Video card / monitor / render setup advice

[dboanimation]

I purchased Octane earlier this week. I am primarily using it with Cinema 4D. I ordered some new video cards and they should arrive today.

I would like some recommendations for how I should connect them.

I have three monitors:

1 x 2560 x 1440
2 x 1920 x 1080

I currently have a GTX 760 4 GB. It has 1152 CUDA cores running at 1085 MHz (1150 MHz boost).

2 new GTX 780 3 GB will arrive today (not everyone can afford TITANS). They each have 2304 CUDA cores running at 863 MHz (902 MHz boost).

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit on a Core i7 4930K with 32 GB RAM. I have an ASUS X79 Deluxe motherboard. I really hope I can fit these three cards in my full tower...

My question are:

[1] Should I leave all three monitors connected to my 760 and just install the 780s without connecting them to the monitors or should I connect each card to one monitor? If so, should one of the new 780s run the larger resolution monitor?

[2] I believe I have read Octane can only use the VRAM from one card at a time. Can anyone confirm this?

[3] How do I compute how many 512, 1k, 2k and 4k textures I can load into one scene on a 3 GB card or 4 GB card? It’s not the size of the file, is it?

[4] Octane’s website states that I should NOT SLI these cards. My situation does not change that, correct?

Thanks in advance for any information and advice you give.

[glimpse]

hi there,

let's try to answer Your questions.

1. 760 should be able to power three monitors, I just not so sure if total resolution will be ok, but 99% You should be able to do that & at least I think that's the best deal. Why? Well, You can work flawlessly & render without eating any of vRam. & that leads us to the second question..or rather answer.

2. Octane should fit scene into every card (it's vRAM, so You're limited to smaller amount available). That's why plunging screen into 3gb cards I would not recommend - You'll end up having 3GB - something like 300MB for the screen =)

3. ghm, there is a formula somewhere..don't remember but I think I mention in the article with free scene (see the link in my signature)

4. & here's the last question: Yeah You don't need SLI - don't use bridge & disable it in windows =)

overall.. If You manage to hook all three monitors into 760 You should be able to run with all three cards (when You don't need interactivity - let's say out from computer) & still be able to use maximum of 3GB for scenes =)

p.s. You don't need to afford Titans to get 6GB - there are 780 6GB version, but it's hard to find them & they all have non reference coolers (need to leave a gap between to get optimal cooling =)

[rappet]

To add...

New 'Out of core texture' feature can be wolution for having bigger scenes then your vram.
Can be little slower ai think... There is another thread about this.

If you want sli for gaming, you can have the hardware bridge and just disable sli in nvidia configuration when uwing Octane,
The enable sli when you need it for other stuff.

Cheers,

[dboanimation]

New 'Out of core texture' feature can be wolution for having bigger scenes then your vram.

Do you know if that feature is available in the Cinema 4D plugin yet?

[rappet]

New 'Out of core texture' feature can be wolution for having bigger scenes then your vram.

Do you know if that feature is available in the Cinema 4D plugin yet?

Sorry, I do not know. You might surf the C4D forum threads and ask there.
Greetz,