Tell me what to buy! (New GPU)

#1

I approach computers like I approach cars. I like it when I turn the key and it goes. Beyond that, I don’t know too much. I’d love for someone smarter than me to tell me what to buy when it comes to upgrading my GPU.

I’m an animator and 3D generalist that uses a lot of 3DS Max, Maya, and After Effects. I have a nice Boxx machine about 4 years old; my GPU (Nvidia Quadro 4000) has been overheating during games and other such things, causing black-screens. I’m considering splurging on a nice upgrade ($500-$1200) for better gaming and GPU rendering.

Do I get a Titan XP? GTX 1080Ti? I don’t quite get the difference between the two, but I see them mentioned a lot as the hot new thing. Most of my rendering is done via CPU (Mental Ray and eventually Arnold when I update Max) but I’d be happy to learn a GPU renderer if it improves my workflow, too.

Any thoughts and tips would be most appreciated. Thanks!!

#2

The 1080Ti of course. It’s equally fast with the Titan XP in most situations, it has only 1gb less Vram (11 vs 12gb) and costs 1/2 the money. So, the choice is obvious. If you are into gpu rendering, then you could buy two gpus with this budget, but I don’t know if your psu is adequate. Could you mention its model and Wattage, please?

#3

Thanks so much for the insight. When you put it like that, the 1080ti seems so much better! Out of curiosity, why is the Titan line even a thing given that the 1080ti is so comparable at a much better price?

My power supply, listed in my Boxx specs, is “ESATA Port Rear1050W Power Supply.”

#4

I don’t really know. Nvidia sometimes makes decisions that don’t make any sense to users like me. In the previous generation of its gpus (Maxwell architecture), the Titan X had a reason for being, and this was its 12gb of Vram, compared to the 6gb of the 980Ti, which was the next gpu in line and had a similar performance. If you needed the double Vram you would pay for almost double the price to get it. Now, there is no meaning in choosing the Titan Xp for any use, even for gpu rendering. The 1080Ti is pretty close in any scenario. The funny thing is that this wasn’t the first Titan that Nvidia launched with Pascal Architecture. The Xp replaced this gpu https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/titan-x-pascal/
You can see the differences here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_10_series

As for the psu, I can’t exactly tell what’s the model, but if its wattage is 1050W as stated, I think you can easily add a second gpu. The next question is what’s you current motherboard? We need to see if it supports multi-gpus.

#5

According to my Boxx serial number search, I have two PCIe 3.0 expansion slots! That should probably cover two cards, I’d guess?

Thanks so much for your advice. I’ll start with one new GPU for now and see how it - as well as GPU rendering for production - flies. If it’s awesome I’ll be sure to make a push for two 1080ti’s for increased production power.

Have a great one!

#6

Just a few things to keep in mind for MR until you upgrade:
It is only going to use the GPU for rendering in 2017 if you are using Indirect Diffuse GI or IRay (no FG or photons).
Your entire scene has to fit within the GPU ram or it will fall back to CPU only (It is so slow, so very, very slow in CPU mode)
GPU ram is not shared. Doubling 1080s won’t double the amount of ram available for rendering
Keep your Quadro and use that to drive your monitors if it isn’t overheating in non-rendering, non-gaming situations. Just cleaning out the fan on the Quadro might help if your workstation is a few years old.

#7

If you are going for GPU then you would NOT use MRay for that but go in line with something like Redshift or even Octane :slight_smile: