New PC, what determines render speeds

ferdD

I studied Daz basics and did a lot of single G8/8.1 figure studio renders for about a year in my old laptop. Probably going to get a new PC with RTX 3060 12G and I'm curious what really determines render speeds for Daz3d. Cuda cores? 

I'm just a hobbyist Daz user and my new pc will be for gaming and Daz works.

crosswind

Yes, as for render speed, it mostly depends on the number of CUDA cores... The more CUDA cores you have, the more it will render faster... and certainly you have to first assure there're enough GPU VRAM for rendering your scene.

PerttiA

One can check benchmarks for Iray rendering here; https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/341041/daz-studio-iray-rendering-hardware-benchmarking/p1

More important than the rendering speed, is that one has to have enough VRAM on the GPU, otherwise the rendering will drop to CPU taking 20+ longer time to reach the same quality.
12GB's of VRAM is ok, but 8GB's is just barely enough when using the latest versions of DS and relatively recent assets on the scene, so do not fall for RTX 3060 ti or any RTX 3070 GPU's.

The RTX 3060 12GB is a good card that doesn't cost too much.

Gordig

For rendering Iray in DS, VRAM is the more important consideration, because a GPU will only contribute to a render if the entire scene fits within that card's VRAM. After that, CUDA cores, and I'm not exactly sure how tensor and RT cores factor into a card's speed, but those are responsible for the new features that make RTX cards so much faster than GTX. An important thing to keep in mind is that CUDA cores change from one generation to the next, so comparing the number of CUDA cores is only meaningful within a generation, e.g. if a RTX 2080 had more CUDA cores than an RTX 3060, that doesn't necessarily mean that the 2080 will render faster.

crosswind

Also refer to : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NlxDj5-bpwy_WXK_9FrZ42UPZH1SmYZkfycoCNUln_U/edit#gid=0, done by a group of Daz users by using the same test case in the above thread, simple and clear. And of course it's not really comparable between diff. series / architecture of graphics card in terms of such a factor. There're relevant test results in the sheet as well...

ferdD

Thanks for the replies. Just one more question.

How many G8.1/G9 figures can i fit in a RTX 3060 12GB vram + hair, clothes, lights and environments? (in 1080p renders)

I certainly am not looking to have more than 2/3 figures in a scene. 

For renders above 1080p I only want to render one figure for good skin details.

crosswind

soulofoblivion7 said:

Thanks for the replies. Just one more question.

How many G8.1/G9 figures can i fit in a RTX 3060 12GB vram + hair, clothes, lights and environments? (in 1080p renders)

I certainly am not looking to have more than 2/3 figures in a scene. 

For renders above 1080p I only want to render one figure for good skin details.

I just gave some basic calculation in this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/629196/v3digitimes-scene-optimizer#latest.

As for 12GB,  3 - 4 figures + wearbles and env. etc. might be fine but it depends on what wearables / environments you're gonna use. If they're all with high definition / details and big texture maps, you still have to do some test... may use GPU-Z  to observe VRAM used and try some products to optimize the scene...

radego01

soulofoblivion7 said:

Thanks for the replies. Just one more question.

How many G8.1/G9 figures can i fit in a RTX 3060 12GB vram + hair, clothes, lights and environments? (in 1080p renders)

I certainly am not looking to have more than 2/3 figures in a scene. 

For renders above 1080p I only want to render one figure for good skin details.

This image that I will add here comes from my game (visual novel category). The picture shows a Genesis 8.1 female figure, SubD level 3, and on her head she has an HD morph for better lips (I like them more than the classic smooth ones). Next to her is a male character, also with Genesis 8.1, SubD level 1, and no morph (he is not wearing a shirt). Both characters are in a small room that serves as a bedroom, so it's nothing big.

4K resolution - 500 iterations - Post Denoiser ON (default settings) = 19 minutes and 45 seconds (11.6GB).

What I mean by that is, as long as you're not trying to do any "visual magic," then it's fine. Basically, it could handle 3 to 4 characters + a simpler environment. But as soon as you start using some HD morphs or playing with the SubD level in a more complicated environment, such as a forest or a park where there are more trees, bushes, and vegetation in general, I am sure that the GPU will not be able to handle it (I already know this from my own experience). From my point of view, the RTX 3060 is suitable for beginners and less demanding work.
 

crosswind

Using HD morphs will not consume more VRAM but increasing Render SubD Level will... For instance, default Render SubD Level of V9 is 4, if you dial it to 5 (nearly 26Mil Subd faces), more 1.8GB VRAM will be consumed. So never render high SubD if you have less VRAM ~~

ferdD

I never plan on going to SubD 5 even for single figure works. Definitely SubD 4 for portraits.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. The RTX 3060 I'm getting sounds like it will let me work with 2/3 figures in a scene with SubD 3. 

radego01

soulofoblivion7 said:

I never plan on going to SubD 5 even for single figure works. Definitely SubD 4 for portraits.

Thanks for all the advice, guys. The RTX 3060 I'm getting sounds like it will let me work with 2/3 figures in a scene with SubD 3. 

With SubD 1, yes, but three characters with SubD 3, definitely not. I never managed to do that, only without an environment.

PerttiA

This was rendered on RTX 3060 12GB, rendering with Iray took about 6GB's of VRAM with no optimisation tricks (the whole town is there unhidden), baseload on W7 is about 2.5GB's, so this would not have rendered on GPU with my old 8GB RTX 2070 super, but no problems with the 12GB 3060. In one version I even had two more G8 figures and a Dog 8 in the scene, and still no problems.

Why would one use high SubD's when not doing portraits or dermatological studies of the figures nosepores?

derek_n1

I love this question! However, my follow up question is rendering time, as well as additional needed software to combine the image maps (png files) into a single file.
I'm a newbie at this. Just a week into DAZ. I made my first render (following the DAZ instruction videos, of course). A 60 image count render, took 2 1/2 hours to complete. Then I discovered that I needed additional software to compile these images into a single format.... so, I loaded up my old GIF editing program, from way back in Windows 98, to complete the task. (go figure).