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Hello all! I'm looking for help with a system build. Usually I go for the tech report system guides sweeter spot, but I'm not sure when an update will be made. I was thinking for sure this summer I'd see one but with the website change I figure why not try out asking for help. Last build I did was 2015. I might reuse my Corsair Obsidian Series 750D case

I need a pc that can run Zbrush, 3d studio max, Maya, Substance Painter, Photoshop, and Keyshot really well. These can all be pretty intensive programs so I'm thinking this'll run me around 3k which is fine I'm also ok waiting a bit if there's something I should probably be looking forward to that I'm unware of :3

AMD's $750 Ryzen R9 3950X (16 cores / 32 threads) has been announced for September to top the range of socket-AM4 desktop CPUs. Beyond that, we've got mostly rumors about Intel's Cascade Lake-X and AMD's 3rd generation Threadripper High-End DeskTop (HEDT) processors arriving toward the end of this year and Intel's Comet Lake-S desktop processors coming at the beginning of next year. Ice Lake-S desktop processors are purportedly still a year away.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

AMD's $750 Ryzen R9 3950X (16 cores / 32 threads) has been announced for September to top the range of socket-AM4 desktop CPUs. Beyond that, we've got mostly rumors about Intel's Cascade Lake-X and AMD's 3rd generation Threadripper High-End DeskTop (HEDT) processors arriving toward the end of this year and Intel's Comet Lake-S desktop processors coming at the beginning of next year. Ice Lake-S desktop processors are purportedly still a year away.

Ok, this sounds seriously awesome! Looks like I'm waiting till September Thanks for the heads up on that!

The folks at Puget Systems test with the kinds of applications that you're wanting to run. My expectation is that the upcoming desktop Ryzen R9 3950X CPU will provide better bang for the buck, but the High-End Desktop (Cascade Lake-X and Ryzen Threadripper) processors will provide top performance if you're willing to spend thousands of dollars more to get it.

Is that 3K budget inclusive or exclusive of GPU?

K-L-Waster wrote:

Is that 3K budget inclusive or exclusive of GPU?

Yeah, even then that's a lot more than the OP will probably need.

DragonDaddyBear wrote:

K-L-Waster wrote:

Is that 3K budget inclusive or exclusive of GPU?

Yeah, even then that's a lot more than the OP will probably need.

Depends -- the 3D modelling packages the OP mentioned can leverage some pretty serious GPU power. (A Titan could eat up the 3K on its own, and if you start talking a Quadro card, well....)

Where I was going with this more though was whether to recommend waiting for 3rd Gen ThreadRippers to come out or to stick with R9 3900 or 3950. If the GPU is part of the budget the R9 system makes more sense, but if the 3K is just for the CPU / Mobo / RAM / ancillaries then a TR system would provide more overall performance for heavy 3D apps.

Benchmarks for engineering samples of AMD's 7 nm 3rd-generation Threadripper and Intel's 14+++++ nm Cascade Lake-X High-End DeskTop (HEDT) CPUs have started to leak out:
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/ne ... e-incoming

Thinking about going a bit crazy here and just putting together this build https://techbuyersguru.com/5000-ultra-extreme-gamingcontent-creation-pc-build
The Ryzen r9 3950x is like....impossible to find in stock. Seems like the threadripper 3960x might be worth the money too, and it'd be super helpful with rendering since I'm planning to take Kris Costa's class soon and will need the kick. What do you guys think? Any red flags? Worth it?

10-bit color was one of the things that you used to need a Quadro for. Not anymore:

https://www.videomaker.com/news/nvidia- ... -in-adobe/

organizedchaos wrote:

Thinking about going a bit crazy here and just putting together this build https://techbuyersguru.com/5000-ultra-extreme-gamingcontent-creation-pc-build
The Ryzen r9 3950x is like....impossible to find in stock. Seems like the threadripper 3960x might be worth the money too, and it'd be super helpful with rendering since I'm planning to take Kris Costa's class soon and will need the kick. What do you guys think? Any red flags? Worth it?

That is a lot of money for a system: I would only recommend going this route if you are confident you can actually generate revenue with it (in which case the faster render speeds can improve profitability). If you're buying this for a hobby / taking classes, you may want to dial it back. Everything here definitely looks capable, but to me this really would only be justifiable if I was solidly in the Time==Money camp.

I'm not sure if the 3960x is any easier to find in stock than the 3950x, but it would give you 50% more cores which would definitely help with rendering.

I'd question whether you need 2x 4TB SSDs -- could save a fair bit of money by getting a single smaller SSD and maybe a spinning disk if you need mass storage.

Haha, it's ok I've been a character artist for a little over 10 years, I don't have to do freelance currently but if I ever get caught up in layoffs for some reason it's nice to have a good computer.... and better to buy one now when I have a job. Kris Costa's class isn't so much for learning how to do things as it is staying competitive, he has some of the best portrait work around. Good call on the drives, I'll probably just get one of them. I don't think I'd buy the keyboard and what not as well. The 3960x you can at least get in preorder, the 3950x you can't even do that, so there's that.

We're at a crossroads. NVidia has implemented RTX Raytracing into Blender Cycles 2.81. GPU-based 3d modeling is nearing mainstream.

For now, big, beefy CPUs remain a good investment. But keep track of news, GPU-rendering will likely get more flexible and useful, very quickly, in the next couple of years (or even months).