Will AMD FirePro Graphics cards work ok with VrayRT?

[PGD]

Hi folks,

We have just had a new machine built a spec'd by Workstation Specialists, but I'm struggling to use VrayRT with it. I'm new to RT by the way, though I have been using max/vray for years. I'm also no I.T. guru!

Installed is a:
AMD FirePro W9100 - 16GB GDDR5 Workstation Graphics Card, and a
AMD FirePro W5100 - 4GB GDDR5 Workstation Graphics Card

I've run a very small test scene with RT and it seems ok. But add anything else of any weight in there, like a single Proxy object like a car and nothing is rendered. It'll just sit there' Waiting for image data...'

So is there some magic button tucked away somewhere to 'enable epic GPU rendering'?

[RALPH_PINEL]

I would sell them and with the money get the titan nvidia card.

SOOOOO much better! The AMD cards borrow into your system it's hard to clean the installation.

[savage309]

I was a bit surprised, but with the latest AMD dirver, V-Ray 3.10.03 seems to work fine on my W9100 (Windows 7 x64).
Compared to nVidia GPU with similar specs it seems to be (much) slower compared to CUDA, and faster compared to OpenCL running on nVidia GPU.

If you have any scenes that are not rendered correctly simply send them to the support (or post them here, if possible) and we will take a look.

p.s. since the drivers seems capable enough to run our code now, and we are able to build and test, we will try to optimize and stabilize the OpenCL on AMD as much as possible.

[PGD]

We have recently run a number of tests on this and it appears we can't get GPU rendering to work at all with the AMD cards.

Previous GPU expereiments it seems were rendered with the CPU. If we switch to OpenCL we get the error 'V-Ray Standalone has stopped working'

Version: 3ds Max 2016, VRay 3.20.02

Is anyone out there using AMD cards with sucess?

[savage309]

We have recently run a number of tests on this and it appears we can't get GPU rendering to work at all with the AMD cards.

Previous GPU expereiments it seems were rendered with the CPU. If we switch to OpenCL we get the error 'V-Ray Standalone has stopped working'

Version: 3ds Max 2016, VRay 3.20.02

Is anyone out there using AMD cards with sucess?

In the past the guys at AMD used to tweak the driver for every V-Ray version, because their driver didn't worked well with our source. This of course didn't work great, since we change our code frequently and they can't afford to spend that much time on V-Ray. So 3.1 for Max works, 3.2 doesn't (this should be explained here as well http://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VRAY3/GPU+Rendering).

Just before the 3.20.03 for Max and 3.10.01 for Maya however, with some help from them we have finally found the root of the issue that was causing troubles (the issue was kind of on both ends). We fixed it (and they have fix in their latest driver as well), and these changes are working great so far. We have tested various V-Ray versions on various AMD GPUs and with that fix they are working without troubles. I really hope that fix to resolve the issues we had in the past, for the time being. It is for Windows only at the moment, but we are working with AMD and others to port it to Linux & OS X.

Unfortunately, that change didn't make it to the official service packs and is in the internal nightlies only. But it should be in the next ones.

[PGD]

We have tried running V-Ray 3.10.01 without sucess. We also updated to the latest AMD drivers too.

So you think there may be a fix with the next service pack - is that a Max SP, V-Ray or AMD?

[savage309]

We have tried running V-Ray 3.10.01 without sucess. We also updated to the latest AMD drivers too.

So you think there may be a fix with the next service pack - is that a Max SP, V-Ray or AMD?

Sorry, my bad. I haven't test that in a while and I have remembered the wrong version number ...
According to http://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VRAY3/GPU+Rendering it is 3.00, not 3.10.
The issues were resolved with adding extra features in the AMD driver. Driver version 15.7+ has them, but since we got those features after the SP was released, you will need the next V-Ray SP.

[savage309]

The next V-Ray 3 nightly should work with all GCN 1.0 (or newer) AMD GPUs, that have driver 15.7 (or newer).
AFAIK the pro version of the AMD GPUs is still 14.2, but a new driver should be released soon.

[PGD]

I've taken this issue up with Work Station Specialists who built the machine, and they have been working with AMD to try and solve the problem. The answer is:

'Based on the information Chaosgroup and AMD have provided you will only need to run the Beta version of V-Ray until the new release of V-Ray becomes available'

So, is there a Beta version of V-Ray I can use, and if so where can I get this?

[savage309]

I've taken this issue up with Work Station Specialists who built the machine, and they have been working with AMD to try and solve the problem. The answer is:

'Based on the information Chaosgroup and AMD have provided you will only need to run the Beta version of V-Ray until the new release of V-Ray becomes available'

So, is there a Beta version of V-Ray I can use, and if so where can I get this?

You should have access to the stable nightly builds for 3ds Max. If you don't, please send email to support@chaosgroup.com for instructions how to get one.
Once you have it, just download the latest stable nightly build and use that.
Please make sure that your GPU has 15.7 or newer AMD driver. I don't know if 15.2 or older will work, since we haven't tested them.

[PGD]

So where would I go to look for this nightly build? Here? http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/downloads.html?s=v-ray

[tashko.zashev]

So where would I go to look for this nightly build? Here? http://www.chaosgroup.com/en/2/downloads.html?s=v-ray

No, the nightly builds are available through a separate web address. But first please send us request for stable nightly builds access to our support mail : support@chaosgroup.com
including any order details or a dongle serial number. We will reply to you right away with further instructions.

[PGD]

So I believe I've installed the latest Nightly build of V-Ray - filename 'vray_adv_32003_max2016_x64' (is that the right build?)

On attempting an RT Render with a very simple test scene I'm getting the same results as before, V-Ray crashes. I attach a screen capture which hopefully covers a lot of the file settings.

What do the think the way forward is?

[vlado]

So I believe I've installed the latest Nightly build of V-Ray - filename 'vray_adv_32003_max2016_x64' (is that the right build?)

This is the latest stable build and it won't work. The nightlies are versioned as 3.25.xx

Best regards,
Vlado

[PGD]

OK, So where can I go to get that version?

I've been sent to 'nightlies.chaosgroup...' by your collegues twice now but I see no file name like that..