This is a typical build question about the hardware required for Houdini simulations so they don't get lost in eternal limbo. I am trying to build a new rig as god knows I need one. So my question is. Do I spent 1400$ for a thread ripper 3960X or get a 12 core ryzen 3900X and be done with it?

I have been scouring my eyes with countless review videos and build questions. Each one leaving me more confused than before. I really need someone to guide me in the right direction.

What are my needs?
Currently.

My work heavily relies on simulations. RIGIDS/ Paritcles and vellum. I need interactive viewport for animation with a possibility of FEM simulation.

Sorry for the rant in advance. Any advice would be appreciated.
Man I am currently working with a first gen i7. It is slowly killing me.

Someone posted recently that Houdini sims currently don't take advantage of more than 8-cores at a time, but I could be mistaken. I would also personally wait until H18 is released to see if there are any new improvements when it comes to multi-core management.

In general, my personal approach is to buy the best CPU I can afford.

Midphase
Someone posted recently that Houdini sims currently don't take advantage of more than 8-cores at a time

I don't believe this is true, also sounds like over generalizing as you can't just say “sims” since each solver is different (also Pyro and Vellum can highly benefit from GPU too)

but, even if this was true, you can still use PDG to leverage all your cores and running multiple wedges at the same time or distributed sim or other parallel tasks while simming, so you don't necessarily have to worry that your cores will not be used

however I don't have answer to what is currently the best cpu in terms of performance per core vs amount of cores vs price

Ram is an important factor - a Ryzen 2700x lost 60% of its performance with mismatched ram.

Geekbench:

Then also consider that AVX and AVX512 can be very impressive on Intel:

Here are tests in Houdini simulations: Pyro, Grain, Flip. >> Houdini Benchmark Cores vs Clockspeed [www.vfxarabia.co]
It kind of outdated but maybe it can help you make your choice.

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate your input. Especially the benchmarks.

Current build in mind.

Threadripper 3960x processor
TRX40 AORUS MASTER motherboard
2x Ballistix Sport LT Gray 64GB Kit
SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 2280 1TB
Corsair 900D Obsidian Chase.


Any suggestions?

If you are building a desktop, aim for 128GB RAM. I don't know the pci-e gen 4 support in those mobos, but Gigabyte has a pci-e gen 4 ssd [www.amazon.com] that will blow any gen 3 ssds. I think it was around $400 for 2TB version.

I am getting 2 kits of 64gb and thanks for pcie-4 ssd tip.

animatrix_
If you are building a desktop, aim for 128GB RAM. I don't know the pci-e gen 4 support in those mobos, but Gigabyte has a pci-e gen 4 ssd [www.amazon.com] that will blow any gen 3 ssds. I think it was around $400 for 2TB version.

If one was to get a 32 core Threadripper, with the 128 gb of ram and that SSD, would it be wise to use a CPU renderer instead of Redshift? I ask because I've been using Redshift Demo but it goes 30% off in a few days. I am planning on building the Threadripper desktop later this fall or winter (Nov/Dec.) I'm not sure if I should just at that point use Mantra, or Arnold etc, or still go with Redshift.

Thanks to anyone who answers this. I apologize if I'm bad at responding, I have not been getting reliable alerts in my email that people respond to my posts, I'll try to be more diligent in checking the actual website instead of relying on email notifications!

KZLCR
If one was to get a 32 core Threadripper, with the 128 gb of ram and that SSD, would it be wise to use a CPU renderer instead of Redshift?

Yes, very wise…but please consider starting a brand new thread for this topic. I have lots of thoughts about this, as I'm sure others do as well.

I think it's more of a lounge conversation since it's not specifically about Houdini.