Does this mean my GPU is not being used to render?
tristanthorne1997
Posts: 241
in New Users
This is a screenshot of my Task Manager during an active render. When it says 0% under GPU, does that mean my PC is not using my GPU to render, even though I have GPU checked and CPU unchecked in Render settings?
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Given that and the 97% CUPU it does look liek it is running on CPU alone. If this is an Iray render you have an nVdiia gfx card, with suitable level of driver?
Yes, I have a NVIDIA GPU , a GTX 970. How do I get my PC to use the GPU? 16GB RAM and an Intel i7 processor.
Control Panel says "This Device Is Working Properly".
Remember if your scene is using more memory VRam, than your graphics card has it will auto fall back to the CPU.
Your GTX 970 has 4GB? I use a GTX 1080 with 8GB and I will run out of VRam at times also.
So I'd check your VRam memory useage for some insight.. GPU-Z is a good tool for this.
Something else is going on that it is no using the GPU. Every render, no matter how simple, seems to revert to the CPU. Yes, Dave, the GTX 970 has 4GB.
It's a dedicated card right? Not a gtx970m?
Does the Daz log file give any clues? You have selected IRay correct? Drivers are up to date?
It's definitely a dedicated card. I wiped the computer clean a couple months ago because I was having constant GPU crashes that would lock up the entire PC. I did a complete fresh install of Windows 10. I assumed that since Device Manager recognized the card and said the device was working properly that it was, in fact, properly installed. But I am not a hardware expert, so I really don't know how to check. Is there a diagnostic tool that I can use to see if Daz is using the GPU or not? How do I "switch it on" if it's not being used? Thanks for your help, by the way.
Is there a diagnostic tool ? Yes you can get it here: https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-gpu-z/
See Attached Pics) .... GPU Z will display the amount of memory ( VRam ) Daz is useing during the render...... and/or anytime.
Read your log file ( Top menu in Daz - Help> troubleshooting>view log file. ( as a hint you can open the log file, delete all previous entries, then start up Daz and try a IRAY test render and then read the results )
Look for entry's like these ( from my startup and render start )
Startup:
2018-02-24 16:00:39.934 NVidia Iray GPUs:
2018-02-24 16:00:39.934 GPU: 1 - GeForce GTX 1080
2018-02-24 16:00:39.934 Memory Size: 7.9 GB
2018-02-24 16:00:39.934 Clock Rate: 1733500 KH
2018-02-24 16:00:39.934 Multi Processor Count: 20
2018-02-24 16:00:39.934 CUDA Compute Capability: 6.1
Render Start:
2018-02-24 16:12:09.544 Iray INFO - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.0 IRAY rend info : Initializing local rendering.
2018-02-24 16:12:09.604 Iray INFO - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.0 IRAY rend info : Rendering with 1 device(s):
2018-02-24 16:12:09.604 Iray INFO - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.0 IRAY rend info : CUDA device 0 (GeForce GTX 1080)
2018-02-24 16:12:09.604 Iray INFO - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.0 IRAY rend info : Rendering...
2018-02-24 16:12:09.604 Iray VERBOSE - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.7 IRAY rend progr: CUDA device 0 (GeForce GTX 1080): Processing scene...
2018-02-24 16:12:09.844 Iray VERBOSE - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.6 IRAY rend stat : Geometry memory consumption: 14.3153 MiB (device 0), 0 B (host)
If you cannot find your GPU in the log file - then you have problems outside of just Daz and daz is not detecting it... which will require more troubleshooting...
If GPU Z finds your GPU and displays the info your Card is working OK
Let me/us know what you learn
You mentioned WIn 10 - be sure you have the nVidia drivers installed, not the ones obtained via Windows Update; I seem to recall people mentioning that they had issues with those.
Dave, I downloaded that tool and it says it it using around 550Mb during the render. Shouldn't that be higher? I have a 4GB card. Also, it says GPU Load is at 0%. Does that mean it's not utilizing the GPU for the render? I noticed in your screenshot that yours said 7%.
I am going to try to read the log file next.
Simon, I also need to double check the drivers. I am fearful of updating them becasue I think that's what caused my PC to constantly crash before.
And a follow up...Acorrding to the Nvidia website, I am a few driver updates behind, but aren't most of the driver updates just the "Game Ready Driver Updates" where they add support for the latest games? I don't play games, so do I need to install an update every time it comes out?
Sorry to keep hammering with the questions, but here's another. In the attached picture, the little light that says 67....is that showing something about my CPU or my GPU? Becasue when I hit "render" in Daz, that number goes from what is usually about 33 up to anywhere from 58 to 71. Also, my GPU fans keep turning off, then on, then off again about once every other second.
Dave, I downloaded that tool and it says it it using around 550Mb during the render. Shouldn't that be higher? I have a 4GB card. Also, it says GPU Load is at 0%. Does that mean it's not utilizing the GPU for the render? I noticed in your screenshot that yours said 7%.
Yes, When my GTX1080 is rendering IRay it is at 100% load, the screen shot I did was at idle - not rendering. If you are rendering with IRay and ONLY the GPU is CHECKED - it will show a great increase in the Load. The amount of memory useage is entirely depending on the size of the asset's in your scene -
Yes, most of the NVidia driver updates are for the use of gamers - I have Driver 390.77 dated 1 Jan 2018 - works for me. I have another game system that I update them regularly - My 3D system is not used for games - only work.
So clearly something is going on, then. As you can see, I am rendering in NVIDIA mode, and only the GPU is checked. So if it says the GPU Load is 0%, I'm screwed. What do you think might be going on? And by the way, thank you for helping me.
I think you have something wrong with your gpu - does it work on other applications?
And as I mentioned the Daz log file can be very useful in your case for trouble shooting - just remember my hint - open the file in any text editor ( notepad works fine ) delete all entries ( save a copy if you like ) then restart daz and load a simple scene ( even one IRay character ( G2 with IRay Maps for example ) and hit render. then shut down the render after a few moments and read your log file.
Yeah you generally want to download fresh drivers from the manufacturer first thing when you have issues with your video card, or install a new/fresh OS.
Since you mentioned being worried about nVidia drivers causing problems with system stability, a couple of tips:
1. Start keeping careful track of the drivers you're downloading. Download them to a common folder, and label them with the version number and the date you downloaded them. This will prevent you from reinstalling a problematic driver - just add a note to the folder it's in. This will also let you try slightly newer drivers that may have fixed the problem - a big company like nVidia tends to fix problems that cause their users systems to become unstable.
2. Keep in mind that a fresh copy of W10 isn't the same thing as your old copy of W10. There could have been something installed on your old copy that was conflicting with nVidia's drivers, something that isn't even on your new copy of W10.
3. You're not limited to using drivers newer than the one giving you issues; try the previous driver, or the one 3 drivers back, etc. All of them will be better than the stock W10 drivers, I'd think.
E.g., doesn't iRay support depend on nVidia drivers being installed? I would assume it does - I remember talk about some cards shipping without iRay support and having it added later (via drivers, obviously).
Sorry, just saw where you updated and said you have an older driver, my bad. I would still try the newest one. My guess is they don't limit themselves to updating for specific games, even if that's what most of the updates consist of. They probably routinely squash bugs with them, too.
Hello again - This screen shot just taken while starting a IRay render - 1 G8 Character clothed and a background and hdri lighting - when Iray kicks in and starts rendering - the GPU load goes from almost 0 to 97-100%
Thank you all so much for all the great advice. I will tinker around some more and then reply tomorrow!
Did you figure it out? im running into the same issue
Sorry if I am digging up an old post (I can't tell the post date but...) I too am having the same issue with twin 1070's on SLI. I keep seeing my CPU usage ramp to 100 while the GPUs stay at 0 regardless of how big or small the scene is.
Have you tried disabling SLI - you should, I believe, be able to do this for DS in the nVidia control panel without affecting other applications/games in which you want it available.
On my computer I don't think Windows 10 task manager is much use monitoring GPU use in Iray. I've had renders running with GPU-Z showing GPU load hitting 100% while task manager shows the GPU running at around 10% in the performance tab and Daz Studio showing GPU use at 0.2%. I also have Daz Studio using nearly 100% CPU, I have it set to use both the CPU and the graphics card for rendering.
I trust GPU-Z more than I trust task manager since GPU-Z is designed just for montoring graphics cards. It looks as if whatever tsk manager is measuring doens't include how Iray uses the GPU.
i run into the same problem, i got 2 GTX1070 in my laptop and when i load a huge scene for example, the laptop takes a realy long time to pre-calculate the scene. in the past a ran into similar problem and came across this solution: GPU drivers crash with long computations https://support.allegorithmic.com/documentation/spdoc/gpu-drivers-crash-with-long-computations-128745489.html
I know i'm not helping the necro, but this didn't work when I tried. Is there a version that's up to date with windows 10?
i just discoverd that a GPU stated as very good can handle a maximum capacity of lights in your scene. in my case 8 is the maximum amount of light. reducing texture size did the trick here in my case. still weird that my "very good" GPU is skipped in the render process. altough everything is up to date and working properly
That eight light limit is for the OpenGL preview, not for renders. If you need to preview (in as far as it's useful) soem lights that you aren't currently seeing use the Render Priority setting to bump them up the list.
Reading your post, I suddenly had doubts, checked my task manager while rendering and noticed that, like you, there was none, or almost no GPU use. So I thought I had the same problem you're having. Unfortunately, I discovered then that my card only has only 2 GB, while for some mysterious reason I believed until now that it had 4. That would explain why I have so much problems rendering slightly complex scenes.
However, looking around, I discovered that Windows task manager might not indicate properly GPU usage, and that the only way to be sure was to test, which I did. I picked a simple scene with a low resolution (400x400) and rendered it, first with GPU only checked. It took 2 minutes 40 seconds. Then with CPU only checked. It took 8 minutes. So, the graphic card clearly was in use the first time. Reading Daz log file also confirmed that the card was in use the first time and not the second. However, during both renders, the task manager indicated no activity of the GPU.
So, it might be that your graphic card is working perfectly and that the issue is simply with the task manager not reporting it.
(For the record, I did a third test with both GPU and CPU enabled, and it took 2 minutes 15 seconds, so a bit less than GPU alone. Maybe it's not really significant for such short rendering times, or maybe enabling the CPU too helps a little bit)
Sounds like you are using the Microsoft drivers for your video card and not the Nvidia drivers.
FWIW, the extra 2GB might be "virtual" VRAM, actual normal system RAM borrowed by your graphics card and used as if it was physically present. Any process (e.g. an Iray render) needing that extra 2GB will see the card as having the full amount of VRAM, but it won't run quite as quickly as it would if the whole 4GB were real VRAM. Not sure how common a practice it is these days, but it used to be done all the time to allow the production of low-spec cards at a lower price.