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Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2024-07-09, 10:30:35 »

Thanks for your input guys! Greatly appreciated.
While the 7970X seems like a powerful option, considering the price difference compared to the 3995WX (at least in Croatia), I'm leaning towards the 7960X for now.
This should still provide good performance for 3ds Max and Corona while staying within my budget.
The only thing that worries me a bit is the limited availability of Corona benchmark results for the 7960X. Are people avoiding it for some reason?

Is there anything else I should consider when making this decision, or any specific recommendations for RAM or other components to pair with the 7960X for my workstation build?

Well well, pozdravljen sosed :)

The 7960x (24 core) is a bit harder to tame than the 7970x (32 core) and especially the 7980x (64 core). Its mainly got to do with the fact that you've got less cores that are consuming more power and so it basically comes down to the fact that you're cooling 350W in a rather smaller area because there's less cores (that are hotter) compared to the higher core count designs.

People seem to recommend an AIO for this chip, I'd probably still stick a Noctua on it and I also wonder what Juraj would do :)

As to why there aren't that many results I do not know, maybe its the above or maybe peeps just opt for the higher core counts. You can also try checking the V-Ray benchmark, it isn't exactly 1:1 with the Corona benchmark but it can still give you a general idea of the performance imho.

And also, since you're in Croatia, if you're comfortable putting the parts together yourself I'd maybe suggest looking into Caseking or Computeruniverse as the place of purchase. They typically have nice deals although do keep in mind you'll have to ship your parts to Germany / Austria in case of an RMA. I fortunately haven't had one yet but besides that they are treating me real nicely so far at those stores (no affiliation, just sharing my personal experience) :)

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[C4D] I need help! / Re: Mesh lights in Corona for cinema 4d?

« on: 2024-07-08, 12:54:33 »

Yes indeed, just create a Corona Light material and apply it to the geo. That is all that it takes :) Welcome aboard!

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Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2024-07-08, 12:45:32 »

Hi everyone, I'm planning to build a new workstation. I'm interested in getting
ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WIFI motherboard and pairing it with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3995WX processor. and 64 gb udimm memory.

My main goal is to achieve a responsive 3ds Max viewport and fast interactive rendering within Corona.
I was hoping to get some feedback from the community on this configuration. Would this be a good setup for my needs?
Are there any potential bottlenecks or compatibility issues I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance for your advice!

To be totally honest I'd personally rather look at the Zen 4 7970x (32 cores) as the centerpiece of the build. Why?

- The 7970x is a highly clocked 32 core CPU compared to the slower clocked 3995wx. The 7970x is also based on Zen 4 rather than Zen 2 which is somewhat old at this point and so there's IPC improvements there alone. Based on the benchmark the 7970x seems ~about as fast as the 3995wx for rendering plus it should be quite a lot quicker in single threaded tasks (interactivity of everything that doesn't require "shit ton of cores" aka viewport stuff).

- On top of that the WRX80 is a tremendous platform but only if you need it. If you don't need the extra PCI-E slots (for multiple GPUs and extra NVME or network or capture cards) then it is imho money wasted.
I'm running 3x NVMEs, 2x 4090 GPUs and I'm still not really taking full advantage of the platform. I could probably get away with a very similar setup on a TRX50 platform (plus the GPUs are so big you can't really slot much else in there except another set of NVMEs via a NVME card).

TRX50 does need RDIMMs though and its DDR5 which will bring the costs up but then on the flip side WRX80 is AFAIK still more expensive for the motherboard alone. Also, looking at the prices the 3995wx is more expensive than the 7970x.

So with the above in mind I'd configure two builds and see which one is cheaper or more fitting for your needs.
My _guess_ would be that TRX50 is going to give you a better overall experience for less money.

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[C4D] General Discussion / Re: Corona 12 - c4d vs 3dsmax

« on: 2024-07-03, 10:24:56 »

Howdy! Each DCC has its own specifics which makes implementing certain functionality more difficult in one that in the other. Be it due to the APIs at play, limitations of the DCC itself and things of that nature.

Even if there are limitations with the DCC itself the dev team typically tries to overcome them but sometimes it happens that things simply require way more time than expected. This would be one of those times but to end on a positive note, with no promises however, we are working on bringing this functionality over :)

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[C4D] I need help! / Re: Interactive Render Black Screen Mega Problem!

« on: 2024-07-02, 11:29:26 »

I'm happy to report that Kirtiveer seems to have solved this issue by clearing his C4D preferences folder :) He figured it out on his own, kudos!

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Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2024-06-28, 13:54:07 »

Wow, what a great timing on that review @kittste.

I'm currently considering a new worskation build and looking into very similar components. I was also hoping that someone could give some insight whether anything is missing or there's some major mistakes there. Attaching a screenshot of parts (doesn't show the amount of parts but going for 4 sticks of 32gb ram)

Looks good to me with a note to double check if that RAM is RDIMM (Registered) and of course that you have 2x of them for at least 64GB (32GB seems rather low for such a build unless you're working on really small scenes) :)

RAM is RDIMM indeed and I cropped out the quantities, there should be 4x32GB sticks of RAM in the build. Already running 128GB of RAM in current workstation and some large scenes eat up even more. Perhaps 256GB would be a more future-proof option.

Sweet and awesome!

Maybe just another consideration, if you're going to put in a 4090 I would personally consider bumping the PSU up to 1200W. With a full load CPU and full load GPU you're already at 750W plus you also need to account for the motherboard and all the other things...
Just a thought :)

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Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2024-06-28, 09:28:02 »

Wow, what a great timing on that review @kittste.

I'm currently considering a new worskation build and looking into very similar components. I was also hoping that someone could give some insight whether anything is missing or there's some major mistakes there. Attaching a screenshot of parts (doesn't show the amount of parts but going for 4 sticks of 32gb ram)

Looks good to me with a note to double check if that RAM is RDIMM (Registered) and of course that you have 2x of them for at least 64GB (32GB seems rather low for such a build unless you're working on really small scenes) :)

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Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2024-06-27, 16:06:03 »

@kittste

thank you kindly for sharing that! Really useful information for the rest of us :) I wonder how far a 7980x would go on a the new ProSiphon thingy :)

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[Max] Resolved Feature Requests / Re: Bendable corona decals.

« on: 2024-06-27, 12:54:06 »

Indeed, with 12 you'll be able to bend decals in two directions. The feature has been available in the daily builds for a while now and is of course also part of the RC builds :)

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: Gamma Correction Tone Mapping Operator Removed - Bring it back!

« on: 2024-06-07, 13:20:16 »

No worries, we are bringing the gamma operator back just as we discussed it - and in a more artist friendly form so it comes with a couple of other spinners as well :)

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Hardware / Re: Which Monitor is best?

« on: 2024-06-06, 13:57:13 »

If I may suggest so what I found like a good solution for me was to increase the "text size" in Windows. So DPI I have on 125% and text size is set to slightly larger. Found that to be working pretty well for me. I do wear glasses though.

The screen I'm on is equivalent to a 32" 4k display (its the Samsung G95NC).

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Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen only builds (3rd Gen starts on page 50)

« on: 2024-06-03, 11:26:44 »

Hi guys,

Got my 7980X machine. it's really is a beast!

Just one thing I noticed is that it is less workable during IR compare to my old machine which is Ryzen 9 5950X. when I say less workable it is difficult to tweak materials, move object and update objects while on IR.
I understand that in IR it uses the whole CPU, but it is just different experience in 5950X. Anyone experience this?

Here's my specs :

CPU: 7980X
MOBO: Gigabyte TRX50 AERO D rev.1.0
RAM: Kingston 256GB 5600MT/s
GPU: ASUS RTX 4060 OC
PSU: ASUS Aura edition 1200W 80+ Gold

Hmm I don't really think there should be much of a difference. Do you think you could disable SMT and give it a try? Wonder if that would help.

Also, kudos on the beastly machine!!

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: What to expect from distributed rendering 1 frame with 4 to 8 render nodes?

« on: 2024-05-30, 17:20:01 »

Well I'm super glad to hear you found our replies helpful - thank you for the kind words!

The motherboard I am using is the Supermicro H12DSi-NT6 - its a dual socket Zen 3 motherboard (you've got Zen 4 CPUs btw). Do note though that if you are going to place this thing into a desktop style case and have it in your office you'll probably struggle keeping the VRMs from overheating. The VRMs on server motherboards are typically "just enough" and aren't necessarily overbuilt hence they rely on that supreme rack airflow that you typically have in server environments.

I currently have it in a Fractal Design Torrent case with pretty much all the stock fans maxed out and it is hitting 90c - at 100c it starts beeping like crazy because danger :) If your server or office environment isn't AC controlled you're probably going to struggle keeping it cool imho so beware. I'm currently thinking of creating a 3d printed ventilation shaft that would direct airflow directly over the VRMs, hopefully that'll help because during summer this thing will otherwise be working in "limited performance" mode :)

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[Max] General Discussion / Re: What to expect from distributed rendering 1 frame with 4 to 8 render nodes?

« on: 2024-05-30, 12:28:54 »

...

Okay, so assuming that you will eventually fix the dual-CPU bottleneck, do you think the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX 96-Cores (currently @ ~42M rays/s) would at that point be slower than 2x AMD EPYC 9554 64-Core Processor (currently @ ~32M rays/s)?

And finally, how much RAM is enough for such a setup, because I'm seeing 128GB, 384, 512...? Does it depend on the size of the scene or is there a max?

Thank you for your time Tom!

That comparison is a bit difficult to make because 2S systems do have some drawbacks but broadly speaking I would expect the two Epycs to be faster as they are clocked faster (all core) and have more combined cores. Plus you are comparing Zen 4 to Zen 4 so same uArch. As Tom mentioned though it does depend on the bottleneck, how it is fixed etc etc. We'll keep everyone updated on that.

As for the RAM itself, I can only speak from personal experience but I typically buy about as much as I need - regardless of the CPU in use. For me scenes never spill over the 128GB I have so that is the magic number for me. I do have a dual Epyc with 256GB but that is because it was rather impossible to get a hold of 16x 8GB sticks :)

The biggest thing to watch out with memory is that you always have enough to fit your scenes in. If your scene doesn't fit into your memory your OS will start paging the overflow to your SSD / HDD and even though SSDs (NVMEs) are super fast these days they are still a crap ton slower than your system RAM.

There's been talk about having enough memory for high thread count systems so that each core has more to work with but frankly I've never seen any articles or provable points confirming that for when it comes to rendering.

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[C4D] Feature Requests / Re: Reverse Material Convertion

« on: 2024-05-28, 13:03:52 »

I have something here, it does the bare minimum, it's hacky, but it works.



Script is attached

You're on a roll dude! Thank you! :)