@Burr:we are in the same boat
Wow!...after years of following you here,finally a phrase i can cleary understand :)
We use to say the same here !

Marco you can also consider the brand new AMD Ryzen cpu:8 cores-16 threads
https://www.tomshw.it/test-ryzen-7-1800x-nuovo-processore-punta-amd-83750
Same power but half price

Mauro,
Better than a sharp stick in the eye! A rolling stone gathers no moss. Here's to mud in your eye!

Can i say that again?

I'm not very good at explaining. A tutor i am not. But i always forget that there are "other parts of the world" here... seems like 1 happy community!

I'll try harder... to not be a skifozo :o

Hi Mauro!

Thanks for your suggestions, but I think I prefer to remain with Intel.
I don't know AMD cpu and I prefer to avoid unpleasant surprises...

Anyway, I think that for the time being I will go for a configuration like this :

CPU : i7-7700k
Mother board : MSI - Z270 Gaming M7 DDR4 M.2 SOCKET 1151 (or similar)
RAM : Corsaire 32GB Kit Vengeance Led DDR4-3000
SSD : SAMSUNG - 500GB 960 EVO SSD NVMe M.2
MSI - GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11GB

But...I will continue to search around the web to get better knowledge on how that kind of hardware
could work with my gfx software pipeline (2d/ 3D both DirectX and OpenGL)

Thanks again for help.

Hi Michael and everyone.

First of all I wish to thank you Michael because you allowed me to "use" this forum to talk about a topic not closely related to Moi.
Thanks again.

And I want also to thank all the other guys who has taken part in this discussion.
Thanks to all.

I have come to a decision.

During the last few nights I've read so many tech articles and watched so many youtube channel and asked so many
3d/cad forum, that I can say with absolute certainty that I'm still too poorly prepared to chose a new hardware configuration
that should be a very valid one in relation to what I currently do with my computer.
That is : software developing for my job, and 2d/3D gfx for hobby and some sporadic 2d/3d content creation to support my developing activity.

A serious and professional choice of a brand new pc/workstation actually involves too many technical aspects
for which I'm not properly prepared.

1) What kind of motherboard ?
2) What kind of cpu : semi-workstation processors (i7 extreme edition 6-8 cores) or consumer top range (i7-7700K)
3) What kind of dd4 ram
4) Above all...what kind of GPU : Affortable Quadro P4000 8gb (very reliable and capable to run ALL software, also very specific CAD),
or the acclaimed and so powerful GTX 1080 Ti or Titan X ?

One thing I realized : it's so easy to be mesmerized by pure numbers (cuda, mhz, refresh rate, Ghz, t-flops, fps, etc...)

Numbers (often) say nothing.

What rally matters for me is :

1) What's your main activity that you want to do with your computer ?
2) Real-life performance : for example, how a brand new i7-7700K with fast dd4 ram and fast ssd will improve the almost daily
and heavy compilation of java code with Android Studio, compared to what I can actually achieve with my (old but) reliable Clevo Laptop with 32Gb of 1600 Mhz and i7-4790K ?
3) How Cad and 2d Painting software (Photoshop CC and others) and 3D-Coat will run on a GTX graphics card compared to a Quadro P4000
in terms not only of speed but also robustness and issue-free compatibility problems ?

I still haven't found nothing really helpful about all that questions.

In conclusion, I think that always : HASTE MAKES WASTE !!

So...I decided to take my time and not to change my computer at least until I will get much more specific information.

Thanks again to all and...I will wait for the upcoming V4 beta of Moi that certailnly will work like a charm on my laptop with Quadro K3100M.

Have a nice day.

- Marco (mkdm)

It's the problem when you have a consequent budget! Difficult is the choice! :)
Small is beautiful! :D

Hi Marco,

for supplementary information you can see the Octane FAQ as well:

https://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/faqs/

there is written:

OctaneRender requires a CUDA enabled NVIDIA video card. An up to date list can be found here ( https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus ).

OctaneRender can run on most CUDA enabled consumer video cards, instead of only on high-end Quadro cards that most other solutions and middleware require, but it is specifically optimized to run on Kepler (GTX 6xx, GTX 7xx, GTX Titan), Fermi (GTX 4xx, GTX 5xx) and Maxwell GPUs.

Kepler GPUs allow a higher texture limit (256 compared to 128 on Fermi) and are more power efficient and silent than Fermi cards. GPUs from the GeForce line are usually higher clocked and render faster than the more expensive Quadro and Tesla GPUs.

The GeForce GTX 780 and GTX Titan currently offer the best performance to price ratio, but any recent high end NVIDIA card will offer great rendering performance with Octane.

As Octane does not use the CPU for rendering, an expensive multi-core CPU is not required. However, a fast multi-core CPU will significantly improve the scene loading speed.

... this link ( https://render.otoy.com/octanebench/results.php?sort_by=avg&filter=gtx%20750&singleGPU=1 ) can be useful for you too.

Ciao
Mik

Hi Mik!

Thank you very much for your reply and your very helpful suggestions. Much appreciated!

@You : "...The GeForce GTX 780 and GTX Titan currently offer the best performance to price ratio..."

Thanks for the precise info.

See you.

Hi Marco
Notes the Octane FAQ is outdated... now compilation switch to CUDA 8 and "Pascal" cards are supported (better to buy a GTX1080 than old GTX780 !)
;^D

Hi ycarry.

Thanks a lot for the info.

Hi Marco,

ycarry is right FAQ is not "fresh", but I wanted to advice you only that it isn't necessary to use Quadro cards for rendering especially by Octane.

here is some info regarding GTX 1080 (and other cards) from Octane users https://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=56108

Mik

Thanks a lot Mik for the advice :)

What a headache !!!

I can't do it anymore :)

I've read so many tech articles in the last two weeks...

Cuda, GFlops, Fp16,Fp32,Fp64, TFlops, ECC Ram vs Non-Ecc, Quadro Kepler, Quadro Maxwell, Titan Black, Pascal....

So many!

It'a a jungle :)

After read all that stuff I've come to realize something :

1) NVIDIA after Fermi cards has decided to render ineffective all FP64 (double precision) performance of ALL it's cards,
both Quadro and GeForce!
In fact even the powerful Pascal Quadro P6000 equipped with the GP104 processor line and the Gtx 1080 Ti equipped with the GP102 (same family)
have FP64 performance fixed to 1/32 of FP32.

2) The "old" Gtx Titan Black from 2104 is equipped with the GK110-430-B1 and has a FP64 performance varying from 1/24 to 1/3 of FP32 !!!

But...whit that said....I didn't find any place or person who can give me this simple information :

Considering that I don't need the GPU to process massive scientific calculation (FP64) but only for visualization, 3d modelling, 3d rendering and
2d Gpu Painting, can I get rid of FP64 performance and go for a ultra powerful FP32 (11 TFplos) Gtx Nvidia 1080 Ti ?

No one has still told me...

I think I should go for a Gtx 1080 Ti and get Rid of Pascal Quadro because they use the same chip with the almost same FP64 performance.

Only, it seams that without a Quadro card I will loose 10-bit display output and ECC memory.

As I said...it's a Jungle!

Have a nice day to everyone.

- Marco (mkdm)

<<<<Considering that I don't need the GPU to process massive scientific calculation (FP64) but only for visualization, 3d modelling, 3d rendering and
2d Gpu Painting, can I get rid of FP64 performance and go for a ultra powerful FP32 (11 TFplos) Gtx Nvidia 1080 Ti ?>>>>

Answer : YES! Go Marco Go!
(or wait for the next GTX1090TiXNewUltraMega++ )
\:^P

Thanks a lot yacrry!!

Just some minutes before reading your reply I have decided to go for a Gtx 1080 Ti,
but custom, not Founders Edition, because custom cards are better cooled.

Thanks a lot.

I hope I can finalize soon my purchase...

Have a nice day.

FWIW, here's my 2 cents..

I have a Win 10 system I purchased last year from CyberPowerPC
It has an Intel i7-6800K CPU @ 3.40GHz
32 GB RAM

I have a GeForce GTX 1080 (foundation version) and a GeForce GTX 980Ti both installed.
Frankly, you only need one unless you're doing hi-end rendering with programs like Octane.

I purchased the 1080 for a number of reasons:

1. I want to do VR and it's probably the best performance/value for hi-end VR like Occulus and HTC Vive (I use it with both)

2. I also want to use it for non-biased photoreal rendering with products like Octane. The 1080 performs very well, and coupled with the 980Ti, the two perform very nicely.

3. Pascal is the 'latest-greatest' and I expect buying now at the early stage extends the life of this architecture.

4. Because it's such a standard, I also expect future programs to continue to optimize for the 1080 and future Pascal architectures.

5. I prefer the "leading edge" not the "bleeding edge." I don't want to have to research, debug, install beta drivers, etc. in order to use a device. Certainly there are faster and more expensive cards / rigs out there, but then you get in the game of continually having to know which device works with which setup, etc.. I just don't have time for that.

6. Unity (and UE4) have both announced support for Octane to bake textures. As I've mentioned previously, if you *learn* Unity, you can create stunning renders (like KeyShot and/or Octane) plus 8K animations in near real-time (based on the 1080 board). I can render individual 4K images in the time it takes me to move the camera view-- just press the snapshot button and it saves a 4K image to disk. Just amazing. And when Octane (announced it will be FREE for Unity) comes out later this summer, it will be a game changer as far as realtime rendering goes. Check this out!

https://youtu.be/8ecfZF-IuSI?t=2m25s

I'm very happy with my decision and my rig has performed extremely well. Purchasing an industry standard hi-end gaming video board is, IMO, the way to go if you're focussed on rendering. If for only CAD and 3D printing, it's not necessary.

Hi Chipp!

Thanks a lot for sharing your real-life point of view. Much appreciated!

After many, many hours (late at night) spent to pick the best components for my actual needs,
this is the (almost) definitive configuration of my next pc :

Cases Cooler Master ATX MasterBox 5 Tower
Mb Intel 1151 MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Chipset Z270
Cpu Intel Core i7-7700K (4,20Ghz/4,50Ghz) 1151 BOX KABY LAKE
Arctic liquid freezer 240 for the CPU
2x16 Memory D4 3000 32GB C15 Corsair Ven K2
PSU 650W EVGA SuperNOVA GQ (or maybe 750W)
SD SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe SSD, PCIe 3.0 M.2 Typ 2280 - 500 GB
HDD int. 3,5 2TB Seagate Barracuda [ST2000DM006]

for the GPU I have to choose between these two brutal custom 1080 Ti :

Svga MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G OC : occupies the space of 2+ slots

Svga Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Gaming OC 11G : : occupies the space of 2 slots


For the moment I think I don't need FP64 performance more than the actual 1080 Ti (about 340 GFlops in double precision, 1/32 of FP32)
because I don't need to use scientific or financial calculation software or physics simulations.
I hope that the 11 TFlops !! in FP32 should be enough for realtime unbiased GPU rendering, 3d modelling and GPU 2D Painting with Photoshop CC,
and also for moderate CAD modelling with Rhino 3D and Moi.

Also for the moment I don't need a CPU with more than 4 physical but I need a CPU with the best single core performance,
and I think i7-700K it's the best for now, and is also easily overclockable.

I hope that I choose a valid config, that is, I hope I don't have to switch to a (lower performance) P4000 Quadro only for bad drivers or other things...

Anyway...I will see.

See you.

This has been a fascinating thread to read as I'm also considering a PC upgrade. Being an AMD fanboy back to the original Athlon days, I was considering a Ryzen CPU and maybe a new Vega card when they finally get released and reviewed. Please let us know how your new rig works out and what your ultimate component choices are. I'd love to hear what works for you and others, and what doesn't as I plan my own new build later this year.

Bob

Same here Bob.

I need much cpu power than anything else, so it's different from Marco.
Amd seems the way to go with the actual Ryzen line, but now this one seems real too :

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/57530/amds-next-gen-threadripper-16c-32t-launch-june/index.html

3.5-3.9GHz 16cores / 32 threads / ddr4 quadchannel ... yummy !

Hi Paq, Bob (APTIVABOY) and everyone.

So...after many others tech articles and direct contacts with all the software house that are developing
all the software that are into my current pipeline, this is the configuration I'm going to buy.

For my actual needs and for my (not big) budget this is one of the best config I can get :

Case : Cases Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 Midi-Tower - Black Window
Mother board : Mb Intel 1151 MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Chipset Z270
CPU : Cpu Intel Core i7-7700K (4,20Ghz/4,50Ghz) 1151 BOX
RAM : 2x16 Memory D4 3000 32GB C15 Corsair Ven K2
PSU : 750W EVGA SuperNOVA GQ 80+ GOLD
M.2 SD : SD SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe SSD, PCIe 3.0 M.2 Typ 2280 - 500 GB
HDD : 3,5 2TB Seagate Barracuda [ST2000DM006]
CPU Liquid Cooler : Corsair Hydro H110i

And for the GPU : MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G OC


All for approximately 2000 Eur (in Italy) (excluding the OS : Windows 10 Pro 64Bit English)

For the CPU, I know that maybe there are faster and powerful solutions, but actually I don't need heavy multicore data crunching,
but instead very fast and reliable single core performance, because all the platform that I currently use for my main job (software developing),
like Android Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio, Xamarin, all that stuff aren't optimized for heavy multicore but require a very good performance per core.

In fact most of daily job is writing and compiling lots of Java/.Net code, and having a cpu liek 7700K + superfast M.2 drive + fast RAM,
makes the difference.
I can't afford nasty surprises for my developing job and I have no experience with CPUs other than Intel, so I decided to get a 7700K.

Speaking about the GPU I need a robust and reliable product that can give me superfast performance for
realtime GPU rendering, 3D modelling, 3D sculping and 2D GPU Painting (with the Photoshop brush engine and other GPU Painting software).

Actually I don't need the huge FP64 performance of a Titan card or a Tesla, and approximately 340 Gflops of 1080 Ti should be more than enough,
also for moderate CAD modelling with Rhino 3D.
And also the actual Quadro series has almost the same FP64 performance of Gtx Pascal cards, that is 1/32 of FP32.

Speaking about Moi, it's so lightweight that with a 1080 Ti/ 7700K I guess it will be so fast that more I can't imagine...

Anyway...I hope to finalize the purchase soon and, hopefully, I will post here how my new rig will work for all my 2d/3d gfx software pipeline.

We'll catch up...

Ciao!

- Marco (mkdm)

Hi everyone!

Some times ago I told you that I wanted to renew my hardware config, and finally I did it :)

For what I'm experiencing in first week of usage it seems a STUNNING AND BLAZING FAST PC!!!

By now I only have to solve some cpu overheat issue due to a wrong thermal paste, but I hope to fix this issue next week.

So... the spec s:

Cases Cooler Master ATX MasterBox 5 Tower
Mb Intel 1151 MSI Z270 SLI PLUS Chipset Z270
Cpu Intel Core i7-7700K (4,20Ghz/4,50Ghz)
2x16 Memory D4 3000 32GB C15 Corsair Ven K2
EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3, 80 Plus Gold 750W, Fully Modular
SD SAMSUNG 960 EVO NVMe SSD, PCIe 3.0 M.2 Typ 2280 - 500 GB
HDD int. 3,5 2TB Seagate Barracuda
Corsair Hydro H100i V2
ASUS PCE-AC55BT DUAL BAND WIRELESS AC-1200

And last but not least...Svga MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor 11G OC

This is a rough visual benchmark recorded with my smartphone. I'm sorry for the very coarse video quality :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK15z9uwHX0


I simply downloaded the 3dm file contained into this package : https://grabcad.com/library/audi-r8-139
An Audi car made by Mauro Marin.

I then loaded the 3dm model into Moi, Rhino V5 and Rhino V6 WIP to roughly test the viewport performance using different viewing mode.
All tests are made on a very poor FullHD monitor.

The results are absolutely stunning above all when I use the Thea Render realtime GPU engine.

I'm also testing this new HW config with Unity, Blender and Thea Render stand alone and the performance I'm measuring are totally phenomenal!!!

For what I'm experiencing also with the very powerful Rhino, don't believe to anyone who says that you have to buy a Quadro card to have good performance with Rhino.

If all you want to do is rendering and not heavy scientific or engineering calculation, then the new Gtx Pascal 1080 Ti is really a BEAST!!!

And also consider that even the newest Pascal Quadro cards like P5000 or P6000 have THE SAME, I repeat, THE SAME FP64 performance of Gtx 1080 Ti,
that is 1/32 of FP32 performance.

And needless to say, with the 1080 Ti, Moi's performance are absolutely stunning even if you use a heavy "5 degree" mesh angle.

See you.

That's 21th century! ;)