Serious Performance Issues - Nvidia Drivers 511.09

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Hi vasile_bulgac1

I will do a clean installation of drivers, which resets the Nvidia control panel settings(you said your driver settings are defaults), you can install the new drivers prior to the remote session to avoid this step.
All what I will do is run GPU-Z standalone to monitor GPU frequency behavior and our V-Ray Benchmark tool/Vantage to see the degraded performance. This will not affect stability or OS in any way.

Best,
Muhammed

[vasile_bulgac1]

Hi,

I already have installed 512.15 Studio Drivers, therefore you do not need to install the drivers for me.

[vasile_bulgac1]

I have monitored the GPU with GPU-Z and it doesn't downclock. But I repeat myself the issue start to manifest when rendering above 2160p (e.g 4320p).

And you can also see the temps of the VGA are more than safe (under 70).

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Yeah, we need to take a look at your settings and monitor the GPU behavior. As said above, there is a chance this is a new case we haven't reproduced yet
The issue is not an easy one, we have spent a lot of resources on this and notified Nvidia on the ways we were able to reproduce.

[npg]

Our contacts at NVIDIA suggested trying this as a workaround: Go to NVIDIA Control panel -> Manage 3D settings -> Power management mode and set it to "Prefer maximum performance". Please tell us if this makes a difference.

[vasile_bulgac1]

Our contacts at NVIDIA suggested trying this as a workaround: Go to NVIDIA Control panel -> Manage 3D settings -> Power management mode and set it to "Prefer maximum performance". Please tell us if this makes a difference.

I'll try that, let's hope this workaround may work...

[vasile_bulgac1]

Our contacts at NVIDIA suggested trying this as a workaround: Go to NVIDIA Control panel -> Manage 3D settings -> Power management mode and set it to "Prefer maximum performance". Please tell us if this makes a difference.

I have changed and tried many 8k renders with "Prefer maximum performance" in NVCPL...sadly no avail, I really can't figure out what might be the cause but in games I have decreased perf. too for about 4-6% with these drivers.

If I roll back to 472.98 everything goes back to normal in Vantage and games too.

[vasile_bulgac1]

I think I might understood what might be the cause of slower rendering with the 511 drivers.

After the render stabilize the GPU utilization drops to 60-65%...



This issue does not manifest on 472.98

[npg]

We have commented on this before. Do not rely on the task manager for GPU usage. It shows very wrong numbers. I'm even surprised it's over 50%. Use GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner or something similar.

The performance issue that Muhammed reproduced is due to the GPU lowering its clock speed until reboot, not our software failing to utilize the GPU.

[vasile_bulgac1]

We have commented on this before. Do not rely on the task manager for GPU usage. It shows very wrong numbers. I'm even surprised it's over 50%. Use GPU-Z, MSI Afterburner or something similar.

The performance issue that Muhammed reproduced is due to the GPU lowering its clock speed until reboot, not our software failing to utilize the GPU.

OK, the Windows Task Manager can be misleading...point taken.

After a fresh restart, I have opened GPU-Z for monitoring @ 1440p. The performance it is the same...
Also please don't get me wrong but I never said that Vantage is to blame for this (failing to utilize the GPU), but this new generation of drivers launched by Nvidia, which started cripple performance with Ampere gen cards...

And again I'm repeating myself. Up to 2160p rendering performance is optimal. At higher resolutions (e.g 4320p) problem starts.

When I will render at 4320p I will open GPU-z and I will take different screenshots and I'll post'em here.

And the legend about "Nvidia cripples older GPUs with their drivers" it is no longer a myth, at least in my opinion.

Best regards,
Vasile B.

[vasile_bulgac1]

I have re-rendered a scene which on the older drivers took about 21-22 mins. On these 511 it took about 30 mins. Also I have monitored the whole render process with GPU-Z and I haven't noticed a GPU downclock and that's why I have uploaded a GPU-Z Sensor Log.

I know the issue is not an easy one but reading on lots of GPU forums more and more people are complaining that this branch of drivers (512.15) are simply lowering fps in lots of graphics and rendering programs and games too.

Best regards,
Vasile B.

[npg]

Thanks for the data. We're in contact with nvidia and trying to get to the bottom of this. It looks like there may be two separate issues - yours and the one described by Muhammed where the clocks change.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

Hello,

We moved the recommended driver to version 512.59, it is much better in preventing the issues we came across (at least on our side) and you still need high performance mode in Nvidia's control panel.
If you are still getting this behavior, you are the only one that complained about it(without the GPUs downclocking) we cannot help much in this case(unless I take a look at your settings and your setup through remote access)

Best,
Muhammed

[npg]

vasile_bulgac1 have you tried if the issue is present with 512.59 or 512.77?

[vasile_bulgac1]

vasile_bulgac1 have you tried if the issue is present with 512.59 or 512.77?

I have installed yesterday SD 512.59 drivers on my 3090 machine.

Unfortunately same results. Can't get past 25-30 FPS in high res renders (eg. 4320p). Lower resolutions are fine up to 2160p.

On the other hand on my machine with A6000 I have noticed a slightly perf increase 1-2% but still not as good as 472.98.