L'Ancien Regime

Oh and this just came out;

Good question. Back years ago here I was pretty obsessed with CUDA but after much questioning around here the verdict was that while implemented it wasn't being updated and that Andrew didn't feel it was really that worthwhile for the performance it gave. Now I may be wrong on this, and the real experts here may come and give me a good slap for spreading misinformation but that's my own recollection (from a conversation years ago). If the NAVI comes out soon enough and really is the equivalent of a RTX 2070 for half the price I am so there. Final rendering is best done by CPU's period.

Thanks. Good to hear that your new rig is up and running; I'm without a viable modeling/texturing computer right now and I'm just waiting on the release of those AMD Radeon 3080's... It totally sucks not being able to work in 3d coat etc. as you can well imagine.

Which specific motherboard did you get? What GPU are you using with that?

After years of slow development things are just going crazy.

The thing that's blowing my mind isn't just that you'll be able to get 16/32 cores/threads at 5.1ghz but that the prices are so damn cheap. Intel would rape your wallet brutally if they could offer those specs on a CPU without competition. With the rapid fall in SSD prices and cheap high quality X399 motherboards, the only fly in the ointment is this annoying GPU problem holding things up. Buy a cheap hot noisy RADEON with crappy drivers or pay an arm and a leg for a new NVIDIA GPU that's going to turn into a brick on you the day after the warranty elapses? By the way I've a related question for all you Radeon owners out there; as someone who really doesn't care that much about gaming ( I do game a bit but it's sort of spiritually empty I find) I'm more concerned about how they work out for both interactive vs final production renders. I've heard AMD cards are actually better than NVidia cards in this department. Is this the way to go? I mean 16 GB of HBM VRAM.... https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Radeon-Frontier-Liquid-Retail/dp/B072XLR2K7 "Fantastic card! Using it for 3D modeling and rendering in Maya, Max and other CAD software. Performance is astounding! Big step up from the Quadro 4000. Handles hundreds of thousands of object with tens of millions of polys without a sweat in Maya. Great features for Pro users like 10 bit color, 4 monitor ports, 16GB VRAM, Pro app settings via the pro drivers etc... " https://blog.maxwellrender.com/news/maxwell-4-gpu-frequently-asked-questions/ This is a pretty good article on all the considerations for GPU vs CPU rendering. Is it even worth worrying about a Provisional Render on a GPU if you've got a 32 or 64 thread CPU that can handle ray tracing, SSS, caustics more comprehensively and faster?

Speaking of Arnold GPU ...

I assume all modeling tools only use one or two threads at most, like most games. Multi cores are for rendering, and cooking up new textures. You're going to have a blast with Substance Designer and whatever render engine you use with all those threads and render buckets.

Everything about buying a new computer is dirt cheap right now...EXCEPT the GPU and that's turning out to be insane. 1080Ti's are like $1600 Canadian new. Insane. I hope they solve this problem fast so I can get a decent 2070 at a reasonable price. Or maybe just go buy a Titan V (Volta) for $5400 Canadian???

http://www.cgchannel.com/2018/11/alexey-vanzhula-makes-flux-1-0-available-free/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cgchannel%2FnHpU+(CG+Channel+-+Entertainment+Production+Art) Link to free download; https://gumroad.com/alexeyvanzhula Tools developer Alexey Vanzhula has made Flux 1.0, his real-time Boolean and retopology tool, formerly sold for $100, available to download for free. The toolset was developed for Houdini, but is provided as a Houdini Digital Asset (HDA), which should make it possible to use in other DCC software via Houdini Engine. Like Modo’s MeshFusion in Houdini On its release last year, Vanzhula described Flux as being “like MeshFusion in Modo”, in reference to Modo’s own real-time Boolean modelling plugin, since incorporated into the core application. The software is designed to enable users to create complex Boolean assemblies non-destructively, seeing the results of any changes made to the model hierarchy updated in real time. Flux has since been superseded by the Soft Booleans system in Direct Modeling, Vanzhula’s newest product, which he describes in his forum post announcing the release as creating better topology. However, unlike Direct Modeling, Flux features a retopology toolset: its retopology widget enables any Houdini modelling tool to be used with the software’s TopoBuild SOP. There are also ‘simple tools’ for remeshing volumes in VDB format and baking geometry. Availability and system requirements Flux is available free for Houdini 16.0 and 16.5 only. It should also work in other DCC applications, including Maya and Cinema 4D, via Houdini Engine. If you like Flux and want to support development of future tools, you can support Vanzhula on Patreon.

Here's a Cyber Monday deal; https://www.amazon.de/AMD-506048-Radeon-GDDR5-Grafikkarte-Grafikkarten-GDDR5-Speicher/dp/B072HTFZM4/ref=pd_sbs_147_8?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B072HTFZM4&pd_rd_r=74fd97f1-efd1-11e8-8f7c-734f98c58a09&pd_rd_w=XapA4&pd_rd_wg=qoyfR&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_p=51bcaa00-4765-4e8f-a690-5db3c9ed1b31&pf_rd_r=0KF4GHNEC5CTHKK8QQ6H&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=0KF4GHNEC5CTHKK8QQ6H Really, really wanted to like this card, but... The PROs... Cosmetically, it's a handsome looking card in a stately, blockish, and rather plain looking blue and black metal casing ---- I prefer its looks to all of the nonsensical glowing and flashing LED frenzy provided by so many other graphics cards ---- I don't need the name of a graphics card lit up while it sits inside of a computer case where I'm not going to be looking at it. Feature wise, the combination of two GPUs, each with it's own 16GB of video memory for a total of 32GB just screams "value" at you, especially given the $900 to $1000 price. The CONs... This card all too easily becomes insanely hot!!! Just give it enough to do, and especially something involving both GPUs, and within a mere minute or two, the all-metal outer casing on this card will become so hot that you actually cannot touch it. In fact, I found this thing became so hot that I considered whether I should put it by itself in one of those external GPU boxes linked by Thunderbolt 3, because I was afraid of it cooking chips underneath it on the motherboard and cooking other cards in neighboring slots. I decided I wanted to at least quantify this issue by getting a temperature read from it, but for some reason, AMD's "Radeon Pro" driver software does not seem to include any way to provide any information about the card's temperature ---- I poked all around the menus looking for something that will tell me something about the condition of the card, but there was nothing. ---- WHY IS THAT? I really, really wanted to like this card, but I have to say DO NOT BUY ---- at least not until something is done about this problem! I thought we were supposed to be enjoying the benefits of progress! Tons of memory and decent clocks for a professional card. However, the secondary GPU on mine refused to run anywhere close to the clock of the primary, maxing out at 400Mhz for some reason. Not sure why; and I received 0 response from AMD on the matter. And the prices on the 1080Ti's are out of this world..I guess everyone has figured out that the 2000 series is a bust or something so they can still command insane prices on the 1080ti's. https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=1080ti And no hope on the horizon from NAVI 7nm?

Nope that's one of the threadrippers. Congrats. What mobo will you use for it. My EE friend recommended that MSI’s new X399 Creation motherboard that I listed. And that price is the same....you got yours for $344 USD, that's $424.99 CDN.