TouchDesigner Server 101

So you have a big TouchDesigner project, and your laptop may not be suitable. When should you get a server? Should you buy, rent, or build a server? Why do you need a server? All good questions. In this blog, we will provide some simple guidance on what to look for when deciding on a TouchDesigner server.

What is a Server?

You may need a server simply because you can’t leave your primary machine at the installation for an extended time, or because you need more processing power, or I/O options.
Servers can be a variety of form factors. The most common are mid and full towers, and rackmount.

Rackmount

Rackmount is more in the touring and data center world. Typically 4u but can range from 1u to 6u in specialty situations.

Mid and Full Towers

Mid and full towers may be easier to come by for rentals and purchase, and are more commonly rented by VFX and post house rental services.

Mini PCs

Mini PCs can be great, but make sure to check out the GPU specs for your task. Many just have integrated graphics. Intel NUC and Beelink machines are common choices, as are Asus and GMKtec, for specific data processing applications that are more CPU-intensive, like sensor processing and DMX use.

Beelink and others offer very effective AMD-based systems with solid GPUs for their size. Yet, you give up Nvidia-specific tools, and we have experienced quite a bit of aliasing in these machines at Sixa/ShowNinja.

Another route that has been coming more into the scene lately is using miniPCs with an outboard graphics docking station. This method can be both successful and very dicey. Do your homework and test A LOT ahead of time. Don’t make assumptions about power delivery, etc.

Buying or Renting

What is your budget? How often will you need this machine? If it’s just one project, it’s usually easier to rent a machine that would cost you 20k to build, for about $1,500 on a show, and bill that to the client. If you plan to use one for extended weeks or think you will use it often, you can buy or build it and then charge kit rental fees to clients.

Company Recommendations for Renting Media Servers

Fuse Technical Group

4Wall Entertainment

Show Sage

ATD Audio Visual

To use TouchDesigner, you can often rent a server PC for other software like WatchOut and run TouchDesigner on it. Many rental houses don’t list this as an option, but also rent high-end VFX-style machines that are ideal for running TouchDesigner.

Also, looking for VFX and post-house machine rentals in the film industry can be a good path. Such as:

VFX Now

Company Recommendations for Custom Builds

If you want to buy a turnkey custom-built server, there are several to choose from. You can consider these companies:

Boxx

Steiger

You can go with a big box provider if that’s the direction you prefer, or if your company has an account.

Dell

HP

For highly customized built to order servers, you can consider:

Show-Ninja / SIXA

NeXT Computing

Building Tips

Scene processing

How much processing is needed for the CPU and/or GPU to lift your scene? Laptops and mini servers can be super fast at processing scenes, but do not have very much I/O and have issues with heat when running near full capacity.

Input Output Needs

Expansion slots for lots of SDI lanes? Do you have heavy network bandwidth needs for lots of NDI or 2110 needs? Do you need a lot of USB-based sensors that require specific chipsets to work more robustly?
AMD CPUs are ideal if you need a lot of PCI slot lane bandwidth, such as for multiple GPUs or many expansion cards.

AMD GPU vs Nvidia GPUs

AMD GPUs can offer great value for the money, but Nvidia GPUs have many features that are only available in their ecosystem. Also, TouchDesigner features that rely on having Nvidia chipsets.

Another critical choice and budget fork is between the RTX/Quadro family of professional cards and using a GeForce gaming card.

RTX cards offer much higher memory bandwidth, higher levels of antialiasing, more options for frame sync, and have ECC memory, which is required in some high-level live broadcast environments.

However, GeForce cards perform many graphics tasks very well and super fast for less money, making them a good choice for situations not as vulnerable to seam tearing, minor aliasing, or that need the safety of ECC memory.

Summary

There is a lot to consider when deciding on the route for a server. Deciding on the project’s needs, duration, and budget will help narrow down the best path for the task.

Special thanks to Brandon Jowperson for his expertise for this blog.