render / workstation

[3dboomerang]

Hey Guys;

I have a question for rendering animations.

Im checking the expenses for buying render/work stations, with either

2x the AMD threadripper 1950X 16c/32t or

1x the AMD threadripper 2990WX 32c/64t.

See attached.

It's much cheaper to buy one big computer with the 2990WX since I dont need to buy everything else 2x like the motherboard etc

Can someone advise. Is using 1 computer for an animation going to work as good as 2x computers, with double the capacity in CPU cores?

[Juraj]

Because the price of memory (64+ GB) and ancillary parts necessary to run high-end PCs (motherboard and PSU) come alone at astronomic price, there is no reason to go with anything else than top high-end CPUs.
It doesn't scale linearly, so you won't get 100perc. increase but the price/performance ratio is still heavily skewed towards the strongest CPU you can get.

Some comments on your build: (Alternatively, read the other threads here, where this is answered more thoroughly)

Buy 2666-2933 memory from QVL list. (alt, Samsung B-die list).
Buy Noctua NH-U14 or custom water loop.  You need full heatspreader cover. Don't buy AIO not meant for Threadripper (all of them except for faulty Enermax). Alt, wait for new AIOs meant for Threadripper.

[3dboomerang]

thanks.

why does the memory have to be that fast? I was told it's about the amount, the speed of the memory doesn't do alot in the rendering field?

[Juraj]

thanks.

why does the memory have to be that fast? I was told it's about the amount, the speed of the memory doesn't do alot in the rendering field?

For every other platform, it literally doesn't, except for few special occasions. But Threadripper is different.

Its architecture is made of multiple dies "glued" together (for 2990WX, it's 4 dies) and these communicate through 'Infinity fabric'. For 2990WX only two out of four dies have direct memory access, the other two dies have to pass through Infinity Fabric. Latency of this is determined by memory speed.

For some tasks, the performance difference is still negligible. I did a lot of benchmarks and sadly Corona is the one where it does matter quite a lot. 2133 vs 2933 made a difference of 39 vs 47 seconds in Benchmark (no CPU overclock).

[3dboomerang]

thanks a bunch - will inform my pc-builder to upgrade the memory

[mh]

s, the other two dies have to pass through Infinity Fabric. Latency of this is determined by memory speed.

For some tasks, the performance difference is still negligible. I did a lot of benchmarks and sadly Corona is the one where it does matter quite a lot. 2133 vs 2933 made a difference of 39 vs 47 seconds in Benchmark (no CPU overclock).

Hi Juraj

So do you think it's essential to use quad channel memory not to loose any performance over using double dual channel memory sticks? At the moment I am building a workstation based on 1920X and two dual channel sticks (Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB), PC4-21300 (2666MHz)) purely based on the fact somewhere in this forum you said that the performance is roughly the same when compared to quad channel whilst rendering?

So is this correct or am I completely wrong? Ideally I'd love to go with quad channel 4x16GB module but the price difference in Australia is almost $400 ($920 for two dual channel 2x16GB versus $1299 for one 4x16GB quad channel). If the difference in speed is minimal I'd go with two dual channel sticks with the option of upgrading to 128GB later on (since it's just cheaper) but if the performance would suffer too much I am sure I can find the extra cash.

Thanks

[mh]

Or to expand on it a little bit more — the thing I don't understand is if I get two dual channel 2x16GB sticks (for the total of 4x16GB = 64GB) will they act as a quad channel memory, or do I have to specifically buy memory that says 'quad channel' in the specs?

In other words the memory stick is just a stick, and if it runs as a dual or quad channel depends solely on the number of sticks I have in the pc? I.e. if I only have two it will be dual channel, if I have 4 it's in quad channel?

Apologies for fishing for answers here, I've been going over forums all day and I seem to be getting completely different answers — some say that 2 dual channel kit will work fine as quad, some say it won't and may have not just performance issues but also can jeopardize stability?

Thanks again

[Juraj]

Hi,

in that thread, I mentioned the difference being almost none for my i9 7980XE, not for Threadripper. Threadripper benefits from any memory speed increase (channels, frequency, timings). In fact, 2990WX would benefit from octa-channel which only exists for Epyc.

Channels depend only amount of sticks (per CPU socket), you don't have to buy quad-channel on memory package, two dual channel packages are the same :- ). The reason for the packages is they guarantee compatibility but most of the time you are fine anyway. Threadripper can be picky.
Definitely save the money. If they won't run together, just swap them from your vendor (or amazon,or where you buy it).

[mh]

Hi,

in that thread, I mentioned the difference being almost none for my i9 7980XE, not for Threadripper. Threadripper benefits from any memory speed increase (channels, frequency, timings). In fact, 2990WX would benefit from octa-channel which only exists for Epyc.

Channels depend only amount of sticks (per CPU socket), you don't have to buy quad-channel on memory package, two dual channel packages are the same :- ). The reason for the packages is they guarantee compatibility but most of the time you are fine anyway. Threadripper can be picky.
Definitely save the money. If they won't run together, just swap them from your vendor (or amazon,or where you buy it).

Ah I see that's great, thanks Juraj for the clarification