[UK] A bit stuck (likely going from needing CPU cores to GPU cores)

Hello,

This is more thinking out loud than anything, the inner thoughts aren’t being helpful.

My main apps are single threaded, CAD and 3D Modelling, no worries there. But occasionally I’d be asked to create a render, the software I use is CPU intensive, so I’d normally sacrifice some patience while my machine painfully created pretty images. The process sometimes requires a little video editing, which is again a bit painful, but I rarely did it, so I put up with it. Because of this, I was really looking forward to building a 3950X based machine and probably re-using my very reliable Quadro P2000 (brilliantly smooth for 2D CAD), no more CPU bottlenecks and may be I could even do other work at the same time! I did have a GTX 1070 in another machine, but it just never felt right - though there’s a possibility the REG ECC RAM I had installed in the previous machine had something to do with it (I don’t have patience/time to diagnose).

So all was well, the plan was in place for when funds permit…and then I tried some other rendering software, it was brilliant, but it’s GPU intensive, so now I’m thinking big GPU and modest CPU. I’m even considering sticking to Intel, perhaps an 8-10 core, but only because of the higher clock which suits my single threaded needs.

What doesn’t help matters in the finance department is that I’ve recently blown a noticeable amount of money (and time!) on preparing a new FreeNAS machine along with a separate snapshot machine, which doesn’t help…I guess I can stall that for a bit, and have fingers crossed that Windows doesn’t allow too many silent corruptions. It’s certainly taken some learning to become familiar with FreeNAS, but I think it’s well worth doing as my files have value to them.

So I’m a bit stumped, I was looking forward to the 3950X, being back in the AMD camp, and this unintended path has slightly scuppered my plans! I would likely get an RTX 3080 once the buying craze has calmed down, I’m sure that’ll give me superb performance in the new rendering software.

I’m probably going to get a new laptop next year as well, with a budget of around £2k / $2.5k, but only because I want a machine that’ll get close to matching the performance of my workstation.

I had a brief chat on another forum and the feedback I got was go AMD, Intel aren’t good for security or performance…I’m really openminded here, so welcome any thoughts.

So, wonder what I’ll do!

  • AMD
  • Intel

0 voters

I don’t see urgency in your post. Maybe option 3 - wait for Zen 3 benchmarks?

In all seriousness tho, maybe checkout Puget Systems for recommended hardware for your applications?

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You’re right, there’s no urgency, especially with the strange goings on with RTX 3000 series buying madness. Thanks for saying about Zen 3, I didn’t know about that. Looks like it’s coming out this year, so may be stable by beginning of 2021 may be?

I really like Puget, but sadly I’m in the UK - sorry should have mentioned that, I’ll update the title.

Nothing is stopping you from using their hardware recommendations nor replicating their builds.

They have a lot of articles with benchmarks for professional applications. Like this: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SOLIDWORKS-2020-SP1-CPU-Performance-1681/
You can configure a system on the site (they even show you what mobo they are using) and buy parts locally :slight_smile:

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and I read your post with a british accent, that’s brilliant

I vote on 3rd option also, and would keep an eye out for pcie 4.0, that must help performance on your programs, if not then maybe going intel because thunderbolt

also I’d search for a middle ground, with a medium cpu with a beefy gpu (not modest cpu with monster gpu as mentioned)

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Quite right, I’ll take a look at that article and any others I find, thank you for looking, really kind.

I feel a bit guilty using their research and testing, but I’ll manage :slight_smile:

Your British accent is most splendid :slight_smile:

Thank you for that, looks like I’ll be holding out, I shall certainly keep an eye out for PCIE 4.0 :+1:

I think the medium CPU option is a wise one that I will adopt, I feel better of spec’ing than under, it’s just hassle I don’t need…after all, I have Tea to drink :wink:

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aw come on man, you’re adorable

I’mma help you out

list the programs you need to run and we’ll all find benchmarks for those

puget has some real-life benchmarks that are pretty handy

which software you need to use the most?

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Tis’ not my intention :laughing:

That’s very kind of you - unfortunately I use poor mans 3D modelling S/W, in part because it’s fun to use, but only colaberate with normal folk and not big industry. Here are my friends:

AutoCAD (2D drawing work, 90% of work)
Sketchup (3D Modelling)
Enscape (3D Rendering)
Shotcut (just when I need to fiddle with videos, but to a very basic level and very rarely)

I did have a look at Puget and it seems Sketchup isn’t really used by their customers, sad face.

From my experience of Enscape, I can see it will be wonderfully helpful and what’s most important is that it’s incredibly quick at producing ‘more than adequate’ renders. This is the sort of ‘good enough’ I tend to make with the old software, it just takes ages and 1) doesn’t make very good video animations, while Enscape does, and 2) Is quite slow especially the prep work. I’ve been frustrated with silly problems that wind me up good and proper - I don’t need to become a pro with visualisation…sorry, I mean visualization, just enough to convey design and all that jazz.

It’s night here now, so don’t be offended if I don’t respond and thanks in advance! :+1:

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let’s go then

this is mostly tied to ram AFAIK

not really power hungry, most firms get along with macs and shit (not the 50k pro, the cheap ones)

this one is vram hungry, so a RTX 3060 (when it launches) or a 3070 would do the job quite nicely, considering you can have at least 8 gigs

it says 4 cores and 16 gb of ram for 4k, so anything you pick to satisfy the other ones will do just fine

so there you go, I’d say some beefy i7 with 32 gb of ram (at least) and a RTX 3070 would be a nice place to be

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Along with what others have said here, I’m not sure I understand the dichotomy of a 3950X vs some Intel 8 core. You could, say, get a 3900X for just under £400 on Amazon right now, giving you plenty of CPU cores and still save the additional £250 that the 3950X would have cost you to put towards an RTX 3080? Or as the others have said, perhaps a 3070 and then you’ll have more money to put towards more RAM. That way it seems you’d have a really well-rounded system - plenty of system RAM, GPU RAM and core count?

If you’re really needing the high single-core performance, Intel will make some sense, but it really depends on how important that actually is, vs allowing your CPU to dedicate some cores to your workload while keeping plenty of others free for you to continue working on other things.

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Thank you @anon85095355 , you’re a good egg :+1:

Yeah I think CAD is RAM friendly, I’ve only ever been a bit cheap and got 2 x 8GB - though we’re talking about my current machine which is pretty much 3 years old!

:laughing: Mac’s and shit, too true! Only from experience, it seems to only care about CPU clock

That’s great though, RTX 3060/3070 it is :+1:

Shotcut though, that sounds good to me.

Thank you again for your advice, really thoroughly appreciated :clap: :clap: :clap:

Now it’s Friday night, where’s my warm beer :thinking:

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Cheers @Darkfeign , it’s really nice to see agreement between fellow techs :+1:

The story is more that I was looking forward to so many cores, but the new usage just doesn’t justify it :frowning: I have to say there are few apps that I normally have to wait for, so any more than 10-12 cores would be wasted.

I guess now it’s just a waiting game, let RTX calm down a bit, then bite the bullet as I’m keen to use the new rendering software, it’s that good…though expensive at around £370 / $469, it’s a lot more than the £0 / $0 I’ve spent in the last few years. What doesn’t help is that Sketchup has decided to increase their cost by over double (per year).

I do feel high single core performance is something I’ll use the most, so begrudgery I’ll stay with Intel, has to be said that from a business sense I’m keen on this too, even though AMD seem to be really excelling as of late.

Having said this, if it takes me ages to purchase the gear, I’ll definitely do as @Zszywany suggested and keep an eye on Zen 3 benchmarks.

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Although it’s talking about the 3090, still an interesting read perhaps:

https://m.hexus.net/tech/features/graphics/145918-intel-core-i9-10900k-vs-amd-ryzen-9-3950x-geforce-rtx-3090/

Just an update to this, as it’s Friday night and we’re in lockdown…so not much else to do!

I was going to get a 3950X and combine it with an RTX 3080, but as both are rare is rocking horse poop, I’ve got an Quadro RTX 4000. It works very well with VR, better than the GTX 1070 and waaaaaaay better than my Quadro P2000. An expensive short term bit of hardware, but I’ll put the lightly used 1070 on ‘an auction’ site soon, and that should compensate a bit.

So there we go…isn’t it grim to buy hardware for the last few months, and likely the next few months. :confused:

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