GPU recommendations

[ryanroye]

I have some questions here:

My primary GPU got fried the other day and I was looking at the new 1080/1060 gpus Nvidia made available, and wanted to ask if anyone has one and/or feels they are cost effective for use with Octane (or other gpu intensive production applications) versus any other cards available. I have no problems buying used cards either so long as they provide bang for the buck.

My budget for the card is somewhere between $400-600.

[rappet]

Hi,

your choice depends on your needed vram ofcourse,
And if you have future plans for adding (or swapping) another card, or not, also might determine your choice.. (You are saying your primary gpu, so you already have more gpu's in that system)

In this thread you can find a survey of cards, prices and performances.
It is without 1070 and 1080.. That might give you some insights
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=56482
Two 780ti's (second hand for $200?) might be a good option for you if you have no future plans for adding another card. (benchmark around 100 each).

If you can just add one card or if want your future plans to be more open you can invest your money in just one card with higher performance... I.e. a 980ti or 1070 (1070 will be perform better when Otoy has optimized cuda 8 related).

1080 is out of Your budget, but to mention...
If you can wait till Q1 2017 and you are willing to spend more money on one card the rumoured 1080ti might be the best option for one card with highest performance (probably around $800 and almosot same performance as the titan x pascal).

This thread is about 780 versus 1070:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=56628&p=290600&hilit=1070#p290600

And these are about 1060/1070/1080:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=56075&hilit=1070
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=55336

Hope this helps
Cheers,

[ryanroye]

Thanks for these links rappet! Currently, i've yet to hit the memory ceiling beyond 3GB video ram in my productions so the speed of the render is my primary concern. I can fit 2 maybe 3 graphics processors on my motherboard and have the hardware to support that.

It's nice that the 780TI is about $200 cheaper than it was last year... time flies!

[mdharrington]

Ryan....

I thought that way too about the ram....

However I have hit the limit several times with volumetrics and smoke sims....VDB ect.

The 780's should be comparable with 970's for speed, and they can be cheaper, but a 1070 would definitely be the sweet spot if you have the budget.

Generally the previous gen 80's (580,780,980) match or outperform the current gen 70's.... but the 60's are usually a healthy step down

The 970's and on consume considerably less power as you will discover if trying to fill all your MB slots.

For pure speed, if power and ram are not a concern....a 590 is still very hard to beat...outperforming the 980, titanZ and 780ti....and they can be had for less than $100

[rappet]

....
For pure speed, if power and ram are not a concern....a 590 is still very hard to beat...outperforming the 980, titanZ and 780ti....and they can be had for less than $100

Not totally correct... Take a look at the OctaneBench,;
780ti is about the same, the 980ti is outperforming the 590 and the TitanZ is still the captain on the ship
Cheers,

[mdharrington]

Ooops wrong Titan
TitanZ is by far the captain of the ship....

But I did say it outperforms the 980 and 780ti, I didnt actually mention the 980ti...



the point was power for price though...and if ram isnt an issue...nothing beats a 590 on price/performance