GPU Server Box

[spositer]

If you had $10K towards the purchase of a server box that will decrease rendering time dramatically what would you recommend?

Last year I submitted a proposal for multiple GPU card server box. Unfortunately it fell through the cracks. This year, new boss that is very impressed with my work and will support my efforts. Seems the render/animation is now blossoming somewhat like 3D printing has for us. I plan to bring other users on board to help with the efforts and we are set up now with floating licenses and server for crunching. I want to replace the server.

Thanks in Advance
Steve

[david.randle]

Steve -

What size scenes (in terms of polygon count) are you dealing with? That's the first thing you will need to think about before deciding Quadro vs. GeForce for the cards. We handle about 5 Million polygons per GB of VRAM. Most GeForce cards top out at 6GB (~30 Million polygons) where as Quadro currently go up to 12GB (~60 Million polygons) of VRAM. For NVIDIA support and longer term reliability, you'll likely want to go Quadro. (you may be able to do a rig with 2-4 Quadro K5200's which compares to a last generation 8 GPU machine).

[Aselert]

Shame you're not in Europe, I could make you a top-flight configuration!
David is right, your use will directly influence your choice of hardware. Is it for industrial design? automotive? architecture? other?

[spositer]

Thanks guys for helping out. BTW I'm in Industrial (Weapons). Still we have a large quantity of parts to handle at times showing the assembly and disassemble of components in movies clips. I understand the support and reliability with NVIDIA but I can buy three AMD cards to one NVIDIA. I run two Quadro 5000 cards in my machine for post processing movies but would like to see the processing time reduced due to the fact that it always seems to be a last minute request.

I watched the YouTube Dassault Systemes SolidWorks 2013 clip comparing the NVIDIA K5000 to the AMD W7000. I believe they quoted $2200 for the K5000 and $850 for the W7000. That is significant. What am I missing?