So, a friend of mine wants to make a music video completely within Blender3D.
I’ve suggested to him that he should invest in a new computer to help with this task.
I’m thinking something with dual quad core xeon processors (so, 8 cores), atleast 12gb of ram, and a GeForce GTX 280.
However, I’ld love to hear some input on the subject.
Has anyone used blender with a system like this, and how does it fair?
Thanks
[SIZE=2]Blender Benchmark
[/SIZE]http://www.eofw.org/bench/
Salutations
Thanks that is really helpful.
It looks like I’m on the right track…
I built a system recently similar to what you’re thinking. I get about 12 seconds on the benchmark posted. The below list is what the system has and links to the parts. In all honesty, I wished I went with cpus with a higher clock; blender is not very multiprocessor friendly, just something to keep in mind.
1 x SUPERMICRO MBD-X7DWA-N-O ($499.99)
2 x Quad Xeon 2.5Ghz Harpertown ($687.98)
4 x Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 FB-DIMM DDR2 667 ($199.96)
1 x GeForce GTX 260 896MB ($279.99)
1 x DVD ($24.99)
1 x Athena Power CA-SWH02B65 ($169.99)
1 x 160GB hard drive (from old computer)
The total was roughly $2,000 with some other items I needed. Also, the ram and video card you list might be a little over kill, but the motherboard I got could handle both fine. One other thing, I got this system awhile back when the newer intel chips were not out, so you might want to look into the newer intel chips. The newer chips are supposed to be pretty fast.
NOTE: Prices might be outed, I just cut pasted from my receipt.
Overkill much? Is he a professional of some sorts? Because I have a hunch that an 8-core 12GB RAM GTX-280 totin’ computer is gonna cost a mighty pretty penny. If he goes for windoze, that’s even more. Does he really need all that power?
So, what is blender not doing, that it should with the threads? I thought it used the cores pretty well.
Just asking, because it’s been a while since I’ve spec’d a PC for blender.
What processor would you recommend?
There are a lot of things that aren’t multithreaded friendly in blender, so I’m not going to be able to list every single one. However, the things range from rendering (For instance, approximate AO) to compositing to physics.
As to what processor I would recommend, I’m not really sure. It has been awhile since I’ve looked at prices and performances of different cpus.
Well, it’s not for him. It’s for me. He’s not paying me much, so my time is worth even more. The less time that I have to wait for renders and what have you, the more I can accomplish, and the sooner I can complete the project, and have time for other things that are important to me.
So, part of our agreement is that he will supply me with a solid system for the project that I will keep when finished.
I don’t really look at it as overkill. Hell, if I could get a system that would produce realtime results no matter what I throw at it, I would. Unfortunately, money is an obstacle. I want to keep the cost below $6,000.00 if possible, and I think that’s reasonable for a decent system. Certainly if I build it myself. The more I spend on the system, the less I’ll get outright.
So, anyway, I suppose what I’m really trying to determine is what will get me the most bang for my buck.
Apparently, blender deosn’t use multiple threads well, so maybe I should be focusing on raw cpu speeds?
Even the benchmark makes it seem like there is only a marginal difference in render times between dual E5472 processors and single E5472 configurations.
Maybe there are compiled versions of blender that make better use of the threading capabilities?
Technically it should be possible to get much better improvement from multithreading, right?
I’m sorry, let me clarify what I posted. Rendering in blender is very multiprocessor friendly. There are just a few small aspects to rendering that are not (nothing major); however, there are more then a few items outside of rendering in blender that aren’t multiprocessor friendly, which is something to keep in mind.
When you are checking benchmark times don’t forget to look at the operating system. It is possible Windows is unable to use all of the RAM so you might want to go 64 bit linux with that.(I think Vista will not allow any one application to use more than 1.5Gb of RAM, which obviously would be a limitation; and some of those Blender versions are optimised builds)
Things like fluid and cloth sim are not multithreaded on the official 2.48, but rendering should be fast enough, and if you want to animate you are going in the right direction. I don’t think that is overdoing it.
well if your going with vista then i would recommend to go with 64 bits
so this would remove the limits i guess for the 1.5 GB
and it you have the money make a serch in this forum for small render farm PC
system that would give you the best in term of speed and number of threads
anyway do you own serch i’v seen some good post on this subject
check theses out
[SIZE=2]Farm
[/SIZE]http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1265967#post1265967
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=137181
http://helmer.sfe.se/
happy blendering
Salutations
That second link on helmer looks extremely promising. I’m going to contact the author directly to get more details. It’s deffinately perked my ears up a bit. I think I could make a similar system for about $3k or less.
From what I read it seemed that he was just connecting the individual motherboards via ethernet, is that right?
So, it’s essentially a dedicated render farm?
Thanks
if you built it let us know the results
it would a good experienced for other people too
let us know abot cost soft set up and speed results with the benchmark program
it’s definitively the best way to get power out of blender
but the main thing is what compromise is the best
use of 32 or 64 bits processors and
do you pick super fast PC which are very expensive
or medium speed PC which cost 1/4 the cost of fast PC chip ?
i mean i guess this is where you have to guggle with numbers and the end
results in term of total speed ?
mind you the render time is moslty function of PC speed an threads
but some of the other functions in blender needs the Graphic processor
so you got gather maimum info and work a little to get the best compromise
of cost versus speed!
good luck with you project
Salutations