What is the best hardware for Indigo?

[Coen Naninck]

I'm looking to buy a new computer especially for Indigo. Until the present, I've always looked at DELL laptops because of their excellent build quality. However, I notice that a Desktop system such as towers are generally cheaper and you get more value for money and also slightly faster performance since it's not mobile.

I've looked at GeForce and Quadro cards (I definitely don't want an ATI card, so those are out of the question). I see that the latest GTX consumer card has 1024 CUDA cores, but the Quadro 4000 - which is way more expensive - has 'only' 448. So what's up with that? Does this mean the card is slower? Or does more memory on that card mean more computing power? Or maybe it's the shader model?

I haven't been following computer tech in years, so I'm completely in the dark about this.

Can someone please give me a good advice as to what is a good machine? My budget is around 1200 Euros - that is, at this point that is what I want to spend at the most, and perhaps upgrading in the future. This means I will need a tower, power supply, graphics card and monitor. I don't need a hard drive because I already have one and a sound card etc. I won't use. This system will be only for rendering.

So in short I'd like answers to these questions:

• Which is the best graphics card for Indigo?
• What is the best CPU for Indigo?
• What is the best RAM for Indigo?
• How much RAM for good performance in Indigo?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[snorky]

more is better...
but is also expensive...
but not ever...

quadro is for "professional 3d modelling software", if you use sketchup you don't need it.

Code: Select all

for 1200€:
intel i5 2500k    200e
mobo z68          150e
ram 16gb          150e
vga nvidia 580    400e
monitor 24"       150e
power s.          150e
case               50e
------------------------------
                 1250e

1024 cuda cores on gtx590 are 2x 512 cuda cores of 2x gtx580, indigo works only with one video card

[Coen Naninck]

Thanks! That helps.

Are you saying that the 590 has two sets of 512 cores and that only one set is used? Or is a 590 really an SLI setup?

[lycium]

He wrote 580, the 590 should be avoided as they run too hot and Indigo currently only uses a single GPU. Furthermore, you need a good CPU too if you're going to get good mileage out of a fast GPU since Indigo uses a hybrid approach and you don't want either of the two falling behind

[Coen Naninck]

That's good advice.

I'm puzzled on your 580/590 remark though. He wrote:

1024 cuda cores on gtx590 are 2x 512 cuda cores of 2x gtx580, indigo works only with one video card

So he did write 590. I just don't understand what he meant there exactly. But I suppose it's not really important. Gotta love text communication.

[snorky]

590 3gb is 580 1.5 gb + 580 1.5gb (with "internal sli")
indigo uses only ONE part -> only a gpu (512 core) and only 1.5gb ram
then
for now 580 is the best choice

sorry for my english

[Coen Naninck]

Ah! Thank you for clarifying.

Your English is fine by the way. I'm not a native speaker either and make mistakes all the time. Ask Stinkie, he knows I do.

[Stinkie]

You boys should hear me speak French.

[Headroom]

Before heading out and buying an expensive piece of equipment, please keep in mind keep in mind that currently the only render mode that is GPU supported is simple Path Tracing.

Nvidia Quatro cards often feature more ram than consumer cards, however, that's not where the high price comes from. The hardware is identical to the equivalent consumer cards. The "magic" are the optimized OpenGL drivers that are certified to work flawlessly with specific applications, e.g. CAD and higher end DCC (digital content creation) software.

I believe you would only benefit from the higher RAM if you really have absolutely massive scenes. E.g. outdoor environments with lots of varied vegetation (Grass, trees etc). Indigo only stores geometry in the GPU RAM and not textures etc., which makes it less GPU RAM hungry than for example a render engine that runs exclusively on the GPU.

[Coen Naninck]

Makes sense Headroom. Some driver modders have been known to mod nVidia Quadro drivers for use with consumer cards, since the hardware is basically the same, tricking the computer into thinking a Quadro is in fact installed, instead of the game card. Don't know if they still do it though.

I've a pretty good idea now of what kind of hardware to look for. Thanks to all!

[lycium]

The only thing I would change about snorky's suggestion is replacing the i5 with an i7 and the 580 with a 570 More bang for your buck.

[joeyslucky22]

This is all great advice thanks guys! I'm looking into building an in-house rendering farm so it's good to have an idea of what kind of equipment I'll need!

I'm planning on building two slaves with specs of:
i7-2600k 3.4ghz
Quadro FX 3800
16 GB RAM

Should I buy the GTX 580/570 instead? Why the 570 over the 580? Better performance with indigo?

[lycium]

580 has better performance but the 570 has a better overall price/performance picture and runs a little cooler.

[joeyslucky22]

...well... It's the boss's money so... lol

Do you know if I'll get the same performance with a Quadro 3800? They're so expensive though...

~$360 - GTX 570
~$470 - GTX 580
~$800 - FX 3800

[Headroom]

Unlikely!

The GFX 570 has higher memory bandwitdh, faster clock rates, more CUDA cores (480 vs. 192 for the Quadro FX 3800) and so on.

Wikipedia has some nice tables to compare specs. What you don't find there you can find on Nvidia's web site.

If you need Quadro Cards for CAD etc. you may want to dedicate these to the CAD workstations only and furnish your render slaves with GFX 570 or equivalent.