Animation rendering hardware

[CudaCore]

Hey guys! First post here. I've heard good stuff about these forums from Linus's videos, so I might as well give it a shot. 

 

Here's my dilemma: I'm an animator, I work with Pixar's renderman software, and I need to speed up my render times while not spending an absurd amount of money. Currently I have a machine running on an i7-5960x, and 32gb of ddr4 ram. This is perfect for single frame renders, and it's been doing wonderfully for a while now, but Renderman demands more power if I'm going to speed up the process. 

 

Let me say right off the bat, please don't suggest that I change anything I currently have. "Why not use V-ray? Why did you buy the i7 in the first place?" <- don't do it.

 

I just watched Linus's video on the budget 8 core gaming system using two older xeons on a desktop motherboard, and that got me thinking. Is buying an older server something I would benefit from? I noticed that the cinebench score he got for those cpus was pretty damn low, like much lower than what my i7 gets, but still. I can use a program called Tractor that Pixar created for renderfarms, so obviously owning a server or two /could/ work in theory, but idk what I would need to nab to really speed up this whole process. 

 

I've also learned that I can use services that render animations on their renderfarms, but I have no idea how expensive that is honestly, the pricing models on many of the sites I've visited don't make sense to me yet, so I'll have to go back and look at them.

 

Any suggestions? Ideas?

 

EDIT: I should also mention that Renderman is a CPU only render engine. I DO have a Titan Black, so that helps during my actual workflow, but not in rendering. 

[xnoobftw]

Why not buy another similar system to yours, and cut the render time basically into half by splitting the workload and pasting them back together in your main rig after? 

[Guest]

well, I personally don't know what kind of hardware Pixar uses but this would definitely speed things up http://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-Tesla-Graphic-Card-900-22081-2220-000/dp/B00AA2C1DC

[vanished]

It sounds like you've got a very good machine.  I'm not familiar with that program, but I'll assume it is extremely CPU intensive and doesn't benefit from any kind of graphics card (Quadro, etc.)

 

If that's the case, what you're looking for is just more of whatever CPU is the best performance / dollar.  Keep in mind you have to factor in the cost of the mobo, ram and anything else it will need to function.  And don't forget about power either.  You might find what seems like a great deal on older hardware, but if you buy up a ton of it, you could end up spending more on power than hardware before you know it!

[multifrag]

V-ray is even more expensive in terms of render times than renderman. Try out Arnold rendered as you can really optimize it. No hardware will save your ass if your project is not optimized for the workflow. I've seen people trying to render a car shot and it would take 12h per still...lol. Good rule is your image shouldn't take longer to render than 10 minutes(on your cpu) If it does, check the ray count, bounce options and so on. Test that out and see if there is big difference. Sometimes you can give 10% quality but save 70% time.

In terms of Xeons. I'm running dual 6 cores and they are only viable overclocked or in a cluster. 2 xeons would perform at best like your 5960x but most probably somewhere in 60-70% of yours. Mine beat your cpu just because i have few more cores(cinebench score) Old architecture... It's a good cheap alternative, but even cheaper is learning to optimize 

[CudaCore]

Why not buy another similar system to yours, and cut the render time basically into half by splitting the workload and pasting them back together in your main rig after? 

Honestly this seems like one of my better options. Because to put it in perspective, my i7 outperforms a lot of xeons out there for around the same price, and can be overclocked. If I was to want a Xeon better than the 5960x I'd be spending over 2k. I just sucks that I would still need to spend a grand to get another i7.

[xnoobftw]

Honestly this seems like one of my better options. Because to put it in perspective, my i7 outperforms a lot of xeons out there for around the same price, and can be overclocked. If I was to want a Xeon better than the 5960x I'd be spending over 2k. I just sucks that I would still need to spend a grand to get another i7.

Basically what youve said and there's the potential for silicon lottery as compared to a locked xeon.

Well welcome to PCmasterrace where we pay a premium for amazing hardware

[DunePilot]

Hey guys! First post here. I've heard good stuff about these forums from Linus's videos, so I might as well give it a shot. 

 

Here's my dilemma: I'm an animator, I work with Pixar's renderman software, and I need to speed up my render times while not spending an absurd amount of money. Currently I have a machine running on an i7-5960x, and 32gb of ddr4 ram. This is perfect for single frame renders, and it's been doing wonderfully for a while now, but Renderman demands more power if I'm going to speed up the process. 

 

Let me say right off the bat, please don't suggest that I change anything I currently have. "Why not use V-ray? Why did you buy the i7 in the first place?" <- don't do it.

 

I just watched Linus's video on the budget 8 core gaming system using two older xeons on a desktop motherboard, and that got me thinking. Is buying an older server something I would benefit from? I noticed that the cinebench score he got for those cpus was pretty damn low, like much lower than what my i7 gets, but still. I can use a program called Tractor that Pixar created for renderfarms, so obviously owning a server or two /could/ work in theory, but idk what I would need to nab to really speed up this whole process. 

 

I've also learned that I can use services that render animations on their renderfarms, but I have no idea how expensive that is honestly, the pricing models on many of the sites I've visited don't make sense to me yet, so I'll have to go back and look at them.

 

Any suggestions? Ideas?

 

EDIT: I should also mention that Renderman is a CPU only render engine. I DO have a Titan Black, so that helps during my actual workflow, but not in rendering. 

 

You pretty much have a rig that is going to be about as good as it gets. I would guess your Cinebench scores are slightly over 2000 with your current set up. You have a few upgrade options but you would be out at least $2000 on the chip alone and are exchanging higher clock speed for more cores... I am not sure it would be worth the money. To get the older dual Xeon you would actually be losing about 20% performance due to the fact you can't overclock most dual cpu setups (unless you have a SR-2, good luck finding those, once again the cost is not justified). My only recommendation is to find a used workstation or settle with what you have... Check your inbox.

 

Edit: For the best Xeon you could get, the $2780 E5-2697 v3 14-core Xeon... you are only getting a little over 2000 in Cinebench, if you have your 5960X overclocked I imagine you are already doing that with it. For $2780 I think you would be displeased with what you got for your money. If it was my own cash, I wouldn't be able to justify it. The used workstation I PM'd you though might actually be a suitable option to consider.