I am running Blender 2.77a and I know the issue with extremely slow renders with cycles (and even blender internal) is probably due to my video setup.
Note: I also use this machine for extensive DAW work with Sonar x3.
Here is my setup:
Windows 10 64 bit
Motherboard: ASUS N5A78L-m - AMI bios
Processor: AMD FX-6300 6 core processor 3.5 Ghz
Memory: 16 Gigs DDR3
Drives:
Samsung 500 Gb SSD 850 EVO
SPCC 250 Gb SSD
WDC WD10EZ 1 Tb
Now - the part that is probably the culprit
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5450 1 Gig
Am I correct in assuming that my base machine is OK for handling things, and that after all I have read I really need an NVIDA based card?
Would adding any of the following significantly speed up my rendering, or do I have to go even higher?
Nvidia GPUs tend to support Cycles GPU rendering better than AMD cards. The 9xx series card should give you faster renders, but you may want to check your average scene size. If it’s bigger than 2GB, then you’re back to CPU rendering and you might want to look at that card with the 4GB of VRAM.
That said, if you’re on a tight deadline and you can plan your rendering effectively, it might be a better option to use one of the various commercial Blender render farms. Most of them are very reasonably priced and will typically get you your rendered frames with less time, cost, and head-ache than you’d have from buying a new GPU, installing it, and configuring it.
Thanks for the info - My skill set is not yet what I would trust to be fully sure of myself for rendering in the cloud.
My worst-case scenario so far is a 1,480 frame animation where the memory used for each frame peak is about 1.2 gig
Each frame is 1920px / 1080 px, 100% - Samples 100, Lamp bounces 64, and a tile size of 128 x 128
This is taking 28 minutes per frame to render. Needles to say I have not run this to completion
Any clue as to what type of decrease I might get with a series 9xx card and my current hardware?
Without seeing the scene and what you’re doing materials/lighting-wise, it’s hard to tell what the difference in your render time might be. It could be a few minutes, it could be an order of magnitude. Regardless, it should be faster.
That said, most of the commercial render farms that support Blender have great support channels in their own right. The people who run them are usually more than happy to help walk you through the process if you’re not sure about it. Many even offer free credit to start so you can get comfortable without worry of wasting money.
THanks for that info -
As an example, I took the BlenderGuru-LogoAnimation-Finished.blend file (semitransparent diamond and metalic text) to use as a reference just in case I was doing something horribly wrong.
I cut the samples down to 200, and the reflections down to 50.
Each frame takes about 19 minutes to render.
In case anyone is interested this is his blend project (remove the # signs- i wasn’t sure if it was op to direclty post the link)
project: https#://#s3.amazonaws.com/ezs3ac34a26aa3f5ce6650303da779cb7c9b/BlenderGuru-LogoAnimation-Finished.blend
I have narrowed it down to a few cards…
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SSC Gaming ACX 2.0+ (04G-P4-3975-KR)
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB SC Gaming ACX 2.0+ (04G-P4-2794-KR) (Which is more expensive for some reason than the 3975)
Zotac NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 AMP! OMEGA Core Edition 4GB
