How do I know iRay is using my GPU?

Morphious-2630405

I can't tell if DS is using my GPU or Not. It's check-marked in the settings. I have a GPU monitor from nVidia, and it doesn't show any usage from DS while rendering.

Attached is a snippit of the Render Progress Window. Looks like it is only using the CPU. Help?

nicstt

It says CPU in that image.

Have you told it to use GPU?

Do you have a NVidia card capable of using IRAY?

Presuming the above are Yes; (You say you have checked the box.)

Is the scene small enough to fit in RAM on the card? Cards don't share RAM; and if you GPU is the display card, it will only be able to use some for rendering.

TheKD

I know mine is being used when the fan starts sounding like a jet engine lol.

But also, the dialogue box says this:

Iray VERBOSE - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.3 IRAY rend progr: CUDA device 0 (GeForce GTX 960): Processing scene...

AlienRenders

It's easy. Here's a way to find out if you don't have iRay verbose on. First, install Notepad++ if you don't have it. Really nice free text editor. Then before you render, click the "Help/Troubleshooting/View Log File" menu. This will open Notepad++ with your log file. Go back to DAZ Studio. Start rendering. Once the first frame has rendered, go back to Notepad++. It will tell you the log file changed and will ask you if you want to reload it. Click yes. (If it keeps asking, you can stop DAZ from rendering or pause it) Scroll to the bottom of that file. You will see a bunch of rows saying it rendered frame X. Scroll justc above that and it will tell you what engine it is using.

 

alexhcowley

I use MSI afterburner, from their website.  This is actually an overclocking utility but displays all sorts of useful information such as GPU temperature and, crucially, percentage usage.  I don't know if it works with other manufacturers but it works well for me.

Cheers,

Alex.

Tobor

You can check the log more simply by just choosing it from the Help-Troubleshooting menu after a render. Go down to the bottom and it'll tell you if there's been any rendering activity through the GPU. More importantly, read through the entire block since rendering started to determine if there's a reason WHY the GPU wasn't used, such as not enough VRAM, or insufficient Compute level.

The nVidia app should be enough, but if not, download a tool like GPU-Z, and click on the Sensors tab. If there's never any GPU activity shown during a render, then you know the card isn't being used.

Also be aware that certain stages of the rendering, e.g. initial scene database construction, are only done by the CPU, so messages related to these are not definitive.

stryfe

Install Windows Gadget pack...

http://8gadgetpack.net

 

 

Install GPU Meter.  If you have multiple cards just add another widget and select the second card in the settings.  

http://addgadgets.com/gpu_meter/

 

 

 

spleenrippa

TheKD said:

I know mine is being used when the fan starts sounding like a jet engine lol.

But also, the dialogue box says this:

Iray VERBOSE - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.3 IRAY rend progr: CUDA device 0 (GeForce GTX 960): Processing scene...

Hi,

 

Not trying to derail the thread, but how does one turn on the "verbose" option? I don't see such a thing anywhere in DS

linvanchene

It is the end of 2016 and we are still discussing the same issues allready mentioned in summer 2015.

If you expect your customers to work with a GPU render engine like Iray in DAZ Studio then please finally include all necessary tools to work with it in the main software.

 

- add a detailed visible status report in a full sized window that clearly shows if Iray is in GPU or CPU mode

- add detailed information about how much VRAM each geometry and texture is using

- add accurate information how much VRAM space is left

- add options to temporarily resize textures so they take less space in the VRAM

- add options to manually clear all Iray related information from VRAM

the list goes on and on...

- - -

Here is one alternative how such options could  look like:

Or here another:

Or a list of all textures and their size in the VRAM and a one click solution to resize them just in the VRAM:

 

If a 3rd party render engine plugin had all those options allready in 2013 I fail to understand why it was not possible for DAZ3D to implement similar features in the one and a half years they now worked with Iray since summer 2015.

- - -

Do we need to file a feature request?

 or

Are  DAZ Studio developers aware that custumers are now waiting for one and a half year for VRAM related tools and solutions? 

When will it finally be possible to work with Iray in DAZ Studio without having to pull up some 3rd party tools or plugins to get an idea of the status of the GPU and its VRAM?

- - -

TheKD

spleenrippa said:

Hi,

 

Not trying to derail the thread, but how does one turn on the "verbose" option? I don't see such a thing anywhere in DS

It seems to be on by default in the beta, I don't think it's possible for us end users to toggle on and off :(

mjc1016

TheKD said:

spleenrippa said:

Hi,

 

Not trying to derail the thread, but how does one turn on the "verbose" option? I don't see such a thing anywhere in DS

It seems to be on by default in the beta, I don't think it's possible for us end users to toggle on and off :(

It was on because of a bug, in Nvidia's code, 

TheKD

I hope they make that bug a feature lol

One of those window panes like linvanchene posted would be even better though.