Render Settings
captainklutz_a2ec859073
Posts: 196
I am using the current DS Beta & current general release issue.
My advanced render settings are CPU unchecked GeForce GTX 690 checked & GeForce GTX 690 checked.
Despite this sometimes when rendering I can see in the task manager that the CPU call out from Daz Studio is in excess of 90% during rendering & the GPU is barely used at all.
Please can anyone explain why would this be & what can I do to make use of the GPUs instead of the CPU?
Many thanks for any input.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Task Manager does not, by default, give a good indication of how much the GPU is being used by Iray - if you go to the Performance tab and set one of the graphs to Compute ) or CUDA (depending on what you are offered) that should be more helpful. That said, even if CPU is unchecked Iray will drop to CPU if all of the GPUs run out of memory - however, that usally gives 100% usage.
Thanks for the insight, Richard.
I'll look at that the next time I render & see what I get.
The GPU can only render the scene, if it can be within the available VRAM. So dependent on how many objects (geometri, textures, and so on) can limit when you can use the GPU.
And I assume your card has 4 GB, and a scene can fairly easy pass that.
I had a look in the nvidia panel & it says 10214MB.
The render I was referring to was just a single G8F nothing else in the scene.
Just tried it again.
At no point did GPU activity exceed 3% & CPU usage from DS was showing over 90%
Even a single character has many 4k textures, and the load is also dependent on subD level. And if you then add clothing and hair, I wouldn't be surprised.
Have you tried rendering an empty scene with a single prop, and see how that does?
You can also look in the log file, it will at the start of the rendering list which device there is used.
I have the settings on verbose & it claims it is using both cores of the GTX690.
@captainklutz_a2ec859073
A single naked, hairless G8F will use about 1300 MB of Vram. Your render is dropping to CPU because yor Vram is insufficient for the task. Also, is you Nvidia driver at least version 430.86.
@fastbike1
Driver is current nvidia release
Yes, Vram may well be the issue.
I only have 16Gig but it is odd that it wouldn't utilise the 10 Gig on the graphics card. :0/
Your cards have 4GB Vram each. Iray doesn't pool Vram. The scene has to fit in each Video card separatle or that Video card will be dropped from the render. Depending on subD levels, hari, and clothin, 4GB may not be enough. You might also try rolling the video driver back to 430.86. Saying you have the current Nvidia release isn't helpful since drivers are release frequently. Also the 44X drivers had bugs that droped Iray to CPU.
Good information. Thank you.
441.66
'Roll Back Driver' is greyed out.
:0/
https://www.geforce.com/drivers
Go there, use the dropdown boxes to select your card and os, it will give you a list of drivers you can download. Just install like you would any other program, then reboot.
Thanks for that.
I'll give it a whirl tomorrow when I get back from work.
:)
No, it won't let me install earlier drivers either.
I suppose I have to hope that Iray will make itself compatible to newer drivers.
:0/
@captainklutz_a2ec859073
If you can't install a different Nvidia driver, you have other issues. This isn't an Iray issue, it's a bad Nvidia driver, whic will eventually be fixed.
Thanks for the input.
It looks like I am going to have to be patient whilst nvidia sort themselves out with that then.
:)
I'm having the exact same issue. I recently purchased a Dell XPS 8930 i9 with 32GB, DDR4, and had them install a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060; 6GB. I also unchecked the CPU and checked the RTX GPU check in advance rendering settings. As with captainklutz, my the tax manager shows the CPU is maxed out at 100% while the GPU is hardly being used. There's been other posts in this forum that echo this problem.
Task Manager does not give an accurate accounting of GPU usage with the default settings. Use GPU-Z.
Also it wouldn't be the first time that a Win 10 update loaded an old Microsfot driver over a current Nvidia driver. Is that the case? Historically, updating to the "latest" Nvidia driver isn't the best choice unless the driver being used won't wrok for your specific usage.
Thanks fastbike. I was unaware of GPU-Z graphic utility. I assume this is the one to which you are referring?: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
One way I know my GPU is engaged is simply by listening - when working, the fans are loud. Oftentimes, I don't hear the fans, which I presume means they're not engaged. Also, if a MS Win 10 update loaded over the Nvidia driver, how can one detect that, and, would downloading the most recent Nvidia driver rectify that?
Lastly, I was going to ask the difference between the "studio" and "gaming" drivers when downloading the recent version - i.e., which to use? I found this explanation on the Nvidia website that explains which is better: https://www.thefpsreview.com/2019/08/12/nvidia-studio-driver-vs-geforce-game-ready-driver-performance/
As I'm not a gamer, it seems the "studio" driver is the better driver. I'll update the driver and report back...
Yes
Right-click on desktp and select nVidia Control Panel - the driver version will be listed
Studio drivers are "tuned" or programed for better operation or more accurate operation, while using popular creation programs. Unlike game drivers, which are "tuned" or programed for better operation or speed, in games. Games need to be faster, take short-cuts, can be less accurate, and thus, have conflicting code management to programs used to create, which normally require precision, color correctness, more detail, etc...
However, I use my studio drivers, playing games, just fine. I have also used my game drivers, as most do, to do studio work, with no noticeable changes. Well, unless you count all the issues now, with this latest set of Daz updates. Neither game drivers or studio drivers seems to work well, with my cards.
For the record, most game-ready or "day one" drivers updates are nothing more than a simple game-profile, made specific for whatever game it says it was made for. Game profiles, if you even use them, are pre-fabricated tweaks or settings for your video cards, specific to the announced game. They don't always actually include program updates, except possibly tweaks to other existing profiles, for other games. (You see the profiles if you go to the drivers settings and you can select pre-set settings for specific games to tweak. If it is an actual "fix", or "patch", or "update", then it will be noted in the patch-notes. Almost all of the updates for studio drivers, are actual updates or fixes or patches. Though, they also have the same game-profiles too. They just don't push updates, to keep game-profiles up-to-date, or functional, in those driver releases.)
Thank you - extremely helpful.