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A quick graphic card question.

KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
in New Users
I'm currently rocking a GTX580 with 2gb which has done me well. Since starting Daz in March and with the introduction of iRay, scenes are more often than not filling up my graphics memory and dropping to cpu rendering. I appreciate everyone would recommend the 980ti which unfortunately is outside my budget. Now, I've looked at some GTX960's and although lower end cards one of those would double both my cuda core count and graphics memory when compared to my GTX580 - with this in mind, would that be a worth while upgrade for iRay rendering? Many thanks.

Comments

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    Yes, if that's what you can afford...

    If you are dropping to CPU only, it doesn't matter how many CUDA cores are in the current card, because the count of those being used to render is 0.  So any card, with enough memory to hold the scene will be an improvement.  That said, doubling the cores will be an improvement for any scene. 

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    edited December 2015
    mjc1016 said:

    Yes, if that's what you can afford...

    If you are dropping to CPU only, it doesn't matter how many CUDA cores are in the current card, because the count of those being used to render is 0.  So any card, with enough memory to hold the scene will be an improvement.  That said, doubling the cores will be an improvement for any scene. 

    Thanks for the response @mjc1016 My older simpler scenes used to fit into my current card and randomly the occasional scene now does (I ran a scene with 3 G3F models loaded, I'm guessing them all having the same outfit and textures helped with that as well as instance grouped lockers!) I'm thinking a 4gb card albeit a budget one should at least get me gpu rendering again for now.
    Post edited by KA1 on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    Exactly.

    And if the motherboard/power supply can handle it, keep the 580 in the machine, hooked up to the monitors.  That way the full 4 GB will be available for the sceneon the 'render' card...

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    mjc1016 said:

    Exactly.

    And if the motherboard/power supply can handle it, keep the 580 in the machine, hooked up to the monitors.  That way the full 4 GB will be available for the sceneon the 'render' card...

    Now THAT is something I hadn't even thought of!! Thanks again!!!

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,590

    Definitely keep the 580, but you'll be throwing away a lot of rendering power by using it only for the monitors.

    The 'old' CUDA cores use a lot of power but they are almost twice as fast as the 'new' CUDA cores in the 960!

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    prixat said:

    Definitely keep the 580, but you'll be throwing away a lot of rendering power by using it only for the monitors.

    The 'old' CUDA cores use a lot of power but they are almost twice as fast as the 'new' CUDA cores in the 960!

    The problem is, most scenes won't fit on it, so it will be pulling just monitor duty...even if it is kept in the list of cards to use, in Studio.  No, it won't hurt to keep it there...just probably won't be used much.

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