Topic: Help me choose a Graphic Card? PLEASE! :)

[tojonegi]

Hello! I'm fairly new to lumion and Im upgrading my computer to make it compatible with Lumion.
So Im seeking your expert advice. Please guide me
Im confused between R9 280x (3GB) and GTX 970 (4GB)
The other option is GTX 770 (2GB) AMP edition, by ZOTAC

Other Specs are:
16 GB RAM
i5 4440 processor @ 3.1 ghz
ASRock H81M-HDS motherboard, with PCIe 2.0 x 16 slot

I hope the CPU doesnt bottleneck either of those cards.
and I hope the Mobo is compatible with either of the cards? Please help me out with these things as I dont know much about it.

I want to build a rig that can handle any lumion scene easily. And everything works at the best quality and butter smooth, since I wont be upgrading anytime soon.
I am looking for a long run graphic card that will act best in using Lumion/revit/3ds max + Vray/sketchup etc

Thankyou so much
Please reply

[Morten]

Hi tojonegi, which version of Lumion are you using?

[tojonegi]

Hii Im yet to buy a personal licence of Lumion for home. That I'll do once the assembly of my computer is done (hence this thread)
But Im guessing latest Pro Version?

[Morten]

I want to build a rig that can handle any lumion scene easily. And everything works at the best quality and butter smooth, since I wont be upgrading anytime soon.

In that case you will need to upgrade your entire PC as your existing components will act as bottlenecks, even if you get a GTX 980. Make sure that you choose a motherboard that supports PCI Express 3.0, fast system RAM and a high-capacity power supply.

For very complex scenes, you want to aim for a minimum of 20000 points in the Lumion benchmark, and 4GB RAM at the very least. 6GB is of course even better.

Depending on your budget, you may find that you'll need to compromise, so I have pasted the specifications of a range of user-submitted scores. I would not go any lower than a GTX 760 if I were you.

LUMION BENCHMARK SCORE: 23400 points.
Graphics card: 980GTX.
Motherboard: MSI X99S Gaming 7.
Memory: 16GB of Corsair 2666mhz Vengeance LPX memory

LUMION BENCHMARK SCORE: 19980 points.
Graphics card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB.
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor.
Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Z97 Motherboard.
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory.

LUMION BENCHMARK SCORE: 14580 points.
Graphics card: EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX 760 4GB GDDR5 FTW ACX Cooling.
- with overclock using EVGA PrecisionX 16 +115MHz GPU & +123MHz Mem. (Score of 14400 without OC).
CPU: i7-4930K CPU @ 3.40GHz on Rampage IV Black Ed. Motherboard.
Memory: 48 GB RAM (Kingston HyperXBeast in 8GB units at 24000MHz).

[tojonegi]

I can't change the existing components. I will add an additional 8GB vengeance RAM. And will buy a new PSU.
But I cant change the motherboard and CPU, atleast not right now. Mobo maybe later.
I think the performance of GTX 970 is close to Gtx 780. And the 1 GB of vRAM will make a difference?

Also, the i5 4440 shouldnt bottleneck the gtx 970, from what I read.

Lastly, my motherboard with PCIe 2.0 will support the GTX 970? Would it make any real difference if it was 3.0? I have no clue about this.

So, am I covered? With :
Gtx 970 4GB
i5 4440 @ 3.1
16 GB RAM
 

[Morten]

Hi tojonegi, if you want to use a modern graphics card you will need a motherboard that supports PCI Express 3.0. Several of our users have testified to the difference it made to their benchmark scores after they upgraded from PCI Express 2.0 to 3.0.

However, if you can't change all of your components to top-of-the-range products, it would unfortunately be unrealistic to expect "...the best quality and butter smooth"

I'm not saying you should buy top-of-the-range components - all I am saying is that you will have to lower your expectations if you don't upgrade everything.

You can still enjoy using Lumion with the configuration you have chosen, but it won't mean you can throw absolutely anything at it and still get a high framerate and short render times.

[tojonegi]

Okay, I got your point
So is it okay if I make the above upgrades right now and start using lumion? (And expect it to work without any jitters with a medium detailed revit model)
And in the near future get a motherboard with better specs and PCIe 3.0?

[Morten]

My guess is that it will be ok, but please note that we can't offer you a guarantee as it's impossible to predict how a specific configuration will perform.

[peterm]

Hi tojonegi

..I will add an additional 8GB vengeance RAM.

So, am I covered? With :
Gtx 970 4GB
i5 4440 @ 3.1
16 GB RAM
 

Are you looking at adding another 8GB RAM to make 16GB?