Hybrid Rig - Gaming / Workstation LF Advice

[Tinsley847]

I was recently asked to build a computer for my friends son. He wants a gaming box with a decent sized budget. So I had one similar to mine picked out, 780ti / i7-4770k etc. But then I got the curve ball, it will also be used 50% of the time to develop games on 3d studio max (lots of rendering) and cut videos on Sony Vegas Pro & After Effects. So… is the 780ti & i7-4770k going to cut it? Do I need something like the titan for its large ram? Having trouble finding data on a hybrid box like this. I’m trying to avoid putting a quaddro / workstation card into the build.

 

[loccothan]

Maybe Intel 2011 6/12 4.5Ghz OC'ed and Radeon R290X (has OpenCL for Soft/rendering) or R295x2 8GB

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Maybe Intel 2011 6/12 4.5Ghz OC'ed and Radeon R290X (has OpenCL for Soft/rendering) or R295x2 8GB

Urg, no. The 4770k and 780ti both have fantastic compute capabilities. I see no reason to go TITAN black at all. Even with tons of video rendering a 4770k with 4 core turbo at 4.2 will crush it all. The 780ti has fantastic compute too, it definitely challenges the 290x there. All in all that build is fine.

 

[Makaveli]

Radeons are faster in Vegas pro than Nvidia offerings.

However I believe After Effects is a cuda friendly so that may be faster with NV.

So you can go either or with this one.

And if he is going to render alot IVY-E is a better option until Haswell E comes out. Haswell at 4.2 Will not crushing IVY-E at 4.2 it will lose!

Urg, no. The 4770k and 780ti both have fantastic compute capabilities. I see no reason to go TITAN black at all. Even with tons of video rendering a 4770k with 4 core turbo at 4.2 will crush it all. The 780ti has fantastic compute too, it definitely challenges the 290x there. All in all that build is fine.

 

[mdram]

go here
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=16318527

look for 3d studio max certified hardware

it does make a difference

 

[Tinsley847]

go here
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=16318527

look for 3d studio max certified hardware

it does make a difference

I have already checked this out. They are all workstation cards, which I am trying to avoid because of price and game performance.

I think I am pretty well settled on the 780ti, as it will perform fine in rendering and video editing. I'm just a little un-easy about only 3gb vram. What is still up in the air is if I should be getting an i7-4770k or an i7-4930k? Both will be overclocked on air, but I am having trouble finding data on 4 vs 6 core for 3dsmax rendering times.

 

[n0x1ous]

I have already checked this out. They are all workstation cards, which I am trying to avoid because of price and game performance.

I think I am pretty well settled on the 780ti, as it will perform fine in rendering and video editing. I'm just a little un-easy about only 3gb vram. What is still up in the air is if I should be getting an i7-4770k or an i7-4930k? Both will be overclocked on air, but I am having trouble finding data on 4 vs 6 core for 3dsmax rendering times.

Supposedly EVGA has 6GB 780 and 780ti's coming shortly...

 

[Tinsley847]

The more I read around the more I am getting discouraged. It seems maybe I am asking too much for a rig that can both game and render?

Most of the forum posts/data I find are saying that a $150 firepro card is gonna beat a $1000 consumer card in render times? But this is data from before the Titan / 780ti / 290x existed. So is this a thing of the past? Or should I be pushing my client heavily toward building 2 separate machines? One for fun & one for work?... I don't want to do that, but I don't want to be be jack of all trades / great at nothing.

 

[3DVagabond]

Sony Vegas Pro uses openCL. Adobe AE, AFAIK uses the CPU for rendering it's effects (Could be wrong, but I couldn't find anything to the contrary). They recommend 4gig of RAM per CPU core. Keep that in mind. So, 16gig for a quad core.

 

[Tinsley847]

Sony Vegas Pro uses openCL. Adobe AE, AFAIK uses the CPU for rendering it's effects (Could be wrong, but I couldn't find anything to the contrary). They recommend 4gig of RAM per CPU core. Keep that in mind. So, 16gig for a quad core.

x79 6core = 24gb ram then? I was not anticipating this.

 

[Stormflux]

I'm pretty much like your friend. I do 3D Professionally and I game a lot.

It sounds like your friend is more into Game Content Creation rather that Film/Commercial type content. If that's the case... well actually no matter the case for someone on a budget forget the Quadro's and FirePros. I personally will never buy one of these and have been using gaming cards fine for the passed 10 years. When you usually render for game content it's "baking" textures or maps to use in game engines. At this time, it is mostly done CPU side.

OpenCL is still not utilized to it's potential now, everything is CUDA if you plan on GPGPU rendering (Octane, RedShift, Vray (big name 3dsMax renderers)). So yes, nVidia over AMD for this stuff as well. Which is unfortunate because AMD cards curbstomp nVidia's software limited cards in proper openCL benchmarks like Luxmark. A renderer like Redshift which is coming soon to 3DS Max(summer) is set up to be out-of-core design so it isn't reliant on your video card memory as much as Octane and others.

For Vegas/After Effects, does he digest a lot of 4k Footage? Does he do large compositing jobs? Can you be more specific with what your friend does?

I think those parts are fine, maybe push for a 6C/12T CPU if it's in your budget and at least 16 gigs of ram if he's pushing over 4k textures. 780 TI will be plenty.

I mean people do this stuff on years old MacBooks and Laptops. Maybe if he's more a texture artist, invest in a good Wacom Tablet/Cintiq. Bleh need more info.

 

[Tinsley847]

I'm pretty much like your friend. I do 3D Professionally and I game a lot.

It sounds like your friend is more into Game Content Creation rather that Film/Commercial type content. If that's the case... well actually no matter the case for someone on a budget forget the Quadro's and FirePros. I personally will never buy one of these and have been using gaming cards fine for the passed 10 years. When you usually render for game content it's "baking" textures or maps to use in game engines. At this time, it is mostly done CPU side.

OpenCL is still not utilized to it's potential now, everything is CUDA if you plan on GPGPU rendering (Octane, RedShift, Vray (big name 3dsMax renderers)). So yes, nVidia over AMD for this stuff as well. Which is unfortunate because AMD cards curbstomp nVidia's software limited cards in proper openCL benchmarks like Luxmark. A renderer like Redshift which is coming soon to 3DS Max(summer) is set up to be out-of-core design so it isn't reliant on your video card memory as much as Octane and others.

For Vegas/After Effects, does he digest a lot of 4k Footage? Does he do large compositing jobs? Can you be more specific with what your friend does?

I think those parts are fine, maybe push for a 6C/12T CPU if it's in your budget and at least 16 gigs of ram if he's pushing over 4k textures. 780 TI will be plenty.

I mean people do this stuff on years old MacBooks and Laptops. Maybe if he's more a texture artist, invest in a good Wacom Tablet/Cintiq. Bleh need more info.

Thank you so much for the information, you're a gentleman & a scholar.

I have gotten some additional information from my client. Vegas Pro is mainly used for 1080p cut-scenes, for the games he is developing. I'm not sure he knew what "Large Composites" meant, so I doubt it is of his concern. 3DS Max is used mainly for rendering Mental ray.

 

[Arkadrel]

3D Studio Max:

Pretty even if you go Nvidia or AMD.

 

[Arkadrel]

I believe Mental Ray is CPU only. So whichever GPU you get it shouldnt matter.

If he really likes useing mental ray and doesnt use
Iray(nvidia only) or Quicksilver(amd can use), then he should spend more money on the CPU than the GPU.