Hardware spec for new Sketchup + VRay rendering box

[keithpocock]

Good day, I am new to the forum, a garden designer working in a London based practice. We do not-quite-photorealistic renders of some of our designs. They are generally relatively low-complexity models in terms of geometry but they include a considerable number of detailed images (face-me components).

We are an Apple based office, using high end iMacs but now need a decent rendering workstation to speed things up. I am relatively novice with VRAY and my understanding of hardware is not as deep as it could be...

 

I'd really appreciate input on which of these is the best way to go:

 

Mac Pro, 3.7Ghz Quad core/32GB/Dual Fire Pro D300

 

PCSpecialist HEX P K2200i, i7 3.6GHz, 32Gb, Quadro M4000

 

There is quite a price difference (£900), but we are more concerned with which is going to deliver best performance and a good investment.

 

thanks for reading!

[jamesgallagher]

Neither of those computers is a good investment for rendering. I would avoid Apple computers for rendering. You want to get as many cores and as much memory as you can afford if you're going to CPU rendering. The PCSpecialist computer you mentioned only has a 6800k, I would aim for dual Xeons if it fits the budget. If you're planning on doing GPU rendering (not sure if Sketchup has VRay RT) then focus on GPU and memory, I would get at least a 1070. Avoid workstation cards like the Fire Pro and the Quadro. They are not what you need, especially for the price.

[keithpocock]

Hi James,

Thanks very much for the reply. This is all a bit confusing.

I know Mac's aren't generally considered suitable for rendering was really testing the water as the office is entirely Mac right now so there is resistance to getting Windows. So lets forget the Mac...

 

But in general, I understood modelling is single threaded, hence go for a fast processor rather than loads of cores (hence 6800k, which we have upped to 6850), and a good GPU, the M4000 has 1700 or CUDA cores, so its a massive upgrade from our current iMacs. Vray for Sketchup does have VT/GPU, but isn't the GPU used in general production rendering?

 

thanks

[joelmcwilliam]

Hi Keith,

 

could you download cinebench and take it for a run on your rendering pc, because I dont know how powerfull your mac is during rendering. Post the results below.

 

How fast you want to render? Like 2 or 5 or maybe 10 times faster? Remember, the faster you want to render, the more you are going to pay.

 

What version of vray you are using?

 

Decribe also how you guys work on your computers? Everybody models on their own computers and renders on their own computers. Everybody is using the same software? Maybe something else what is good to know in order to give some descent advice?

[jamesgallagher]

You're correct, modeling is single threaded but typically for architecture the polygon count isn't so high that you would sacrifice render performance. If you go for faster cores you will get better modeling performance but do your models have that many polygons that this is a concern? I've never ran into anyone who would chose faster cores rather than more cores for rendering. Everyone is different though though, if you don't care about waiting for renders then by all means go for faster cores.

 

As for the GPU, if you're only using Vray with Sketchup then I really wouldn't worry about a decent GPU because Vray will only use your CPU for rendering. If your firm is even the slightest bit interested in VRay RT or any software like Unreal Engine, Lumion, Substance Painter, Substance Designer, etc. then get yourselves a Nvidia 1070 or 1080.

 

Stay away from Fire Pro's and Quadro's, they're very expensive and typically used in industries that do massive physics simulations with programs like Solidworks. It used to be that CAD programs would benefit from a workstation card, but gaming cards are so powerful now that you would never notice a difference. Put the money you would've spent on that M4000 and put it towards a better processor(S).