Render CPU and Graphics Cards. Will a great graphics card perform on a slower PC

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1

Hello Everyone,
Some articles I have read suggest getting a PC just for rendering. Added cost. But it was pointed that old desktop workstations with a good graphics card may do well. This makes sense if all the computing is done by the graphics card.
I am wondering, Blender running on GPU how much the power of the CPU needed? Will an i5 compete with an i7?
Maybe someone here is running and old workstation with a good graphics card?

Mel

2

Gamers often over-exaggerate the idea of “bottle neck”, and, as far as I know, the concept does not apply at all to rendering when the entire scene is being pushed off to a GPU and any PC modern enough to fully support a modern Kepler or newer GPU ought to perform just fine for rendering in non-real time.

You might see a few milliseconds difference to load the scene onto the GPU and fetch buckets back, but that’s it as far as I know.

3

(bear in mind that Blender’s compositor is CPU)

4

Thanks for the input. Sounds like the best money is spent on the graphics card.