. Even if you use Vray RT, the iRay concepts transfer.

 

http://jeffpatton.net/blog/

 

Here is Jeff's GPU FAQ: http://jeffpatton.net/2011/10/iray-and-gpu-faq/