Will AMD FirePro Graphics cards work ok with VrayRT?

[Libertyman86]

ps. Can someone supply me with the PDFs of the latest benchmark results for varies builds/GPUs??? I foundit before but I can't remember which thread it was.

[tashko.zashev]

ps. Can someone supply me with the PDFs of the latest benchmark results for varies builds/GPUs??? I foundit before but I can't remember which thread it was.

Maybe you are looking for this post ?
http://forums.chaosgroup.com/showthr...232#post640232

[savage309]

interesting stuff. So, does Vray take advantage of 'pro' features in Nvidia cards? Its my understanding that most of the increase in performance in the Nvidia cards has to do with Vray's optimization towards CUDA tech rather than AMD's GCN/OpenCL tech, yes?

Any chance RT GPU will make some changes in the future to take advantage of more AMD pro GCN/OpenCL 2.0 features?

should I ditch AMD altogether and get a couple titan cards instead? My other other option is just get another W8100 and increase my VRAM to 16GB and hopefully increase my performance that way.

No, we don't use any exclusive pro features from both NVidia and AMD pro GPUs.
We do our best to run as fast as possible both on CUDA and OpenCL devices and we will certainly use any of the OpenCL 2.0 features if they happen to have any benefit for us, when they are available.
Keep in mind that the GPU memory does not stack - having 2 GPUs, 8GB each does not makes 16GB of GPU memory (it is still 8, you just have 2 GPU processors).
High end gamer NVidia GPUs seem to have pretty high V-Ray RT GPU performance per dollar value, but what GPU you should buy depends on many things. Here is the benchmark table that our users have made - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...A0k/edit#gid=0

[Libertyman86]

No, we don't use any exclusive pro features from both NVidia and AMD pro GPUs.
We do our best to run as fast as possible both on CUDA and OpenCL devices and we will certainly use any of the OpenCL 2.0 features if they happen to have any benefit for us, when they are available.
Keep in mind that the GPU memory does not stack - having 2 GPUs, 8GB each does not makes 16GB of GPU memory (it is still 8, you just have 2 GPU processors).
High end gamer NVidia GPUs seem to have pretty high V-Ray RT GPU performance per dollar value, but what GPU you should buy depends on many things. Here is the benchmark table that our users have made - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...A0k/edit#gid=0

thanks for the quick response.

No pro features, got it. Hope we may see some features in the future that Vray can take advantage of. (same goes for OpenCL 2.0)

Interesting that Nvidia gamer cards work so well.

thanks for the benchmark table! awesome! No AMD stats??????????? ...Chaosgroup's bias is showing. :P

[savage309]

This table is edited by V-Ray RT GPU users, not Chaos Group. Editing is open and everybody can put data in it. I guess there are few AMD results, because RT GPU did not work on AMD GPUs prior to V-Ray 3.30.04.

The reason that we don't use any of the pro features is not because we didn't want / had time to implement them. It is just that they give no benefit to our application at all.

[Libertyman86]

This table is edited by V-Ray RT GPU users, not Chaos Group. Editing is open and everybody can put data in it. I guess there are few AMD results, because RT GPU did not work on AMD GPUs prior to V-Ray 3.30.04.

The reason that we don't use any of the pro features is not because we didn't want / had time to implement them. It is just that they give no benefit to our application at all.

very interesting. i hope you guys continue to Optimize for AMD. maybe us AMD people can help you developers paint a bigger picture of the effectiveness of OpenCL and GCN tech.

[savage309]

NVidia and AMD are both helping a lot, we talk with them quite often and their dev support is always very good. We try to find a way to support everything out there as well .

[Libertyman86]

fantastic!!! can't wait to see whats next for Vray.

[Libertyman86]

ok. so I have my first render (AMD Firepro W8100, 8GB) with the Benchmark (vrart_gpu_bench_interior1280px_2048ppp.max) AMD Driver: v.15.20.1062.1004-150803a-184226E (2nd to last latest workstation unified driver - I had to roll back due to Adobe CC issues with current AMD driver)



Results(GPU AND cpu Opencl Devices):

V-Ray RT 3.30.04
922.263 KPaths/s
33m 0.2s elapsed
2816 paths/pixel reached, 15744 passes
Engine: OpenCL
------------------------------------------------
Rig specs:

Windows 10 x64
CPU:AMD 8350 8core (oc to 4.6Ghz) - custom look water cooled <----only PCIE 2.0 support
GPU: AMD Firepro W8100 8GB (PCIE 3.0 card....running on PCIE 2.0)
RAM: 16GB (8x2) Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400mhz
MB: Asus Crosshair v Formula-Z (only PCIE 2.0 support)
Storage: SSD OCZ Vector 256GB
PSU: 1200w NZXT Hale 90 v2 (gold certified)

max GPU temp produced from render 65 oC (max: ~90 oC)
max CPU temp produced from render 57 oC <-----averaged 90% usage, which kept temps below max (~65 oC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, whats the conclusion here? This is benchmark 2.0 yes? How'd my baby do (AMD Firepro W8100)?

[savage309]

Yes, the same scene is completed for 2816 path per pixel made in 14976 passes for 13m 21s on a single M6000, V-Ray 3.30.04.

M6000 has a bit more memory, but is quite more expensive, I think.

[Libertyman86]

Yes, the same scene is completed for 2816 path per pixel made in 14976 passes for 13m 21s on a single M6000, V-Ray 3.30.04.

M6000 has a bit more memory, but is quite more expensive, I think.

yeah...the M6000 is about $4,000 with 12GB of Vram. AMD has a promo offer that I tool advantage of that gave me 50% off my first pro graphics card...instead of $1250....I got it for around $675. new W8100s go for about $980 on amazon/online today.

I might get another W8100 ---- does vray work well with "crossfire"....or whatever you guys call it from your end? I know GDDR5 ram doesn't stack but how does two GPUS with 8GB each help with rendering single image renders in Vray?

I'll render it again with CPU priorty to set to high. I'll monitor with MSI Afterburner. hopefully the Vray log MESSAGES won't dissapear on me this time. Isn't there a way to see how much GPU memory is being used by max/vray through some log/render info somehow?

[Libertyman86]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

updated with W8100

EDIT: now updated to reflect changes (was cpu and gpu before....now its JUST GPU)

[Libertyman86]

2nd test

Results:
V-Ray RT 3.30.04
1114.699 KPaths/s
30m 10s elapsed <~10% performance increase from 1st render (33m, 2sec) with same settings.
2816 paths/pixel reached, 15744 passes
Engine: OpenC

~10% difference ---- not sure if I can associate this with putting 3dsMaxs(2015) priority to "high". That change, with closing Chrome, were the only changes made for this 2nd test

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Something i did notice on MSI Afterburner (4.2.0) is that it was reading GPU spikes....hitting 0% gpu usage for a short time, and then spiking back to 100% - this went on all throughout the render. not sure if this is from AMD's driver's side or Chaosgroup's side - just thought I'd mention it here.

MSI AFTERBURNER image reference:


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ps. this image also was created under Max's "rendered frame window" after reviewing the final rendering. Not sure what this is about. Why is max outputting another image while the Vray buffer renders too?

Rendered Frame Window image reference

[savage309]

RT GPU usually uses all of the devices you have by default (you can disable any of them from bottom of the RT settings tab in max). Do not use "crossfire", leave that to V-Ray, it can handle it by itself. Stacking many OpenCL devices is to be honest not very well tested yet.
Hitting 0% for a very short periods of time is most likely due to how our code works. The Max buffer has sRGB off (it is on in the V-Ray VFB).
Looking at the MSI Afterburner graph it seems like the CPU utilized a lot. Can you check if it was used for RT calculations as well (check the bottom of the RT settings tab, it should have list of OpenCL devices).

[Libertyman86]

i might just get another W8100....other programs use it quite good. - but if Nvidia card prices drop, I might shift over to Team Green.

I do have my CPU listed under Render Devices. Should it not be checked for the benchmark?

Also, what is STEREO MODE....mine is disabled?