I want to learn Octane on iMac??? help

[anthonyhague]

Hello

Im watching ArievVisuals video tutorial on Octane right now. Its looks exactly what I need to render photorealistic images fast and eventually I'm going to buy a Ryzen & RTX 3080's but for now I've just got my iMac to learn on. Im so excited at the possibility of having a GPU renderer on my iMac, but I know I need a Ryzen.

iMac Spec's
- iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)
- Processor: 4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
- Memory 32Gb RAM
- Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4 GB (this was the most expensive option in 2016)


First - Ive loaded Octane X Demo and its working, so I think I'm good although I've not rendered with it yet. But Octane Bench 2021 would Not recognise my GPU.

Question 1 - Can I buy Octane for use on my iMac with C4D R22?

Question 2 - if OctaneX works on iMacs then is it worth me buying 'Enterprise / RNDR (ultimate Bundle)' or will I need a Ryzen + RTX 3080 for that???
My friend mentioned my machine being a bottleneck, so using RNDR wouldn't be worth it until I have my Ryzen & 2 GPU's. So just buy 'Studio (2 GPU) Monthly and change up after buying the Ryzen, but the video tutorial makes it sound like I can pay to render online?


Thanks for taking the time to read my question and help me

Regards
ant...

[bepeg4d]

Hi,
you don’t need a Ryzen CPU, but AMD Radeon Polaris, Vega, Navi or Big Navi GPUs.

Unfortunately AMD Radeon R9 is probably the last unsupported AMD GPU by Apple metal driver for GPU rendering.

But the good news is that, since your Mac is from 2016, you should have Thunderbolt 3 on board, so you can add one of the supported AMD GPUs in an eGPU box connected via Thunderbolt 3, in order to be able to use OctaneX on your Mac now, like Radeon VII or 5700 XT.

Here are some preliminary OctaneBench results of the currently supported AMD GPUs under Big Sur 11.1:

- Radeon Pro Vega II Duo - 446 OB*
- Radeon Pro Vega II - 223 OB
- Radeon VII - 214 OB
- 5700 XT - 184 OB
- Vega FE - ~174 OB
- Vega 64 -~160 OB
- Vega 56 - ~126 OB
- Vega 48 - 117 OB
- 5600M - 117 OB
- 5500M - 83 OB
- Vega 20 - ~55 OB

Here are a couple of eGPU solutions used by other Mac Octane users:
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/egfx ... y-box.html
https://www.razer.com/gaming-egpus/raze ... 10200-R3U1
https://www.akitio.com/expansion/thunder3-pcie-box
*the last solution needs an external PSU to work, as explained here:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43439&start=170#p276341

I’m using this solution with my iMac 2017, and it is working great in both Catalina and Big Sur.

Happy Mac GPU rendering,

ciao Beppe

[anthonyhague]

Hi Bepeg4d

Wow that's so cool!

Actually im so impressed with Octane ive put a deposit down on a Ryzen thats well spec'd to run a RTX 3080, I know because my 3d mate and the shop i ordered it from were arguing about M.2 drives and PSU power etc. Damn complex stuff. But £3,500 and ive got a solid machine coming but im still going to use my iMac because its industry standard for colour in the field of photoshop and I love Apple, sorry.

But WOW those cards are expensive, even used they want £700 for the 5700 XT and its a quater of the power of my RTX 3080 but almost the same price.

They look like normal GPU's designed to go in a PC, r u sure they are ok to run externally?

Also I bought two RTX 3080 yesterday from hackers on eBay, the deal was half price, yeah too good to be true but ive got the money back.

Im wondering what the OB number is for my 4Gb iMac, I dont want to spend money on a GPU if its not much better. Do you think I could spend £500 on a card thats much better than my 4Gb AMD??

Thanks so much for your advice

[bepeg4d]

Hi,
about Nvidia vs AMD performance comparison, you should need to consider the different families for both.

Nvidia Pascal GTX 10X0 ~= AMD Radeon Navi 5X00
Nvidia Turing RTX 20X0 ~= AMD Radeon Vega
Nvidia Ampere RTX 30X0 ~= AMD Radeon Big Navi 6X00*

*Should be supported in Mac Os 11.3

To test your GPU, please download and install Standalone OctaneX from App Store, open it, right click anywhere in the node graph panel, and choose Materials/Metallic, to create the material node.
Now right click on the node and choose Render.
Then please share a screenshot of the Standalone interface thanks.

If you see the Material Ball scene, everything is working correctly.
Then please download the simple example scenes package:
http://render.otoy.com/downloads/Octane ... oSuite.zip

Then open in Standalone PR7 the chess_set_procedural.ocs scene, then click on the Render Target PT node, and share a screenshot, here is the result of my AMD Radeon Pro 575 4GB:

A6369813-E9C3-4BE2-B25A-C510F459AEE3.jpeg (39.53 KiB) Viewed 2390 times

ciao Beppe

[anthonyhague]

Hi bepeg4d

Thanks again for your replies, super informative. Actually I gave up on boosting my iMac and I've invested in a Ryzen, its the one before the threadripper but its got a RTX 3080 GPU which should be fast when it arrives. a 3d expert has helped me get the best Octane machine for £3-4K.

So I fell in love with Octane when I saw its ridiculously fast render speeds, I'm a fast learner but past frustrations have meant I forgot C4D equally fast, but waiting 20 mins for a screen size render will result in getting frustrated. I never realised my iMac 5K display was a big part of that issue until now being only able to afford a 4k display.

Question: Im looking for an Octane expert to run their expert eye over my photorealistic scenes to check that I've got everything set right and im not missing out on anything that will result in better photo realism. On a professional level im not interested in animation only photo quality renders. Might you be interested in helping me out for a fee? or know of someone who might? Remember I've not got my Ryzen yet and then I need to learn C4D again and Octane, I estimate it will be a month before im close to photo real renders, maybe Im starting small with a small product photography setup (S table 2 or 4 softboxes and a simple product like a drinks can) then ill move onto rendering an entire room set with furniture etc.

Thanks
ant...

[bepeg4d]

You are welcome

About photorealistic results, please post your artwork in this section of the forum asking for comments and critics:
viewforum.php?f=6

Happy GPU rendering,
ciao Beppe

[anthonyhague]

I sure will do that.

Im also going to post for help with building a simple photography studio set, mid grey colourama roll with three softboxes built with HDRI heads to produce real looking penumbra shadows. Just so that professionally I can throw objects in and do simple renders. Just until I get my learning up to speed. Ive no subscription yet until my Ryzen comes mid April.

Thanks again for your help