What will be the best GPU configuration today

[erikde]

Hi,

I would like create my own GPU station for the best price with the best result for Octane and other Gpu rendering.
So my question is simple, we have a lot choice with some GPU card today and I would like to know the difference between these graphic card and what will be the best for realtime rendering specially for architectural rendering.

For the mother board, I think use something like the asus Z9PE-D8 WS (dual processor and many PCI slot)
64 Go Ram + CPU : E5 2670 or similar
Hard drive OCZ SSD PCI card 900 mb/s

Option N°1 :
3 or 4 x GTX Titan

Option N°2 :
2 x Tesla C2075

Option N°3:
3 or 4 x GTX 690


1. I need mix between Graphic card & GPU card or 4 titan is ok for display on 2 x Dell 30' monitor & GPU rendring ?
2. What is the best card "couple" for Octane optimisation rendering ? for architectural rendering

If some one can help me to choose the best solution, advice will be apreciate.

Many thanks
Erik

[BorisGoreta]

I would choose TITANs only, they have 6GB of RAM and better cooling design, and are slightly faster then GTX690 in Octane.

GTX690 have only 2GB per chip, this is too low.

You don't need Teslas because they are expensive and are not faster in Octane so don't go that way.

I have the same board you want to buy, this is how it looks like:

[RayTracey]

Option 1, no question about it. The Titans are baffling, we tested a couple of them this week with Octane 1.11 and they're pure gold: faster than GTX 690, perfectly silent and heaps of RAM. They just rip through whatever scene you throw at them. Also, the next test release is optimized to use the primary GPU that drives the viewport for rendering as well, so you can put a Titan in the first slot and keep a perfectly smooth UI while rendering with it.

[bepeg4d]

Option 1, no question about it. The Titans are baffling, we tested a couple of them this week with Octane 1.11 and they're pure gold: faster than GTX 690, perfectly silent and heaps of RAM. They just rip through whatever scene you throw at them. Also, the next test release is optimized to use the primary GPU that drives the viewport for rendering as well, so you can put a Titan in the first slot and keep a perfectly smooth UI while rendering with it.

wow, this is great news, thanks for sharing RayTracey
ciao beppe

[erikde]

Hey Men,
Thanks you for you precious advice.
So I going to keep my first choice and buy Titan.

Boris I love your beast PC, you add another card with pci extension right ?
Could you share your complete PC configuration, ram, cooling...

Another Question I have a MAcpro dual proc and I would like add ccard also,
could you think about gtx 580 or gtx285 ? what is the best for octane, on mac there no many choice ?

Many thanks
Erik

[BorisGoreta]

Apparently there is a problem if you have more then 5 GPUs in the system. Beware, one GTX690 counts as 2 GPUs. If you have more then 5 then there is a problem with OpenGL. For instance photoshop can't use GPU acceleration and in 3D software viewports some things start working very slow. So you should definitely go for TITANs becaue 1 TITAN is 1 GPU at the speed of GTX690.

One GTX680 is connected using PCI extension cable. It renders fine but OpenGL has problems because this is 6th GPU. There is a way to overcome this. I connected two GTX690 via SLI, this tricks drivers in some way that you have less GPUs because you paired them and OpenGL works fine then at the expense of having less GPU RAM because SLI is active.

Here is my system:

Intel E5-2687W
Asus Z9PE-D8 WS
G Skill F3-12800CL10 4x8GB
2 X Intel SSD 520 240GB
Cooler Master TPC 800 Vapor Chamber
Noctua fans
Silverstone TJ10


GPUs top to bottom:

GTX690
GTX690
TITAN
GTX680

[erikde]

Great Boris, thanks you for all your detail.
I will buy Titan.

I seen your 3D on your site, great job.

I'm working on vray for production and for pleasure on Maxwell (best for me but too slow in production).
Could you use Octane in production for architectural projet, are you happy with the final rendering ?

[natalievfx]

I went 4 titans on a the asus dual cpu board and it has worked out pretty great:)

[profbetis]

Do we have any comparisons on GTX780s vs TITANs? I know 1 titan is better than 1 780, but I was thinking about getting 2x 780s. I don't need that amount of VRAM so I'd rather have faster processing. thoughts?

[gabrielefx]

for me Titans aren't built well.

I broken 2 Titans in less of a week, they run at a maximum of 80 degrees.

I have had the same problem with one GTX580, after 5 minutes of computing it disappeared from the system and the fan was pushed at maximum speed.
My 580s have worked hardly for two years without one single issue.
Fortunately I have some spare GTX580s....

Regarding the Titans they are too much fragile, aren't built as the 580, aren't built to do Cuda computing.
Then be careful!

I donno if the warranty is valid when we use our gpus for raytracing.

regards.