Hi. My budjet is about $2000. I already have an Antec 620 power supply, a 560 ti 1gb direct cu. Which motherboard, cpu, ram and graphic card for running blender mainly for cycles gpu render. Here in Mauritius, we have Asus GTX 750 OC DDR5 PCI-E graphic card, ASUS Z87-K LGA1150 and Maximus VI Hero. Should I go with these setup or buy another online? Can I still use my 560 graphic with another graphic card (Sli)?
When it comes to the last part, using multiple cards. short answer YES. Cycles will render on all CUDA cores available. So you can leave your 560ti and add the 750oc, which is good.
One warning is the memory size on the graphic cards. on the 560ti, the 1GB can limit the size of the scene. If you are rendering on the GPU, and you get a black screen and not the actual render, it is because there is not enough memory on the GPU.
When it comes to the CPU/Motherboard/Ram size. any intel i5/i7 with 4 threads (or more) will be more then enough. target, at least 8gb of memory (16gb if budget permits). Motherboard wise, the one you listed are fine, just look online to see if there are any issues for the two specific products.
If you want to spend money on hardware, make sure you get a tablet (for texture paining and sculpting).
Remember that it is not the hardware that defines impressive work, but the impressive work it sefl. I’ve seen people with just CPU rendering who managed to create impressive work, so don’t concentrate on the exact hardware.
And finally, the hardware requirements will depend on what type of scenes you are planning to make.
Hi I think you have to decide between CPU or GPU system as 2000$ is a lot for a Blender system.
If you go for CPU take a 6 core i7 and 16 GB, the Asus board doesn´t fit then, and use your GTX 560 for display.
For GPU system may use a i5, the asus board, 16 GB and at least a GTX 970/80 4GB or even two.
The GTX 970 is only ~300$ and is as fast as an small i7 6 core.
The GTX 750 is a good card but limited with 2 GB VRAM.
The GTX 970/80 come with 8 GB VRAM in the next few weeks so if you can wait…
Cheers, mib
Thanks for your advised. Can i use the gtx 560ti 1gb for display and the gtx 970 4gb for render or both of them for render and display at the same time? Should they be connected by the sli cable?
Does the 2gb / 4gb affect the rendering speed.( Its mainly because of rendering speed and large scene that i’am updating).
Can i use the gtx 560ti 1gb for display and the gtx 970 4gb for render or both of them for render and display at the same time?
Yes, if you use both for render you are limited to 1 GB because VRAM is not added.
Should they be connected by the sli cable?
No, Cycles doesn´t use it and it give some problems sometimes too.
Does the 2gb / 4gb affect the rendering speed.
No, 2 GB only limit your scene size.
Cheers, mib