V-Ray Next CPU Performance: AMD Ryzen 9 3950X

Introduction

AMD's Ryzen 3rd generation processors feature both an increase in core count and per-core performance over previous models, both of which directly improve rendering speeds in V-Ray Next. A few months after the initial launch, AMD has now released the Ryzen 9 3950X with even more cores! In this article, we will take a look at how this chip handles V-Ray rendering, both in the pure CPU and GPU+CPU render pipelines. For an additional take on CPU based rendering, we also took a look at Cinema 4D performance in another article.

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Test Hardware

Since this article is focusing on the new Ryzen 9 3950X, which is the top-end of AMD's mainstream processor family, we wanted to let it face off against a few of AMD and Intel's similarly positioned CPUs along with some other 16-core chips from higher-tier product lines.

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A complicating factor is memory speed support, though: most processors on the market today officially support up to 2666MHz memory, while these 3rd gen Ryzen chips are rated for different maximum memory speeds depending on how many RAM modules are installed. The spread goes from 2666MHz up to 3200MHz (if only using two modules) – but that limit would mean less total memory capacity, which could impact some of our benchmarks. Because of that, I decided to test the Ryzen processors at both ends: with a full set of four 16GB modules at both 2666 and 3200MHz, even though that is technically outside the supported range. We can't sell systems configured that way, because we need to stick to AMD's supported specs, but by having the performance data from both ends of the spectrum we can give our customers a good idea of the rough range they'll end up in. All other CPUs were also tested with 64GB.

Benchmark Details

We used the latest version of Chaos Group's V-Ray Next Benchmark for this comparison, and it includes tests for both CPU-only and GPU+CPU rendering. This is somewhat novel as most GPU rendering engines do not use the CPU at all – but in V-Ray Next, they have implemented CUDA emulation on the CPU to improve performance a bit. Even the fastest CPU doesn't add as much performance in this mode as a single high-end video card, but who would turn down additional performance during renders for no added cost?

With the information we have gathered, then, we put together two charts. The first is the CPU-only performance, when V-Ray Next is running in CPU mode, while the second is CPU performance when running in V-Ray Next GPU mode. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti card in the test systems has been excluded from these results, so you can see just the contribution that the processors provide in this mode.

Results

A note about the color-coding used here: AMD processors are shown in orange with 2666MHz memory and red with 3200MHz – which is out of AMD's official supported specs at this capacity and speed combination – while all Intel processors are shown in blue.

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Analysis

In CPU mode, shown on the first chart, Intel's 16-core i9 9960X took top billing – but the new Ryzen 9 3950X is only ~4% behind and costs substantially less ($1200-1700 for the 9960X versus $750 for the 3950X). AMD's older 16-core Threadripper 2950X did substantially worse, coming in around the same level as the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X. Intel's mainstream Core processors are even further back, entirely because they come with far fewer cores (only 8).

GPU mode, shown in the second chart, seems to be better optimized for AMD chips. Here the 3950X takes a substantial lead, but it is important to note that in this mode the video card(s) are far more important than the processor – and Ryzen isn't the best platform for maxing-out GPU performance. Most Ryzen motherboards will only support up to two video cards, while Intel's Core X chips can often handle three and AMD's Threadripper can often do four! Intel also has some Xeon W processors which are well suited to running four GPUs, so unless you are on a strict budget and won't be able to afford more than two video cards one of those platforms will likely be better for V-Ray Next GPU.

Lastly, in this application, it looks like memory speed didn't really matter much. The performance difference between 2666MHz and 3200MHz on AMD's Ryzen processors was less than 3% in both tests, which is pretty close to the margin of error.

Conclusion

It is no surprise that rendering benefits from high core count as well as clock speed / per-core performance – and AMD's 3rd gen Ryzen processors provide a great combination of both. The Ryzen 9 3950X offers fantastic rendering performance for its price range, and since it has great single-threaded speed as well it is a solid choice for modeling systems that also need to be speedy when rendering.

With that said, though, there are even faster CPUs available for V-Ray Next. If you have the budget, and are focused on rendering performance above all else, a top-end Intel Core X or AMD Threadripper will render frames more quickly in V-Ray Next CPU and support more video cards for V-Ray Next GPU.

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