Hi I would like to know if my PC setup is worth installing the Linux version of Flame over the M1 version.
PCSetup:
i7 11th gen 11700K,
16GM RAM (upgradable)
Geforce 1080 8GB DDR5 VRAM (also upgradable)
M.2 SSD 512GB
or
iMac 2020 - 16GB, 1TB, M1 cpu
Thanks for advice / responces!
Seb
If that was my situation, I wouldn’t. After lotsa tinkering, buying a P620 or Dell or HP is just worth it to have a known and supported configuration that takes 45 minutes to get up and running each and every time, especially when Dells are sub $1900 for the base model on the Dell.com configurator and P620s are peanuts on eBay.
If the question is: this PC or M1 Mac, then I would say definitely the M1 Mac. Cleaner install and won’t hurt you trying to install various Linux drivers, also 1080 is like six years old…
Thanks that’s good to know. I won’t spend time trying to get it to work on Linux on my PC setup. My only gripe with the M1 is that my PC outperforms the M1 on other compositing apps: Cuda 1080 offers higher frame rates over the M1 when performing tasks and previewing effects. It’s not huge but definitely a noticeable difference.
Rocky Linux makes a much easier install and at least you could upgrade your RAM & GPU.
16GB RAM would be limiting and you can’t upgrade the RAM on the Mac.
BTW Cuda doesn’t mean anything in regards to Flame as it uses OpenGL. I did run a 1080Ti on an old Z820 and performance was respectable enough. I knew it wasn’t going to be fast but it certainly wasn’t horrible.
z820 + 1080ti is my current setup 
… It’s still worthy for HD jobs
I got 9:04 on that Flame benchmark test. Pretty good when you compare it to the 2019 Mac Pro. And the fact the system cost me nothing, I just priced it together with parts from older systems.
What’s the Flame benchmark test? Is it a tool I can run within Flame? Thanks
Search flame benchmark here on Logik and you will find a link to an archive and a Google sheet.
It is a setup you render then time the length of the render. It’s certainly not an indication of the performance of the system in every regard but it is something
Absolutely. The benchmark is awesome. Bought in 2013 and completey updated (even cpus). I have amortized everything I have invested in it a 40000% . Better than any apple crap. (In 2013 Apple sold the infamous trashcan. And then the 2019 macpro) . Even is possible turn it into a hackintosh working 100%. I did it until HighSierra and the ban of nvidia.
I love this machine.
Choking when working at resolution beyond 3K. Maybe fixable installing a most recent nvidia GPU, but it’s almost impossible with last power connnectors requierements.
Don´t forget this, to compare…
I bought and sent back a new MacStudio (64ram, 1TBdisk, M1Ultra 20/48/32). It was 3 times slower at rendering than my Linux Box (64ram, iCore i79700k, nVidia3090 w 24GB). I now this is very subjective.
Personally I do believe the new M1 processors are good at what apple has them do, however in my experience when using my 6 year old 1080 GeForce GPU, it far outperforms the M1 CPU/GPU at simulation and rendering on blender, hence asking here about setting up my pc as a rocky Linux Flame setup. Unfortunately I’m not sure the motherboard would work well with rocky.
Motherboard support is a flip of a coin. Although in all the pcs that I have been able to check, the hardware support of centos/rocky is quite good. What model are you interested?
Recently switched to P620 5975WX Threadripper Pro with zero regrets. Two onboard Gen4 Nvme m.2 is nice. I’m getting 7000 MB/sec read and 6100 MB/sec write on an Addlink 8TB Gen4 m.2 drive. I opted for this $20 third party m.2 heatsink which keeps the drive 6-10 degrees cooler than stock heatsink. I have no idea what the Z8 G5 Fury pricing looks like. P620 is beast and I feel is worth the investment. Until Flame has proper Apple Metal API support I don’t see how Mac will come close. The advantage of course is multiple apps on the same machine with no network sharing fuss. I previously used Flame on Mac Pro 2019 16 core.
Ok, I checked with Google Bard (AI ChatGPT version of Google) whether Rocky Linux would work with the motherboard I mentioned and it said YES and very well too.
On that note, is it worth going for Autodesk approved Rocky Linux 8.7 or would Flame also work on latest 8.8 version or even latest and greatest 9.2?
Has anyone tried these versions of OS and whether Flame worked for them? Thanks again!
As per difficulty of build and such, I’m quite adept at hackintosh builds, from High Sierra with the Geforce 1080 and now my HP laptop with Ventura 13.4 thanks to OpenCore, I’ve managed to get Flame to run on that (albeit an old intel i5-8260U) - it works. So this should be a challenge!
You won’t be able to use anything later than Rocky 8.7 and I’d strongly recommend using the Autodesk supplied iso or else you are going to be in a whole world of unnecessary pain.
The DKU is reliant on certain libraries being installed and if you install a later version of Rocky, then certain libraries will no longer be compatible.
that’s very helpful to know. thank you!