Learning: Costing out parts for Blender

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First post, new guy here, hope I’m putting this in the right spot.

I have been searching all over the net for information, tried a few spots here… but can’t seem to find the right thread. So here goes.

I used to use Blender years ago (like when Pentium 166mhz was in), after a while I stopped. I’m wanting to get back into it, I miss it… but having an issue trying to find what’s a good setup for a ‘learning’ computer.

Now, I realize bigger is better with things, more ram, more cpu cores, etc… but I don’t want to blow a big budget on parts… just to find I could have saved some cash, still learned, etc.

Current setup;
AMD x4 CPU; 2.80GHz
16GB Ram
Video (Ati 5770, 1GB)

Mostly I’ve been looking at just upgrading the video card to a Nvidia chip for Cycles Rendering. While I could go out an dropp 1600$ on a Titan… I’m having an issue of is that just a fancy name drop… or will I actually use all the potential of the card.

Maybe it’s better I just get a $400 Gtx 960/970, with 4/6GB ram… and satisfy with that for learning?

Secondary to that, should I upgrade my CPU, and Ram. (Motherboard can handle a 8Core, and up to 32GB Ram).

So, looking for advice… starting from scratch, and wanting to learn Blender to the fullest.

Option A. blow money on a Titan.
Option B. Spend thrifty on a 960/970.
Option C. Upgrade CPU, Ram, and get a 960/970.

Hope that all made sense, thanks for all the help.

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To learn blender you do not need a supercomputer - it will also work on a single core processor :slight_smile:

In my opinion your CPU and Ram is good enough as a starting point. But your graphics card… if you really want to render a lot stuff in cycles, I suggest you investing some money in a Nvidia graphics card.

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if you’re learning, i can’t imagine you’d be at a point where you need a Titan for rendering anything. you could call it future-proofing i guess, but only you know how serious this is going to be in your life and if something like that’s worth the money. it is serious to me, so i build a specific machine for my art/modelling, and i got a GTX980 Strix ~ i had a long research period and balanced off speed and price etc and though i really want to do a short animated film that will be a mofo to render, i couldn’t justify forking out on mega cards now, as i think by the times i’ve actually learned/built enough to make the film, tech will have moved on. if that’s the case, then at least i should be able to pick up another 980 pretty cheaply.
at the mo, nVid cards seem better supported in Blender, and the 9xx run far cooler and use less power than the AMDs; some of the AMDs have more memory or are faster, but that’s a trade-off you have to consider for your own needs.

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Last i checked it took a video card with CUDA cores to gpu render in cycles so you might want one of them. A nvidia geforce 650 can do it, a 750ti with 2gb onboard ram is somewhat better. Right.now a good budget card is the geforce 950. A 960 has over a thousand cuda cores and costs a bit more.