CPU for Terragen

[visualaspirant]

Among the multitude of CPU options out there, are there any consistent favorites for rendering Terragen animations on?

I'm looking to expand beyond my 6-core mid-level AMD (FX 6200) CPU based tower and several year old dual core Macbook pro. I've got the TG3 animation pro license to render on my workstation + 5 other render nodes/machines.

Like many of you, I'm not made of money so I'm looking to just get some more horsepower on the cheap for now.

I'm looking at either purchasing 4-5 towers that would be average specs, likely refurbished models, and enable me to just line them up and send a fraction of the frames of a project to each in addition to rendering on my main machine when I'm not working on it.

Or, I've found that some people build their own renders nodes with these rather innovative builds like this: http://www.helmer-air.com/

I'm open to dedicating more money if I can start small, perhaps build 1-2 powerful nodes and expand as I can maybe. Thoughts on these options?

[archonforest]

Get some older Xeon quad CPUs. They are pretty cheap these days.

[TheBadger]

You should check the bench mark page!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eX9Ltn3_9BjsamA0Pxeflv5AKrjkgViEY8VuetB8e3k/edit?pli=1#gid=1964613224

& stuff
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,18982.0.html

Memory becomes very very important if you are going to be using lots and lots of objects and populations. Or high polly objects, even raw sculpts. But basically, you can do whatever you want if you have the memory, TG won't crash for use of too many objects or too high of a polly count. In this respect (among others) TG is very stable if your specs support what you are after.

I have 32GB and find that more would be welcome. But I tend to try and muscle through rendering even when I know there are tricks of the trade that would reduce memory need. You may not want to work that way.

[visualaspirant]

That is fantastic stuff. Thanks for pointing those out to me.

[Oshyan]

The current "sweet spot" for price/performance seems to be either a high clock speed 4 core i7, or a 6 core i7.

- Oshyan

[visualaspirant]

Thanks for the tips. I went ahead and picked up a i7-5820k and will build a system around it. Probably not going to build several render nodes at present, but the prospect of seeing my current system do the benchmark test at 15+ mins and the 5820K chip systems doing it in 5-6 mins, just building a new machine with this CPU will be almost like I'm buying 3 more of the current 6-core mid/entry level AMD tower I have.

I'm not a terribly clever fellow, but my ideas for Terragen animations come faster than I can render them in 1080p. The gear lust for more rendering power is in full effect.

[Hetzen]

I've got the 5820 chip in my workstation. It's a good machine. I think you've spent well.

I looked into a dual xeon workstation with 12 cores per chip, after looking at the benchmarks I'd get 3 times the rendering power at 4 times the cost of a 5820 render node system.

[Oshyan]

Yeah, having a dual CPU machine is awesome, but it's not the most cost-effective way to get maximum render performance. Especially if you're doing animations. Get a 5820k and do a little overclocking with a decent, affordable air cooler, and you'll have very respectable render times at a very affordable price.

- Oshyan

[visualaspirant]

Appreciate all the input. i7-5820K is in hand, and everything else is on order, or soon to be. I opted for just 16GB of memory for now. Can easily upgrade to 32GB if needed. Or leapfrog to 64GB if a fit of madness takes me. Apparently the motherboard I'm getting supports 128GB. Heh. Watch out Terragen 4, I'll be ready for you!

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/visualaspirant/saved/#view=ZF3p99

I look forward to the horsepower this setup will give me. Resisting the urge to get a big fat nVidia card to run some Battlefront soon. No doubt, I'll talk myself into needing it for Cycles within Blender.

[visualaspirant]

I went ahead and opted to get 32GB ram instead of 16GB. What are the biggest drivers for needing more ram? Maybe I am fine with 16GB...?

[TheBadger]

I went ahead and opted to get 32GB ram instead of 16GB. What are the biggest drivers for needing more ram? Maybe I am fine with 16GB...?

Importing files to TG... Geometry, textures, sequences. And populating. At least these are the most common causes of hitting memory limits.