Time for a new Graphics Card?

[Anonymous]

Good day all,

      I am currently learning to use redshift as my renderer in maya but i'm running into prolonged render times for what I feel are VERY simple scenes.  We're talking an empty room with a few spheres.  Granted I'm using a physical area light which takes a little more computation, but still, I feel like 8 minute render times are a bit much.  Then I noticed that the user in the online tutorial that i'm following has 4 gpu's vs my single one.

According to the Maya documentation, my Quadro k2000 is an acceptable card, but it also seems a bit dated.  It's got 5GB of RAM but isn't that a bit meager for Redshift?  Especially when you start populating the scene with more lights, furniture, characters, etc?  I'm thinking it may be time for a new graphics card or card(s) but there are just. so. many. options out there.  Some people say multiple cards, some say use just one powerful one.  I notice however that often these people are building extremely powerful machines.  SO:

1.)  Can anyone here recommend a Card, based on personal experience that has demonstrated reasonable render times and performance for photorealstic renderers like redshift?

AND

2.)  If my render settings were the same as the tutorial's, but i'm getting a noisier render, is that user error or could that also be a graphics card issue?

No matter how much i increase my samples on irradiance cloud or brute force the noise isn't changing.

https://youtu.be/Xgb6u6ENtfY?t=1144  (the tutorial i'm using, at the time where you can see his graphics card info)

[dgorsman · Accepted solution]

Not a good sign when the person doing the tutorial has a monster set-up like that... if they can't get it done with a common computer it's going to be hard for others to follow along.

Check with Redshift as to whether they support the K-series GPUs.  The FAQ only mentions the slightly newer M(axwell) series and the more recent P(ascal) series.  More VRAM on the card doesn't make things go faster, it's just more room to do work.  Think about it like bringing in a pad of paper when writing an exam - it doesn't matter if you have 100 sheets or 1000 sheets, you're not going to finish any faster.  Rendering speed is about clock speed and number of cores (more cards, more cores, more workers getting things done at the same time).

What card to get will depend on what Redshift supports and where you get your hardware from.  If you're on an enterprise account with a big-box supplier like Dell or HP you're pretty much limited to the Quadro series - the P2000 and P4000 GPUs are good quality for the money.  If you're just learning the higher-rated Quadro's are probably not going to be cost efficient.  If you're self-building and Redshift supports it, have a look at the mid-range GTX 1060 (6 GB) or 1070 ones.

[Anonymous]

thanks for the response.  the paper pad analogy actually was quite helpful in my understanding.  I'll have a look at the Redshift suggestions..should have thought of that...I am reading some rave reviews on the GTX series, seems like the heavy hitter for NVIDIA at the moment.

thanks again!