Chaos Corona Forum

Chaos Corona for 3ds Max => [Max] General Discussion => Topic started by: Fibonacci on 2014-03-01, 18:29:58

Title: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Fibonacci on 2014-03-01, 18:29:58
Hey Folks!

I'd decided I will get a new, but not really expensive machine for Corona rendering aside my Dell Precision M4600 Workstation.
If anybody has a suggestion what is the good solution, just share with me.

Anybody have an i7 4770k processor? Any mark or impressions for this i7?
Any offer for the best buy?  :O

Cheers!
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Ludvik Koutny on 2014-03-01, 19:04:37
4770k should currently have the best Price/Performance ratio :)
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Misha on 2014-03-01, 20:07:34
I think that core i7 4930K is the best Price/Performance
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Fibonacci on 2014-03-01, 20:41:11
4770k should currently have the best Price/Performance ratio :)

Yep. But I'm not sure about the motherboard...
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Juraj on 2014-03-02, 02:34:07
4770k should currently have the best Price/Performance ratio :)

Yep. But I'm not sure about the motherboard...

Haswell chipsets are slightly confusing, but you want to get a "consumer" chipset, which is either Z or H (Bussiness ones are Q and B),
because you won't utilize the feature of bussiness ones (like Intel vPro, Identity protection and bunch of office bullshit).

Following that you have only 3 option, from most expensive, to cheapest : Z87 / H87 / H81

If you want to overclock, you should get the Z87, likewise if you like dual-GPU setups either for SLI or multi GP-GPU (GPU rendering).
If you don't care about overclock, but you still want multiple PCI-e slots, then H87 is similar in feature set.
H81 is the most limited, budget oriented, with 2 dimm slots for ram (and hence, maximum capacity of 16GB). I would personally never opt for this option.

On personal suggestion, i7 4770 is already a budget option for visualizaiton bussiness, or cheap node for rendering, so saving too much is detrimental so I
would only for with Z87.

Then you're stuck with multiple vendors, like Asus (and "budget" Asrock), Gigabyte, or MSI. I listed them in order of my preference but also general notion of quality today.
Again, my personal suggestion is simply to go with Asus, it's currently the most well reviewed brand in mobos, it looks the best, has the best UEFI (bios) design of all and
the mobos looks nice as well design-wise. It's win-win.

After that, you only get "luxury" variants, which you can skip altogether (Pro, Deluxe, ROG, etc. versions). They either enhance feature set (Pro, Deluxe) or durability and support for better overclocking (ROG). So basic Asus Z87 is reasonable suggestion.

Last but not least, you get format option of ITX, mATX and regular ATX. ITX is limited to 2 dimms of 16GB capacity so not the best choice if you plan to keep this as workstation, mATX or full ATX is based on personal preference, most mATX cases these days support even the biggest air and water cooling systems.
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Fibonacci on 2014-03-02, 12:03:59
Hello Juraj,

your answer really good. Thx! I don't wanna use any GPU for rendering, just I need processor capability, not GPU.

I don't knows how working the Corona beneath overcloking. Anybody has some experience for running under overclocing the Corona? Maybe Keymaster has an experience? Any?
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Ondra on 2014-03-02, 12:36:45
I don't knows how working the Corona beneath overcloking. Anybody has some experience for running under overclocing the Corona? Maybe Keymaster has an experience? Any?

Yep. It runs faster. Really no surprise.
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Fibonacci on 2014-03-02, 13:01:13
I don't knows how working the Corona beneath overcloking. Anybody has some experience for running under overclocing the Corona? Maybe Keymaster has an experience? Any?

Yep. It runs faster. Really no surprise.

;D Faster, faster and stability?
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Alexp on 2014-03-02, 14:03:50
I prefer i7 4820K, socket 2011. I have one and works very nice. For cheap configuration you can choose Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4, for me the best Quality/prize.

Corona Renderer Alpha 4 benchmark scene
 Living room 100 passes
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4820K CPU @ 4.3GHz
Time: 0:4:42, Rays/s: 4,500,532

And easy Overclockable!
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: romullus on 2014-03-02, 14:19:33
;D Faster, faster and stability?
It depends on stability of your system only, i think. Corona has nothing to do wiht it.

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4820K CPU @ 4.3GHz
Time: 0:4:42, Rays/s: 4,500,532
I wonder if your rendertime should be lower, because there's what i get on 4771:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4771 CPU @ 3.50GHz
Time: 0:4:38, Rays/s: 4,559,964

Ofcourse it's on nearly fresh install of os and with all background apps killed off, but still...
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Juraj on 2014-03-02, 14:40:47
No it shouldn't, his suggestion is not the best. 4820 is based on older IvyBridge Architecture, not Haswell like 4770k, so it's around 5perc. slower at identical clockspeed.
The LG2011 Chipset makes only sense if you're going for 4930k, anything lower is purely budget stretching to allocate LG2011 for reasons of purely chipset (like multiple PCI-e
lanes, LG2011 support up to Quad-SLI,etc..) and not cpu performance. 4820 is slightly subpar compared to 4770k and you will pay double for motherboard.

It's really simple these days, and will be for another 6 months atleast. If you have small budget (800 to 1400 euros circa) it's 4770k. If you have higher, 4930k. That, if it's CPU
multi-threaded performance, but since we're on Corona forum, that is what matters most.
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Fibonacci on 2014-03-02, 14:45:00
I prefer i7 4820K, socket 2011. I have one and works very nice. For cheap configuration you can choose Gigabyte GA-X79-UP4, for me the best Quality/prize.

Corona Renderer Alpha 4 benchmark scene
 Living room 100 passes
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4820K CPU @ 4.3GHz
Time: 0:4:42, Rays/s: 4,500,532

And easy Overclockable!

Yeah!  The 2011 socket sounds good, but the motherboards  bit expensives. I think the i7 4770K with Z87 1155 socket cheaper and would be enough to "background" render node...

I think i7 3740QM and overclocked i7 4770K (4-4,5Ghz) must be enough speed for nice and fast renders. I hope...

Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Alexp on 2014-03-03, 12:26:41
Test results prove the 4820K indeed offers better performance. It scored 10,975 in the PassMark benchmark, in contrast with the 4770K at 10,016 points. However, the single core benchmark shows that only 5 points separate the two processors. This negligible difference means that the 4820K’s advantage will only be felt for applications which utilize multiple cores. (From hxxp.cpuboss.com)
Title: Re: What for the new efficent rendering computer
Post by: Juraj on 2014-03-03, 14:46:53
Test results prove the 4820K indeed offers better performance. It scored 10,975 in the PassMark benchmark, in contrast with the 4770K at 10,016 points. However, the single core benchmark shows that only 5 points separate the two processors. This negligible difference means that the 4820K’s advantage will only be felt for applications which utilize multiple cores. (From hxxp.cpuboss.com)

I don't think it's the case that much, any differences are negligible. 4820K is very very tiny below in all aspects, and not purely performance only (biggest being power consumption). It's only barely lower in multi-threaded performance,
but slower in single-threaded, where 4770k gets huge advantage with overclocking due to performance per clockspeed (but also has slight disadvantage because of soldering, you should still be able to to overclock it just fine to 4.6-4.8)

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-4820K+%40+3.70GHz&id=2030

There is not a single benchmark where 4820 beats 4770.

The only option where buing anything lower than 4930k is when you really need LG2011 because either or two of these things happen:

You want or need to upgrade later to 64GB ram.
You want or need to upgrade later to 4 GPU units/QuadSli/Etc...

[there are other LG2011 benefits like QuadChannel, but they don't apply at all to workstation/rendering processes]

Or you can't afford 4930/4960/etc.. straight away so you plan to sell you LG2011 quad-core later and buy it by then.

If the price is similar, which can sometimes happen due to sale, then go for LG2011, but if not, there is no reason for.