RTX 3090 still any good for iray and for how much longer?

milliethegreat

My mom offered to get me a new gpu for my birthday in July. Her budget is $2500 so 4090 and 5090 is a no go as those are $3000 and up and $4000 and she's standing firm at $2500 not a penny over (though I THINK that limit doesn't include tax and shipping) so I'm eyeing a few 3090s and even a couple 3090 ti's. The aio liquid cooled ones are even an option which I'm looking at the most as my chassis supports up to two 240mm radiators and my i9 is using one 240mm radiator so my two questions are:

 

are RTX 3090 and 3090 ti still supported by iray and if so for how much longer? I don't want mom to get a $2200 gpu just to have it not be usable for iray three years later. I ask this due to the release of the 5000 series and the discontinuation of the 4000 series which I think just means they aren't making them anymore not that drivers don't support them anymore 

CES3D

Wow, that's awesome that your mom is getting you a new GPU!
I'm still rocking my RTX 3060 and it's doing great for my creative work.
You don't need to worry – even the older GTX series cards are still getting the latest driver updates from NVIDIA.
You can check it out for yourself on their driver download page.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

Richard Haseltine

Drivers are not the only issue, Iray 2024.1 deprecates all pre-Turing cards, so anything earlier than 16xx. That stil leaves a fair bit of room before the 30x0 cards are on their way out. You may be able to get an idea of how long generations tend to last by loking at the (dated) release notes to see when each previous generation was dropped.

However, DS 4.x will not be able to update to these versions - 2024.0 had bugs, 2024.1 uses a version of C++ that cannot be integrated with the DS 4.x.x.x SDK - so this will not be a concern until the next major version of DS, which will use 2024.1 or later.

Mattymanx

I bought two 980TIs in 2016 and used them without issue until Dec 2023 when I got a new PC with a 4090.  I would guess that you will not be screwed over any time soon.

tsroemi

I'm rendering with a 2060 on a laptop, DS version 4.23, and I'm doing fine. It just takes a bit longer, is all. So what?

nonesuch00

The 3090 will be around another decade I would say.

If you are working, if you are old enough, I would save money earned to add to the $2500 to get the 5090. Otherwise, go with the best video card that $2500 will get with 16GB RAM, I think that should get you an RTX 5080 16GB RAM of some sort. Don't be fixated on the RTX [2 - 5]090 numbers. 

Leana

nonesuch00 said:

If you are working, if you are old enough, I would save money earned to add to the $2500 to get the 5090. 

I wouldn’t because it will be useless to render with Iray for now, and apparently will remain so until Daz releases DS5.

feldarzt

Well... Your mom is something. I can't imagine my parents offering to get me a new GPU in my youth.
Sorry for a momentary splash of envy :)

To your question, though.
Not too long ago, I was using 4090 and 3090 at the same time (the same VRAM amount allowed that) for rendering in DAZ. In my experience, statistically, 4090 is 30% to 40% faster in rendering than 3090. But this fact doesn't mean 3090 is anyhow slow. You're asking if it's any good, and my first reaction was like, "Excuse me!? ANY good?" So yes, it is still good. And will be for another 5 years IF Nvidia won't release some kind of 6090 or 7090 that would be three times as fast. But that's not too likely.

Then again, if you have a source of income, I'd save another $500 and get a 4090. Because it is faster AND it's relevant for Iray. But if you don't, get that 3090 and have no regrets.

nonesuch00

Leana said:

nonesuch00 said:

If you are working, if you are old enough, I would save money earned to add to the $2500 to get the 5090. 

I wouldn’t because it will be useless to render with Iray for now, and apparently will remain so until Daz releases DS5.

Yes, thanks for saying that! I didn't know that then., Now the best for rendering in iRay for the money would be one of the discounted 4080s or maybe a 4090, it's it in range of $2500.

milliethegreat

nonesuch00 said:

The 3090 will be around another decade I would say.

If you are working, if you are old enough, I would save money earned to add to the $2500 to get the 5090. Otherwise, go with the best video card that $2500 will get with 16GB RAM, I think that should get you an RTX 5080 16GB RAM of some sort. Don't be fixated on the RTX [2 - 5]090 numbers. 

I'm unemployed and disabled and on a tiny ssi budget so saving up for a 40xx or 50xx and 16gb vram isn't enough is it? I'm looking at a 3090 specifically because it's 24gb vram. That's why I'm fixated on the [2-5]090 numbers. I ran a m40 24gb before I ray stopped supporting them (two actually) and the meter on my Nvidia manager showed my scenes were using nearly max capacity on the vram and my titan xp was a 12gb and my scenes kicked over to the CPU in a matter of minutes. That's why I'm after 3090 and that's a $2200 ish card. So I'm planning on going with that provided I don't have to throw it away in 3-5 years or something like that because iray stops supporting it a year or so after the 5000 series was released. I'd go with a 16gb vram 5000 series EXCEPT 16gb vram isn't hardly enough and my scenes will be kicked to the cpu within minutes too.

milliethegreat

Also there's no way I can afford an RTX anything on my income. My mom is getting me this card for my birthday. Also yes I'm old enough to work and I'm married. Just thought I'd put that out there.

feldarzt

@milliethegreat

Sorry to hear that :(
So let me say again: get that 3090 from a decent producer and have no regrets. It's a good GPU.