I'm looking into graphics cards and don't want to spend more than needed. So what is the use of GDDR? Can I have a higher poly count in the viewport with 4GB rather than 2GB?
Thanks for any input!

Pretty much! The more you have the more space you have for larger the screen resolution/frame buffer, textures and geometry it can store/access without going out of core to system ram.

Minimum would be 4GB for anything serious these days especially if you have multi monitor setup or HiDPI screen.

Lorenz25
I'm looking into graphics cards and don't want to spend more than needed. So what is the use of GDDR? Can I have a higher poly count in the viewport with 4GB rather than 2GB?
Thanks for any input!

It depends. Are you using a GPU renderer like Octane or Redshift? If not, Houdini in itself doesn't make as much use of GPU RAM as far as I understand it. If you're using a GPU renderer, then it's a different story.

It really all depends on what you're using, and what type of projects you work on.

Thank you! OK, I work on a 1920x1200 monitor. As I understand the requirements, 2GB is enough for that. So I better invest in more RAM for fluid simulations, right? Or is anything below 64GB not suitable for that? Redshift or Octane, for the time being not planed.

Once again…it depends. What type of fluid simulations are you planning? Also, how fast is your CPU? The questions you are asking are complex, and you're not offering a whole lot of information about your setup.

Can you share the specs of your machine, and what you're planning to get? The more specific the better.

Having enough ram to work is the most important. I mean you could always just sim with bounding boxes in the viewport and render images to disk. But if you want to visualize the data in the viewport you are going to want a graphics card that can handle it…

I guess depends on how tight of a budget you are on and what work you are trying to do and how serious the timelines involved are. But if someone asked me what the minimum I would recommend for building a workstation for doing 3D work would be minimum 4GB video card IMO especially if you are using other apps like Mari, Mudbox, etc….


ps. (Most apps these days including Houdini use OpenGL a lot assuming they are up to vfx refernce spec for this era… except zbrush)

Thanks again for the input. To be more specific: I set myself a tight budget. I want to spend 400€ on used MoBo, CPU, GC and RAM. And just want to squeeze out as much as possible. If I'm lucky I get a i7 4770k plus MoBo and 16GB RAM for 300€. And do I spend the remaining 100€ on a 4GB GC or spend another 30€ for RAM?
It's planed as a hobby, so for starters 16GB RAM might be enough and as I see me doing more fluid simulations, I'm willing to raise the RAM. But maybe even then not willing to spend the money for 16GB bars, if there is such a thing with DDR3. Was out of the business for some time now and am astonished of the jump in RAM capacity today.

Generally speaking, it is easier to swap out a graphics card than it is to match up RAM later on when adding more. You should pretty much always match the RAM DIMMs timings, which usually means buying the exact same type of RAM. If you look at an eseller's RAM listings, you will see how difficult that can be. Swapping GCs is basically just plug and play.

Luckily RAM is starting to come down in price now that the cryptocurrency fad is dying down a bit (GCs too). Make sure the MB you get can support that much RAM as well (most are 64GB, but always good to double check, esp. on cheaper MBs that cut a lot of corners to reduce price).

Since you have to choose, go for the higher RAM over a 2G graphics card. Just make sure you don't increase the “4x” AA setting in the viewport, as that'll start taking up a lot of your VRAM.

Thanks twod for sharing your two cents.
As far as I found out, only server boards support up to 64GB DDR3 RAM - I know, a little late, that I checked that. And that ECC memory would cost me around 250€. And I don't see if it's easier now than later to find the right RAM. There are a lot of offerings on ebay. So I got myself a bundle with 24GB RAM for 210€. Will see if I raise that to 32 for 130€, when I want the exact same RAM - not cheap either, and not that much offerings, I have to admit. And then a 2GB graphics card for 70€.
Thanks so far.