Updated nVidia drivers and now iRay crawls along, almost locking up the system
rindfan_2393f1598d
Posts: 10
/\ Points at thread title.
Okay, put simply, I updated my nVidia drivers. My rendering rig is also my gaming rig, and the system was throwing a tantrum over driver issues. So I've been steadily updating everything.
Obviously, one of the major ones is my display drivers. Until I updated those, DS was rendering fine in iRay quite happily. The iRay preview, especially with very simple scenes, was fast and responsive.
Now, having updated the drivers, switching to iRay preview in DS practically crashes the program, the rendering itself moving at a snail's pace. Even with a single, naked, unposed figure causes the renderer to slow to a treacle crawl, and I have to end the process through the task manager. Needless to say, this makes doing anything practically impossible.
Why in Hades has updating the driver done this? It's not as if the rig couldn't handle iRay before.
System specs:
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz
32GB RAM
2x nVidia GeForce GTX 980s in SLi
Windows 7 64
Daz Studio 4.9.2.7 Pro 64
Not a happy bunny right now...
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Comments
If you haven't, try disabling SLI for DS in the driver settings.
I assume you're referring to the nVidia control panel?
I switched SLI rendering mode to 'Single-GPU' in Daz Studio's 3D settings profile. Made absolutely zero difference.
I'd roll back. Then let us know which driver you had updated to before the trouble started.
Nvidia advises against SLI for Iray...and sometimes 'soft' diabling isn't enough.
A global disable of SLI 'fixed' the issue. But having to manually disable SLI for the entire system and then having to re-enable it if I want to game is going to be irritating.
WHich driver version number, please?
Oh, if you had SLI on, iRay won't work, no matter which driver it is. It is supposed to be disabled. Says so on the nVidia site.
Sorry (even if I haven't SLi configuration) I would know.. This is weird that Iray won't work with such of improved hardware..
Anyone know why?
That's the way Nvidia made it...probably something to do with making more efficient to run on nonmatching cards, that can't be put into SLI.
Octane Render can't use SLI as well. I think it has something to do with how CUDA works.
Isn't SLI intended to be particularly useful for gaming? 3D rendering is a very different process, what's useful in one is a hindrance in the other.
Yes, SLI is for gaming, not rendering.
With SLI, the two graphics cards share the work rendering each frame. (Card 0 renders the even numbered lines and card 1 renders the odd ones) The two cards talk across the SLI bridge as a sidestep to avoid cluttering up the PCIe lanes with their back and forth banter. Having that enabled could be causing issued with Iray, because the two cards are trying to synchronize when they should be working on indipendent tasks on the render.
Iray was written so that you could use a variety of GPUs (and CPUs) working together on the same render job, so having two of those devices tethered at the hip is probably tossing a monkey wrench into the whole process. (also keep in mind that Iray was probably first devised as a Nvidia Quadro only workstation render engine that Nvidia then allowed Geforce cards into)
Ah superb explanations @JamesJAB !
This is now more clear in my mind!
I do it all the time
I have a baby driver, a GeForce GT630... will disabling SLI improve my rendering as well or isn't it included? I'm not familiar with NVidia but I got the card from my son when he saw iRay was an exclusive process to NVidea graphics cards, and I haven't even opened the control panel to manage it.