How to configure your workstation for Octane 2023
Octane is a GPU-based 3D rendering program. Users of the Octane renderer are able to make changes *on the fly* because all changes are made in real time. The Octane renderer convinces by speed and quality. Octane is ideal for product virtualizations, 3D illustrations and animations. Plugins are available for the following CAD programs: Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Autodesk Maya, ArchiCAD, Cinema4D and Rhino.
The right processor for Octane 2023
The GPU rendering engine Octane performs most of the calculations on the graphics card. Some processes, such as loading the programs and distributing the load between several graphics cards, are taken over by the CPU for a short time. The number of CPU cores doesn't play a big role, the decisive factor is a high clock rate of the processor. With higher MHz frequencies, the times of their renderings will improve significantly. Many applications that run in parallel with render engine Octane - such as Cinema4D, Maya and 3ds Max - harmonize optimally with processors with a low core count but high clock speed. The power consumption of a CPU depends on the clock frequency and the number of CPU cores. We recommend Intel Xeon W-series processors with a high clock frequency, for example the Intel Xeon W-2175 with 14 cores and up to 4.30 GHz or an Intel Xeon W-2195 with 18 cores and up to 4.30 GHz. Intel Xeon processors impress with low power consumption, their longevity and are excellently suited for continuous operation.
The optimum Memory for Octane 2022
In order to render more complex scenes optimally with the Octane Renderer, we recommend using a powerful business workstation with at least 32 GB RAM with Error Correction Code. Users who run several programs in parallel are better served with 64 GB or even 128 GB of RAM. Make sure to use ECC RAM. Memory with ECC support (Error Correction Code) automatically detects and corrects bit memory errors, system crashes are avoided. An absolute must-have for all professional users in design, development, simulation or modeling. Business Workstation usually offer you between 8-16 memory banks. Make sure that four memory channels are equipped with identical RAM. Ideally, four more free memory banks are available for a RAM upgrade..
The right Graphics Card for Octane 2022
Octane is a GPU based rendering program. The processor and VRAM of your graphics card determine how fast Octane works and how much geometry and textures can be loaded into the graphics memory of your card at the same time. The choice of graphics card depends heavily on the nature of your scenes and your budget. The GPU has a certain number of cores and a standard frequency. In newer NVIDIA GPUs, RT (ray tracing) cores speed up the processing of certain graphical calculations. If you are methodical about optimizing textures and scene geometry and tend to work on smaller scenes or fast graphics animations, you may be able to get by with less VRAM and therefore use several lower-cost graphics cards that process their renderings faster than a high-priced graphics card with lots of VRAM. If you are working on large scenes with lots of geometry, high resolution textures a high end graphics card is a better choice to be able to land your entire scene into VRAM without losing speed. A scene that can be transferred completely to VRAM is much faster and more stable. Otoy offers a useful benchmark system with the OctaneBench. A graphics card with the value OB200 (OctaneBench200) renders the same scene twice as fast as a graphics card with the value OB100 (OctaneBench100). The cheaper NVIDIA Geforce graphics cards can achieve up to 5x faster rendering speed than comparable NVIDIA Quadro models. Since Octane Renderer scales optimally, you can use two identical graphics cards to achieve twice the speed for your renders. NVIDIA RTX series graphics cards support ray tracing cores. This technology is specifically designed to accelerate ray tracing tasks and speed up your renderings tremendously. AMD GPUs are currently not supported by Octane 2022. Our graphics card recommendations: NVIDIA Quadro RTX A2000 with 12GB, NVIDIA Quadro RTX A4000 with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM, NVIDIA Quadro RTX A5000 with 24GB, NVIDIA Quadro RTX A6000 with 48GB VRAM, NVIDIA Geforce RTX3070Ti and NVIDIA Geforce RTX3080Ti. Update the graphics card driver at regular intervals.
The right hard disk configuration for Octane 2021
We recommend M.2 SSD hard drives for use as a primary drive. The operating system and all applications are started many times faster than with a common S-ATA hard disk. To reduce the load we recommend to use a second SSD for the active projects. For all long-term storage 2TB or 4TB S-ATA hard disks can be used.
