Hello

I am leaving Realflow to join you, what I saw for fluids convinced me. What I think I understood, for the houdini fluids, it is processor speed rather than number of cores, and ram, ram and still ram.

So here we are, that's it I can finally achieve the configuration of my dreams.

The beast :

CPU
3960X 3.8 GHz (4.5 Turbo) 24 core

RAM
Corsair Vengeance LPX Series Low Profile 256 Go (8 x 32 Go) DDR4 2666 MHz CL16


The question : (I’m a newbie on Houdini, sorry if I’m wrong)

I read that when baking each frame could be 1GB, so speed cache is very important. There are 2 options, one is cache with ram, the other with dedicated ssd.
- Which option is the better?
- If ssd is the right option, what kind of ssd do I need?

is there anything else i need to know? details on the motherboard? the gpu?

Thank you in advance ;-)

Caching will have to happen to disk at some point. Any SSD is plenty fast enough.

Ok, so something like this ?

1TB SSD M.2 (for system & soft)
4TB SSD SATA (for caching)

Does it sound the best way?

Yes, that will work well.

So why have plenty of RAM if a SSD could do the same caching job?

RAM is for working memory and SSD is for the result.

Ok
For CPU, do you think the AMD 3960X with 24 core at 3.8 GHz is enough? Do I need more core? More GHz?

MrCedric
Ok
For CPU, do you think the AMD 3960X with 24 core at 3.8 GHz is enough? Do I need more core? More GHz?

Nothing is ever enough. A render farm can have 2000 computers and it's still not enough.

MrCedric
Ok
For CPU, do you think the AMD 3960X with 24 core at 3.8 GHz is enough? Do I need more core? More GHz?

3970x is also good value I think. But don't go all in on the CPU alone. A powerful GPU can also make a world of difference. Also next month new TRs and RTXs are coming so I wouldn't buy anything before then.

Yes I study 3970x too…
- So what is important for fluids, the processor speed or the amount of core?
- About GPU, it is more for rendering, for the fluids it is not really used?

MrCedric
Yes I study 3970x too…
- So what is important for fluids, the processor speed or the amount of core?
- About GPU, it is more for rendering, for the fluids it is not really used?

Do you plan to render with CPU or GPU? When it'll be the GPU you may get away with saving on your CPU.
On YouTube there are comparisons of Pyro and Flip sims using OpenCL on the graphics card and CPU only. The GPU is mostly 5-45% faster and at least never slower.

https://yo utu.be/oGGHXwZQG0s (remove blank)

It seems that OpenCL is a great option!
So I need a strong GPU too…
I go to study the youtube test

Wow I saw the youtube test, OpenCL works really great ! There is no doubt now that I need a big GPU! The only « problem » is that the sim result is not the same with or without OpenCL…

An OpenCL benchmarks :
https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks [browser.geekbench.com]

animatrix_

MrCedric
Ok
For CPU, do you think the AMD 3960X with 24 core at 3.8 GHz is enough? Do I need more core? More GHz?

3970x is also good value I think. But don't go all in on the CPU alone. A powerful GPU can also make a world of difference. Also next month new TRs and RTXs are coming so I wouldn't buy anything before then.

Are you sure about new TRs next month?

Ouch, the new Nvidia RTX 3080 kills the 2080ti, I think it could be a great choice for OpenCl!

OP: can you run this benchmark and post your times?

https://www.vfxarabia.co/post/houdini-benchmark-cores-vs-clockspeed-updated [www.vfxarabia.co]

Especially interested in the flip 0.05 time.