mini-ITX build 3700x/2060S vs 5600x/3070

Hi all,

looking for your advice.

In a recent post I saw somebody opting for a 3700x/2060S/32GB RAM build.

I was wondering if the ~500EUR more expensive upgrade into the newly released 5600x/3070 would be such an upgrade in working in Rhino and rendering in V-ray for Rhino.

Was just wondering if the performance is that much better or would it be in the case of an Architecture Student working on their Master thesis enough to go with the “weaker” build?

In case if anyone can explain how the performances differ in real life metrics :slight_smile:

Appreciate your help.

The 5600/3070 build is definitely faster, but the question is is the bump really worth the mentioned 500e. Sure, 5600 has much improved single core performance which is needed for the most of the things you will use during modeling, and 3070 itself is quite faster than 2060s is v-ray rendering. the only possible limitation is the amount of GPU ram which is 8GB. 5600 itself is not something you want to do your renderings on. Simply not enough cores for speedy renderings. Now, when it comes to gpu vram it’s very tricky to say how much is enough. It really depends on the models you’re working on and “i have 10-15 lights of t his kind, this much geometry etc.” doesn’t really help determine it. I would go with 5950X or 5900X if that one is out of your range and a gpu good enough to handle the viewport. Simply, CPU is always a good option: 1 - the faster the cpu the faster you can model, so to speak; 2 - it also implies for rendering, 3 - it also affect the rest of the work in other software more than gpu (photoshop for example). And generally windows will feel snappier with higher end cpu than with gpu. In the end it all comes down to the budget that you have, but in general stick to as fast CPU as you can afford. It’s easier to add more ram than to change whole GPU because you don’t have enough of vram

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Even I went with the 3700x with 32 gigs of RAM. When assembling the system, I got a good deal on a Quadro RTX 4000, which I opted to use instead of the 2070 as it was cheaper for the same amount of VRAM. With that Quadro you get double precision on floating point as well as stability. But if I had gotten the 2070 for cheaper, I would go with that.

Also, you could go for the 3700x with a higher end motherboard like an X570 so that you get forward compatibility if you want to upgrade your CPU at a later stage.

And as @netherman mentioned, CPU is way more important. So you probably want a higher core count and a base level graphics card. RTX support is also coming in for software (Vray has recently added support) so benchmarks for RTX cores should soon be out.

If you’re really worried about not having enough VRAM bandwidth you could also look into the new AMD GPUs as an alternative. They have something called smart access memory which they recently announced. It just gives the CPU direct and faster access to GPU VRAM

It’d be great to find a Quadro card which would be cheaper than a 2070S, I feel I’ll be going with a 2060S and see how much I stretch my budget in regards of the new 5000 AMD Ryzen Series.
32GB RAM is definitely a must, but I am looking actually at a B550 Motherboard currently, since I don’t feel I’ll need the 2x 4.0 slots.

Also getting one of the new CPU or GPU is a pain due to the high demand.

If you also do renderings, then the latest GPU from Nvidia will benefit you a lot. As mentioned Vray already makes use of the dedicated RT cores. Cycles also supports this already. It is called Optix and accelerates your rendering significantly over usual CUDA based rendering. The latest 3000 series cards have better performing RT cores. Buying a 2000 series card at this point does not make a lot of sense. The only in stock available cards of the 3000 series are the 3070 models - they are a good value.

see also here:

Hi guys,

thanks for the advice on focusing more in the CPU than GPU.

Wondering if anyone could explain if there is a resonable argument to go for the 5950x instead of 5900x, the former one is quite more expensive than the latter one and I wonder if Rhino would actually profit from the additional cores etc.

For GPU I am trying to score a 3070 / 3080 FE if they ever are in stock again. Feel the 3090 is just too expensive for my needs as well as my budget.

My guess is that you would get faster render times if you get a CPU with higher core counts. It also depends on if you want real-time renders or static renders. As far as i know, an RTX card is better than a fast multi-core CPU for real time renders.

So it really boils down to what you’re going to do most on your Computer. High RAM is a must for heavy models. Other than that, you can choose from a good combination of GPU and CPU based on your application and budget