Not utilizing best GPU

[frogman_pep]

Just installed a new 2070 Super GPU, running nVIDIA Studio Driver 451.18 and wanted to go through the intro tutorials again. Noticed via the Windows Task Manager 'Performance' tab the 2070 is hardly being utilized (meaning the percentage maintains rather low). Tried different configurations with vray_gpu_device_select and even tried changing the CUDA cores in the nVIDIA Control Panel and here are the resulting render times from the Intro video when using V-Ray GPU 5 with Bucket sampler.

System: i7-6700K | Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI-CF | 32 GB DDR4 | evga 2070 Super Black + nVIDIA Quadro K4200

i7 + 2070 - 8:54.9

Processor ran essentially at 100% | 2070 was no higher than 20%

2070 - 9:27.7

Maintained around 15 %, had a spike around every 1/4 interval between 30-40 %, and one around 55%

i7 + 2070 + K4200 - 9:57.5

2070 ran around 5-10% while the Quadro was spiking to 100% just about every other interval.



So it seems the best arrangement is to use the i7 + 2070.

Is there anything I can do to get better utilization from the 2070 or whatever else?

[Joelaff]

Make sure you have the Task Manager set to show CUDA usage. There is a little popup. I don't think this changes what shows in the mini-graph, but you can see it when you go to the GPU tab.

[frogman_pep]

An interesting detail added to the puzzle Joelaff Thanks!

One of those interestings had to do with the Quadro not having the 'Cuda' option in Windows Task Manager.
I checked and in the nVIDIA Control Panel Cuda cores were dispersed throughout all cards. Which got me thinking, maybe because the Quadro is a bit older card maybe the smaller icon 'Overall Resource Utilization' (is how I imagine it's determined???) % is calculating the Cuda cores in there.

Because for the Super this is what it showed:



But it doesn't seem that important to understand how the Quadro is being calculated. So does this mean the 2070 is being used to it's best potential? Or would figuring out how to increase the Overall Resource Utilization Percentage be possible?

[Joelaff]

Be sure to go through all the items in that popup for the Quadro. Perhaps it is labelled something else. I have seen that on some card. I don't recall what the label was (something_0 or something_1 I think).

Also, search around. There are a number of third party utilities which will show GPU usage, typically from card manufacturers, but some are not. I think EVGA has one. Not sure if it requires an EVGA card or not.

This is a good one too:

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

[frogman_pep]

So we shaved off 3.3 seconds. GPU Load stayed pretty steady at bout 100%. Memory Controller Load was at 49%. Here this would probably help more:



Temp got to about 70 and then I turned fan on to 100% and temp got back to around 62-60. That should be a descent setup, huh, or what else can be changed? Thanks.

[Joelaff]

Unless you have some kind of overclocking control for your GPU (some do) and it is stable, I am not sure what else you would do. But I am sure someone will have some ideas.

[frogman_pep]

Thanks Joelaff, sounds like a sucess for the day. Thanks a bunch meng, I owe you a dope render. Had looked over water-cooling and overclocking, but figure just get things working the best on stock settings and go from there.