The ultimate Terragen machine(s)

[WAS]

Since I first posted this question almost a year ago I'd like to ask if there are any new recommendations for workstation hardware?  We're looking to buy a couple new computers in the next couple of months, and I'd like to spec them out for optimum TG performance.

Thanks,
Niel

Have you looked at the AMD RYZEN family...that's where I'm heading I think. Would love their ThreadRipper but a bit beyond my pension heh heh heh

Yeah it seems that threadripper fairs nicely with Terragen, to say the least. At least judging by what little feedback we've seen. Can't wait for terragen to have it's own benchmark statistics either in TXT or watermark form to go along with renders. Some sort of "Advanced" checkbox to hit or something.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-threadripper-2-vs-intel-skylake-x,5727.html?utm_source=th-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180815-th

I'm considering this:
AMD TR 1920X 12 / 24
3.5 / 4.2 speed 64 L3 CACHE
64 (4 to PCH)
Quad DDR4-2667
180W $399 $33 price per core

That's a pretty good setup to consider. Also nice thread with Tom's Hardware. Though it's good to note Intel does NOT use "standard" thermal paste. They use TIM. Ceramic. Far from "standard".

And I still would not advise water cooling for intensive rendering unless you're in a hot environment. You'll get much faster heat dissipation with cool air and forced air radiators. When the radiator is warm, and gets warmer from a spike, it takes that water a while to continuously cycle, and cool down via the fan on the radiator. Water cooling is good for things that have an average load. Like gaming. When things begin to spike around, different heavy processes take over after last, it's really good to have quick a quick thermal gradient threshold.

There is also accidents and failure rate. While failure rate may be 1-2%, accidents are the top killer. My friend just lost his whole mobo to "bump" with his knee getting out of his computer chair. Didn't notice a tiny leak and it fried over-night. Though this instance may just be a combination of a failing seal and the bump combined with pressure in the active system. 

[Oshyan]

Threadripper is probably still the best value for high-end rendering, however the new 32 core CPU sadly has some issues that may or may not affect Terragen rendering (I would guess not, but we don't have one to test, so take that with a grain of salt). Even if it doesn't affect Terragen, it could affect your other workloads (though if it's a dedicated rendering machine it might still be a good bet):
https://www.techspot.com/review/1678-amd-ryzen-threadripper-2990wx-2950x/

It seems like with the issues of the 2990, that the 2950 is the better bet at the moment for a broad range of tasks. It's at the right price and slightly improves on the performance of last year's 1950x 16 core CPU.

- Oshyan

[ajcgi]

Threadripper is probably still the best value for high-end rendering, however the new 32 core CPU sadly has some issues that may or may not affect Terragen rendering (I would guess not, but we don't have one to test, so take that with a grain of salt). Even if it doesn't affect Terragen, it could affect your other workloads (though if it's a dedicated rendering machine it might still be a good bet):
https://www.techspot.com/review/1678-amd-ryzen-threadripper-2990wx-2950x/

It seems like with the issues of the 2990, that the 2950 is the better bet at the moment for a broad range of tasks. It's at the right price and slightly improves on the performance of last year's 1950x 16 core CPU.

- Oshyan

Ah man that is a shame. Not sure I'd buy one just to test TG. Maybe if there's an impromptu lottery win.

[N-drju]

That being said, it is clear our hardware is in need of an upgrade to better work with Terragen.  Most of our workstations are dual proc Xeon machines with 64GB of memory, Quadro K5000 or 6000 video cards...

For real...? Man, you really should be ashamed to advertise you dissatisfaction with such an equipment! I'd just love to have a set like this for rendering! Just send it over, when you no longer need it!

[D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)]

Speaking of the Threadripper 1950X, does anyone else have one that can let me know if you see yours turbo up from the 3.4 GHz base clock to the full 4.0 GHz?  Mine only turbos up to about 3.6GHz,  In fact I have never seen it hit 3.7GHz, so I tinkered around in the BIOS to check the settings, but didn't find anything that would limit it from going full throttle.  I even tried Prime95 on just two threads to see if it would hit 4.0 but no it didn't.  Its a water cooled rig so heat isn't a problem,  Only got up to 68C. 

I wonder if I would get better TG4 performance if I turn off the AMD threading technology (Intel Hyper-threading Equivalent), so I only have 16 logical cores, to match the 16 physical.

Derek

[digitalguru]

I got mine to 3.8 GHz, I'd have to look into the bios tomorrow to see exactly how I did it :-) (after doing a bit of research on overclocking - I'm no expert!)

I think I might have turned off the turbo to get this working - but not entirely sure so don't take this as read right now.

And the trick is to get a good clock speed with the right amount of voltage to keep it stable - again I'd have t look that up.

I kept it to 3.8 as testing it with a lengthy Terragen render (and various benchmark tests that max out the CPU) hit 68C for CPU temp (with a Corsair AIO water cooler)

In our recent UK heatwave, the temps were going over 72C - so I throttled back the number of CPUs. Now we're back to "normal" UK weather it seems fine again

Actually, I'm a little hazy on this 68C Max temp for the Threadripper - is that an absolute ceiling? Some say yes - others don't.

If it is I might try throttling back to 3.7 and maybe a little less voltage to give myself some headroom - any ideas? (on what the safe max temp is...)

I wonder if I would get better TG4 performance if I turn off the AMD threading technology (Intel Hyper-threading Equivalent), so I only have 16 logical cores, to match the 16 physical.

That's not going to help - it's all about the overclock

[D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)]

Thanks for the tips Digital Guru!  I'll probably just stick with what I have as far as settings, since I don't want to overclock a PC that's not mine (It's a company Workstation).  I just wanted to know if the 1950X was behaving normally, since I am used to Intel Xeon and i7 CPU's that Turbo up to and sometimes beyond spec automatically in Windows 10.  For example, my Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz is supposed to only Turbo up to 3.7 GHz, but sometimes I see it going up to 3.9, or even 4.0 GHz with all Auto settings (no manual overclocking).

[masonspappy]

Tor example, my Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz is supposed to only Turbo up to 3.7 GHz, but sometimes I see it going up to 3.9, or even 4.0 GHz with all Auto settings (no manual overclocking).

I wouldn't pay too much attention to those unusually high speeds if they only last a few seconds. Usually it's because the speed is either increasing or decreasing which for a very brief period of time can confuse the measurement circuitry.

[digitalguru]

I'm very happy with mine at 3.8 ghz _ I don't think there's much mileage in getting up to 4.0, from what I've read over-clocking to 3.7/8 is the sweet spot and then there's the law of diminishing returns after.

Even at 3.6 it's still a monster machine and could seriously compete in the Terragen benchmark.

[astrofalcon]

Has anybody had a chance to test terragen with the new threadripper 2 2990wx?

I'm building a system with this new 32 core chip but now I'm worried that terragen won't take advantage of all the cores...

- Shawn

[D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)]

Has anybody had a chance to test terragen with the new threadripper 2 2990wx?

I'm building a system with this new 32 core chip but now I'm worried that terragen won't take advantage of all the cores...

- Shawn

I wouldn't worry.  From what I've read you can use at least 36 cores, and the core limit issue may have gotten resolved already.
https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,23930

My work machine is a 16 core Threadripper, and I hope to build a 32 core TR2 for my next home computer, so I am curious about this too.

Derek

[Tangled-Universe]

Hi Derek,

Did you already perform the Terragen 3 Benchmark with your Threadripper?
I would be really interested in knowing your result on that benchmark, so if you haven't done it yet, would you be willing to perform it for me?
I suppose the guys at Planetside are very interested as well, since pretty much everything is Intel so far.

Cheers,

Martin

[D.A. Bentley (SuddenPlanet)]

Hi Derek,

Did you already perform the Terragen 3 Benchmark with your Threadripper?
I would be really interested in knowing your result on that benchmark, so if you haven't done it yet, would you be willing to perform it for me?
I suppose the guys at Planetside are very interested as well, since pretty much everything is Intel so far.

Cheers,

Martin

The spreadsheet does show one Threadripper near the top with a time of 2:39s rendered with TG4.1.18:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eX9Ltn3_9BjsamA0Pxeflv5AKrjkgViEY8VuetB8e3k/edit#gid=1964613224

I just downloaded the TG3 benchmark scene and rendered it with TG4.2.10 and got a time of 2:20s.

[attachimg=1]

Derek

[Matt]

4.2 is a bit faster than 4.1 Which is great, but it confuses the benchmark table