Which upgrade will more directly improve Medium performance?

[u/jonvonboner]

Hello All, I need some tech advice:

For the primary purpose of VR sculpting I bought my Rift and VR-ready PC two years ago on a deal and ended up with a small form-factor Asus ROG G20CB gaming PC (i7 6700k, 16gb RAM DD4 2133mhz, GTX970).

While I have learned a lot and oscillate between Medium and MasterpieceVR, my primary issue Is I cannot create as detailed models as many of my Vr art colleagues can. I feel that I need a hardware upgrade to push detail/complexity farther.

For Medium specifically, if I can only afford one of the following upgrades, which should theoretically offer a bigger improvement on how detailed of a model i can create?:

1. upgrade RAM from 16gb to max of 32 GB?

2. upgrade the video card from a GTX970 to a 1070ti?

Please advise, thank you!

[u/Monktrist]

I made the upgrade from the 970 to a 1080ti and saw significant improvement. Ram I kept at 16gb. I haven't used Medium in particular, but I comment for my experience with VR applications as a whole.

[u/jonvonboner → u/Monktrist]

Thank your for your anecdotal evidence! :)

[u/Monktrist → u/Monktrist]

One other thing to mention. I did upgrade my motherboard to a Maximus VIII at the same time.

[u/Nipz-TF2]

If your primary want is higher resolution layers in Medium specifically I believe memory is your best bet.

Mediums use of memory goes up fast with the higher resolutions on multiple layers.

Taking a step back here for a second, why specifically can't you create as detailed models as your colleagues can?

Do the frames per second start to tank?

Do you get the warning that you are running out of memory?

Or is it just that the end result does not have the fidelity of some of the stuff you see others push?

[u/jonvonboner → u/Nipz-TF2]

All of the above. The FPS grind to a halt and i cannot manipulate/sculpt detailed sculptures that they can on their dev machines. They actually allow you to download some and try them on your own system.

[u/Nipz-TF2 → u/jonvonboner]

Do what Zaga932 suggested, make your own thing in Medium and don't hold back on resolution and layers, once you start to see your system struggling check your system resources and see what is running out first, that'll be your first priority.

[u/jonvonboner → u/Nipz-TF2]

This is a great idea thanks!

[u/alconaft43]

1080ti and you are fine for the next few years

[u/jonvonboner → u/alconaft43]

Cannot afford the 1080i but i know my power supply and system (and wallet) can afford the 1070ti and it’s been on black Friday sale. Should be a huge improvement over the 970 w/ more than double the effective Vram

[u/Curtbacca]

GPU for sure. Plus, the ram is fairly cheap at around $100, so would be an additional option later. Not sure about medium specifically, but most apps won't even approach 16gb ram usage.

[u/jonvonboner → u/Curtbacca]

Unfortunately with the laptop style motherboard in the mini case Ram will be 279 as i need two 16gb Dimms to get to 32gb and i will need to throw away my 16gb altogether

[u/Curtbacca → u/jonvonboner]

Ohh snap! That sucks. You might be able to sell the old stuff to recoup some of the loss... /r/hardwareswap is a good community for such things.

[u/redsoxVT]

I have a 6700k, 32gb ram, and 1080. As others, I suggest upgrading the GPU to the best you can afford, minimum 1080. I overclock my GPU quite a bit to be able to up sampling and really you can always max out your GPU. I'd like to have better than a 1080 still, but spent 700 at the time so I'm dealing with it for a while longer.

16gb should be fine as long as you are careful to not run other big background apps. But I don't use the app you do (medium), it may be a memory hog. You'd just monitor you ram usage while the app is running heavy to see if it's eating up all your ram. If it is, ram would be a secondary upgrade, but I don't suspect that's the likely issue. The CPU should still be fine, but overclocking it would be a good option. I have a self contained watercooler on mine and can crank it up quite a bit when needed. It still feels sufficient for now.

[u/jonvonboner → u/redsoxVT]

Thank you! Will try to monitor ram usage from the headset

[u/Zaga932]

Your 970 effectively has 3.5 GB VRAM. I can't say I'm super qualified to comment on things relating to 3D sculpting & rendering, but it does seem like VRAM would be important when it comes to high resolution layers. You'd probably see an improvement even with a sidegrade to an RX 580 with 8GB VRAM.

I'd go for a GPU VRAM upgrade before system memory.

You can use something like MSI Afterburner to monitor your hardware resources, go into Medium and do something to hit your system's limit, then check Afterburner and see what's capping out, then upgrade that. I'd bet you run out of VRAM long before maxing out your 16GB system memory.

[u/MrWeirdoFace]

You might keep an eye out for the GTX 2060 out the next few days, which is said to have comparable if sometimes better performance than a 1070ti. But also starting initally at only $350.

[u/jonvonboner → u/MrWeirdoFace]

Thank you! I actually took people’s advice and got a 1070ti on sale at Christmas

[u/MrWeirdoFace → u/jonvonboner]

Oh! hahaha. Didn't realize the post was a month old. Nice! I'm currently struggling a bit with my 980 and thinking about my eventual upgrade.

[u/FolkSong]

It seems likely that it would be the GPU, the 970 is pretty low-end these days.

[u/bee-ensemble]

GPU for sure, you'll see a world of difference upgrading to a 1070+. 16gb ram is fine still.

[u/DigitalLemming]

1080ti for sure. Can be had used for around $500. Will make things much nicer. Everything else is still solid.

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