Ultimate Rendering System for Terragen ???

Started by cyphyr, March 17, 2007, 04:10:55 PM

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Dark Fire

Quote from: old_blaggard on March 20, 2007, 01:58:06 PM
Yeah... Apple usually doesn't do that, though.  If you look at their current pages, everything is in honest-to-goodness GB and TB.
Apple regularly make up rubbish about the quality of their security so my suspicion was not totally unfounded...

Quote from: dhavalmistry on March 20, 2007, 02:01:12 PM
sorry guys...my bad....its not computer...it is Xserve (Raid server)

They have changed the page since I last visited about 2 years ago.....

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/canadastore.woa/6564005/wo/x25M2YnROVgD2ZMh8EMjCZRjlxi/2.?p=0
What a shame...

andytw


Dark Fire

The constant flow of information about how much power that thing uses up worries me, but it does look like a good option...

cyphyr

Quote from: andytw on March 21, 2007, 03:31:38 PM
One of these looks like a good option ;D
I wonder if it can be overclocked?

But seriously, I have been trying to work out why Xeons are seen as inferior to their Core 2 Duo cousins for  a graphics workstation. As far as I can see its a historical/symantic issue. Because Xeons in their early development were made for the server market they have never been seen as a good choice for a graphics workstation. In fact, as far as I can tell, Xeons are no differant to the Core 2 Duo, although they do come in more pricey, need specialised RAM (I think) and have the advantage of being able to be mounted on dual socket boards. I'm seriously starting to lean towards a dual socket Xeon system with a stack of ram.

Richard
www.richardfraservfx.com
https://www.facebook.com/RichardFraserVFX/
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Ryzen 9 5950X OC@4Ghz, 64Gb (TG4 benchmark 4:13)

Oshyan

Xeons *were* historically "inferior" for the most performance-demanding applications, especially non-multithreaded ones, because they have generally been lower clocked (including bus speed) as compared to their desktop/workstation brethren. They tended to be upgraded at a slower rate as well. This is all theoretically in the service of maximum stability - more rigorous testing is supposedly done for server-level CPU's and so they clock them lower because fewer of them can pass the rigorous tests at higher speeds. Not sure if I buy that, but there you go.

In any case in the past the disparity between Xeon (server CPU) and desktop CPU's was greater. Now they are based on much closer fundamental architecture and are more on parity in terms of performance. You do pay a good premium for Xeon baseline hardware, but the CPU's seem roughly price-competitive I believe (maybe a slight premium per clock). The thing is with Core 2 Duo and now quads, you can have a dual or quad core system in a workstation case with other normally aspirated components for the same or less than a Xeon system - the Xeon offers little advantage in that case. The only upshot of it is you can pack even more into a Xeon *if* you have the money - e.g. dual quad cores. Me I'd still go for a Core 2 Duo (or quad core if I could afford it), but if you're really interested in Xeon the Mac Pro's may actually be the cheapest way to enter that market from a major retailer (building it yourself may be cheaper).

- Oshyan

king_tiger_666

when amds 4X4 motherboard is released having 2 quad core cpus will make a nice render machine...though its a power hungry setup
<a href="www.hobbies.nzaus.co.nz/">My  Terragen Downloads & Gallery</a>

Oshyan

Yeah, I'd really rather just have an Intel quad core and I question whether there would be much price of performance difference. If you take the cost of the whole system into account the 4x4 is going to need a bigger PSU and probably more expensive motherboard, so it is almost bound to cost more unless you use pretty cheap X2's in it.

- Oshyan

MeltingIce

I don't know about you guys... but I could go for this: http://cray.com/products/x1e/specifications.html

1024 CPU's, 18.4 TFLOPS, and 4TB of RAM could come in handy I think  :P

Now to find somewhere to place all those cabinets...

MeltingIce Network | Wii Number: 3881 9574 8304 0277

Cyber-Angel

Umm, a Cray X1E Supercomputer isn't that called over kill? Not to mention the cost, the power requirement's (Dedicated substation I would think) then there are considerations such as space, having the floor reinforced, the noise and HVAC considerations.

As to the Tyan PSC I have come across these before and if you could get TG2 to run on one that would be sweet render times would be reduced by orders of magnitude, but I don't think TG2 was coded with parallel computing in mind, or even if you could run it on a cluster?

Regards to you.

Cyber-Angel   

MeltingIce

Haha I know, I just thought I would throw a massive supercomputer in here for varieties sake.

MeltingIce Network | Wii Number: 3881 9574 8304 0277

andytw

Another option which should run Terragen quite well (if it can utilise all 16 cores).

Note that while it is aimed at the server market, it can be configured as a workstation with (up to) Quadro X2 graphics.
It could be interesting if it compatible with AMD's Quad core Opterons (when released) giving a handy 32 cores to play with.

dhavalmistry

Quote from: andytw on March 22, 2007, 06:22:21 PM
Another option which should run Terragen quite well (if it can utilise all 16 cores).

Note that while it is aimed at the server market, it can be configured as a workstation with (up to) Quadro X2 graphics.
It could be interesting if it compatible with AMD's Quad core Opterons (when released) giving a handy 32 cores to play with.

lol....thats some POWER!!!

starting price £5500  :o :o
"His blood-terragen level is 99.99%...he is definitely drunk on Terragen!"

king_tiger_666

#27
that thing would cost a arm and a leg to power, its for 4 psu's....

also the top end one is £18000...

maybe something like this. the top of the line by tyan, 10 quad core cpu's...
http://www.tyanpsc.com/Products/ProductDetail/tabid/64/Default.aspx?id=5&data=1
<a href="www.hobbies.nzaus.co.nz/">My  Terragen Downloads & Gallery</a>

VorpalBlade

dhav, you single handedly reduced my system to a pocket calculator, I'll never feel adequate again  :'(

cyphyr

Interesting that all these uber machines are all Tyan, isn't anyone else making something in this league?
Richard
www.richardfraservfx.com
https://www.facebook.com/RichardFraserVFX/
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Ryzen 9 5950X OC@4Ghz, 64Gb (TG4 benchmark 4:13)