Hi. I’m about to buy a new computer and I’m deciding between these two specifications. I know the budget isn’t big, but I want to get the best possible computer for that amount of money. Which specification will have better performance in Blender?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/h6Ypt7
or
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/szymYN
Thank you!
So a few things.
Ideally I like to avoid the Intel KF CPU’s, while in general you won’t use the iGPU, there are times when it can be very useful for troubleshooting or just keeping the basic system still going if the GPU fails.
From a performance point of view, the AMD 7700X should be a bit faster and use less power, the day to day difference is unlikely to be all that noticeable.
The main potential difference is the GPU, in that Nvidia GPU’s tend to work better with Blender and especially Cycles rendering. Mind you, the 8GB VRAM of the 4060 isn’t ideal for the future.
In the case of the RAM for the AMD CPU, the DRR5-6000 speed is good, but the CL38 is a little slow. Something around 6000 CL30-32 would be better.
Thank you very much! Is it better to buy MSI GeForce RTX 3060 12GB GDDR6 Ventus 3X OC PCIE?
I would recommend a AMD CPU always- especially with the microcode error prematurely destroying Intel CPUs right now
one tip : NEVER skip on price for a PSU…
Buy a well know brand, enough Wattage so it can ‘survive’ some upgrades regarding CPU’s and GPU’s.
Especially with cheaper PSU’s the specs are taken with a bag of salt. They often are not entirely correct on delivered max. power. And with the power hungry GPU’s and CPU’s this is a thing to keep in mind.
If you can’t manage a bit more for a better 40 series card with 12+GB and the choice is only the 4060 8GB or the 3060 12GB, I’d more likely go for the 3060. Make sure it is the 12GB version, as there is a 3060 8GB card now, so avoid that one.
True and I’d avoid 13/14th gen as well. Tho technically in this case the OP’s spec list is a 12th gen Intel CPU and those are fine.
Even so, I’d still get the 7700X or if the price is around the same, the new 9700X, especially for Blender, etc. While it’s a bit of fizz for gaming, compared to the 7700X, the new 9000 series AMD CPU’s do well in productivity, etc.
Thank you so much! Your help means a lot to me. Based on your advice, I made some adjustments and this is the list I will most likely buy:
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor
MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC GeForce RTX 4060 8 GB
ASRock B650 PG LIGHTNING ATX AM5 Motherboard
G.SKILL 32GB Ripjaws S5 DDR5 6000MHz CL30 KIT
KINGSTON 1TB KC3000 M.2 PCIe M.2 2280 SKC3000S/1024G
NZXT C750 (2022) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Thermalright Burst Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler
I’m still undecided whether to get the RTX 3060 12GB or the RTX 4060 8GB. I also considered the GeForce RTX 4070 12GB GDDR6X, but it is 200 euros more expensive, which is well beyond my budget.
If money is a thing, get the 12Gb 3060.
When rendering on the GPU, more VRAM is always better 
There’s a nice webpage you can see the various cards.
I guess I have one big question then. How much do you use/render in Cycles? And if you do use Cycles, what GPU do you currently have and on average, how long do you wait for a render (either constant quick test renders or final renders)?
If Cycles doesn’t matter too much, then the 3060 12GB would be fine. If it matters a fair bit, then in a couple of years time you’ll still be very happy with the 4070, long after forgetting how much more it costed.
As for all the rest, it looks fine. Just make sure it all fits in the case.
I never understood this one. PSU is not some magical complex device(I mean it’s complex, but nothing like a motherboard or RAM or GPU). I always save on PSUs and I have never regretted it yet. Sure, if you buy absolutely the cheapest one from Aliexpress, that might not be the best decision and it will be less powerful than advertised(so that’s really bad), but I think it’s a myth that one needs to spend a lot on PSU that a lot of sellers take advantage of it and I suspect a lot of premium products do not differ much from mid range ones. Don’t get the absolutely cheapest one and google the brand and model before buying, that’s it. Works for me. The top end PSU prices are just ridiculous in my opinion. You can get a normal 650W PSU for around 60euros or for 120 if you want. Personally I see no difference.
I’ll be honest. I have never used Blender before. I am an architect looking to switch from macOS to Windows, and I want to start learning Blender as an additional tool that I will use. Currently, I use Rhino, Revit, Photoshop, and so on. So, I can’t give you a definitive answer to your question because I haven’t used Blender until now, but my plan is to make Blender my primary tool in the future.
Personally I’ve seen different scenarios.
Cheap(er) PSU’s failing in different ways, taking the mobo’s with them after a short-out.
But ymmv on this. I rather spend 50 bucks more on something that has that little bit more of production control. So… Agree to disagree I guess
I’m not sure how big your architectural designs are that you want to render in Blender, but you might want to consider to ‘up’ your RAM to 64Gb. This shouldn’t add a lot on the build money wise, and you’re more ‘future proof’.
Especially when dealing with adding vegetation and other surroundings to a scene, memory usage will quickly add up.
And that all has to render as well in the end too.
Thank you for the suggestion! I planned to upgrade the RAM to 64GB, but not right now, I’ll do it a bit later.
I’m not sure if this still the case (old timer pc builder here), but it was always very preferable to get matching sets of RAM sticks to fill the mobo.
Buying extra RAM later on resulted often in getting different brands and/or slightly different specs, which could lead to system instability.
Just a friendly tip
Fair enough. While a faster GPU with more VRAM for either Eevee or Cycles helps, it can tend to matter more for Cycles. Mind you the VRAM for textures is somewhat the same in both cases, so VRAM always matters.
As I’m not an architect and don’t really do that sort of work, I’m not really sure if using Eevee or Cycles is more commonly used for rendering.
If it Eevee is a serious option, then the 3060 12GB should be fine.
It still is. In fact, ideally you only want 2 sticks, as using all 4 slots can slow things down more. Of course if one is going for max RAM, then you have to use all 4, but for 64GB or so, then with DDR5, two 32GB sticks are fine.
Where did you get that information from? Using more RAM slots slightly increases performance. 4 RAM sticks will perform slightly better than 2. I mean it’s theoretical since you will not notice that in any way, but still. It’s important to follow the motherboards manufacturer’s instructions about which slots to use if you are not filling all of them though.
No it won’t, at least not on consumer platforms and very much not on AMD.
The reason is that as soon as you go past 2 sticks, you pretty much always have to lower the RAM speed. So while 6000 at CL30 is doable with 2 sticks, you’ll find that with four it has to be lowered to like 5600 at CL32 in order to be stable.
There’s a reason why boards made for pushing overclocking only have 2 slots, even on a full ATX size board. It is always easier to push speeds higher and remain stable with just 2 sticks of RAM.
Not sure what you are talking about. I have never experienced it. I googled it, and it seems you are correct, but it must be motherboard dependent, because it seems my own 4 sticks are running at their specified frequency no problem at all. I also bought 2 initially and then upgraded. So I have no idea how this issue works. Doesn’t seem to affect me though, so I am happy. 
At least that’s what is reported by Task Manager for what it’s worth(which to be honest might not be a lot form my experience, maybe it just shows it wrong, what do I know?..)
Oh, sure, mine is DDR4, so not sure, how DDR5 works either. I just find it hard to believe that’s a universal problem, maybe on some motherboards and some CPUs only? Makes no sense. More sticks… should be more bandwidth.
This raises a question - is the performance really worse with 4 sticks running lower frequency than 2 running higher? I don’t think it is. I think it’s just a number. Any comments on that? Seems my knowledge might be slightly outdated with DDR5 being a thing.
Not really.
More sticks often means less bandwidth, as the lanes dedicated to RAM are shared on consumer boards.
For high-end CPU’s like ThreadRipper it’s a whole different ballgame when dealing with bandwidth across the motherboard.
Also, the placement of the RAM stick on the motherboard is to be checked in the manual for best performance, when you have 4 slots and only two sticks of RAM.