Which Components Should I Improve For Octane?

[richertmx]

Hello everyone,

I´ve been playing with Octane for a short time now and It´s already pretty obvious that my computer needs an upgrade. It´s far from optimal since it´s pretty old speaking in rendering terms. I´m also using after effects etc. on it which used to work ok, but Octane and DAZ simply require a bit more. So here´s my setup:

ASUS P8Z68-V
Intel i7-2600 3.4Ghz
16GB RAM (Dunno which one G-Skill I guess)
1 x GeForce GTX 570 1,5gb
Seagate Baracuda 2TB


I know that I most definetly need a new GPU but I´m not quite sure which one. I´d go for 580/680 since they´re recommended a lot here in the Forums, but I don´t know if it makes sense, given that Mainboard is pretty old and not high end?

Thanks for your input guys, appreciate it!

[rjandron]

New GPU. Definitely.

I've read on the forums here that the 580 is a touch faster than the 680, but personally I find the 4GB of VRAM on my 680 to be much more valuable than a faster render speed, but your needs may differ. If you're using it with Daz, as I am, texture management becomes a big factor in setting up any scene. Daz content creators like to use a lot of 4K textures, so downsampling to at least 1K and remapping becomes a must.

Rest of the system specs look fine to me.

[smicha]

Your (very good) motherboard can handle up to 3 graphics cards. So you may have even three titans (+min. 1200W PSU). Now your budget plays crucial role. Prices of gtx780 are decreasing. It's worth considering this card.
Don't sell your cpu - I have the same which is cool (much cooler than new i7) and run at 4.5ghz (watercooled).

[kavorka]

Your motherboard may not actually be able to hold 3 cards, because the cards we use are double width.
for 2 of the motherboards I have used, the bottom card will not allow a double width card, the card will hit components right below it. Also, my case does not have a slot below that which means if I put a card there, the vent for the card will hit the case and not blow air out.

[richertmx]

thanks for the help guys, appreciate it...so I´ll go for a 680 or 780, not sure yet. Here´s two factors to consider:

- my 570 is about 25 cm length and that´s the maximum that the case of my computer can handle, so I´ll need to look for a card that´s about the same size. 780 will probably be bigger I guess...

- At the moment I have a 620 watts power supply. Will this be sufficient for a 680/780 or do I need to replace that as well?

edit:

just a quick idea, is it possible to have 2 different gpu´s, in my case keeping the 570 and adding the 780? would this make sense?

Thanks guys!

[smicha]

- At the moment I have a 620 watts power supply. Will this be sufficient for a 680/780 or do I need to replace that as well?

It's enough provided it's high end PSU.

is it possible to have 2 different gpu´s, in my case keeping the 570 and adding the 780? would this make sense?

Yes.

[richertmx]

Thank you for your help so far!

I have now bought and installed a new gtx 780 and I am seeing great improvements in speed.

The only thing is I can´t figure out how to get my old gtx 570 to work in the second pcie slot. Windows doesn´t recognize it and the card doesn´t appear in the device manager. Anything I need to change in the BIOS maybe?

[smicha]

Reinstall nvidia driver - clean install.