I’m very disappointed with my score - almost 20 minutes with best tile settings (used Auto Tile Size add-on)
I’m using an iMac 5k late 2014:
3,5 GHz Intel Core i5
24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2048 MB
I though that with this GPU and memory it should be WAY more faster. Are there any options I can implement to speed it up? Consider buying eGPU?
Why are you using a GPU to render with? First mistake. Unless you have a Titan card of some sort (except for low-end 1050-like Ti–not sure why they even added the Ti to it considering how bad it is), It’ll be way faster to render with a CPU with what you got. Set it to 16x16 tiles with the CPU since yours is a multi-core. There are other ways to speed it up, sure. Try that first, before trying anything else. If still not happy, I’ll be glad to provide you with alternatives.
Thank you for your reply. I assumed that GPU would be a better option because it is used fro graphics mainly.
I’m going to make archiwz and also I want to come into VR - should I consider buying egpu? If yes - what would you suggest: 4gb/8gb graphics card?
No problem.
A GPU is good for rendering, yes, but not for rendering something as detailed as this when your GPU is weak. In games, you generally don’t want anything to have a high polygon count (above ~50k or something) because it’ll bog down the graphics card’s ability to render that item–this is why they do retopology on sculpted items; furthermore, a graphics card renders stuff in an engine differently because everything is loaded into memory and calculation for lighting and the like is pre-compiled, all unlike Blender (you can see on loading screens of games that they do this). For Blender, as I understand, this stuff is in the raw and everything is done at time of rendering. The advantage here is that you can take any complicated object and render it out successfully while mimicking real-world physics for lighting, fog, cloth, etc.
Now, I must ask, what is “archiwz”? If you’re working with VR, there is no difference. I see no reason why you must have an EGPU in general, but if you intend to get a power-house-of-a-card, then the consensus seems to be that it helps. Also, make sure you have a “thunderbolt port” if you ever decide to get it for your computer. As for memory, if you intend to make high-poly models and high-resolution stuff, you’ll probably want to have as much memory as you can get (8gb) because you already have a lot of RAM and you don’t want to be running out of one when the other has plenty of space. There is another thing… you should read this and look at the charts at what difference GPU can make vs CPU.
Then decide for yourself.