Vray 2.0
Vray 2.0 has been announced, and it's interesting because it has both GPU (for previews with the RT-GPU engine) and CPU (for the production renderer) requirements. Additionally, though the RT-GPU engine runs on OpenCL which is supported by both AMD and nVidia GPUs, the current version only runs on nVidia GPUs that support CUDA.
So, two factors:
GPU: This applies only to the RT-GPU engine. The production renderer does not use the GPU.
Fermi cards are recommended. A Fermi card is any Geforce 400-series card or any Quadro 4000, 5000 or 6000 card, but not Quadro FX cards or earlier Geforce cards. (Most earlier cards from the past few years can run CUDA, but they don't give you as much bang-for-buck.) According to forum posts by Chaosgroup admins, they are working on getting the engine running on AMD hardware, but for now anybody buying a workstation to use with Vray 2.0 should restrict their GPU selection to nVidia.
As with any GPU rendering solution, the amount of memory on the video card is important. The newer cards ship with at least 1GB, and 2GB cards are easy to come by.
But be aware that the RT engines are not for all work - there are important features of the production renderer that are not present in the RT engines, so don't skimp on the CPU. Anybody using the full capabilities of Vray 2.0 is going to need plenty of CPU power as well.
CPU: This applies only to the RT-CPU and production renderers. The RT-GPU engine relies much more on the GPU and CPU performance is not the controlling factor.
My previous advice on CPUs applies here, since the Budget workstation and up are designed for use with efficiently multithreading render engines such as Cinema4D, mental ray and Vray 1.x, and the CPU requirements for Vray 2.0 have not changed. Vray 2.0's production renderer will max out the utilization on a multi-core AMD or Intel CPU.
Workstations: In some ways these are going to look very familiar to regular readers, since I'm keeping the usual requirements but adding nVidia GPUs to support Vray RT for GPU, where I normally include ATI FirePro video cards at these price points. The major differences between these two "Vray 2.0 Edition" workstations and the standard configurations (which, by the way, can be found in the September Workstations link on the right of this page) are attributable to GPU handling. Both have upgraded motherboards with best-in-class PCI-Express x16 slots, and upgraded power supplies to handle the extra power requirements of multiple GPUs.
The Midrange (Vray 2.0 Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
See comments on The Midrange in the September Workstations article - I'm not going to repeat them here, but aside from everything that's about video cards, they apply. The upgrades are:
-A motherboard that supports up to three video cards
-Dual Geforce GTX 460 cards with 2GB RAM onboard
-More power!
The 2GB GTX 460 is a great option for running software like this. It's the most memory you can put on a card that's not a Quadro, at only $260 each. A single Quadro 4000 card would cost $780 and while it would likely outperform this configuration in viewport performance, it would not run Vray RT for GPU nearly as well.
If you want even more power, two GTX 480 cards can be used with this configuration; however, a 1000 watt power supply would be highly recommended. Three GTX 480 cards, the configuration Chaosgroup used in their demo? The cost/benefit is against you, but you can do it; a 1200 watt power supply is needed.
The High-End (Vray 2.0 Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
Again, see the comments on the September High End system.
I seriously considered including four GTX 460 cards in this system, but in the end the principle that it's best to put the same amount of power in fewer CPUs translates well to GPUs and two GTX 480's wins out. Still, with this MB you can do it, and part of the reason I've included such a high end MB is future-proofing; you can add a third GTX 480 card, or a fourth (with a second power supply), or at some later date upgrade to multiple cards of some hypothetical future type. A 1500 watt power supply and a motherboard that can fit four video cards ensure that your GPU selection will not be held back.
So, two factors:
GPU: This applies only to the RT-GPU engine. The production renderer does not use the GPU.
Fermi cards are recommended. A Fermi card is any Geforce 400-series card or any Quadro 4000, 5000 or 6000 card, but not Quadro FX cards or earlier Geforce cards. (Most earlier cards from the past few years can run CUDA, but they don't give you as much bang-for-buck.) According to forum posts by Chaosgroup admins, they are working on getting the engine running on AMD hardware, but for now anybody buying a workstation to use with Vray 2.0 should restrict their GPU selection to nVidia.
As with any GPU rendering solution, the amount of memory on the video card is important. The newer cards ship with at least 1GB, and 2GB cards are easy to come by.
But be aware that the RT engines are not for all work - there are important features of the production renderer that are not present in the RT engines, so don't skimp on the CPU. Anybody using the full capabilities of Vray 2.0 is going to need plenty of CPU power as well.
CPU: This applies only to the RT-CPU and production renderers. The RT-GPU engine relies much more on the GPU and CPU performance is not the controlling factor.
My previous advice on CPUs applies here, since the Budget workstation and up are designed for use with efficiently multithreading render engines such as Cinema4D, mental ray and Vray 1.x, and the CPU requirements for Vray 2.0 have not changed. Vray 2.0's production renderer will max out the utilization on a multi-core AMD or Intel CPU.
Workstations: In some ways these are going to look very familiar to regular readers, since I'm keeping the usual requirements but adding nVidia GPUs to support Vray RT for GPU, where I normally include ATI FirePro video cards at these price points. The major differences between these two "Vray 2.0 Edition" workstations and the standard configurations (which, by the way, can be found in the September Workstations link on the right of this page) are attributable to GPU handling. Both have upgraded motherboards with best-in-class PCI-Express x16 slots, and upgraded power supplies to handle the extra power requirements of multiple GPUs.
The Midrange (Vray 2.0 Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
See comments on The Midrange in the September Workstations article - I'm not going to repeat them here, but aside from everything that's about video cards, they apply. The upgrades are:
-A motherboard that supports up to three video cards
-Dual Geforce GTX 460 cards with 2GB RAM onboard
-More power!
The 2GB GTX 460 is a great option for running software like this. It's the most memory you can put on a card that's not a Quadro, at only $260 each. A single Quadro 4000 card would cost $780 and while it would likely outperform this configuration in viewport performance, it would not run Vray RT for GPU nearly as well.
If you want even more power, two GTX 480 cards can be used with this configuration; however, a 1000 watt power supply would be highly recommended. Three GTX 480 cards, the configuration Chaosgroup used in their demo? The cost/benefit is against you, but you can do it; a 1200 watt power supply is needed.
The High-End (Vray 2.0 Edition)
click here to view/purchase the parts list on Newegg
Again, see the comments on the September High End system.
I seriously considered including four GTX 460 cards in this system, but in the end the principle that it's best to put the same amount of power in fewer CPUs translates well to GPUs and two GTX 480's wins out. Still, with this MB you can do it, and part of the reason I've included such a high end MB is future-proofing; you can add a third GTX 480 card, or a fourth (with a second power supply), or at some later date upgrade to multiple cards of some hypothetical future type. A 1500 watt power supply and a motherboard that can fit four video cards ensure that your GPU selection will not be held back.
posted by Andy Lynn at 6:56 AM
2 comments
