Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

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davide445
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Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by davide445 » Tue Oct 07, 2014 7:47 pm

Want to start using indigo for C4D where will model digital scenography for events.

I did have a midrange CPU i5 dual core + HT 2.5Ghz that also it's inside a small cage so can't be used for too long and heavy load without overheating and slowing down.

I bought recently a HD 7950 Boost GPU, with 3GB VRAM and high double precision computation speed will be a big push in rendering.

Question is there is a setup to push IR to use only the GPU for rendering?
Using the CPU in hybrid rendering will give increasingly lowering benefit and I'm afraid to load it too much due to thermals.

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Zom-B
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Zom-B » Wed Oct 08, 2014 12:39 am

In the future it will be possible to render only with the GPU:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/content/i ... -rendering

ATM it is not, and also the actual hybrid GPU render-mode doesn't benefit to much of a strong GPU (I have the same GPU).

Having a f***ked up rig that overheats is a no go and should be quite easy to fix, think about doing it right instead of working around this issue!

Until then you also simply can reduce the thread number of the CPU for rendering, by this you'll not use all CPU (HT) Cores, and therefor generate less heat.
In the C4D exporter you find the checkbox for "auto choose Num Threads" in the Rendering Section.
Disable it and pick the thread count by yourself!
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davide445
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by davide445 » Wed Oct 08, 2014 1:24 am

Zom-B wrote:In the future it will be possible to render only with the GPU:
http://www.indigorenderer.com/content/i ... -rendering

ATM it is not, and also the actual hybrid GPU render-mode doesn't benefit to much of a strong GPU (I have the same GPU).

Having a f***ked up rig that overheats is a no go and should be quite easy to fix, think about doing it right instead of working around this issue!

Until then you also simply can reduce the thread number of the CPU for rendering, by this you'll not use all CPU (HT) Cores, and therefor generate less heat.
In the C4D exporter you find the checkbox for "auto choose Num Threads" in the Rendering Section.
Disable it and pick the thread count by yourself!
Unfortunately can't change hw in the near term.
Since GPU it's my only strong point will be probably easier to change render if can find one that push only on the GPU side (using OpenCL since it's AMD).

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Oscar J
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Oscar J » Wed Oct 08, 2014 9:57 pm

Indigo's CPU rendering is generally far more powerful than the GPU rendering, because of the more sophisticated rendering methods (BiDir and BiDir MLT) that are available. I'm also curious in how you can afford monster graphics like that, but not a simple fan to cool the CPU.

We don't know what rendering methods the pure GPU rendering will use when that's released.

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Zom-B
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Zom-B » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:04 pm

davide445 wrote:Unfortunately can't change hw in the near term.
Cleaning up the CPU cooler from Dust and renewing thermal paste, already can be the solution to your problem. Some (slow rotating and silent) extra fan in your rig can help here a lot too just as Oscar said...
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davide445
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by davide445 » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:23 pm

Oscar J wrote:I'm also curious in how you can afford monster graphics like that, but not a simple fan to cool the CPU
Zom-B wrote:Cleaning up the CPU cooler from Dust and renewing thermal paste, already can be the solution to your problem. Some (slow rotating and silent) extra fan in your rig can help here a lot too just as Oscar said...
To respond both I can't use a CPU cooler since my CPU it's inside a laptop.
I did build a eGPU solution, low budget solution that allow me to reach 90% of peak GPU performance without the cost of a whole new PC, just connecting the GPU to my laptop and using an external monitor.
Downside is I need to carefully plan my sw setup to use the new GPU strength and avoid CPU weakness.
I will give a try to Indigo in my setup since I really like it, hope the pure GPU rendering will be available in short time.

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Zom-B
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Zom-B » Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:29 pm

davide445 wrote:To respond both I can't use a CPU cooler since my CPU it's inside a laptop.
I did build a eGPU solution...
This explains a lot :lol:
davide445 wrote:hope the pure GPU rendering will be available in short time.
well... thats what we all hope...
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riley1389
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by riley1389 » Mon Oct 27, 2014 8:26 am

I pray the GPU solution can really utilize the full potential of a GPU. With complex scenes the amount of time it takes to get satisfactory results with an Intel 4770k is very unfortunate. Hopefully Indigo's pure GPU rendering will really be abler to squeeze my R9 290X and I'll be able to have some doable times.

davide445
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by davide445 » Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:04 am

riley1389 wrote:I pray the GPU solution can really utilize the full potential of a GPU. With complex scenes the amount of time it takes to get satisfactory results with an Intel 4770k is very unfortunate. Hopefully Indigo's pure GPU rendering will really be abler to squeeze my R9 290X and I'll be able to have some doable times.
Currently my setup can push GPU to max 50% load.
There are any Indigorenderer benchmark to understand my available effective performance?

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Zom-B
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Zom-B » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:02 am

riley1389 wrote:I pray the GPU solution can really utilize the full potential of a GPU.
They next OpenCL version will be very scalable and allow to use each OpenCL device pluged in at 100%.
Even integrated iGPUs of CPUs like the 4770k will kick in and help rendering :)

davide445 wrote:Currently my setup can push GPU to max 50% load.
There are any Indigorenderer benchmark to understand my available effective performance?
the actual Hybrid render mode is very scene dependent. In my experience it kicks in best for Exteriors and Studio Shots, and at least good while doing interiors...
You'll find you GPU on 100% load in complex interiors but adding not to much to the speed, while a 50% usage on some exterior can already bring some decent speedup.

In my experience the actual GPU mode is great for simple stuff, but since its limited to pure PT only I end up often with BiDri PT for complex scenes.
I'm pretty sure the new OpenCL renderer will change this totally!
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davide445
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by davide445 » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:12 am

Zom-B wrote:....
In my experience the actual GPU mode is great for simple stuff, but since its limited to pure PT only I end up often with BiDri PT for complex scenes.
I'm pretty sure the new OpenCL renderer will change this totally!
Any idea when this new release will be available?
In the meantime I'm considering to use a game engine to render my animations.
Not the best results, but it's realtime and need minutes instead of days.

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Zom-B
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Zom-B » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:28 am

davide445 wrote:Any idea when this new release will be available?
I have absolutely no idea :(
In this post we had the first (and only) announcement about it: http://www.indigorenderer.com/node/1950
It would be great to see something under our christmas tree here, but that might be to optimistically...
davide445 wrote:In the meantime I'm considering to use a game engine to render my animations.
Not the best results, but it's realtime and need minutes instead of days.
I know from my own experiences, animations in Indigo are quite time consuming, I also thought about giving some game engine a try for some experiments...
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davide445
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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by davide445 » Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:43 am

Zom-B wrote:....
I know from my own experiences, animations in Indigo are quite time consuming, I also thought about giving some game engine a try for some experiments...
I'm evaluating Unreal Engine 4, probably the best visual results can be achieved using CryEngine, problem is it's much more difficult to use.
Looking at your portfolio focused on architecture interiors UE4 can be a good choice, there are now example of his usage in this sector.

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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by Juju » Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:57 pm

this is probably a little off topic, but...

I know the pure GPU render info is a little thin at the moment, apart from it using OpenCL and being in the works. I was hoping some feedback / information here would be more forthcoming.

Just the other day I saw that Alienware is offering a laptop, the Alienware 13, that has an optional extra "graphics amplifier" that can be plugged in to give it graphics expandability and offer some form of future proofing. Excellent!

So the graphics amplifier can house nVidia and AMD graphics solutions, the laptop has a nVidia GTX 860m 2GB (kepler thus I assume) onboard as standard, when amplifier is in use and plugged in a restart is required and the unit is activated. Excellent again!

So, with this in mind, and not knowing what the Indigo pure GPU rendering support will be, I was hoping to find out if graphics solutions with multiple GPU's will be supported?
Indigo 4 | skIndigo | SUpro 2018

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Re: Really pure GPU rendering due to slow CPU

Post by OnoSendai » Sat Nov 01, 2014 12:04 am

Yes, we will support rendering with multiple GPUs at once.

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