Ryzen 9 9950X, Which RAM set-up will be the best for 3ds and Corona?

[Diarmad]

Hello All!

I want to built the best set-up for my girlfriend for 3ds and Corona.

After research i rejected Thredrippers CPUs (to expensive and lack of avaiability ), my chosen CPU is now Ryzen 9 9950X, and here i have few question for you:

1. Do you think that Ryzen 9 9950X3DX will be any better than Ryzen 9 9950X for Corona?
2. What configuration of RAM you recommend ? I was thinking about 2x48GB to have 6000MT/s and CL30. Im not planning to do OC as long equipment will be on warranty, but here i don't know i I should choose faster over capacity. So : DO you think is better to have 2x48GB with minimum CL or it is better to go with max RAM capacity and go 4x48GB to have 192GB but slower the bandwith for 4 Modules instead of 2?

and last thing...
3. Should i go with Motherboard with PCiE 5.0? For now only newest Nvidia 50xx are using it, even for 4090 PCie 4.0 was enough... what is yours recommendation? I was thinking to go with PCiE 5.0 to be "future proof" and to choose as well M2 disc on PCiE 5.0

Okay, so no last think:
based on yours experience : traditional cooling have chance to cool down this kind of set-up and usage? or should i choose water-based cooling?

Graphics that im thinking of is Nvidia 4080 Super

[Oltiabga]

Hey, great setup you're planning — I’ve built a few Corona-focused workstations recently with the 9950X, so here’s my take based on real-world use:

Ryzen 9 9950X vs 9950X3DX
If you're using Corona Renderer, the regular 9950X is the better choice for the price, check corona benchmark results for 9950x and the x3d, if money is no problem go for it

Personally in one build i used 2x48 G.Skill Ripjaws 5200mhz and it works fine
96GB (2×48GB) at 6000MT/s CL30 is more than enough for most 3ds Max + Corona scenes, even with Forest Pack, proxies, or large textures.

4×48GB might sound tempting for capacity, but it’s slower (more stress on memory controller), and you likely won’t use that much unless you're working on extremely complex or layered scenes.

Better to go with higher speed and leave room for a future upgrade if needed.

PCIe 5.0
Not essential right now. Even the RTX 4090 barely uses PCIe 4.0 bandwidth.

PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs are nice but for the cost are not worth it at the moment, you almost pay double the pricee per TB, 990 pro 100euro and 9100pro 200euro, maybe in the future hwen prices have dropped you go for it
If you’re building long-term and the board includes it without a huge price jump, it’s a plus — otherwise, not critical.

9950X runs hot at full load, especially in Corona where all cores are maxed.
High-end air coolers like NH-D15 can handle it, but expect high temps and more fan noise.

A 360mm AIO like I have used Arctic Liquid Freezer III on my 9950x gives you better headroom, quieter performance, and is worth it if you do long renders.

Summary:

Stick with the 9950X, not the X3D
Go 2×48GB 6000 CL30 for speed and stability
PCIe 5.0 is nice but optional
Use a 360mm AIO cooler for better temps

[Nejc Kilar]

Howdy! Below are my 5 cents, all personal opinion of course :)

1. Do you think that Ryzen 9 9950X3DX will be any better than Ryzen 9 9950X for Corona?
I never owned an x3D Ryzen but my impression is that no, the x3D chips don't appear to be any faster for when it comes to rendering with Corona (and I'd say the same for V-Ray). My guess would be the cache is just not that important unless you don't have enough of it for normal operation. Even if it is faster I would expect it to be marginally faster whereas the price difference isn't marginal at all - at least not in the EU where the 9950x goes for about 550€ and the x3D for 710€.

2. What configuration of RAM you recommend ? I was thinking about 2x48GB to have 6000MT/s and CL30. Im not planning to do OC as long equipment will be on warranty, but here i don't know i I should choose faster over capacity. So : DO you think is better to have 2x48GB with minimum CL or it is better to go with max RAM capacity and go 4x48GB to have 192GB but slower the bandwith for 4 Modules instead of 2?
People might disagree with me here but honestly I'd go with the middle of the route approach. Have decent speed, decent latency and just plop in as much of the RAM you need and if possible make sure it is on the QVL list of your motherboard maker.

More RAM does not equal faster rendering unless you're running out of RAM (literally, meaning your scenes needs 80GB but you only have 64GB).

So if your scenes need 128GB then you'll probably need to do whatever gets you to 128GB. Personally, even though its been years since I built a non Threadripper / Epyc / Xeon system, I'd probably be conservative with speeds and latency for when it comes to high RAM amounts and 4x sticks. In the past 4x sticks were typically possible with lower RAM speeds.

Anecdotally, I tried switching between 3600mhz and 2667mhz (DDR4) on my older 3970x and I don't recall there being a noticeable difference in rendering speed.

Of course though, for non rendering tasks, you would want some sort of sensible speed - You probably don't need 8400 MT/s but you also probably shouldn't go below 4800 MT/s. That'd be my goal anyway.

And try sticking to the QVL list if possible. That is typically the least headachey way I guess.

Hope the above helps :)

[mase]

I guess all of these suggestions more or less come from personal experience and studio setups but in our office we have render nodes with 200gb of RAM and even that sometimes is not enough. Even if it's not an extremely large project, it is easy to lose track of assets and textures you have in your scene and you don't want to spend time optimizing your scene after you've built everything the way it should be.

I'd say aim for max amount of RAM that your wallet can carry. Even if you don't need it now, you will in the near future, as all the assets and everything are getting more and more detailed, textures are getting larger and overall the need for realism calls for complex and elaborate scenes.

And this also translates to PCI Gen 5.0. You might not need it at this exact moment but it's definitely going to be needed in a few years, given how large the files are getting and how fast we want to access them. Last thing you want is to build a new pc and in a few years start to feel it bottlenecking in your workflow (and all of this is valid only if you can afford it of course).