upgrade from GeForce 7800 GTX 256mb to EVGA GeForce GTX 1060
snowsnow77
Posts: 101
Hi,
Hope this is a quick question. Will I notice any difference in render quality or only shorter render times and less draw on my system resources if I upgrade from my current GeForce 7800 GTX 256mb to a EVGA GeForce GTX 1060. The new card will work with my current motherboard configuration.
The current card renders most scenes in 10 to 15 minutes, but it slows the pc down to a crawl, sometimes a stop.
I am running 8 gigs of ram now, I will need to change the operating system before i can add more.
What should I expect for just the graphics card change?
Thanks
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Most definitely. I went from nVidia 760m on a laptop to nVidia 1080Ti on a desktop. The difference was between night and day. Quality renders that took up 16 hours now only took between 30 minutes or 2 hours depending on the settings. I can now adjust the model in iRay view with greater ease where as before it was impossible. Any of the cards in the nVidia 10' series such 1050, 1060, 1070 anc 1080 will give you a performance boost espically if the gap between the card you are going from is much older.
Which EVGA GeForce GTX 1060, as they come in both 3GB and 6GB VRAM versions (and I believe there are also some 5GB 1060s, although I can't remember if EVGA does that model) and speaking as someone using a 4GB 1050 Ti (the most that can actually fit into my case, as I need a half-height card), you'll struggle to fit any significant scene into 3GB of VRAM. I frequently have to heavily optimise even simple scenes to get them into my VRAM allowance.
If the scene can't fit into VRAM, you're just using the CPU anyway, so the card is fairly irrelevant - as it is, you're almost certainly not fitting anything with modern figures onto a 256MB card, but if you can get a card that can fit the scene and actually render on the GPU, you will notice a massive speed increase.
Its the EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan), 6GB GDDR5, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) 06G-P4-6161-KR
You should be able to fit a reasonable amount on to a card with 6GB of VRAM, so this should give you a very significant render speed increase for small to medium scenes, even with newer figures (although intelligent use of optimisation tools will still help fit them onto the card), or have the option to run the scenes for more samples and thus get clearer images.
Larger scenes with memory hungry assets may still have to drop back to CPU rendering though, so a card with more VRAM would still be preferred if you can budget for it, but this card should still show you significant improvements on many scenes.
Thanks jaxprog and Matt Castle for your help.
I beleiver I will go with this card.
I haven't seen anyone ask, or ask you to ensure your system can run that card.
Make sure first.
PSU (critically important) is not the only device that could be a problem.
What are your system specs? Especially the MB processor & PSU. Also see if you can come up wioth a few more dollars to get a 1070 if you can. More Cuda cores and 8GB of memory.
System specs
500 watt p/s, i5 - 2400@3.10 ghz CPU, Geforce 8400GS graphics card, 8 gb ddr3,Intel DH67BL motherboard and Windows 7 home premium.
Evan if I cant use the GTX 1060 card and am able to find a 2gb card that works with this motherboard and CPU, that would be an improvment over what I have, correct?
I really cant justfie building/buying a $1,500 - $2,000 system just improve my hobby experience.
Thanks
A 2 GB card will be of sufficiently limited use for GPU rendering that I would be hesitant to call it an improvement. It does depend what assets you're using and what scenes you do of course, but speaking as someone who has to struggle with a 4GB card, a 2GB card could well be little better than just throwing the money away as far as Daz Studio is concerned. (It'd be a very decent boost to gaming, but that's not what we're talking about here).
My 4GB card is just about usable, but I wouldn't actually recommend any card with that little VRAM.
Do not get a 2 Gb card for Daz rendering it will be next to useless.
You have enough PSU for the 1060 assuming you have a connector. You should check that you have a 6+2 pcie power cable available. Depending on exactly where your system comes, prebuilt vs. DIY, it may not.
As long as it will physically fit in the case and you power supply has a plug you are pretty much gold here. Being a 1060 neither of those should pose a problem, but it always good to double check. You will see a drastic improvement over what you are used to, and yes you will be most pleased. A 1070 would be even better, but if that is a stretch then don't worry.
I have ordered the 1060 single fan today - no room in the case for double fan length.
Also, increasing RAM to 16 GB, this is the most WIN 7 home premium will recognize.
That sounds pretty solid. The RAM upgrade will help a lot with the overall performance of the PC, too. So I think you will be quite happy.
Just an update — received everything today and got it installed...Wow! what a difference. Scenes that took 15 – 20 minutes before now take 2–4 min minutes. So far well worth the $$$ investment. Thanks again for your help!!
I always recommend a minimum of 6GB. I have 980ti for just rendering and a 970 to drive 3 monitors. Im watching the 20 series debacle (high cost with so far unfulfilled promises) before I make any upgrade decissions.
The trouble with waitingis that Pascal cards will be gone when things finally blow over. The 1080ti and now 1080 are officially out of stock. You might get lucky and find a strangler that was missed, but odds are you will not find a new one.
I know, its a tough choice, really. Should one wait for Turing to come down, or buy Pascal? That is a choice each will have to decide on their own. I decided to buy a used 1080ti after Turing launched. The 2080ti has not shown any price drops, in fact its price has gone up. Worse still, prices will almost certainly go up across the board once the tariffs kick in on Jan 1, 2019.
Personally, I don't care; I can wait. I waited for the 10 series (1080ti), then held off. I always prefer to hang on to my cash, rather than spend it. I'd saved up for an intel performance chip, but was waiting - for years; Threadripper arrived and I jumped on it.
It isn't a case of which should I buy, but should I buy. I'm a tough sell, and companies have to work at getting my cash; even Daz, and that's just about the collecting of shinies. :D.
I can understand that, and like I said, everybody needs to decide for themselves. But I just want people to be aware prices may be going up before they come down, and that might take some time. If you can wait, great. I needed to upgrade pretty bad, myself, so that was why I did what I did. But that will not apply to everybody.