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GPU vs CPU makes rendering faster?


nadir

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I am planning to purchase a new Mac Pro“ thanks to FZ8.5”.

 

But I would like to know if anybody out there could help me decide to choose between paying extra for graphic card GPU or processor CPU? because I have option of upgrading one of them from what they are offering off shelf, which comes with.

 

Processor ”3.5GHz-6-core with 12MB of L3 cache”

upgrade to “3.0GHz 8-core with 25MB of L3 cache”      

 

Graphic card ”Dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of GddR5 VRAM each”

upgrade to “Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM each”

 

My main work is architectural rendering so I need faster rendering time between revisions and still look sharp before final high resolution burning.

 

Thanks

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GPU can make full shaded faster but not render zone (that uses cpu only) - most other renderers e.g maxwell, use cpu only. Thea uses CPU and can use GPU too, (there are others that do as well) but this needs to be NVIDEA card not AMD.

 

Also if you add up the cores x speed you will find the 2 processor options balance each other out. Also, most of the time, when not rendering, you will be using a single core.

 

I'm sure someone will correct me, but I went for the 6 core and I'm more than happy with it. Save your money and spend it elsewhere. Another SSD drive? Thearender?

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Not a fan of the new Mac Pro at all.  Get an upgraded 2010 Mac Pro.  12-Cores.  Upgradable GPUs.

 

An upgraded 2010 Mac Pro has much more flexibility and can easily match the new one in speed.  Mine is upgraded to (2) 3.46ghz 6-Core Xeon CPUs.  According to Benchwell (Maxwell's benchmark) it is just as fast as the fastest new 12-Core Mac Pro, just look for OSX under OS.  You can find these upgraded 2010 Mac Pros online from OWC, or some professional builders who sell on Ebay, like EDITBUILDER.  I was able to find mine locally on CL from an Intel employee.  These can easily be had for $2000-$3000 depending on the options, and will run circles around the new Mac Pro.   RenderZone is not currently optimized for more than 6 cores, but all that will likely change in the future, and all the other rendering engines, V-Ray, Maxwell, Thea, all scale up great on multiple cores.  Buy as many as you can afford now.  These towers max out with the dual 3.46 ghz 6-Core Xeon's above.  

 

I'd recommend a SSD for OSX and all of your Applications.  This allows the system to start in mere seconds and launch big programs in an instant.  PCIe SSD is best, but even one on the older SATA ports will be sufficient fast for anyone not working with 4k video.  You'll still have 3-4 internal hard drive slots for your Time Machine drive, and other drives, no need for a mess of wires on your desk!

 

GPU - Here's where the older Mac Pro really has a big advantage.  You can use a large variety of options beyond what was sold originally from Apple.  Nvidia is still updating it's Web Driver for OSX, so most new PC Graphics Cards work fine as long as you don't need a boot screen.  If you need/want a boot screen, MacVideoCards sells flashed GPUs that will give you that functionality.   AMD cards are also available, but are not CUDA compatible which won't work with the upcoming Thea Renderer Presto GPU option.  AMD cards do OpenCL, but that is struggling to catch CUDA, and has not proven a particularly viable option, despite Apple throwing them preference.   I have a GTX 680 Mac EFI flashed (DIY), that has full boot screen, and works fantastically.  If we get a CUDA accelerated renderer, I will likely upgrade to (2) GTX 970s.  Or if we get a OpenCL rendering accelerated solution (Highly unlikely), I'll have the option to upgrade that direction.  These kind of options are why the older Mac Pro really trumps the new Mac Pro at everything but 4k video processing.  Though the older Mac Pro can be upgraded to handle that just fine.

 

USB 3 -  Add on card if you really need it.  I use a USB 2 external hard drive for my secondary Time Machine backup, and it works fine for this.  If I were using those files regularly, I'd probably upgrade to a  USB 3 pci-e card and external hard drive.

 

Thunderbolt -  Who needs it?  USB3 does everything you'll need it for, if you even need it.  The beauty of the old Mac Pro tower is that there is plenty of room INSIDE for expansion.  

 

Energy Cost - OK, so the new Mac Pro saves some watts.  Who really cares, I added up the difference and it would be less than $3 per month working from my home office.  

 

Noise - My upgraded Mac Pro is almost silent.  Even while rendering.  And it sits on top of my desk, right next to my (3) 24" monitors.  I don't have a lot of tolerance for noisy systems.

 

 

I know I've written a post or two very similar to this before.  But the new Mac Pro was really built for video professionals working in 4k.  It has no advantages for 3D over the older, superior design.  Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help.

 

Check out this recent article on the Mac Observer. http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/the-new-mac-pro-is-a-failure

 

 

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It is shame you, guys can`t buy your machine here in Russia. There is company here which sells Mac OS compatible machines on modern hardware of your choice. Say you can get two Xeon E5 processors on 2011 motherboard with NVidia Titan GTX video card, modern memory and any of peripherals like Thunderbolt or whatever you want in any PC case you want. So you can stick another 2 video cards in it. Or 5 HDDs, Water cooling or whatever you like.

Here they are. It is all in Russian but Chrome makes small miracles :-)

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BTW,  the latest build of the box design is a

 

Mid 2012

Model Identifier: MacPro5,1  ( in my case a 12 core )

 

Personally, I would love a new one as I am off Grid Living now. (well, working hard to get there )  the power savings would be phenomenal!

 

Thunderbolt:  I could use it, but I can also get by without it.

 

GPU's   mmmh,  even with the limited options of the new machine, the specs If I recall correctly are still higher than the options the tower had, unless you want to flash the hardware.

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Justin... thanks for this info... I have a 12 Core Pro & was considering a new Mac Pro. Not thrilled to recently discover Renderzone gets hung up on more then 6 processors.

I do have a OTW 5 Bay removable Sata external box & a sata card in the computer- do all my backup on it plus external time machine which get stored weekly off premise. There is also 4 data slots in the Pro for hard drives that gives me one constant Time Machine backup. Nadir you can get & SSD drive in one slot & a larger sata drive in other 3 slots... more then enough backup space. 

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Dennis, on the "newer" models, If you remove the optical drive/s. You can add two.more HD's to your machine too.

Too, you can get flash drives that go into your PCI-e slots, for the fastest data transfers. Works great as a boot drive.

The user accounts can get pushed to one of the mechanicals, if you want to purchase a smaller flash drive. An easy "trick". To pull off.

 

Besides the price tag, this one hold up for purchasing a Mac-caN. Hard to fit the 7 HD's in it.

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Who needs Real friend when there are so many wonderful Virtual friends who are welling to share their knowledge :)  Thank you, Glad posted this, these are all great information I been looking into each one including our Russian friend.

 

This made me think again as far how to save some money at the same time get something that fits me.

 

My plan is to use my exciting MacPro5,1 2010 as my everything use and what ever new one will be just for modeling also all my programs are Mac based. Too bad I can’t just add more 4 more Cores to what I have.

 

A modeler friend once said’ you don’t need super fast computer to be fast just learn your program well, that help you to be faster”.

 

But from what I am reading about Apple product’s limits and it is starting to hurt bottom line, it is time to go Window Shopping “ going PC”.

 

Thanks

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Reality is, PC's aren't getting faster.  Period.       Processor speed stalled about 10 years ago... Doesn't matter, mac or PC.

 

They keep throwing more processors at them, but really, more processors  really only help in special circumstances  (rendering and some video processes)  pretty much everything else is a one processor pony.    more processors can help if you are doing multiple things... but, usually 4  works for most people.

 

if your Apps are already mac based, you would probably save a bundle by staying mac.      It is possible to build your own Hackintosh too.

 

There are some things you can do to you 2010... put a flash drive in it... that will help a lot.

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Who needs Real friend when there are so many wonderful Virtual friends who are welling to share their knowledge :)  Thank you, Glad posted this, these are all great information I been looking into each one including our Russian friend.

 

This made me think again as far how to save some money at the same time get something that fits me.

 

My plan is to use my exciting MacPro5,1 2010 as my everything use and what ever new one will be just for modeling also all my programs are Mac based. Too bad I can’t just add more 4 more Cores to what I have.

 

A modeler friend once said’ you don’t need super fast computer to be fast just learn your program well, that help you to be faster”.

 

But from what I am reading about Apple product’s limits and it is starting to hurt bottom line, it is time to go Window Shopping “ going PC”.

 

Thanks

 

Happy to help.  Don't go jumping the Mac ship just yet. 

 

Depending on your current specs, you may well be able to upgrade your existing 2010 Mac Pro 5.1.

 

Do you already have it maxed out as a 12-core?  If so, is it the fastest CPU available?  You can upgrade to dual X5690 Intel Xeon CPUs.  - http://ark.intel.com/products/52576/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5690-12M-Cache-3_46-GHz-6_40-GTs-Intel-QPI

 

That is a 3.46ghz 6-Core.  With (2) of them in there, it will be a very fast workhorse. 

 

Upgrading them is pretty easy, even if you have never done a CPU swap before.  

 

They are also very reasonably priced these days!

 

 http://www.serversupply.com/products/part_search/pid_query.asp?pid=141494

 

or eBay

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-3-46-GHz-12M-Cache-6-4GT-s-X5690-SLBVX-/121722067102?hash=item1c5733589e:g:~lIAAOSwyQtVwQKE

 

 

And, like Neurascienic said you should definetly upgrade to a SSD flash hard drive.  It makes a huge difference in just basic every day tasks.  

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Don't forget,   the mac Pro is also using that Xeon Chip is a true server class chip.  essentially meaning; it has efficiencies that the others don't   

 

if your going to get a PC that is so equipped, you will be spending a lot of $$ too.  As to get the advantages of them, the MLB has to be built for it too.  Mostly in terms of the Data Buss/s  

 

Regarding the Flash Drive,  for speed concerns,  the PCIe slot drive is your best bet, as there is no data bridge/conversion to slow it down 

 

This is the one I have.  there are probably larger ones now, as mine is about 8 months old.  you will also need a carrier card for it

 

Flash Drive  Damn, the price has dropped $50 since

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VELD92U?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00

 

 

Here is the carrier card

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MYCQP38?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

 

 

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Neat,  however those are still SATA Bridges, which will slow down the transfer.

 

for the Apricorn;  and a 250GB Drive  that is $217

For the Setup That I showed is $212  for a 250 GB Drive.

 

Advantage for the Apricorn or the other (more expensive by $100)  is you can put 2 drives onto it, where my option is pay all of it as you go.

 

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Again thank you for your suggestions, they were informative.

 

This discussion made me dig deeper into what Apple’s future plan is for MacPro and it looks bleak but their consumer section is very bright, at least I couldn’t find something to fit my work and budget on their new line of computers.

I use too to go to their website and there were so many options to choose from among MacPros now that section is so small that it took me a while to find it.

 

 

 I started with Mac and will stay with it as long as I can, I like their format. If I have too chose between PC and Breaking Bad “Hackintoshing” I will pick Hackintosh.

 

I think I fund what I will be getting

 

Mac Pro 3.33GHz , !2-core Intel Xeon processor( I can get faster one with more money)

MC561LL/A(2010-12)

32GB.

1.0TB OWC Electra 6G SSD

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics processor

$3000.

 

 

Wish me luck.

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Neat,  however those are still SATA Bridges, which will slow down the transfer.

 

for the Apricorn;  and a 250GB Drive  that is $217

For the Setup That I showed is $212  for a 250 GB Drive.

 

Advantage for the Apricorn or the other (more expensive by $100)  is you can put 2 drives onto it, where my option is pay all of it as you go.

 

 

SATA III Bridges.  Which should still be plenty fast for anything short of multiple 4k video streams.  Applications launch practically instantly, and scratch performance is phenomenal.  Not sure if there is a point to the new PCIe style just yet, it's like 700hp vs 850hp,  both are insanely fast compared to 7200rpm disk drives which are like 170hp Hondas, crappy.  Also with the Dual SATA III card, you get the cheaper drive savings over 2 drives.  $75 for a 256gb SSD is $150 for a 512gb Raid 0 setup.   Sure the PCIe card is more, but I think the Raid is worth it, plus you can find them cheaper from time to time.  ;)

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Again thank you for your suggestions, they were informative.

 

This discussion made me dig deeper into what Apple’s future plan is for MacPro and it looks bleak but their consumer section is very bright, at least I couldn’t find something to fit my work and budget on their new line of computers.

I use too to go to their website and there were so many options to choose from among MacPros now that section is so small that it took me a while to find it.

 

 

 I started with Mac and will stay with it as long as I can, I like their format. If I have too chose between PC and Breaking Bad “Hackintoshing” I will pick Hackintosh.

 

I think I fund what I will be getting

 

Mac Pro 3.33GHz , !2-core Intel Xeon processor( I can get faster one with more money)

MC561LL/A(2010-12)

32GB.

1.0TB OWC Electra 6G SSD

ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics processor

$3000.

 

 

Wish me luck.

 

Good luck!  But I don't think you'll need it.  That should be a great setup!  A little high priced for that graphics card, but the 1TB SSD is killer.  Maybe keep some money aside for upgrading to a nice NVIDIA GPU in a few months.  The new renders, Thea, and potentially VRay RT, should be CUDA accelerated if you find you need a bit more rendering speed in these renderers.  My GTX 680 Mac version is no slouch, but the newer cards are even better in CUDA.  You can run (2) GTX 970 in the Mac Pro! - http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/emperor-of-mac-pros-dual-gtx-970-gpgpu-os-x.1840717/   and   http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/and-finally-dual-gtx-4gb-970s.1860170/

 

Though in a few months Nvidia should release the new Pascal architecture cards, which should have more vram and even better CUDA performance.  Just like most cases in technology purchases, you get more for your money the longer you wait.

 

Cheers!

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