Comparably priced processors that can beat the Core 2 Duo E6600 at CG rendering?

C

Celestial Avenger

Limp Gawd
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Jul 12, 2005
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Sorry, I haven't looked at Xeons or Opterons ever since the Pentium D came out. Are there any budget processors out there that can render at 3dsmax signifcantly faster than the E6600 (~$320-350)? Thanks

*EDIT* processors, rather
 
Assuming you are talking about something that will run Windows (and not some specialized flavor of *nix, as I don't really know much about the capabilities of esoteric chips like Power4 and Power5s, Alphas, or whatever, not their pricing) then no, the Core 2 Duo is as fast as it gets for any price right now as far as x86 chips go.
 
No. Especially budget processors. I'm sure Woodcrest 1333FSB Xeons would own, but that's not what a normal person would call a budget processor. :p
 
NulloModo said:
Assuming you are talking about something that will run Windows (and not some specialized flavor of *nix, as I don't really know much about the capabilities of esoteric chips like Power4 and Power5s, Alphas, or whatever, not their pricing) then no, the Core 2 Duo is as fast as it gets for any price right now as far as x86 chips go.
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3Ds Max runs on windows only so he would only be interested in x86 chips.

The Xeons have, for quite a while, been the fastest 3dsMax rendering chips out there. They beat out the opterons by 3-5% pretty consistantly every generation. I would think that the new ones will continue this trend or better it (considering the signifigant increases we've seen with conroe). If you're building a rendering rig, you should look to spend at the least $600-700 on processors. My current computer (see sig) has treated me quite well in the rendering dept. and I highly suggest going toward dual dual-core Xeons when they become available. Of course, check out tomshardware.com when they are released and I'm sure you'll find plenty of 3dsMax benches to base your final decsion on.
 
NulloModo said:
Assuming you are talking about something that will run Windows (and not some specialized flavor of *nix, as I don't really know much about the capabilities of esoteric chips like Power4 and Power5s, Alphas, or whatever, not their pricing) then no, the Core 2 Duo is as fast as it gets for any price right now as far as x86 chips go.
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Heh, good like finding a POWER5 for $300. They probably cost more than an entire Conroe system. ;)

Either way, what do you mean by "3dsmax rendering"? Scanline or mental ray? Regardless, chances are the Conroe is the best, dollar for dollar. At least if you include the overclocking potential.
 
obviouslytom said:
I have been looking into getting 2 of these Dual Core Xeon for a while now since they are cheap. Of course the mobo for them is expensive
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Power-guzzling, poor-performing waste of money, if you ask me. Netburst is dead, as it should be.
 
I'm not too sure about your main desktop, but I would recommend grabbing a low-end dualcore Pentium-D or Athlon-X2 in addition. Load up linux and your favorite distributed rendering software and things will definately be cut down.


As you can see in my sig, my setup isn't state-of-the-art. But adding the AthlonXP cut my render times in half...
 
rayman2k2 said:
I'm not too sure about your main desktop, but I would recommend grabbing a low-end dualcore Pentium-D or Athlon-X2 in addition. Load up linux and your favorite distributed rendering software and things will definately be cut down.


As you can see in my sig, my setup isn't state-of-the-art. But adding the AthlonXP cut my render times in half...
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But, can this kind of thing work with 3dsmax? I'm not sure how this setup works at all, I'm new to this kind of thing. I do have a Pentium D 820 machine already.
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
Power-guzzling, poor-performing waste of money, if you ask me. Netburst is dead, as it should be.
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Well Presler was a nice improvement over the previous Xeon netburst design as far as power and heat go (can't recall what that codename was, whatever the Xeon equivalent to Smithfield was) but if you are going to lay out the funds for a Xeon board now Woodcrest is definately the way to go.

Then again, I don't have much experience with 3D rendering apps, do any benefit greatly from HT ?

EDIT:

While an AthlonXP would run 3DsMax (assuming it is a windows program as you stated) there is absolutely no reason to buy an AthlonXP. The AXP is a late Pentium III/Early Pentium 4 era chip, completely outdated by anything out now. A case could technically be made for an Athlon64 X2, but Core 2 Duo still gives you much better bang for your buck.
 
Then again, I don't have much experience with 3D rendering apps, do any benefit greatly from HT ?
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Rendering sometimes sees as much as a 10-20% performance increase from using HyperThreading. However, the lowest-end Woodcrest is probably faster in most renderers, than even the fastest Netburst-based Xeon.
 
If you're using 3dsmax, go with Intel. The Xeons spank the similar AMD chips. Also, don't run linux, 3dsmax doesn't work on Linux and won't work with WINE. I suggest you go with the newer Woodcrest core, it will be much faster.
 
NulloModo said:
Well Presler was a nice improvement over the previous Xeon netburst design as far as power and heat go (can't recall what that codename was, whatever the Xeon equivalent to Smithfield was) but if you are going to lay out the funds for a Xeon board now Woodcrest is definately the way to go.

Then again, I don't have much experience with 3D rendering apps, do any benefit greatly from HT ?

EDIT:

While an AthlonXP would run 3DsMax (assuming it is a windows program as you stated) there is absolutely no reason to buy an AthlonXP. The AXP is a late Pentium III/Early Pentium 4 era chip, completely outdated by anything out now. A case could technically be made for an Athlon64 X2, but Core 2 Duo still gives you much better bang for your buck.
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I just mentioned it since you can buy A-XP era parts used on the internet, and build a full fledged PC for <200-250 dollars. I didn't intend it to be his main rig, just a render node.
 
Please explain a "render node". It's as if you're saying I can render one animation using an E6600 machine and an Athlon XP 2800+ machine at the same time. :(
 
Celestial Avenger said:
Please explain a "render node". It's as if you're saying I can render one animation using an E6600 machine and an Athlon XP 2800+ machine at the same time. :(
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Pretty much all high-end CG animation is rendered using multiple machines. I heard Pixar renders on something like a thousand commodity Intel machines. Or was that AMD? No matter. The point is that almost nobody renders animations on a single machine. There are plenty of options for rendering on multiple machines. Just as at CGTalk or look in the manual for details.
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
Pretty much all high-end CG animation is rendered using multiple machines. I heard Pixar renders on something like a thousand commodity Intel machines. Or was that AMD? No matter. The point is that almost nobody renders animations on a single machine. There are plenty of options for rendering on multiple machines. Just as at CGTalk or look in the manual for details.
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I think I remember reading somewhere that they bought something like 350 dual opteron 252 servers for there rendering. As well, after work hours, all the terminals in the building are used to render too.

Either way, places like pixar and WETA crank out some pretty rad power with their machines.
 
The cool thing is that regular PCs are so cheap nowadays that even a not too poor hobby-level 3D graphics guy can build a render farm. AthlonXP machines are a dime a dozen these days. Sure, a dual Xeon 5150 system is really powerful, but for the same amount of money, you'd probably get at least ten or twenty older render nodes.
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
The cool thing is that regular PCs are so cheap nowadays that even a not too poor hobby-level 3D graphics guy can build a render farm. AthlonXP machines are a dime a dozen these days. Sure, a dual Xeon 5150 system is really powerful, but for the same amount of money, you'd probably get at least ten or twenty older render nodes.
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which was my point ;)


Random tidbits:
Pixar uses SGI machines based on Intel Xeons
Dreamworks uses Opteron processors, as does WETA


Don't ask how I know...


EDIT: I also read that some individual frames in Finding Nemo took eight weeks to render. Just imagine that for a minute...eight weeks...
 
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