How much GPU VRAM do Real-Time VFX work requires?

General Discussion
#1

Is 12GB sufficient or shall I get 24GB?

Also, a bit unrelated to this forum, but I might soon be doing 3D renders like the one at the beginning of this video. I’m wondering if 12GB could be sufficient for that too. :thinking:

-video removed by OP-

#2

I’m doing just fine still on my GTX 980Ti, and it only has 6GB of ram. Depends if those renders are going to be done in a game engine, or in a 3d package, and how dense they are getting. If it saves you significant money, I think 12GB would be fine, but that’s just one opinion.

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#3

Thanks Travis. Do you do Houdini stuff with the GTX980Ti?

I’d probably be rendering the large industrial scenes with Blender and Cycles, but yeah I guess I’ll keep the far away objects as low poly as possible regardless of the GPU I get. I just wouldn’t want to waste money going overkill with the VRAM.

#4

Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to do much but some fluid/fire sims, so I’m not sure how much gpu ram is ideal if you were doing tons of destructible mesh sims or large scale fire across entire scenes.

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#5

In Houdini I mostly run out of actual ram rather than vram.
It’s always better to have more, but 12gb should suffice for most things, especially as it seems you are just starting out. Once you actually get to the limit of your hardware, you can always sell your current card and get a better one…

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#6

I’ve legitimately hit my work computer’s ram cap on my current project before getting anywhere close to maxing the 1060’s vram :sweat_smile:

#7

lol yeah :smiley: It’s actually one of the biggest issue of current gen consoles as well -.-
Juggling memory around like there is no tomorrow…