Does anyone know the maximum number of cores/threads that Daz Studio can use when rendering?
tj_1ca9500b
Posts: 2,057
So, the AMD CES 2020 Press Conference is about to start, but we've already had a number of leaks. Specifically, the 64 core Threadripper, which will set you back about 4 Grand US apparently...
Anyways, I am genuinely curious. I know that Daz Studio doesn't really leverage multiple cores that well for common tasks, but for CPU based rendering, it uses whatever it can, to some point...
This question is more for the 3Delight folks around here, but also applies to Iray.
Is there/if so what is the maximum number of threads that Daz can use for Rendering in 3Delight?
And is there/if so what is the thread count limit for CPU based Iray rendering?
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I've always read the version of 3Delight in Daz Studio is unlimited... as many cores as you can throw at it with the limitation being it must all work on one PC. No networking.
Both used all 24 threads on my Ryzen 3900X
how do you know how many it uses?
16/32 used during rendering. I have a threadripper first gen
I use a 980ti for rendering (970 for monitors), and when Studio falls back to CPU, the CPU does a decent job. It takes about 3 times as long as a the 980ti does when it can render a scene. Of course, it falls to CPU, then it's just an expensive paperweight.
Confirmed at the AMD Press event.
Threadripper 3990X. 64 Cores, 288MB cache, 2.9 Gh Base/4.3 Boost, $3995, February 7th, 2020.
There's some rumormill speculation about a 48 core version as well, but it was not mentioned at the event. Of course, if you are already looking at spending more than $2000 on a CPU, might as well spend $4000 on 64 cores I guess...
Thanks for the comments so far! Has anyone here used a Threadripper 3970X for rendering yet, and if so how does it compare? I'm also curious about the 2990WX, for academic reasons - the 2990WX has unique issues r.e. memory access that the 3970X avoids by moving the memory controller to the IO die.
Someone posted system results with a 2990WX system sporting multple Nvidia GPUs in the Iray benchmark thread a while back, but they never benched the CPU by itself as far as I know. I did ask...
There's also the 56 core Xeon systems. I'm guessing no one here has one of those, as they can get rather pricey...
Anyways, yeah just wondering if anyone with really high core counts has done Daz Studio CPU renders with them, for 3Delight and of course Iray. The theoretical maximum is all fine and good, but real life usage cases, i.e. if the app crashes regularly at some point core count wise, well it's good to know.
Any more anectodal experiences?
https://i.redd.it/380kw2h3m8941.jpg
iRay can handle at least 64 cores. I tried a render on a dual 7742 rack we have at work. the render used all of one CPU but none of the other. This usually means the software doesn't understand NUMA, usually because it was compiled with libraries that don't support NUMA.
So a 3990X, which is just a modified 7742, should render in iRay just fine.
@nicstt you got iRay to render on TR 1000 using all cores? That would require NUMA as well. Now I'm confused. More testing is called for next time I have a rack open for me to mess with.
So we now have a 3970X 32 core 7nm Threadripper result for the benchmark database. It's putting up similar numbers to a GTX 1080, i.e. around 11-12 minutes, but of course it won't be as memory constrained depending on how much system ram you install...
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/5304271/#Comment_5304271
This might bode very well for the upcoming 3990X launch in the next few days... A 64 core threadripper may be able to give some of the lower end RTX cards a run for their money, i.e. around 6-8 minutes using the benchmark above, but of course for 4 grand US, you'd probably be much better off with multiple RTX 2080 Ti's...
If you are working with very large scenes fairly often though... well the RTX Titan and Quadro cards might fill the bill, and may or may not be cheaper. The 3990X Threadripper might be useful for other parts of your workload as well of course, if you have that kind of money to spend...
If you are doing 3Delight, though, well the successful 3970X result is promising!
....2,500$ will get you an RTX titan with 24GB which less than the TR 3990X costs..
...yeah I still have the specs somewhere for a dual CPU render box using two E5-2698V3 Xeons (16c/32t) and 128 GB of memory.
Yea, I had the same thing back in the day.. the easiest option I found was to run two instances of DS.. if you really wanted to max it out.
But now, it's a moot point it's mostly GPU based.
I have a AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8 core/16 thread & intel i7-3630QM 4 core/8 thread and whether running a 3DL render or a iRay render, all 8/16 or all 4/8 cores are used unless I change core usage affinity in the Windows Task Manager or via a DAZ Studio startup shortcut that changes affinity.
So the 'core weirdness' is back, thanks to Windows 10... at least with the 3990X 64 core Threadripper:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/15483/amd-threadripper-3990x-review/3
Short form, you may want to grab Windows 10 Enterprise for this particular CPU... and even then in a very limited number of usage cases you might be better off disabling SMT.
Linux is not similarly burdened with this of course:
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=3990x-threadripper-linux&num=1
It'd be really nice if Daz3D the company would just make a Linux port for 64 bit Daz Studio at this point. Linux LOVES HEDT processors! Yeah, I check the Linux thread on this forum occasionally, and last I checked it's still not a straightforward kinda thing to get Daz Studio working in Linux. Is '32 bit version only' still one of the recommended workarounds?
The 3990X isn't scaling quite as well with a number of workloads as I was expecting. I certainly wasn't expecting 2x, but below 1.5x in some cases is noteworthy. Still does rather well with various rendering benchmarks, depending on the benchmark/software in question.
Anyways, if you are actually considering a 3990X, both of those reviews are worthwhile reads. At this point, I'll probably go with the 3970X with no regrets, as it 'just works' af full load with no such issues in Daz Studio, based on the usage case that has been shared in the Daz Studio Benchmarks thread.
I'd still like to see a 3990X with Daz Studio usage case though, if said brave soul is willing to share their results. I'm guessing that you might need to run 2 instances of Daz Studio to get 'full usage' of the 128 threads, based on Ian's experiments in the Anandtech review, but of course I don't really know at this point .
There are relatively few workloads that can use so many threads. Rendering and some scientific compute are pretty much it. Even for rendering you need a renderer that is really optimized for CPU rendering which leaves iRay out. OTOH folks who render in Vray or Cycles for a living are likely snatching these up as fast as they can. It may not be twice as fast as a 3970 but even at 1.5 that's still a lot more renders per year.
I think the biggest use case will be in professional VFX houses. Put these on the desktop not to do full renders, far cheaper and faster to do that on server hardware (image a dual 7742 with multiple RTX Quadros), but to let the artist do test renders. Check the lighting and poses etc. quickly without putting the render in the server queue. But in that world time is money and they are more than willing to spend the kind of money these workstations will cost to get more productivity out of their artists.