When it comes to using software like Redshift, there are many types of projects – from simple low-poly assets to large swaths of entire cityscapes. It is difficult to recommend one hardware configuration that fits all needs.
Therefore, we will cover some common project types of Redshift, providing hardware recommendations for each specific project level. By matching the hardware to your specific project, you'll be able to determine the ideal setup for your Redshift job. Let's explore it!
Simple project
Items classified as "simple" tend to have certain common characteristics that make them less hardware-intensive. They typically involve resources with lower polygons, lower resolution textures, and simple lighting. For example, a scene with a low-poly dragon or an isometric picture of a bedroom with basic geometry and materials.
A large percentage of projects rendered with Redshift fall into this "simple" category. Thankfully, Redshift doesn't require very powerful hardware to handle these types of scenarios.
Hardware recommendations:
- GPU : For simple projects with 50,000 to 200,000 polygons, you can use fairly modest hardware. Any GPU with Nvidia GTX 1050 (or later) of at least 4 – 6 GB of VRAM will suffice.
- CPU: The CPU does not need to be too powerful, as long as it does not become a bottleneck for the GPU and there are enough PCIe lanes (> = PCIe 3.0 x8). Any CPU with good single-core performance (single-core score > 900 in Cinebench R23, multi-core score > 3,000) and clock speed of at least 2.5GHz will do. It doesn't matter if you have more cores.
- RAM: 8 GB of RAM is enough to run Redshift at this level. However, considering the amount of RAM used by today's operating systems and background applications, 16 GB or higher is recommended.
Intermediate items
Whether you're an amateur or a professional, the vast majority of projects rendered with Redshift fall into the "intermediate projects" category.
Such projects often involve a variety of assets, textures, and effects to create visually stunning renderings. At this level, more powerful hardware is needed to keep up with the complexity that creators want to achieve. As scenarios become more demanding, the need for more processing power grows dramatically.
Hardware recommendations:
- GPUs: For mid-level 3D projects with around 500,000 polygons to millions of polygons, and also using many higher quality textures and effects, you will need a fairly new mid-to-high-end graphics card released in the last 3 years. The GPU should have at least 6 to 8 GB of VRAM, preferably 10+ GB. For example, Nvidia GTX 1660 Super, RTX 3060, 3070 or later.
- CPU: CPU requirements are not that important. The main thing is to make sure that the CPU can provide enough data to the GPU and that it can run your project smoothly in the viewport. It is recommended to use a CPU with a clock speed of at least 3 to 4GHz and high single-core performance (single-core score >1300, Cinebench R23 multi-core score >9000).
- RAM : As for RAM, we recommend at least 16 GB of RAM. If your GPU has less than 8 GB of VRAM, you should consider increasing the RAM to at least 32 GB. This will help compensate for lower VRAM with Redshift's off-core rendering.
Complex projects
Complex projects represent the most challenging types of scenes that most people really need to render. These projects are at the high end of the genre that most people try in a single scenario.
Complex projects are extremely complex 3D scenes, such as highly detailed cityscapes and huge landscapes interspersed with millions of individual assets. As one would expect, creating and rendering a scene with this level of detail requires significant hardware resources and computing power.
Hardware recommendations:
GPUs: For very complex 3D projects with millions or even billions of polygons and different textures and effects, you will need a powerful graphics card with a lot of video memory (VRAM). We recommend at least 11GB of VRAM, but more is better. GPUs like the Nvidia RTX 3090 or the RTX 4090 with 24GB of VRAM are suitable.
If you find that you need more than 24GB of VRAM, you should consider a professional-grade GPU instead of a consumer-grade GPU. Professional-grade GPUs typically have higher VRAM, such as 32GB, 48GB, or even more. However, their price-performance ratio is quite low. So, choose them only if you really need more than 24GB of VRAM for your work.
CPU: You need a powerful CPU, not only to avoid the GPU becoming a bottleneck, but also to adequately handle all the resources in the scene.
Unfortunately, since Redshift is not highly multithreaded, using only a high-core-count AMD Threadripper CPU will not provide the best performance. While Threadripper is great for 4 or 4 GPU devices, mainstream consumer CPUs work better for 1 or 2 GPU systems. Therefore, you need a CPU with very high single-core performance and high boost clock speed to handle this level of complexity.
RAM: We recommend at least 32 GB of RAM, but 64 GB, 128 GB, or even 256 GB is better. For the amount of geometry and texture in a scene at this level, you may still experience insufficient GPU VRAM, so it is important to have a lot of system RAM as a backup. This will help mitigate potential performance issues.
summary
It's hard to make a single recommendation for PC building to meet everyone's needs. Different people have different goals and budgets. For hobbyists and people on a budget, a balanced build that offers good performance may be the best option. The point is to get reasonable performance at an affordable price. Professionals and businesses often prioritize rendering speed and efficiency. They may be willing to pay more for hardware that can render as quickly as possible.
This means that a one-size-fits-all PC build isn't suitable for all users. The priorities of people on a budget are different from those of professionals who need the fastest rendering speed. If you want a low-cost or high-performance computer, you can try the Zenqi Cloud Workstation, which has a professional-grade graphics card, large memory and other machine configurations. The machine graphics card is updated in time, high-end models are provided, massive resources can be selected according to needs, and the built-in software center provides the latest software installation package, one-click download, saving search time and improving work efficiency.
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