Messages

1

Hardware / Re: Threadripper & Ryzen builds

« on: 2025-06-05, 10:30:58 »

I pretty much second everything John_Do said.

Regarding memory I've heard "solid" things about V-Color as well and they have 256GB in 4x sticks if that is something you're after (direct link: https://v-color.net/products/ddr5-oc-r-dimm-amd-ryzen-trx50-workstation-memory-x-v-color?variant=46432830488743). Haven't ever used their stuff though but people on Reddit seem happy with them :)

Regarding single core speeds I'd say people tend to have different experiences and its been years since I've used any of the Ryzen or i9 parts (non high core count Threadripper stuff) but IIRC I wouldn't expect there to be a noticeable difference in single threaded tasks. The way I think about it (but I might be wrong) is that a short single threaded task that takes 4s on a 64 core TR might take 3s on a 9950x but then on the flip side rendering will be twice as fast (including the IR).

That said there are still kinks and optimizations we'd like to resolve on our side that impact responsiveness on high core count machines (both in 3ds Max and C4D - plus it appears to me like its nice mess of the 3ds Max / C4D + Windows working environment) but that is, as John_Do alluded to, not really related to how a Threadripper differs from a Ryzen or an i9. Its software stuff that is way more complicated than one would imagine I suppose. It is being looked at however and there's already been a few improvements (especially on the C4D side of things where SMT gave us headaches not so long ago).

In terms of "yeah it will 100% work snappy" I'd point at a Ryzen for now. But if you need more rendering speed and can deal with a few hiccups here and there then obviously Threadrippers are the go to (or Xeons I guess). Personally, I'm on a Threadripper for years now and do plan on upgrading too.

@clemens_at
I guess it comes down to workflows. I'm on a 5995wx (64 cores) and I'd actually find it beneficial upgrading to say a 9980x or 9995wx. While I'm a sucker for very snappy UIs I'm also a sucker for not having to have to wait for a clean image :) I guess it depends on the type of work you do and where things bottleneck for you.

I know plenty of people that render on things like 5900x and similar and they produce amazing work and they're fine with it.

2

Off-Topic / Re: Network Drives

« on: 2025-05-08, 12:45:14 »

I'm not quite sure either but I would imagine both methods would pretty much have the same bottleneck? Prepping & transferring files over the network.

3

[Max] I need help! / Re: Animation Flickering

« on: 2025-04-07, 13:56:59 »

Have you tried the 4K Cache instead? Generally it's better and faster in most cases.

This but then what you could also try doing is upping the precision of the UHD Cache to 2 or 4 or just something higher. I find it that also helps although it does increase the pre-calc times obviously.

4

Hardware / Re: GPU - 3ds max

« on: 2025-04-01, 14:09:03 »

Also, the 5xxx series seem to be having more issues than we've seen in a generation of cards possibly ever :)

btw, Intel GPU AI interactive denoiser doesn't work on rtx 5090 with Corona 12 update 1 hotfix 1
Juraj, if it's not too much trouble, pass this on to the developers

Aye, we are aware of this but from what I've been told its up to Intel to first update the denoiser on their end and once that is done we can get the changes over to our users. Should be already in the works :)

5

[Max] I need help! / Re: How to configure PROPERLY 3dsmax and Corona to work on Davinci / Aces

« on: 2025-03-31, 23:01:24 »

Well, .exr results (crn & bmwdr) should match 1:1 even w/ post FX on. Looking similar is simply wrong. Digital Colour is precise science (so we're told) ;)

Care to share your test exr & jpgs (result & reference to match to & analyze)?

Yes indeedio, I am assuming full dynamic range here would be a linear EXR. Could be wrong though!

6

[Max] I need help! / Re: How to configure PROPERLY 3dsmax and Corona to work on Davinci / Aces

« on: 2025-03-31, 12:24:14 »

So if I understand you correctly then the typical workflow for getting the 32bit EXR over is to first make sure all your tonemapping operators are off (exposure can be on) so that you end up with that beautiful linear image.

Then in Resolve go to the color page and set up a Color space transform node where your input color space is sRGB, input gamma is Linear and both outputs are sRGB.

If you're using the ACES OT operator in the stack you can replicate its effect by bringing in the ACES Transform node and set it to either work in sRGB (Linear) (if you have not done the above) or sRGB (if you've already done the above and just want to put the ACES OT operator effect on top of that).

The way the other operators work however you'll probably have to recreate their effect by hand with Resolve's tools.

Does that help in any shape or form?

7

[Max] I need help! / Re: How to configure PROPERLY 3dsmax and Corona to work on Davinci / Aces

« on: 2025-03-27, 18:57:07 »

Howdy!

I'm not quite entirely sure what exactly you're trying to replicate in Resolve. Is it the entire stack of operators that you've set up in the Corona VFB or are you just trying to make sure the Linear image (no operators enabled) comes over?

8

Hardware / Re: 9950x3d in a "silent" build? Case choices

« on: 2025-03-20, 13:29:52 »

Hah, the company name is "CoolServer" which seemed a bit cheeky to me plus you can't really find their website online so I bit my teeth really hard when making the purchase... But alas, here I am with a nicely cooled 96 core CPU running at 400W. And its been doing so for a couple of months so it seems like a cool purchase I guess.

The other Epyc node has Noctua U14s tower coolers because they actually have an SP3 cooler, there ain't one (or hasn't been, haven't rechecked) for SP5 that isn't a jet engine.

The other company btw was Silverstone and their XE04-SP5 cooler - which I thought was what I was going to end up with but the "CoolServer" thingy seemed bigger and thus quieter. Backup plan was to order the Silverstone one in case the other one was giving me trouble.

As for cases, I am using Fractal Design Torrent for all my builds at the moment. Airflow is quite nice as its pretty much the best rated airflow case out there? Plus you can do multi GPU (if thats your thing especially given how Nvidia is lately) as there isn't a PSU blocking you at the bottom so that bottom card can have more of an overhang (you might need to remove the bottom fans though). Depends on your motherboard as well of course.

For my next set of builds I think I might try the Fractal Design North XL. If you don't mind loosing that GPU overhang because of the PSU then the North XL also imho seems like a cool choice for a CPU build...

One, if you're crazy enough, you can slot 3x 140mm fans in the front and 2x 180mm at the top. I'm pretty sure that creates some turbulence but it also probably slaps for when it comes to bringing in fresh air or taking it out (depending on the orientation).

On top of that, especially if you're running a 2S (2 CPUs on one motherboard) Epyc system you can use the mesh side panel + the little fan bracket thingy that mounts to the side. That thingy would then direct the airflow straight onto the VRMs which are problematic with those types of builds as its all server gear that expects 8000RPM fans blowing pretty much directly over those components.

Even my 9654 in the Torrent tends to reach 80c (maxes out at like 82c) on its VRMs. That is still in spec (100c is the limit) but it also isn't exactly miles away from passing it. I currently don't have AC in my office though so keep that in mind lol :)

Also, there's other cases out there that are really cool as well. I'm just sticking to Fractal Design because they've been quite reliable for me.

9

Hardware / Re: AMD 9950x

« on: 2025-03-18, 11:39:38 »

A little off-topic but I see this processor is not that far away in bencharks than my own threadripper 3970x that I bought for 3-4x the price (some years ago). Is the consumer line of AMDs now that capable?

Pretty much yes I'd say. The Zen 2 Threadrippers are now like 5 years old and we had 3 succeeding Zen generations in between. The "problem" however is that the top end also got a lot faster which means sure, the 9950x is as fast / faster as the 3970x but then the top end chip is still like 2.75x faster than the 9950x :)

They come with issues though, right? I mean, threadrippers. At least with corona. That's my impression after several years of reading here on the forum that those using them were not able to get the full performance. So I was always hesitant to spend that kind of money on more problems.
Is that true do you think?

There's been issues in the past yes but at the same time not everyone experienced these issues in the same way.

Some were bigger like in C4D where we had noticeable issues with SMT / more than 64 threads and that really prevented you from working. Some users were affected while others not which made figuring stuff out rather hard. That said, it is fixed now.
Then we had some issues on certain newer builds in 3ds Max where the UI was quite stuttery although IIRC it wasn't just Threadrippers affected. That should also be fixed now.

There's still things the team is looking into, like a faster UX in general that seemingly affects Threadripper users more than others (sometimes disabling SMT can help speed things up a bit). Then again, we also have Threadripper users that don't notice these issues at all so... It kinda depends but nonetheless arguably the things we are trying to improve now aren't showstoppers necessarly.

I'm on a 5995WX and I very much appreciate the fast(er) IR and overall rendering experience :)

10

Hardware / Re: 9950x3d in a "silent" build? Case choices

« on: 2025-03-18, 11:32:11 »

Honestly I'm not sure if these cheaper coolers are "that bad" to begin with in terms of reliability. From my understanding the biggest issue can pretty much only be the fan itself - which on most of the coolers I think you can replace anyway. The other issues I can't help but think are pretty rare like the liquid inside the heat pipes evaporating... But someone can correct me if I'm wrong :)

That said, I do always buy Noctua just in case because I am under the impression they double check things, have multiple proper mounts for multiple sockets etc...

Oh and I guess I should mention that I do also have a 9654 Epyc for which there's like only 2 air coolers out there that aren't jet engines - and there I opted for a completely unknown firm but hey, it works fantastic on a 400W CPU for half a year now already. Pleasantly surprised to say the least.

11

[C4D] I need help! / Re: Infinite Ocean

« on: 2025-03-13, 10:12:41 »

Howdy! I suppose it could be a number of things - the Infinite Ocean 1.5.4 shaders not carrying over to Corona (depending on the shader we'd have to explicitly add support for them) or just a setup that needs to be re-thought :)

I'd suggest posting more details about the issue you are having. I myself am not familiar with Infinite Ocean so it is quite hard for me to say.

The other solution would be to contact support directly.

12

Hardware / Re: New Mac Studios Coming

« on: 2025-03-13, 10:06:34 »

Wait? You know we can't WAIT! ha. I know, but I like to wonder if things live up to the hype, not that Apple over-hypes anything (wink, wink). Seems that if anyone is in the market for one of these, and in particular coming from a much older machine, that the M4 Max would be the best bang for the buck. The M3 Ultra is two Max chips connected together, but their performance does not simply double because there are two CPUs. Back in the G5 days, two CPUs meant twice the speed.

I keep seeing that the M3 Ultra Studio can have an obscene amount of unified RAM and cores and large language model A.i. applications would benefit. I'm sure the extra cores would help 3D CPU rendering, but at such a crazy extra cost, not for me.

Solitaire will run at 240 fps so that will be nice too.

Hah yes, I completely understand :) I'm much the same when a new Threadripper or a Xeon (<- been a while) gets released. And then I'm incredibly disappointed to see just a single Cinebench run tested :D

Not to single out any of the reviewers but Tom's Hardware ran Blender tests so those can be indicative of the performance uplift number you can expect - ballpark numbers of course.

https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/mini-pcs/apple-mac-studio-early-2025-review

So unless I'm getting this wrong the 16 core M4 Max studio goes for around 2500$? If that is the case it might not be a bad deal for everyone that is on the Apple train?

I mean yes, any current gen 32 core Threadripper will be about 2.5x faster although more expensive (probably around 4000$ for the build)... And a 96 core Threadripper will probably be 4x+ faster but will cost a lot more (13000$ for a build)... But nonetheless having options in the lower / middle part of that budget segment is imho a good thing.

13

Hardware / Re: New Mac Studios Coming

« on: 2025-03-11, 14:03:34 »

Honestly I've never owned a Mac so I can't really tell you much about the performance of these chips outside of what is available online. That said, I am pretty confident in saying that Geekbench isn't that usable of a benchmark for when it comes to assessing rendering performance.

I suppose it'll be best to wait for reviews / benchmark entries?

14

Hardware / Re: GPU - 3ds max

« on: 2025-03-07, 10:13:59 »

If your workloads don't necessarily demand CUDA support imho AMD can be a really good cost effective solution which will give you loads of VRAM for a good price. Unfortunately there's _a lot_ of workloads where CUDA is, at the moment, necessary. Plus you could imho argue that if you do have a CUDA vs HIP (<- AMD) choice inside your software of choice then the Nvidia solution will probably be quite a bit faster and energy efficient. It isn't always the case though but overall CUDA is the way more versatile choice right now.

Personally, but feel free to disagree, I'd also avoid professional GPUs and stick to consumer ones just like James Vella said.

If you don't know why you'd need a "pro" GPU then you probably don't need it anyway unless you're buying it for two reasons - you want the form factor (2 slot card aka you can fit more of them into your case) or the VRAM.

That A4500 is Ampere generation whereas a 4080 is Ada. Ada is quite a bit faster and energy efficient so unless you need the 20GB VRAM buffer I'd definitely rather go with the 4080 imho. It'll be better in every way imaginable (except for VRAM and a couple of pro features) and cheaper probably.

Also, the 5xxx series seem to be having more issues than we've seen in a generation of cards possibly ever :) Besides the cable issues, missing ROPs and slightly faulty drivers you probably can't even buy one because the stock is nowhere to be found it seems. You'll also get a fairly mediocre performance boost compared to the previous gen and with some cards (like the 5090) a proportionally higher power consumption as well. Truly an "interesting" situation Nvidia created here.

15

Hardware / Re: old threadrippers and win11 upgrade?

« on: 2025-02-17, 17:37:51 »

Yup, can confirm. Just flip the TPM setting to firmware (or anything but disabled) and the Zen 2 / Zen 3 Threadrippers work with Windows 11 :)