Computer Upgrade

[paulchoate]

My desktop computer is just over 8 years old. I worry (not losing sleep over it but it's a concern) about a failure so I want to be proactive and order a new one. I typically buy things that are overkill but before I go ahead and order a $5,000 PC with a RTX 5090 and the latest and greatest AMD or Intel CPU I'd like to know at what point is it just throwing money away.  Will an RTX 4060 and a last generation CPU be just fine or will a 5090 and higher end CPU actually be worth it? My concept plans have lots of live renders and I've been using PBR a lot lately. Usually, at some point my layouts get so large as to cause significant lag (probably more of a "too many layers" turned on issue than anything). Any advice is appreciated. 

[scottharris]

Here's an article that may help -  ChiefBlog article 

[DBCooper]

In my opinion, it usually isn't worth it to buy a top-of-the-line computer system just based on the cost/performance ratios.  You typically pay a very high premium for the latest and best hardware and within a few months it will no longer be the best.  I will usually buy something that is one step down from the top and it usually serves me well while saving me some money.  If money is no object, which I doubt this is the case otherwise you wouldn't still be working on an 8 year old system, then buy whatever you want.

 

As an example, tight now it looks like you can get an RTX 5090 for about $3500 while you can get a 4060 for less than $1000.  I doubt you will get enough of a performance boost to justify the extra cost.  If you take a look at the blog article that Scott posted the link to, you will see the performance difference between the 4080 and 5080 is something like 2 seconds.  You would have to do an awful lot of RTRT views to justify paying much more for that kind of difference and I'm not sure what kind of improvements it will make in other slow areas.

 

Regarding the slow downs in your plans, chances are you could get some big improvements by making some small adjustments to how you work.  Here is a tech article with some good general info that might help:

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00521/troubleshooting-slowness-in-chief-architect-plans.html

 

[paulchoate]

Thank you to you both. I'll likely end up getting a new rig with a 5070 and a CPU to match. I want it to last another 8 years! 

[ComputerMaster86]

I am running an nVidia RTX 4070 super 12G graphics card.  It's not the fasted ray- tracing card on the market but does alright.

[aereed82]

Just something to think about. I have a year and a half old Alienware R16 Aurora with a 4080 card for sale. It is liquid cooled, has a 14th gen I9 processor, 64GB of DDR5 plus I will send the original 32gb it came with, 1000w power supply, and a 2tb SSD I would sell for $2000 plus the ride. It is still hooked up to chief so would be happy to do a meeting and show you rendering speeds on a high surface count house. I upgraded to the new Alienware Area 51, or I would not be selling. If you are interested shoot me an email or give me a call. It would be a much faster machine than you are running right now and you're not paying the 6500 I did for a new set up. I would say it is in like new condition. I will wipe everything before I ship it.