OTOY Forums

Hi everyone!
i'm starting a new life of rendering with a new pc (see lover the specs)... i'm just about to complete the order... and I have to ask your expert advice on the choice of the vga for octane rendering.. as I'm a Noob on the matter .

at present (i'm in italy) on my e-store, there are only these gtx 560 models:

http://www.eprice.it/Schede-Video-MSI/s-3211176 (msi twin frozr)
http://www.eprice.it/Schede-Video-GAINW ... edatecnica (gainward golden sample)
http://www.eprice.it/Schede-Video-GAINW ... edatecnica (gainward 2 gb, but is the slowest)

the rest of the configuration is as follows:
i7 950 @3.06 Ghz
Mobo Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
3x2 GB Ram @1600 cl 8
OCZ ssd 120 GB for programs & OS
WD caviar black 1Tb for storage
antec 800W power supply

(originally i was planning on buying the gigabyte 460 Soc... BUT! HERE THEY ARE THE NEW BRAND!!)

Many many thanks in advance for all of you who had the patience to read all this babbling!
(my older pc is about to give up the ghost... so i don't have the time to wait for new models to become available here... )

yours,
Pyro

The mobo can take 2x double slot cards + another for UI so I think maybe a good 850W to allow for expansion and upgrades. 4x 6/8 pin connectors required. It seems 850 is the more usual size made rather than 800.
You would probably be happier to spend a little more to buy a 2gb card rather than 1gb.
1gb is a bit limiting for your scenes since the vram holds the geometry, textures and the 'film' image.
It depends on how demanding your render jobs are of course but 2gb will give you more options.
I would go with 12gb ram to be able to make full use of a 2gb GTX560Ti but 8gb would about do (if that was an option). The 560 is a faster better card than a 460.

I would go for more ram if you do large scale work, the only limit I hit is ram.

I need to close down 3ds max to free ram when export.

Thanks guys!
now I'm much more in peace...
I mean, doubling the ram will make me render bigger scenes, while for having a slower gpu.. i can always in the future take another vga (with the same vram amount) to speed things up..
thanks!