Graphics card query

[tidyshow]

Hi knowledgeable people,

I need some help with a descision I'm looking to make.

My current PC setup is as follows:

• DELL XPS 8930
• 3GHz i7-9700
• 64GB RAM
• RTX 2060 GPU

Would it be worth my while buying a brand new GIGABYTE GEFORCE RTX 4060 EAGLE 8GB and replacing my current card in respect of performance when using GPU hungry tasks like ACR noise reduction. I have been offered the card for £225.

[jane-e]

@tidyshow wrote on 21 July 2024

I see that it's been almost two weeks since you posted and still have no answers. I'm on macOS, but will tag @davescm and @Ged_Traynor to see if they can assist.

Jane

[davescm]

Hi,
Thanks for the tag Jane.
It is hard to answer the question. Will you see an increase in speed on GPU intense tasks - yes. Will that be worth £225, it really depends how much you value the extra speed.

Here I use an RTX3090 but that is on a PC built for 3D rendering and simulation rather than Photoshop (i9-10920x, 256GB RAM, RTX3090, 2 NVMe drives, several SSD drives.)

Dave

[J E L]

Hi @tidyshow, I think you will be happier with a newer and faster card. This is my system, similar to yours, purchased in January 2022, and even though my card is now three years old, it's kept up quite nicely so far. Naturally, it depends on what kind of heavy lifting you are doing. I try to put my system to the test as much as possible and I haven't been disappointed.

I'm not sure if that is a fair price, but if I was buying, I'd make sure there is some type of warranty or return policy if it turns out it doesn't make a difference out of the box. Hope that's helpful!

DELL XPS 9710
i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz
RAM 64.0 GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

[Bojan Živković]

The answer isn't straightforward because technology is constantly evolving. Take PCIe for example; you need to check what your motherboard supports compared to what your new GPU requires to perform at its best. Another important factor is whether your CPU can keep pace with the GPU without causing a bottleneck. Finally, you might need a better power supply unit depending on the power consumption requirements of your new GPU.

[tidyshow]

The motherboard is a DELL 0T2HR0 A01, it runs PCIe 2.0 and the PSU is the OEM one which runs at 480w

• DELL XPS 8930
• 3GHz i7-9700
• 64GB RAM
• RTX 2060 GPU

[D Fosse]

How long does Denoise take on your current setup, and how big are your raw files in MP? (timing is proportional to pixel size).

If your expectation is "instant", that's not going to happen. But on a "normal" raw file it should be less than, oh, 15-20 seconds or so.

On my system, a 4060 Ti does 60 MP in about 25 seconds, but that's a very big file.

[tidyshow]

My Sony A9 files (24MP) are usually very quick (anywhere from 4 to 20 seconds) but I'm doing a file just now from my Sony A7RIV (62MP) and its taken more than 2 minutes so far.

[tidyshow]

So just timed one. I took a file from my A7RIV, cropped it to 41.8MP and added denoise. The process took 6 minutes 21 seconds start to finish.

[D Fosse]

OK, that's way too long. I have an a7r V and it's 25 seconds on the 4060 Ti, 32 seconds on another machine with a 3060.

Note that cropping makes no difference. The full raw file data are processed anyway. In fact, you're recommended to run Denoise on entirely unprocessed files, first thing.

I have the impression that the RTX 2000-series still had a few teething problems with these AI-based tasks. By the 3000-series, those initial problems had been ironed out. The RTX 3060 has been totally reliable and problem-free, the 4060 likewise but a noticeable bit faster.

So yes, the 4060 should be a clear improvement.

EDIT - one more thing: the Denoise process runs in the GPU, but there is also an additional bit of time writing the resulting DNG to disk. That's included in total process time. Just check in Task Manager that this isn't where it's spending all that time, because then you have a different problem.

[J E L]

Agree with @D Fosse, that's way too long. Denoise set to 80% on my system takes 6 seconds for a 24MB file. I don't have a larger file to test but 6 minutes seems crazy! And speed might not all fall on the card but other things going on systemwide. This might not have anything to do with it but I'm curious to know if you are on Windows 11 or 10? I'm still on 10.

[Bojan Živković]

Here are my results with 56% denoise using an RTX 2060 paired with a Ryzen 5 5600G, Win 11. Image has a resolution of 18MP. The estimated time is 9 seconds. The image was captured in low light conditions, utilizing a timer with at least 1 to 2 seconds of capture time.

[tidyshow]

Running Windows 11.

It doesn't always take that long with the A7RIV files, sometime its around 40 seconds but quite often it's a lot more than that.
24mp A9 file Denoise video