question What makes a computer overall faster?

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

I'm an artist and a programmer and I would like to know, what makes a computer overall faster when doing certain operations like opening a program, saving HUGE vector art documents, rendering 3D scenes in blender, importing files into a game engine (specifically Unity & Unreal Engine) and compiling code?

 

Should I go with a very high-end CPU like a Ryzen™ Threadripper™ or an Intel i9 and get a mid-range GPU (if I can find one) like the Radeon RX 5700 XT or the RTX 2060 Super for example? Or should I have both a high-end CPU & GPU?

 

I mainly do programming, art (Vector Design & 3D Modelling) is kind of a hobby.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Arika]

3 minutes ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

I mainly do programming, art (Vector Design & 3D Modelling) is kind of a hobby.

because of this line there is absolutely NO reason to go for a threadripper or i9. stick to something more moderate, either a 5600x or equivalent priced intel i-whatever in your country. even an 5800x would be huge overkill unless you have money to burn.

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

Just now, Arika S said:

because of this line there is absolutely NO reason to go for a threadripper or i9. stick to something more moderate, either a 5600x or equivalent priced intel i-whatever in your country. even an 5800x would be huge overkill unless you have money to burn.

You might have heard how long it takes to compile a simple code change in Unreal Engine have you? That's why I mentioned these two in particular. Thanks for the heads up anyways!

[Mling]

Rendering 3D: at uni i did a paper on 3d rendering and what limited me in my project work was the RAM on the lab computers. You need as much ram as you can get to do cool things. I had to severely handicap my particle effects on their machines.

 

Compiling code: you just need a fast cpu and a ssd. The number of cores you can make use of depends on what you are compiling. A game programmer needs a gaming PC. I think thread ripper will be overkill for games programming.

 

 

[Mling]

4 minutes ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

You might have heard how long it takes to compile a simple code change in Unreal Engine have you? That's why I mentioned these two in particular. Thanks for the heads up anyways!

how many threads can be used compliling unreal games? 

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

1 minute ago, Mling said:

Rendering 3D: at uni i did a paper on 3d rendering and what limited me in my project work was the RAM on the lab computers. You need as much ram as you can get to do cool things. I had to severely handicap my particle effects on their machines.

 

Compiling code: you just need a fast cpu and a ssd. The number of cores you can make use of depends on what you are compiling. A game programmer needs a gaming PC. I think thread ripper will be overkill for games programming.

 

 

RAM is no problem, I currently have 64 GB of DDR4.

[L0R3N30]

2060 Super (good for UE) and a Ryzen 5900X (bestish for UE) is what I have found to a good pairing for UE. However, research has shown for me that an RTX 3090 is best for this kind of situation.

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

1 minute ago, Mling said:

how many threads can be used compliling unreal games? 

It's configurable so, as much as you have.

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

1 minute ago, L0R3N30 said:

2060 Super (good for UE) and a Ryzen 5900X (bestish for UE) is what I have found to a good pairing for UE. However, research has shown for me that an RTX 3090 is best for this kind of situation.

Thanks for you input. An RTX 3090 I guess is the best (if you have the money) for any situation.

[Mling]

15 minutes ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

It's configurable so, as much as you have.

in that case you should get as much as you can afford. If you get a thread ripper you have an excuse to spend extra money on a cool water cooling build.

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

opening a program

Storage drive for software and RAM.

 

1 hour ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

saving HUGE vector art documents

The drive where you are saving to. If you are using the software's own format.

 

1 hour ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

rendering 3D scenes in blender

RAM and CPU

 

1 hour ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

importing files into a game engine (specifically Unity & Unreal Engine)

Mainly RAM, some of the speed of storage drive.

 

And as said by others, your biggest limitation will be the actual software. If they aren't optimized for multicore of using high amounts of RAM (ie. being stuck with some 32bit software), then you aren't getting full benefits of any higher end parts.

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

1 hour ago, DriftMan said:

You should follow the guidelines according to your project for it to compile faster

Yes of course you could get hours of compiling time just coding a simple Tetris game in Unreal Engine, but you shouldn't blame your CPU nor your engine because of the lack of knowledge and experience

It's a personal project and I fortunately don't lack either knowledge or experience I have been working with Unreal Engine since it was released in 2014 and I have been programming with C++ since I was 10 (Back then I was learning, you get the point.) and a common theme with any C++ project that utilizes a big library (Huge incase of UE4) that it will compile extremely slowly and it's extremely hardware dependent.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Abdel Fattah Radwan

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

24 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Storage drive for software and RAM.

 

The drive where you are saving to. If you are using the software's own format.

 

RAM and CPU

 

Mainly RAM, some of the speed of storage drive.

 

And as said by others, your biggest limitation will be the actual software. If they aren't optimized for multicore of using high amounts of RAM (ie. being stuck with some 32bit software), then you aren't getting full benefits of any higher end parts.

Thanks a lot for the informative reply.

[papajo]

4 hours ago, Abdel Fattah Radwan said:

I'm an artist and a programmer and I would like to know, what makes a computer overall faster when doing certain operations like opening a program, saving HUGE vector art documents, rendering 3D scenes in blender, importing files into a game engine (specifically Unity & Unreal Engine) and compiling code?

 

Should I go with a very high-end CPU like a Ryzen™ Threadripper™ or an Intel i9 and get a mid-range GPU (if I can find one) like the Radeon RX 5700 XT or the RTX 2060 Super for example? Or should I have both a high-end CPU & GPU?

 

I mainly do programming, art (Vector Design & 3D Modelling) is kind of a hobby.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What is your budget ? 

[jones177]

I did 3D for a living and I would use what I have now if I decided to go back to work. That is an Intel 8 or 10 core with an RTX card.

All my work was ray traced so I would get 3090s for previews.

This video will show why.

 

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

20 hours ago, papajo said:

What is your budget ? 

2000 - 2500

 

20 hours ago, Hakemon said:

A CPU with more cache will certainly be felt as more "snappier"..  I was using Core 2's with 12MB cache (and two CPU's) for nearly 12 years before I finally retired it.  The large cache is what kept it going this far.  Not the RAM, not the GPU, the cache.  Sure the SSD helped, but without that cache, all the little things would slow it down.

Very helpful, thanks for the tip.

 

18 hours ago, jones177 said:

I did 3D for a living and I would use what I have now if I decided to go back to work. That is an Intel 8 or 10 core with an RTX card.

All my work was ray traced so I would get 3090s for previews.

This video will show why.

 

Interesting, going to check it out.

[WhitetailAni]

RGB.

Red gives you better FPS, blue gives you better cooling, and green gives you more NVIDIA points which makes your ray-tracing go faster.

In all seriousness, it depends on what the base is.

If it doesn't have much RAM, more RAM can help. But unless you need 32 or 64GB, going from 16 to 32 or 64 is pointless.

If it's booting from an HDD, that can help it feel more snappy. It certainly helped my iMac G5 boot faster and feel more responsive overall.

 

[Abdelfattah Radwan]

12 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

RGB.

Red gives you better FPS, blue gives you better cooling, and green gives you more NVIDIA points which makes your ray-tracing go faster.

In all seriousness, it depends on what the base is.

If it doesn't have much RAM, more RAM can help. But unless you need 32 or 64GB, going from 16 to 32 or 64 is pointless.

If it's booting from an HDD, that can help it feel more snappy. It certainly helped my iMac G5 boot faster and feel more responsive overall.

 

RGB only makes things more expensive, at least here in Egypt. Thanks for the other tips though.

Edited February 12, 2021 by Abdel Fattah Radwan

[Mark Kaine]

generally ssd hard drives. 

 

 

But what slows most computers down is usually misconfigurations and malware nowadays, because even your average everyday pc, if it includes a dGPU and ssds is really fast already. 

 

heck my i5 7200U laptop is really pretty fast and can even play some modern 'AAA' titles at 30fps 1080p... 

[whm1974]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

generally ssd hard drives. 

 

 

But what slows most computers down is usually misconfigurations and malware nowadays, because even your average everyday pc, if it includes a dGPU and ssds is really fast already. 

 

heck my i5 7200U laptop is really pretty fast and can even play some modern 'AAA' titles at 30fps 1080p... 

30fps @ 1080p  isn't really fast at. it is Slow and is why PC Gaming Gods Sneer at Console Peasants. The Minimum fps@1080p for a Game PC with high settings should be ~45fps at that resolution.

[it_dont_work]

6 hours ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Stickers. You can make everything better/faster with STICKERS

 

Also adds horsepower