Hi I am a 3D fractal artist, you can see examples of my work at www.fractalaesthetics.com.
I have recently built a new workstation to speed up my process (coming from a 4 core 4 thread CPU the difference is mind blowing) and to allow me to do animations, previously I could only do short tiny ones.
Specs
Threadripper 2990WX 3GHz
Custom loop with 360 rad
MSI - MEG X399 CREATION EATX TR4 Motherboard
G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory
Intel - 760p Series 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Radeon R9 290X Windforce
SeaSonic - PRIME Platinum 1000W 80+ Platinum
I use a free program called Mandelbulb 3d, which renders using ‘ray marching’ download here:
http://www.fractalforums.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=70
The program is primitive despite being the most sophisticated 3D fractal rendering
software. It is 32bit, CPU bound and has many limitations. The 2990WX has dramatically sped things up however now I’m wondering how I can optimize my work flow. I’m running windows 10. The program has some options for allocating CPU resources under the ‘Internal’ tab on the right hand side. Here you can set Threadcount which I usually have at 60. You can set thread priority to one of four options, idle, lowest, low and normal. I always have it at normal, I’m not sure how the other options effect performance.
There is also an option to disable threadboost, not sure how that would effect things either.
I have a benchmark (renders a large still image), if you would like to run it then copy the following text and click ‘from clipboard’ in the ‘open’ tab at the top then hit ‘calculate 3D’
Mandelbulb3Dv18{
g…o5…3K…w…2E…qxJZZtFFuz4SjdfUIlXyj.lPSJAUPFzngD2cmcdYszQU37FU34Yyj
…NjFH0ZtPV02…Y.3L…EnAnAnAnIG/2…wD
…Uz6/…kr0…M.1/…2EJ1…V0…E8…2/kGp4i9.cD/6…ld3o.dkpXm1…k
./EnAnQD12…2…wz…U5…y1…sD…/…
.wHnAnQDfFPi.wQUXun1.pSlODwWyeIyhObkfCdjXgUAgKwwotvctz0/Ac9dyuEfBi5oR9dDcc9fVVyT
Luv9RfFOPqtWyeISM0.Si7ejU…oNB…kD.2…sD…G…
…oAnAt1…sD…zw1…4Z5SAxkg/3gwQuc9H5…x…k1.
…83iyz1…kz.wzzz1ky.A7.a…M2…EB…m…c3…EE…6/…YZ4…UJl5I
…U.eoZgzjdqZpz8R7vzPeRN/…1c…zzSi…6wyBIC4OWz1…2U.8.UQgk0.
.wUmc2beYz1.dA8E5Exwz0…36UHtjJA3/…cC3LRtKozslFH80817yD.oKcml0/dzP8Xc…
yLjq…UkKZMxkayDM0Dbqxm4Iz9…Kb3L.Euz4U.8.kzzzD…odIWOorVy98Sfl.M71…/…
3Q/2u9/7G/…Qd19UxLoz.EyEnhG57yD.orKJMn0dz9…6EU…zz/6FG1.QY2E7tzD/PX5…KD
v.KzTNie31kT6/qTQs5U./0…bT.026…ly/6EU…Mw5U./0…kqT.026…
…kz/6EU…U./0Izz/6FGHNyzHkqsFLxzZteKwj…
E6…/6…F2U…6…EGiFLNbJaQU.pPrJaQ…c…
…U6./…zj…
…
…A…3…9…oINiRKNmVISkJaQ.A5…
…6…U.E…kz1…wz…yD…cz9…
…b210gmVKIzXEUJCoWgRmziNaNaNaNavD…E.2…sz0…
…}
{Titel: bench1}
I can finish the main render in around 5:40 (5 mins 40 secs) and the ambient shadows in 1:13. To see how long the render took check out the ‘Infos’ tab on the right. I am running the 2990WX with precision boost overdrive enabled,
RAM at 3200MHz 14-14-14-34. While doing the main render it hovers around 3.45Ghz and stays at 67.75C. Using 70% of my 400W limit. The threadcount is set to 60 in mandelbulb and at normal priority. While calculating the ambient shadows things start to bounce around a lot more. Going from 3.5 to 4GHz rapidly. The program only uses 4GB of RAM.
When I run the benchmark on two copies of the program the time is increased to around 12 mins for both. However doing a quick animated benchmark I can render two copies simultaneously at almost the same speed as one!
If you’re interested in running the animation bench I can send it through.
If you can think of any way to optimize things it would be much appreciated. I’m an artist and lack a technical mind so I would love to know what resources the program is using. Not sure if cache is a big factor? Would also like to confirm that my bench results are typical.