Threadripper and trainz

constar261

Active member
I have been recently fooling around with upgrading to threadripper 1950x for my trainz and blender render pc as a possible can anyone give me some advice on the matter?
 
As in - "Will it run T:ANE?" - Absolutely. Overkill? Possibly.
But for Blender Rendering? Tops!
 
while i was building my erie pacific i began to notice how many windows i needed up with trainz tane and ts12 plus the internet tabs and blender along with image editing. It seems that many tasks require some decent hardware something better then my fx 9590 the upside is that i have a gigabyte aourus x 1080ti currenlty.
 
Yup - If you're frequently multi-tasking like that with demanding image editing/ rendering software, browser(s), utilities, plus multiple instances of T:ANE and TS12 open, then a seriously multi-threaded CPU like Threadripper 1950X (coupled, we'd hope, with copious amounts of DDR4 and a decent graphics card - also with adequate GDDR5X or HBM2, etc.) will be desirable.
My only reservation with the current generation of AMD CPUs, including Threadripper, is their relatively low IPC throughput compared to (enthusiast versions of) Intel chips, which impacts their gaming-chops somewhat. 2nd gen Ryzen and Threadripper parts may well be much more competitive.
Certainly, they are good value for money following the recent price cuts ahead of the anticipated Q2 releases.
 
@PC_Ace what are your current pc specs and what would you recommend?
Your saying wait for gen 2 of threadripper.
 
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We don't explicitly support Threadripper's NUMA so you won't get maximum performance out of that chip family unless it's configured to gaming mode. (I'd personally love to support this properly, but we can't justify upgrading out-of-cycle just for that.)

That said, they're good bang for buck overall so losing a few percent isn't likely to be a big concern for you. They're not quite at intel performance levels on a per-core basis, but since you can afford a lot more cores..

chris
 
Or even for the 2nd gen of the Ryzen 1800X perhaps? The current one blitzes the FX 9590 in both rendering tasks and gaming, despite the much lower base and turbo frequencies on the 1800X:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebCqvOtdPy8

Those old 32nm processors were so inefficient compared to CPUs based on modern 14nm or 10nm dies. (Look at the relative power consumption under load).

The AMD CPU roadmap is hinting at greater efficiencies and higher frequencies in Q2 and 2H for all of the Ryzen and Threadripper series. So worth waiting for, I'd say.

In my own case, I was looking to upgrade my trusty i7-4790k Devil's Canyon @4.6Ghz on an Asus Z97-A mobo with 16Gb of Corsair Vengeance RAM for a 6-core/ 12 thread i7-8700k (8th gen) with all of the requisite system support accessories (such as new mobo, DDR4 memory, etc.) but when I compared the benchmarks when using the same high-end graphics card, there were only marginal differences in favour of the 8700k, that I found it a less-than-compelling upgrade.

The 10-core/ 20 thread i9-7900X requires an even more expensive eco-system and, whilst it is a serious competitor with Threadripper 1950X in gaming and rendering tasks, does not really outclass the i7-8700K in gaming despite its four extra cores.

Accordingly, since my current rig still meets (and sometimes exceeds) my gaming and productivity needs, I'm prepared to wait until the 2nd Gen AMD CPUs are out and independently tested - and will likely hold out still further until I see what Intel come up with next on their genuine 10nm foundry process results in Q4 2018.

A more cost-effective upgrade for me right now would be to simply add a 2nd Asus ROG Strix GTX 1070 OC 8G to my rig and run that in SLI, since I already have an 850W PSU that is barely stretched by all that I throw at it, especially now that I'm doing fewer distributed computing and scientific number-crunching tasks these days.

For you, the decision about which way to go should always be based upon your use-cases: What programs/ applications do you intend to run and what are their mechanical and performance requirements?
Is your current processor meeting your present needs/ anticipated requirements now? Or does it take too long to perform important workflow tasks?
If you're planning on doing a lot of rendering, video and image processing/ scientific computing, serious multi-tasking, etc., then a higher number of concurrent cores and symmetric multithreads is an important consideration.

But for T:ANE right now - and its likely successor(s) - the GPU used is a much more important factor in runtime performance (relative to CPUs) - so your GTX 1080Ti holds you in really good stead there.
Reckon therefore that you too can afford to wait a few more months to see how AMD and Intel further refine and evolve their CPU architectures.
Otherwise, you might be spending more than is needed for barely quantifiable incremental performance gains.
 
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I've been watching this thread with interest because the world is changing - at least for TRS18.

While playing with PBR materials in Substance Painter, my GPU (Gigabyte GTX780Ti) is maxing out it's 3GB memory while rendering changes to the material on which I am working. So, for asset creators who want to make use of these materials, the GPU, and probably CPU, efficiency suddenly becomes very important. In my case, if I change, say a grunge setting in SP, I have to consciously wait until the rendering catches up so I can see the result.

My next choice of CPU, video card, mobo, etc, is more likely to be influenced by the tools I use to create assets than running TANE or TRS18.
 
For about a year now I have been using blender thanks to Mr. Klene and have seen the nature of blender with my current build down below. I was thinking i am not well equipped for my endeavors plus i want to start recording trainz videos for youtube and eventually stream on twitch.

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y2Mq6X
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/y2Mq6X/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - FX-9590 4.7GHz 8-Core OEM/Tray Processor
CPU Cooler: Corsair - H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock - 990FX Extreme9 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance Pro 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Kingston - SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate - 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive
Storage: Seagate - 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Xtreme Edition 11G Video Card
Case: Cooler Master - HAF Stacker 935 ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 1300W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link - TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter
Keyboard: Logitech - G910 Orion Spectrum RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech - G502 Proteus Spectrum Wired Optical Mouse ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Headphones: Logitech - G933 Artemis Spectrum 7.1 Channel Headset ($134.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $394.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-02-04 10:45 EST-0500
 
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