Upgrading GPU before CPU

#1

I’m sure this has been discussed in various capacities but I can’t find anything specific enough.

I’ve spent a lot of money in the last year or so building camera kit and the like that it’s kind of left me financially wiped out. I do need to upgrade my rig though. I am currently running a i7 930 (at stock speed) with 16GB ram and have a QUADRO 4000 as well as a GTX285. I work in MODO mostly.

I know that for the next six months or so, for the project I’m working on I will be mostly doing modelling, texture work and lighting…but only test renders. Not finishing a project. So was thinking of upgrading my GPU now to a QUADRO K4000 and then upgrading to a i7 5930k or something similar down the line. I would upgrade the MOBO and CPU now if it wasn’t for the DDR4 Ram thing. I just can’t drop the money on 64GB of new RAM as well as all the other bits.

Just thinking would it make sense to upgrade the GPU to work with more polys and textures etc…and get a decent redraw for the next six months. Would make MODO run better under pressure :wink: . Or do you think that the i7 930 is not up to scratch anymore. I’ve had it running ok, but the scenes have been quite small. Just learning the last few years really.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks

#2

The quadro k4000 will do absolutely nothing for you, its a waste of money. Why are you considering 64 gigs of ram if you’re just modelling things? I’d be surprised if your work takes you over much more than 10. Why run an i7 930 at stock speeds? Its the most easily overclocked cpu there has ever been, it will run at 3.5ghz on any heatsink and 4ghz if you have something decent.

#3

Thanks for your reply. There is a lot of why’s in it :slight_smile:

Why would the QUADRO K4000 do nothing for me? Why do you think its a waste of money? Are you suggesting a GTX card instead or are you saying i won’t get any gains over my QUADRO 4000 in MODO/Mari. The tests and conversations I’ve seen are good. What would you suggest? I need to have 10-bit for video work and GTX are 8-bit but i can put a Blackmagic card in for 10-bit.

I’m also partly looking for a boost in performance for Resolve and the 64GB is really related to film related comp and FX work in Fusion and AE. Sorry I wasn’t really clear in my original post.

As for the overclocking it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a LONG time. But it really boils down to not knowing how, I have scanned through posts with pretty much step-by-step but for someone who has never done something like that it takes energy to get your head round. Time and energy. I’ll take another look to maximise what I have. So in answer, I know it meant to be relatively decent for OC but I need to take a few days out to do it.

#4

The GTX 970/980 are supposed to have HDMI 2.0 support and 10-bit output over H2 and possibly display port (depending on PCB/Manufacturer).
What I can’t confirm is whether that’s per buffer, like the OGL 10bit support in quadros previously, or overall and/or DX full screen render only to avoid making Quadros even more redundant than they actually already are.

If you are not disinclined to adding or swapping card later, and can test, or if you can buy, test and return no questions asked, it’s certainly worth a try.
The K4200 is pretty disappointing bang for buck.

Rest I agree with Mash. Pick up your motherboard’s manual or watch a couple youtube videos showing you the step by step and OC that CPU a bit and keep the rest stable while you get a decent GPU and patch over to your next upgrade proper when you’ll be more in cash. The 930 certainly has a couple years of life in it still.

#5

^ That

Overclocking the 930 is very straightforward. Enter the bios, set the memory speed to 1600mhz then find the bclk setting and bump it up until the cpu speed reads 3.4ghz. Now boot up and see if it works. If all is fine and stable then whenever you like, go back into the bios and nudge it up another 0.1ghz and repeat until you’re happy. If it crashes, drop it down a couple of notches.

You can go further with voltage changes and sleep state adjustments, but the simple version will get you quite far.