What should I do :/ GTX580 or GTX680?

[PeterCGS]

I've hit a speedbump in my current project that I need to start rendering pretty soon (in a week or two, I will need to hit the render button and deliver a lowres version for the client, but after that it will render until end of July, so plenty of time for the actual fullHD frames to crank out).

Anyway.. My poor old GTX480 cards, are crying everytime now. It complains about memory constantly. Sooo I have a huge city to render out, and planned very carefully so I have only one 8192x8192 UV map, for the whole thing. But it still doesnt leave much room for geometry :/

Now. I don't mind things that the GTX680 arent up to full speed yet.. BUT, I will need to buy a couple of GPUs for this project.. And knowing that the new Kepler with 2880 cores arent far away, Im in a little messy situation. What would you do? Buy GTX580s or 680s? Or would you wait? Can you rent GPUs? My project doesnt allow me to send it to a renderfarm Im afraid, or that would be the perfect solution for now.

Anyone heard of any 8GB GTX690 cards arriving soon?

[glimpse]

I'd buy gtx580 3gb - these are cheap and fast (hook it as second or third, so You don't waste vRam for display, render lower res..- as You need =) save the rest of Your money for later upgrades..

NoOne knows for sure about new products..but i doubt we see something up to 8gb in GTX line until '14, unless from Tesla range (now You can get 6gb model c2075, if You have 2k$ to spend - maybe that will be the only option =)

Don't think that nVidia would like to canibalise their Tesla range (when they mention thei're hopping for record sales)
If You don't mind the speed (that might be optimised later) - 4gb the best You can get with 680..

P.S. 3gb 590 is two 1,5gb 580 glued together..so even if 690 will come it will not have more ram then 680 4gb =) but i doubt it will at all.. There was no. 590 with 2x 3gb & probably because of the reason that vRam don't add any performance boost in games..- that's a gamer card, where price matters most for good selling product..pluss physical limitation and the 'canibalisation factor' - want more ram buy Tesla (think that's what nVidia tries to say =p

[PeterCGS]

I know that ASUS is working on a GTX690 8GB version (but no release date. So wonder if any other company is doing it aswell?).

I plan to equip all my workstations. So its either 3x580GTX or 3x680GTX cards or maybe 3x670GTX.. The 670 series adds a important 1GB extra compared to the 580GTX and is only about 100 euro more expensive (so if you calculate GB/price, the 670 is cheaper).. Ooh, why is this so hard..

[glimpse]

Even if we are going to see something like ASUS ROG III it will be ridiculously priced, with limited availability..don't know what driver issues (some talk that previous gen had that)..and after all - heat =) this probably isn't going to be very cold one..OC will probably go out of the box - how long would it last & how loud it will run =) just a few issues..

For that money You could probably buy Profesional Tesla card with way higher amount of vram, lower temps (longer lifespan) etc. and have one machine for extra large scenes & other for smaller scenes but with faster & cheaper GTXs..

One more point for new (Kepler) cards is the texture quantity they allow =) ..

[PeterCGS]

Yeah, maybe it will be crazy priced :/ Im not worried about heat at all.. I got a 5000 Euro water cooling system hahaha.. Seriously, my compters are in a small room, with a air blower, that is cooled by water.. In the long run its way cheaper than putting water cooling stuff into every computer I own. Chilling the room to 20 degrees constant, is much better

MMmmmm Im sooo tempted by going with 680GTXs cards, but I know I should get 580 instead LOL

[gabrielefx]

today the answer is GTX580.
for a full functional 680/Kepler compatible Octane we have to wait till when Cuda 5.0 will be released.

[PeterCGS]

Uhm, I think I'll mix and match haha.. I'll buy two GTX680 for heavy scenes that need more than 1.5GB GPU RAM, and use my current 480s for the ones that is ok with 1.5GB That will be the final decission for now..