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Hi everyone, since it's my first time posting
I was trying to search for an answer in other threads, but I figured it's best to ask directly.
I'm trying to put together some semi-decent work station and I'm facing choice of GPU.
There are 2 choices matching my low budget, that would be dual GTX 560 Ti 2GB or single GTX 580 1.5 GB (eventually I could go for GTX 590 3GB, that would hurt a little tho).
My other question concerns Intel integrated graphics, there is such thing on my soon-to-be mobo (from what I read it's using CPU) and I was wondering if I can use it for display.
And last but not least, is there any way to tell how much vram do I need to render lets say scene with 1kk tris? Just so I know which GPU would better suit my needs.

yazjack wrote:Hi everyone, since it's my first time posting
I was trying to search for an answer in other threads, but I figured it's best to ask directly.
I'm trying to put together some semi-decent work station and I'm facing choice of GPU.
There are 2 choices matching my low budget, that would be dual GTX 560 Ti 2GB or single GTX 580 1.5 GB (eventually I could go for GTX 590 3GB, that would hurt a little tho).
My other question concerns Intel integrated graphics, there is such thing on my soon-to-be mobo (from what I read it's using CPU) and I was wondering if I can use it for display.
And last but not least, is there any way to tell how much vram do I need to render lets say scene with 1kk tris? Just so I know which GPU would better suit my needs.

hy yazjack

if you choose a sandybridge cpu, the on-chip graphics is pretty sufficient for a lot things (including aero and hd video), and even for some not-to-heavy opengl (~comparable to an amd hd5450). best of all is, it works flawlessly with cuda and octane (have it here), and you save notable amounts of vram, esp. important with 1/1.5g cards (under worst conditions, the os and other running software will decimate the available vram by 2-300mb...).

to compare gpus, the first pinned post in this forum might help

if you can get along with 1.5gb depends on a lot of things; 1mio tris are no problem (will use around 250mb), but if you use lots and large textures, it might get narrow. also the output size is to consider (a 10mpix image needs close to 200mb vram).

btw, i have a 590 i don't use any longer, but haven't found the time to put it on ebay - if you are interested, send me a pm.

ps: you wrote, you could go for a "3gb gtx 590" ... it should be noted, that this are still 2x 1.5gb - means you won't have more available vram than with one 580, but double the performance...

I've noticed performance test, but I can't really tell what parameter is representative for octane performance.
I also can't tell if in case of dual GPU parameters simply add.

And about 2x vram, is it the same with GTX 580? When it says 1.5GB it's actually 2x0.75?

yazjack wrote:I've noticed performance test, but I can't really tell what parameter is representative for octane performance.
I also can't tell if in case of dual GPU parameters simply add.

And about 2x vram, is it the same with GTX 580? When it says 1.5GB it's actually 2x7.5?

the ms/sec (megasamples per second) count is a value you can look for, the time it took to render 1000s/pix for the benchmark scene another.

a 590 is in fact a double 580, only suppliers tend to call them by its added vram. means a 1.5gb 580 is just 1.5gb.

as octane perfectly scales with the number of used gpus, performance and render times change respectively. 2 cards of the same type = half the render time

Alright, thank you for your answers!

quick GTX580 question.

It seems there are different makes and types of 580's out there... is there one that is better for octane? Im not a gamer so all I am looking for is the best rendering version.

Appreciate any wisdom o this one

Thanks

If $ aren't a worry go for EVGA hydrocopper ie water cooled. Cool and quiet.
Otherwise look for something with a good warranty period and good fan cooling, maybe something of non reference design ie 2 fans and lots of fins.
Overclocking isn't important. You pay extra for not much and it might be prone to instability.
Octane benefits from slight underclocking if anything for that reason.

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.a ... Family&sw=

Does this look like a keeper?
I don't have water cooling so my concern is that this is a double wide card... is that right ?
So finding a mother board that supports 4 double wide gpu's may be a problem.

Besides, noise, heat and efficiency.... is that why people water cool? Or do they make a mother board that supports 4 double wide

Ultimately I would rather have a beast that supports 4 or more so I can run a quadra 5800 for display and leave the 4 gps for rendering... but I am sure no such MOB exists

Thanks

Peter

There are some posts on the forums concerning quad mobo. Do some searching. Like this http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... ane#p70925
The close proximity of double cards obviously doesn't make for the best cooling.
I guess its up to you if you mind running your chips hot or not.
Look out too for Nvidias new generation of cards due out in a couple of months to be noticeably faster.
I am not sure I would set up a renderstation with a Quadro and Geforce, better all Geforce for driver reasons.
If it was say a cadworkstation you had already and tossed a couple of Geforce into spare slots well maybe, but for a purpose built Octane box I don't know.
The display card only need be a basic single slot one.
Might be an idea to keep your Quadro 5800 box intact and build something else with suitable power supply etc for Octane.