I’m in the process of buying a new PC to use it for Blender plus a bit of video editing duties. I’m not really a computer geek, this is my first computer I build for specifically for graphics and video and I’m coming from Mac OS world so I hope you can help me with the configuration.
Graphics first: I have the new RTX 3090 on my wishlist. Do you think there are a lot of difference between that and 3080 for Cycles? (The price difference is quite big).
Also, should I add a second graphic card to run certain things separately? Like monitor or Blender app or it doesn’t make any difference and it’s ok to use just a powerful one?
What are the other components choices to avoid bottlenecks? I see that AMD cpu performs better than Intel ones, but I guess I don’t necessarily need a Threadripper 24 cores, right? A lot of choices there and I’m not sure which one would be the best match with GPU.
Motherboard: is there a particular one I would need?
Power: A 1200 PSU should be big enough I think, what do you think?
Personally, I’d say an RTX 3090 and a Ryzen Threadripper is overkill unless you really need the 24 GB (of VRAM). Getting a dual graphics card is not really worth it either. An RTX 3080 would be amazing if you can get it. If you do get an RTX 3090/3080, I’d recommend getting a Ryzen 9 5900X as your CPU. The only downside to it is that there is no iGPU but if you’re getting an RTX 3080, you probably won’t need one anyway. A 750-1000 watt PSU would be enough.
If you could mention the type of projects you will be working on using Blender and the video editing software you will be primarily using, I’d be able to give a better specs recommendation.
Thanks for the detailed answer!
For video editing (Resolve) I wouldn’t go over 4K files and I’m really starting learning Blender (Animation and Arch videos, mainly).
You might think for a beginner it’s an overkill and you’re probably right
But I’m planning to make a transition between Mac Pro and PC so to me it makes sense building a powerful system from the beginning. I’ll go with the 3080 then.
Based on your needs, an RTX 2060/GTX 1660 TI would be enough to last for a couple of years. If you really need a powerful system, you could get a 3080/90 but you’d be fine with a 3070 too. I’d still recommend a Ryzen 7/9 for video editing as it is usually CPU intensive. AMD right now makes the better CPUs so an AMD processor would be a better option than an equivalent Intel processor (as they are usually cheaper). Since you’re mostly going to go with a 3080, 16 GB RAM is necessary.
If you really need a future-proof PC then a 3080 would be good, otherwise a 1st Gen RTX card would do just fine.
Graphics first: I have the new RTX 3090 on my wishlist.
Do you think there are a lot of difference between that and 3080 for Cycles?
(The price difference is quite big).
Is that a teaser?
How many people have both cards to really be able to compare?
I would suggest you go with the 80 and buy the entire PC. It might be the better choice,
if you have plenty of money and run short of technical knowledge.
For people where this is the other way round, i would suggest something like the following configuration plus some holidays in the sun from the money left over:
Second hand X58 Xeon board with supercheap 6 or more core CPU. Used AMD graphics card like
RX580 with 8GB. NEW 750 Watts power supply sporting cable management (supports also two six or eight pin graphics card connector and a mix of it). You might be able to use UNBUFFERED, registered DDR3 RAM from an old Mackbro 5. It will be much faster in the X58 board as you OC it and run it in triple channel. No serious Toshler would buy that anymore, so you can get it for almost free, Cost of entire upgrade around 300 bucks plus 50 for a new case if want it to look nice. AND you will be able to use the quite powerful OPEN SOURCE 3d-accelerated card driver from AMD, no black box software blob anymore
