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Coop render 9 cpus
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:27 am
by Josephus Holt
Did anyone find out why NL used 9 cpu's for their coop render demo instead of 8 cpu's which would require only 2 licenses?
Also, what is the minimum req'd RAM config per machine?
Thx.
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:40 pm
by lllab
i guess the tester just had 9 cpus around- so its just by accident.
i have a 12cpu license and will use it, some guys here have 100*cpu licenses and use it...
all works no matter how much or how strong each cpu is- (says the testers...)
cheers
stefan
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 12:09 am
by Josephus Holt
Thx Stefan. Wondered if there was something magical about the number 9, like it being a max return on investment (i.e. max render efficiency vs min # of cpu's). Probably should not bring up the subject of ROI here

Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 5:47 am
by Matt Hsu
Wondered if there is any data transfer collision problem,may be 9 cpu is best for effiency,you can add more cpu but the performance won't increase as expected.
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:20 pm
by Josephus Holt
Matt, that's the sort of thing I was wondering too, that 9 cpu's is the minimum number that generates the greatest return per cpu.
Unfortunately, NL did not reply when I emailed them, and seems like others seem to feel like it was more of a random thing...they had 9 cpu's available to do that testing.
Would be nice to get a clarification from NL or maybe someone on the A-Team knows???
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:51 pm
by lllab
no this just happens with systems using DR distribution.
actually NL s system is more efficient. you can use 100cpus on one image and it is almost same efficient "grade" as using 10 machines.-almost liniear.
with 10 machines it is 1/10 time, with 100 it is theroreticly 1/100. but in reality i would guess with 100 machine you need avery good network setup, you probably get80-90x speed.
the only extra "cost" is the small time joining the rendered mxi's. somebody mentioned it takes only a few seconds.
cheers
stefan
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:29 pm
by Mihai
lllab wrote:with 100 machine you need avery good network setup, you probably get80-90x speed.
You would only need to send the scene (mxs) to each machine, once it starts rendering that's it, I think there are no transfers during rendering. When it's done say 4 hours later, you copy the resulting mxi from each machine to one folder, and then merge them.
Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 10:24 pm
by Josephus Holt
Sounds good, thx for the input....now for a bunch of low cost machines
Any suggestions on minimum RAM for each machine (I would guess 1GB)?