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Planning: What do I need??

M

Mr P

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Good morning all!

I constantly read, when we want a PC for this and that, then build that or this controlled entirely on budget. Lets assume I do not wish to control my rig based on budget alone, but on efficiently calculating the needs and requirements of the workload.

Problem: At work I need a new PC to do X tasks, how can I ask for a PC build, when I cannot prove these are my requirements? Do I need Quad Nvidia RTX A6000 or is a single Nvidia RTX A2000 enough?

Question: How does one calculate what components are necessary for the workload, with headroom for future use?

I understand this may be pretty technical and I do not wish to do a degree to answer this question. If an answer is beyond the scope of this forum, any links to articles in the internet are extremely appreciated.

Thanks you very much for your assistance.

Alan
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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Benchmarks and real-world tests are the answer. You need different tier GPUs, CPUs, etc and test your Applications and projects on them, assign a score of how well they perform and you have your answer.

In some companies I worked for a while back, we did this. We just got a bunch of hardware and ran our own tests. If this is not viable for you, you'll have to rely on what others have tested. Find benchmarks that come as close as possible to the workloads you are running.

E.g. cinebench for cinema 4D render work. Viewport bench for cinema 4d viewport performance, corona bench for rendering in corona, blender benchmark for rendering in blender cycles, etc...

Pugetbench for anything adobe cc. etc.

If there's no bench for your Application, it's probably not popular/widespread enough. Then you'll have to do your own testing.
 
M

Mr P

Guest
Hi Alex,

thanks for taking the time to answer my query! Was very helpful.
 
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M

Mr P

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Hi Alex,

a few follow up questions, it would be appreciated if you could take the time to answer:

I have this comparison list:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/studio/compare-gpus/

How are different Medium/Large etc Models defined? Is Medium 10 Millionen Poly's? 20 Million?

If I am to do my own benchmarks, based on my work what programs do I need?

Many thanks, and have a great day!
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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That list from Nvidia is entirely unhelpful and really just ranks their own cards by performance. It doesn't tell you a thing about what you'll need for your specific workloads, unfortunately.

What programs are you using that you are looking to buy GPUs for?
 
M

Mr P

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Hi Alex,

Thanks once again. Came to the same conclusion myself. Also seen your Benchmark articles, nice and provide some useful information.

Ok here is quite a bit of information, that I hope helps...

I use 3ds Studio Max 2019 (Upgrade to 2021 in Q1 2022).
I will be using Adobe Substance 3D Painter for all textures and bakes.

I am creating content for Oculus Quest 2 by importing Autodesk Inventor 2019 CAD assemblies (ranging from 5000-15000 parts) and remodelling them from scratch for VR.

I will probably be required to create some realistic scenes for Marketting and for this I plan to use Arnold or Substance 3D Stager (untested).


Current PC (bought 02.2019):

Prozessor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.19 GHz
RAM 32,0 GB
Windows 10 Enterprise
Nvidia Quadro P4000


Imported the following .stp files into 3DS Max 2019:

Small File: 58MB / 3400 parts / Mesh Res 0, Model Assist
resulted in 5,5 milion polygons. Simple transformations 2 FPS, panning of viewport unselected 5 FPS.

Medium File: 245MB / 13500 parts / Mesh Res 0, Model Assist
resulted in 8,7 milion polygons. Simple transformations 1 FPS, panning of viewport unselected 0,8 FPS with pauses.

There are also larger assemblies with 15000+ parts. I havn't analysed the quality of the import due to those FPS.

Windows Task Manager doesn't seem to help with accurate measurements. RAM 64% and CPU peaks now and again of 60% avg 20%, GPU sleeping.

After studying your articles I have come to the conclusion a High Single Clock Core CPU with a strong GPU. I can use the GPU for rendering,if needed. I assume I need a strong GPU anyway for Substance 3D Painter.

Am open to any suggestions, help, guidance. Thanks you very much Alex!

P.S. Last question, if one uses the Turbo Boost (Turbo Core) is the warranty void?

Thanks!
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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Automatic Turbo Boosting is within warranty.

Yes, a CPU with max single core performance and clock will be best for your kind of workloads. If you just import stps and convert to a mesh, the mesh itself having no modifiers etc. whatsoever, then it might also be that the GPU is bottlenecking the performance.

The p4000 really isn't that great a GPU, you should see much better results with either a current gen Quadro RTX or even a mainstream RTX such as the 3090.

So my recommendation, 12900k or 5950X. RTX 3090 or RTX A5000.
 
M

Mr P

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Hi Alex,

Thanks for thw swift response!
The stp I am importing are pretty unclean and very heavy on the poly count for VR. My workflow upto now has been:
  1. import the stp file (CAD data)
  2. start a low poly model from scratch (using modifiers) based on the CAD geometry (future, Step 2 will be high poly model first for Normal map).
CPU recommendation still the same? Can my workflow be improved?

Thanks again, have a great day.
 
Alex Glawion

Alex Glawion

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Do you not convert your stp to mesh when importing? You can just reduce the resolution on import. That should take care of performance issues, especially for VR?

An active modifier that reduces your polys on every frame will be very slow.
 
M

Mr P

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yes and on import one can specify the mesh resolution, this does control how detailed the imported mesh is, the results can be messy though.

Thanks for your assistance Alex! Have a good one!
 
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