Newbie question regarding VRAM...

MuzMel

Is it utterly useless to rely on [VRAM]it?

My laptop is almost dead and I've been looking for new one better suited to DAZ. The one I was eyeing has RTX2070, which has 8GB of VRAM. I was just told by a DAZ artist that this means an environment +1-2 characters. That is really not much to work with at all. If I add a 3rd character it will spill over and go into CPU rendering. Are the only options to spend $2500 on some 24GBVRAM beast GPU or render with CPU? I am new to computer specs discussion, maybe I am missing something here or had too high expectations.

To the people with 8GB VRAM, what kind of scenes do you make? Do you use Scene Optimizer? All those people who have renders with 5-6 characters group shot, how do you do it?

kenshaw011267

Who ever told you that is wrong.

I have a 2070 and can easily fit 3 G8's and an environment onto a 2070 without an issue. I can fit 4 or 5 with optimization.

There are people out there doing some very odd renders who then claim that 8gb cards are useless.

An 8Gb card is completely sufficient for this use case:

3ish G8 figures + environment (it will depend on hair and clothing of course dForce hiar is a huge memory hog so be warned). rendered at 1080p or 1440p.

The higher the resolution of the render the less you can fit.

 

fred9803

I can only back up what kenshaw said. I have no problem with 4-5 G8s with 4K maps at default settings. Of cause it all depends on "the-other-stuff" you have in your scene. A RTX2070 with 8GB of VRAM is well above the minimum requirements for DS Iray rendering.

i53570k

There is no general rule.  Personally I've seen environments consuming anywhere from measly 100 MB to 10+ GB in their default settings, and G8 characters from 500 MB to 2.5+ GB each, props, clothing and hair cost extra. 

Default settings usually consume more VRAM than what you need in the composition.  Almost all default settings are for closeup shot and not for background, which is why people use optimization techniques.

So with an elaboroate set and detailed characters in fancy props, hairs and outfits, 8GB might not be enough with two characters in default, but with proper optimzation you may be able to fit ten characters in the same scene in 8GB without losing visible quality.

nicstt

The higher the resolution of the render the less you can fit.

This is worth emphasising; they have to get seriously massive to take up large amounts of vram, but still worth considering in use-cases.

 

i53570k said:

There is no general rule.  Personally I've seen environments consuming anywhere from measly 100 MB to 10+ GB in their default settings, and G8 characters from 500 MB to 2.5+ GB each, props, clothing and hair cost extra. 

Default settings usually consume more VRAM than what you need in the composition.  Almost all default settings are for closeup shot and not for background, which is why people use optimization techniques.

So with an elaboroate set and detailed characters in fancy props, hairs and outfits, 8GB might not be enough with two characters in default, but with proper optimzation you may be able to fit ten characters in the same scene in 8GB without losing visible quality.

Agreed, especially the bold part about no general rule.

I moved to Blender for rendering about 4 (?) months ago and have had eight (admittedly scantily clad) characters without any optimisation rendering using a 6GB 980ti. Although it is worth pointing out that my Threadripper is faster than my 980ti on Blender 2.83. Cycles does out of core rendering, although I have noticed issues where I have to render without using the 980ti in some scenes, so vram is less of an issue.

My next card might actually not be a Nvidia card, or indeed a graphics card at all but another Threadripper with even more cores.

... I'll wait to see what is released and keep my options open.

I be Nvidia loves Iray's integration into Studio.

kenshaw011267

nicstt said:

The higher the resolution of the render the less you can fit.

This is worth emphasising; they have to get seriously massive to take up large amounts of vram, but still worth considering in use-cases.

I wouldn't mention it at all but in the last month I've had two different posters insist 10k x 10k was a normal use case and then complain that their GPU couldn't handle it.

MuzMel

Thank you for the opinions guys, this puts me at ease. I have no need for 4K textures or the like. If with scene optimizer I can get 4 characters indoor render at 1400 res, then upscale it later with one of the many programs, that should really be enough for me.

Which would be better, Iray rendering with RTX2070 or 3Delight rendering with an 8 core? I've been looking at prices and the latter is cheaper. I've never focused on 3Delight but that is tempting

 

kenshaw011267

Depends on your tastes. iRay is more photorealistic. 3Delight is not. What 3Delight is I'll leave to someone who likes it.