Help choosing a computer

[BAKERSB4]

My employer is purchasing a new computer for me.  At home my personal computer is an Asus ROG 702VM with 12 GB ram. I have been reasonably happy with this.  However,  I now work full-time for a developer who has me working on large site plans.  Most of the work that I do for this company is conceptual site plans, conceptual apartment and house plans and marketing for these. For the marketing I do a lot of PBR as well as watercolor with line drawing overlaid.   I use a Dell G7 at their office with a NVidia 1060 and 8 GB Ram.  I get slowed down a lot as I wait for the program to process.

 

I am looking for the best performance I can get in the $1800 to $2500 range.  I am not savvy about hardware.   Their computer consultant made the following recommendations. 

 

https://www.newegg.com/rgb-a-cover-aluminum-black-msi-ge-series-ge63-raider-rgb-499-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16834155154

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16834326058?Item=9SIACYBAET9618

https://www.newegg.com/abs-computer-technologies-mage-h-ala120/p/N82E16883102750

 

I have been reading through previous threads to determine what I need.  I used some of the comments to guide the computer consultant in choosing a computer for me.  However, frankly most of it goes right over my head.  Could I get an opinion from some of you about which you would choose.  My employer thought a desktop might perform better.  I am open to whatever gives me the best performance. 

 

I would appreciate any opinions and feedback.  Thank you!

[Renerabbitt]

2 hours ago, BAKERSB4 said:

 

I would appreciate any opinions and feedback.  Thank you!

If a 1060 is too slow than you won't see much improvement in a top of the line gfx card either IMO..time to look at what you are modeling and work on methods to trim the model. Try posting an example plan here with all texture files associated with the plan. Someone can analyze your textures and plan and give you better advice.

[Chopsaw]

4 hours ago, BAKERSB4 said:

I use a Dell G7 at their office with a NVidia 1060 and 8 GB Ram.

 

An inexpensive test would be to double your ram.  Check task manager while you are waiting and see if that is the issue.

 

If you have a good processor and an SSD it may just need more ram to give the performance you are after.  Especially if you run other apps in parallel with chief.

 

Is your 1060 the 6GB version ?

[TheKitchenAbode]

The desktop will definitely perform better than the two suggested laptops. Most laptops under heavy load can't, due to excessive heat generation, maintain their CPU speed for sustained periods of time and will throttle down. A decent Desktop system has much better cooling so their CPUs can run maxed out for extended periods of time. Also desktop CPUs have higher clock speeds and more cores than laptop CPUs. Graphics cards for laptops are not the same as those in desktop systems even though they may have the same name, so the equivalent desktop version will always be faster.

 

The big question concerning Chief is how much of an improvement will one actually realize. As your employer is paying for this then you might as well get as powerful a system as possible with the allocated budget. Unless there is a need for the portability of a laptop then go for the suggested desktop.

[MarkMc]

Since I'm still looking at a new build I talked to a couple of the developers about this and where they are going. 

Working on support for RTX,The rendering team all just got RTX 2070s,

Somebody is tasked with just working on performance, completely rewriting legacy sections of code. They are taking a bunch of the worst plans they can find and going at them bit by bit. Supposedly that will be their job for some time to come, sounded like more than a year (forever?)

Multi-thread performance is being worked on- unclear how many matter but...it all makes me want try to get to the user meeting this year but new machine comes first so will $ee?

 

I aim for a 5 or so year system. What I came away with get as much juice as you can afford, within reason, surprise surprise. I'm thinking higher core count (AMD) and since I'm now looking at around April-May (hopefully) RTX 3070 which is likely to drop in March.

FWIW I"m budgeting 2500 to build -but recently looked at one of the boutique BTO sites and put something I'd be happy enough with for between 2600 (but really a bit over 3000) so I may get away with a bit less (or get better stuff OR manage to get to Idaho :)

[TheKitchenAbode]

2 hours ago, MarkMc said:

Working on support for RTX,The rendering team all just got RTX 2070s,

Somebody is tasked with just working on performance, completely rewriting legacy sections of code. They are taking a bunch of the worst plans they can find and going at them bit by bit. Supposedly that will be their job for some time to come, sounded like more than a year (forever?)

Multi-thread performance is being worked on- unclear how many matter but...it all makes me want try to get to the user meeting this year but new machine comes first so will $ee?

 

Long overdue but good to hear. Hopefully they will release improvements progressively and not make us wait 1 or 2 years.

[Kbird1]

On 1/24/2020 at 6:36 AM, MarkMc said:

Working on support for RTX,The rendering team all just got RTX 2070s

 

Been hoping to hear that ...and so have waited for the 3070 Series to release to replace my 1070ti which doesn't do RTX.

 

M.