Nvidia Titan 12gb Cards ? Any good ?

[a.quaihoi]

Hi All,

 

in the process of upgrading my computer with a new video card and processors, ram etc. Mac Pro 2009 - Flashed with 5,1 firmware so this will let me make it a pretty beasty machine - as always AM is on my mind when it comes to 3D work, and the question I have is should I get one of those Nvidia Titan 12gb cards ? or something like a GTX 680 - my current card is an ancient Quadro 1.8gb FX 4500 - the last time I tried to use AM on the Mac side it had so many issues that I had to load up boot camp and install win 7 and use it on that, it was OK - but I defiantly felt the video card was not being used fully, there was a lot of slowdown even on the windows side with this card. I have found that AM likes consumer grade video cards instead of the pro cards while working at Momentum - so this time round I am thinking of getting a beasty 'gaming' card - what are peoples thoughts on this ? It would be awesome if AM leveraged the processing power of cards - and yes we have discussed this man many time before - yes it will require a rewrite up of the code and so on - but in real life scenario - actual usage of the interface and screen drawing - refresh rate - responsiveness etc. Is it worth the money to get one of these titan x / xp things ?

[pixelplucker]

I ran AM with a few Quadros and AM found a desktop card or good gaming card does just as well. Workstation cards typically offer double precision which is not necessary for AM so you will never realize any difference.

Get a half descent gaming card that runs cool and has good drivers like a 1070 or so, even a 1060 will do just fine.

Would be nice if AM takes advantage of the real time ray trace down the road. That would be cool

[robcat2075]

I think a modern card with enough ram to handle hi res multiple monitors should be adequate.

[a.quaihoi]

I decided not to get the crazy priced Titan and got a Gtx 680 4gig, which I’ll flash . . . Let’s see how it goes

[Roger]

I decided not to get the crazy priced Titan and got a Gtx 680 4gig, which I’ll flash . . . Let’s see how it goes

 

For AM use you're probably better off not spending on the Titan, it just wouldn't make use of it. Other apps that use CUDA might, but unless you use a lot of CUDA enabled apps and it's not just a hobby but something you use to pay your rent, it probably doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money.

[Fuchur]

As Roger said: A good GPU for gaming will do the same and cost A LOT less.

Just get a AMD R570 or a Nvidia 1060/1070 and you are very good to go. Anything above that kind of GPUs won't help you in A:M.

If you use different software it is a different story, but no need to spend that kind of money if you ask me... (not even for a professional if you have not a very specific usecase)

 

In general I recommend a fast CPU (something like a Intel i7 8700/8800k or a AMD Ryzen 2700(x)) and a mid-range GPU and you are fine to go.

(if you are using Netrender the R2700(x) will do more for you, otherwise the i7 8800k will do better for you, but it really does not make a major difference all taken into account)

 

Best regards

*Fuchur*

[pixelplucker]

I would recommend an NVidia over AMD. AMD has horrid drivers. I have an RX 480 that has been rma'd twice. I find the AMD machine I have for a desktop to be too unstable for work. It is fine for gaming but I had issues with the motherboard and external drives on usb bus writing garbage and creating gobs of corrupted data. It could the drivers and the fact the machine has Win7 but in any case, last AMD product I'll own.

 

I know Fuchur swears by AMD, no offense.

[Fuchur]

I would recommend an NVidia over AMD. AMD has horrid drivers. I have an RX 480 that has been rma'd twice. I find the AMD machine I have for a desktop to be too unstable for work. It is fine for gaming but I had issues with the motherboard and external drives on usb bus writing garbage and creating gobs of corrupted data. It could the drivers and the fact the machine has Win7 but in any case, last AMD product I'll own.

 

I know Fuchur swears by AMD, no offense.

Update your bios on your AMD machine... Since AMDs platform is much newer, it had to grow much more than the very old intel core platform. But with a recent bios it should be really no difference. I have AMD running here at work (about 20 systems) and at home and they are great. But had to update the bios for two of them to really make them good. Otherwise there were problems with some RAM sticks.

 

Concerning GPU: That is up to you. I have a rx570 here and am happy with it in an ryzen 1700 system on a b350 mainboard with a overclock to ram and cpu running very stable. But if you have a different experience that is possible.

 

Concerning CPU: For single core usage intel is still a little faster(not really noticeable in most real world cases), for rendering with multicores AMD kills intel at the moment.

 

And of cause u can use an AMD or Nvidia GPU with an Intel or AMD system. Should not make a bigger difference.

 

Best regards

*Fuchur*

[pixelplucker]

I have the latest bios for this system from Gigabyte. As far as the video card this is the 2nd one under warranty. First burned out in less than a year, this one was repaired instead of being replaced by Gigabyte and the performance on it is horrible compared to when I first got the rx480. I have the latest drivers from Gigabyte on it also and the latest bios for this from Gigabyte. I can't run the newest ones from AMD because I get trails, scrambled screen and black screens.

 

For a machine that has so few hours on it I have to say AMD is junk. They let companies do their own thing with drivers and not always compatible with the ones from AMD!!!

 

Maybe your just lucky on your machine but this is certainly the last AMD rig I will ever get.

[Fuchur]

I'd say you are extremly unlucky with yours... that is totally unnormal. I never killed any of my GPUs ever (did you overclock them a lot or something? I never ever had any card having any kind of bigger trouble and not one even close to "burning" even when overclocking them moderately. And again: I am using AMD hardware very often on MANY different machines, using different versions of Athlon64, Phenom II and Ryzens and AMD APUs for years and years now.

 

AMD is NOT junk or anything in that direction. That statement I totally disagree and am strongly against that anybody says that with one bad system which can happen to anybody with any manufacturer.

 

Whatever problem you've got there needs to be a very rare thing and is not common. I am more like an ASUS guy and I am rarely using Gigabyte in any of my builds, but it would surprise me a whole lot if it would be a common thing for Gigabyte.

 

There is just too less in the non-fan-boy-media about that kind stuff happening to be common. And since I am running most of my machines for years and years with some of them running 24/7 or at least close to that, I can say that that is not a common thing. About 60 pc builds with mostly AMD hardware over the years where close to unproblematic with one smaller exception where I had to get rid of RAM, which was not working as it should with a MB way back in the year 2015. I am running currently about 20 computers with AMD hardware too as I said before and they are doing fine right at these days.

 

Again: What you are experiencing there is very unlucky but this is not normal behaviour and NOT a general problem and can happen to you with Intel, AMD or Nvidia hardware too if you are just unlucky.

My guess is: You are having some kind of secondary problem like a defect powersupply (overpowering the PCI-E connectors or something like that or a problem with this one mainboard which is giving a wrong output of some kind and killing your otherwise fine hardware.

 

Anyway concerning that "you must have been lucky"-stuff:
Since I have had that many systems running with AMD hardware, I would have been very, very lucky if it really would be a general problem.
That is highly unlikely... that unlikely that I would need to start playing lottery tommorrow if I would have been lucky...

(and no, I won't throw my money out of the window like that )

 

I'd say get an Intel + Nvidia setup next and I am pretty sure that you will be "lucky" that time and do not get a problem with them, but that does not proove anything against AMD.
It just says that you are not having bad luck with a 1 in a million chance again of getting a bad system / build...

 

Best regards

*Fuchur*

[pixelplucker]

I probably am unlucky and have a feeling Gigabytes support toward Win 7 machines is probably the issue. 

I never oc the machines, just run them with factory specs. The video card runs under 43C when pushed. The big disappointments with my gpu is this is my 3rd under warranty using Gigabytes drivers and bios The fact that I cannot use the latest drivers from AMD without scrambled screens or black screens is a major issue. I am extremely dissatisfied how Gigabyte chose to repair the last card rather than replace it and the refurbished card runs like crap. I was hoping they would give me a new card and I would have sold it on ebay for a good amount since they were selling for $800 or so. I could have put that towards an Nvidia maybe even a mid ranged Quadro and not have the hassle.

As far as the motherboard goes, I have issues with the USB and in in particular usb drives and memory sticks where programs will not close out on them and write corrupted data. So far I lost quite a bit of $$$ on corrupted jobs and time to re-create. Again I have the latest bios for the machine as far as I can tell according to Gigabytes garbage updater. 

I never ran into any problems with Nvidia drivers and various brands of Nvidia cards where they were proprietary. An Asus, PNY or what ever all used and were compatible with drivers directly from Nvidia.  I have no idea if this is unique with Gigabyte and their AMD line of gpu's

[Fuchur]

That is very strange too... in general you are able to use AMD drivers directly or you can stick to the mainboard once (which I never did... they are always old and I am using always the AMD once and only the bios from the MB manufacturer)...
I did not try Gigabyte till now... neighter for Mainboard nor for GPU... Asrock, Asus and MSI have been tested by me (concerning Mainboards) and Sapphire, Asus, MSI and Powercolor for GPUs... maybe Gigabyte is the problem here or you are just unlucky with your MB or another component here...

Is this a refurbished system or a new one? Sounds very odd to me all together...
Anyway: Hope you can fiddle that one out... sounds awful to me... I never even heard of anything that bad till now.

Best regards
*Fuchur*

[pixelplucker]

I think your right that Gigabyte is the problem. Seems they do things their own way and looks like my system is no longer supported. No more updates to resolve any issues.

Luckily I have my little laptop to back me up till I sort things out.