cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Archives Discussions

npm1
Adept II

Blender Cycles(Opencl on AMD GPUS)

Dear Opencl Developer

Why doesn't the AMD opencl compiler work with blender cycles?

whenever i compile the blender cycles kernel, the system either crashes due to lack of memory, or takes too long to compile the blender cycles kernel(which thereafter comes up with the following error:

opencl build failed:errors in console

calclcompile failederror: creating kernel_ocl_path_trace failed!

can't open file c:\tmp\5688.blend@ for writing:no file or directory

).

When is AMD opencl compiler going to work properly with blender cycles?

Why can't the AMD opencl compiler developers test their compiler against blender cycles?

Seasons Greetings,

npm1,

PS i am as well as others(i assume) are considering to make a switch from AMD GPUs to Nvidia.

371 Replies

We expect an early exit of catalyst with blender 2.71, we could give some surprise?.

What interests us is that much of the work funiones of cycles, we do not require performance if not functionality.

0 Likes
cusa123
Adept I

Well cycles amd is dead. Ton Roosendaal told us that will give better support to LuxRender for amd gpus. AMD was not able to help enough cycles to a worthy representation.

Now what? at least supporting LuxRender least not?.

O also wait to save a group of people in this segment amd?.

0 Likes
ironsoul
Adept I

AMD, my next desktop GPU I buy will be an Nvidia one. Unless you manage to get OpenCL working and performing at it's theoretical levels in cycles, I will never buy an AMD card again.

So that's the current state of affairs, I'm using an Nvidia GPU right now in my laptop (which is replacable), I will be using Nvidia GPUs for all future purchases, this isn't to punish you, it's simply the fact that your gpus do not work for what I need them for (Rendering in Cycles). I hope you're happy with yourself.

cusa123
Adept I

Gentlemen now nothing works anymore any render engine.

LuxRender reported having serious trouble.

Cycles no longer works at all.

0 Likes
rickchodgin
Adept I

Very sorry to hear this.  I too will be switching to Nvidia because GPU performance on both specialized and general purpose software is an absolute necessity these days.  Without it, there's just wasted energy and time.

0 Likes
cusa123
Adept I

"amd" has to have a plan b. Or give us some information, if this thought draw any specific api for this segment.

We will have some kind of change in drivers running?

At least give us a clear answer.

No progress in latest drivers any help or LuxRender rendering engine or blender cycles.

Ask a while ago about a similar api to mantle for 3d rendering segment. RenderMonkey change could be a new program or cleaning or something new would be ideal in packeted mantle. We are on this forum to give ideas and we leave the problem as soon as possible, but amd does not cooperate with information and a clear plan that can we do as a user?.

______--

"amd" tiene tener un plan b. O darnos alguna información, si esta pensado sacar alguna api específica para este segmento.

Tendremos algun tipo de cambio en proximos controladores?

Al menos darnos una respuesta clara.

No hay avances en los ultimos controladores que ayuden algun motor de render ni luxrender ni blender cycles.

Pregunte hace ya un tiempo sobre una api parecida a mantle para el segmento 3d rendering. Rendermonkey podria ser un nuevo cambio o limpieza del programa o algo nuevo seria lo ideal vasados en mantle. Estamos en este foro para dar ideas y poder salir del problema lo antes posible, pero amd no coopera con informacion y un plan claro que ¿podemos hacer como usuario?.

0 Likes

I totally understand your frustration.  Engineers are working on this issue--on priority.  I will relay any information I find. 

Please do continue to share ideas on this forum--this forum is for you!

0 Likes

I'm not much a forum user usually but the real lack of progress here has made me feel the need to have my say. I realise this is a DEV forum and my interest in blender is recreational but this seems to be the best place to voice my concerns.

I've been following the AMD cycles progress since the 17/5/2012 when I purchased an Radeon 7850. Here we are over 2 years later and we are still being told the same thing. Surely this is not good enough.

The word priority is used frequently but I simply can't believe this is being dealt with any real urgency and if that is the case then please admit that. I currently run 2 x AMD opteron 6276 and they do a decent job at rendering but in small scenes that fit into GPU memory a modest nvidia GPU will beat all 32 cores easily. I've had 4 nvidia gpu's over the past 2 years due to this but bought a r9 290 at the beginning of the year due to some of the positive information on the blenderartist thread http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?254521-A-good-news-for-AMD-ATI-Graphic-cards-owners .

Sorry if this seems overly critical but being an AMD fan I'm feeling a little let down.

I would appreciate a bit more transparency on this issue. I would imagine getting opencl functioning on a gaming radeon card is pretty low on the priority list and if that is the case then please say so. I can't speak for other but I would respect AMD alot more if I was told the ugly truth rather than empty promises.

I do apologise if this is not the place to post my opinions and if my concerns could be better directed elsewhere then please let me know,

Thanks

0 Likes

"Engineers are working on this issue--on priority. I will relay any information I find."

I'm sorry, Prasad, but this is becoming increasingly difficult to believe.  There needs to be some public movement to which AMD will be held accountable financially, such as a press release noting its planned support, mention in a media release, or something real, otherwise all of this talk comes across as apparent overt lies and misleading information.

0 Likes

We totally understand everyone's frustration - we're frustrated as well.  With well over 1 million lines of code, problems are not always easily fixed and this appears to have the "hard to fix" property. 

Our engineers are still working to fix this issue but keep in mind that with the popularity of OpenCL, this is just one of very many issues we're trying to address on an ongoing basis.  As a developer, you should understand that bug lists seem to grow over time, no matter how much effort is applied to eliminate them. While AMD is a big company and we have lots of engineers, we also have a big bug list and every one in the developer community believes their bug is the most important one to be fixed in the next release.

This is one of the posts in this forum for which I get the most internal emails from product management to engineering - it is a big deal, and we are trying to resolve the issue.  We want this fixed probably more than the developer community and when we have something substantive to post, we will but for now, we ask for your understanding and patience with the full knowledge that it is taking a long time even though we are working hard to find a resolution.

Bob

0 Likes

Bob, please go to the end of this thread (the last few pages) and look at the posted benchmarks.  These are for 2.6x and 2.7x Blender:
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?239480-2-6x-Cycles-render-benchmark/page81

These are the performance differences seen by real people using CPU and GPU rendering.  The times are typically 3x greater on CPU, and sometimes notably higher.

How can anyone serious about using a program that benefits so much from GPU acceleration (in this case Blender and Cycles) justify waiting for AMD any longer when a typical high-end render requires 10s of minutes per frame on the CPU, and (with dual Nvidia cards) one-fifth as long (or less) on the GPU?

How many more months or years shall we coast through on promises, Bob?  GPU speedups mean real-time rendered previews, faster test rendering, the ability to test lighting in final form, and more, meaning greater productivity and a better use of a human being's valuable time.  That truly means something.

Yours is a CPU and graphics card company.  This is what we see:  Your CPU performance trails behind Intel (sometimes notably), and your graphics cards are not even capable of performing the tasks demanded by high-end graphics needs (such as with Cycles).  While many like AMD as a company, which I do and have since the old Jerry Sanders, III days, and like the idea of buying "underdog" products from their "mighty warrior that could" green company, the realities are that AMD's products are either inferior or incapable in every demonstrable measurement when doing high-end professional work.  Why wouldn't people switch to Intel and Nvidia if they wanted real performance?  At this point, it is truly a no brainer.

AMD is simply losing here, Bob.  Losing face.  Losing reputation.  Losing the confidence of the community.  And this exceedingly long failure train (regarding Blender GPU acceleration) has now become more than just a post or a footnote on web-pages.  Time has morphed it into a voice signaling to the 3D community:  "Avoid AMD.  It's not that they're slow.  It's not that they're buggy.  It's not that their products don't do well on games.  It's just that they're not even there on the field, and nobody (at AMD or elsewhere) knows where they are, when they'll get here, or how they'll perform once they do.  Avoid AMD."

I'm sorry, Bob.

0 Likes

rickchodgin,

I'm sorry to see you go. I'm a big fan of AMD like many of you here are and am also frustrated that AMD can't resolve Blender issue quickly. However, I also understand that AMD is a business with a limited resource. It looks to me that AMD chose to go after professional video market first with OpenCL acceleration. Knowing the tough times they went through during the past few years, I understand AMD's decision to go after that market first and support their decision. AMD's business seems to be turning around. So, I'm hoping that they will have more resources to investigate this issue.

Bob,

Just wanted to say that I like what I see in Kaveri and hope to see a lot of design wins announced during the week of June 2nd.

Brian

0 Likes

"Dear Abby, I'm having difficulties with my girlfriend.  I love her and have been faithful, but she's becoming increasingly distant, unreliable, and even unpredictable at times.  For example, she makes promises and then leaves me wondering when she'll follow through.  It seems to be a really one-sided relationship at this point.  What should I do?  Signed, Confused."


-----

@bsp2020 said "rickchodgin, I'm sorry to see you go"

Brian, well I haven't left yet.  Machine investments have lifetimes, and those lifetimes must be weighed against other factors before real financial decisions are made, and that still gives AMD some time to move.

I can see the day approaching where I will need to make a decision, and it will be based upon productivity more than many other factors.  I know I'm not alone in that regard because the forums are filled with post after post commenting about this very AMD / competitor GPU acceleration issue.  We all see the YouTube videos where people have tutorials or demos using dual competitor cards which demonstrate real-time preview renders at usable even high resolutions (I remember seeing an AMD promo video on Maya and fast fluid rendering, something AMD touted because rather than taking an afternoon to generate, it could be done in a minute or two).  It really does make a difference to people, and the mindset where each of us purposefully impose artificial limits upon ourselves and our productivity by sticking with AMD, based solely on brand loyalty and/or the promise and hope of a brighter future in our hardware, are becoming increasingly hard to justify as time goes by, especially when there is solid, bona fide, real, visible data which would completely validate switching to the competitor's products today.

Maybe these post will serve as a cattle prod to AMD's developers and, more importantly, their management.

-----

Here's one well known website advising people to go with the competitor's products outright: The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Computer for Blender | Blender Guru


Andrew Price writes, and his videos demonstrate the dual card solution regularly showing real-time preview renders:

"The brand I recommend is Nvidia, because that’s actually the only brand that currently works with Cycles. AMD/ATI cards are dead in the water as far as Cycles is concerned. According to the developers, development can’t continue due to current AMD driver limitations. So save yourself a whole lotta heartache and buy Nvidia."


The link Andrew cites points to a Blender 2.6 dev site which reads:
"OpenCL support for AMD/NVidia GPU rendering is currently on hold. Only a small subset of the entire rendering kernel can currently be compiled, which leaves this mostly at prototype. We will need major driver or hardware improvements to get full cycles support on AMD hardware."

0 Likes

I know a lot of people have lost hope in AMD.

I am a Blender user and have been following Cycles and AMD Opencl for 2 years now.

I don't know all the systems people are using to test Cycles on AMD systems but mine worked Very well with Blender 2.70a

the mikepen BMW render test on my FX-8150 takes 2.15min

on my Saphire HD 7970 Toxic I can render it at 49sec.

I don't know what changed in the cycles code but after 2.70a cycles does not work on my system using opencl.

Now I am happy to wait as I have seen progress happening, what I see most people are having problems with, if you look through the posting you will see 3 month gaps or longer  in posts from AMD.

most of them are just please be patient, or just wait till the next driver, or we WILL POST UPDATES IF ANYTHING GOOD IS HAPPENING...hint hint. the masses don't need a post of hay its fixed everyone dance and render to your hearts content.

They just need to know hay we found a bug killed it but there are still more, or sorry nothing in the way of progress but we are working on it.

Now for the moderators that have made it this far in my little speech,  I know a lot more posts have been made, just keep it up, And no you can't make everyone happy some people just have to yell as loud as they can.

I will say as far as my $1600 investment in a AMD system early in 2012 for the Opencl aspect and I hate NVIDIA has not payed off. I am looking forward to the day everything works as it should as I can't afford to make a new system right now.

So after a long winded first post on the AMD Boards

Just let use know we and our investment in AMD has not been for nothing, post more of what you are doing have done or what we as the user can do to help.

Thank you

0 Likes

Thank you for your response, Bob!

As a developer myself, I fully understand your situation and frustration. I'm thankful, that you let us know, that you're still working on this issue - that's enough. If you're asking for patience, that's what you'll get. But to make waiting easier, I would really love to see an in-depth report from a developer. Is the core issue found / known? What is it (I don't mind if it's pure low-level stuff, this is a developers' board after all)? Do you think, whether our current hardware will work with the fix or not?

Again, thank you Bob for all your effort so far and taking the time to post here. The state might not be usable for end-users, but from a developer's perspective, you guys have reached MUCH in the last 2 years. Keep going and best luck!

Greetings,

Tolga

0 Likes

Just to update everyone as silence is annoying and sometimes viewed as lack of effort.  We have a number of engineers who have working on fixes which are intended to address this issue along with LuxRender issues.  They've run into further complications while doing regression testing as well as testing the current development branch thus the effort continues into next week, even though we were hoping to have something posted by Friday.  The frustration continues for all parties but we'll continue looking for a fix next week, optimistically expecting to have a fix to post.

Bob

0 Likes

Blender is a major open source software and because of this bug it basically doesn't work with AMD cards. Maybe you should give this bug a higher priority *instead of fixing some meaningless bugs in computer games which are just a pure time waste*.

0 Likes

@Bob: Thank you for the report!

@bwv: I don't think, that you've fully understood Bob's post. They're working on it with a high priority, but it simply isn't an issue, that can be fixed tomorrow. On the other hand, those "meaningless bugs in computer games" are probably relatively easy to fix. OpenCL is a very young standard, whereas OpenGL and DirectX are dinosaurs and more hardened (and probably have a better AMD driver base, which makes fixes easier). I just want to remember you, that 2 years ago, Cycles didn't even compile on AMD cards! Now, it's more or less about performance and bug fixing. So, you guys should appreciate the work of AMD developers, who fixed their OpenCL compiler in favor of the less than 1% AMD users. Besides, they are already working on the bug with priority, so what else do you want? Bob gave you a fully understandable report of the current situation. Flaming and bashing the developers won't make it faster or easier - for both sides.

I'm sorry to say it, but in the professional field it either works or not and having 1% of the performance, even if it compiles, means that it does not work. I'm not bashing anyone.

"who fixed their OpenCL compiler in favor of the less than 1% AMD users"

And the other 99% are wasting their time with games? Gaming doesn't create really any values (people live in fantasy worlds) (except for some kind of real life training, but the majority doesn't do that), OpenCL does.

Yes, AMD and others sell more if they sell for the masses, but AMD, give this bug a bit more love.

0 Likes


bwv a écrit:



I'm sorry to say it, but in the professional field it either works or not and having 1% of the performance, even if it compiles, means that it does not work. I'm not bashing anyone.



"who fixed their OpenCL compiler in favor of the less than 1% AMD users"


And the other 99% are wasting their time with games? Gaming doesn't create really any values (people live in fantasy worlds) (except for some kind of real life training, but the majority doesn't do that), OpenCL does.



Yes, AMD and others sell more if they sell for the masses, but AMD, give this bug a bit more love.


Do you know what money mean ? I Know we are waiting to long but we must try to be more conciliant with dev's as they make effort to go in deph with they reply ! But it'is clear that this situation can have a more great impact on AMD buisness ?

How?

The same consumer that pay for Gaming can be the same that use 3D app like blender and many other ! I'm a 3D designer professionel and a GAMER too ! 

0 Likes

Just Tested with AMD Driver 14.6 ver 1

all parts of the Kernel_types.h that fall under AMD OpenCL unCommented

Compile time 10sec Render time 32sec.

using Blender 2.70a,  Mikepen BMW file.

This does not work with the most resent Blender daily build.

so now the ball look like it is in the Blender Devs hands.

I'm probably correct in saying AMD can probably Optimize this more now the further testing can be done with this working.

0 Likes

well all of this has been for nothing as of now.

this is the response I got from Blender Devs about getting this to work.

OpenCL kernel is not supported officially, and still in development. Thanks for the report, but we do not accept bug reports about it currently.

0 Likes


jaxom191 a écrit:



well all of this has been for nothing as of now.


this is the response I got from Blender Devs about getting this to work.



OpenCL kernel is not supported officially, and still in development. Thanks for the report, but we do not accept bug reports about it currently.


It compile in shorter time and memory usage is low than in the pass. but the speed is 2X times slower than what it must be. and some features give error when compiling !

the interest of gpu computing is the speed this must be improve ! actually the gtx 760 is faster than a R9 280X in gpu rendering ! this is unacceptable !

BUT there is very good improvement in 14.6 v1:::::::::::::::

1/ it work on olders gpu HD5XXX series

2/ some blender dev are working error issues

Please dn't stop there many people are waiting for this to build completely new computer me include !

because of this error I've to force my boss to buy 2x TITAN black instead of the R9 295 wich is more powerfull ! IT very frustrating to buy something you didn't like !

THANK a lot and continue !

0 Likes
cusa123
Adept I

Rickchodgin his frustration amd takes years are unable to resolve . The insacible amount of problems they have, also deign to take out more technology as jpg decoder and some other things that have case .

If a case could amd resover the problem, it would be very difficult for users return to use amd 's called "trust."

Ask a while now , why not make a special type mantle for 3d programming sector. The only thing that works is 3d engine LuxRender having "0 support amd part " . With all that we have to wait Bob amd : a promise " not recommended " a short-term solution , a new way to address the problem or a new way of opencl3d specified.

The latter can be very interesting as OpenCL walks well on other specific programming, 3d field I think I get enough time to quit . He may be crazy but I spent years without definitive solution , with more problems than solutions. Amd also is focusing on new technologies because they squeeze this segment , I think amd will "fall Record " years with problems of drivers to take their toll now . The final question segir patching catalyst or draw a definitive solution as mantle .

Update:

amdcusa wrote:Could the new "decoder amd catalyst 14.5" assist in the representation of image using gpu to LuxRender in the libjpg.

Dade

Anyone faster saving of jog will have still no effect on the total rendering time, it is already pretty instant.

__________________

Rickchodgin, su frustracion son años que amd lleva sin poder resolver. La insacible cantidad de problemas que tienen, ademas se dignan a sacara mas tecnologia como jpg decoder y algunas otras cosas que caso tiene.

Si amd pudiera en un caso resover el problema, seria muy dificil que usuarios regresen a usar amd eso se llama "confianza".

Pregunte hace ya un tiempo, porque no hacer una programacion especial tipo mantle para el sector 3d. El unico motor 3d que funciona es Luxrender que tiene "0 apoyo de parte amd". Con todo esto Bob que tenemos que esperar de amd : una promesa "no  recomendado",una solucion a corto plazo, una nueva forma de enfrentarse al problema o una nueva forma de opencl3d especifica.

Esta ultima puede ser muy interesante ya que opencl camina bien en otro tipo de programaciones especificas, en el campo del 3d creo que llego el tiempo suficiente de dejarlo. Puede que sea una locura pero ya llevamos años sin solucion definitiva, con mas problemas que soluciones. Asi como amd se esta enfocando en nuevas tecnologias porque no exprimir este segmento, creo que amd le "cayo la ficha" de años con problemas de drivers  que le pasan factura ahora. La pregunta final segir emparchando catalyst o sacar una solucion como mantle definitiva.

0 Likes
cusa123
Adept I

Unfortunately your situation, we are working on it. They do not know?. This forum is useless, eh blenderartist had more information on any website and twitter amd. jaxom191 your situation is like that of many of us, in my case I have a disk with linux and one with windows just to see if it would work at some point but all are waiting with a asus fx 8120 and 7870.

Also I have to tell the truth, what games amd I'm not complaining at all, but in the rest mia mother is horrible 3D applications, support and other editing programs. When you see all the web support Nividia support cuda .... as you get tired of that is not amd. I said it before and I will say amd need to do something similar to what they did with games call companies and start working on something solid.

___________

Lamentamos tu situación, estamos trabajando en ello.  En que no lo se?. Este foro no sirve para nada, eh tenido mas informacion en blenderartist y twitter que cualquier web de amd. jaxom191 tu situacion es igual que la de muchos de nosotros, en mi caso tengo un disco con linux y otro con windows  solo para ver si en algun momento pudiera funcionar todo pero estamos a la espera, con un fx 8120 y una asus 7870.

Tambien tengo que decir la verdad, en juegos lo que es amd no me quejo para nada, pero en el resto madre mia que es horrible aplicaciones 3d, compatibilidad con programas de edicion y otros. Cuando ya ves en todas las web compatible con nividia compatible con cuda.... como que te cansas de que no este amd. Lo dije antes y lo volvere a decir amd necesita hacer algo parecido con lo que hicieron con los juegos llamar a las empresas y empezar a trabajan en algo solido.

0 Likes
cusa123
Adept I

Tolga9009 think people who use amd gpu to render using gpu are more than 1%. But this low percentage is because, amd does not have the same reputation that nvidia.

Also you're wrong just performance, we have a long way to say that. At least 70% of GPU applications are not possible to use in blender amd radeon.

But if you have to rewrite the code in OpenCL and amd is very big advantage is that if we have such errors in the future.

What I would like to see if that official rewritten engine with other indigo render better example and LuxRender.

___________________

Tolga9009 pienso que los usuarios que usan amd gpu, para el uso de render gpu son mas que un 1%.  Pero esta baja de porcentaje se debe a que, amd no tiene la misma reputacion que nvidia.

Tambien te equivocas con solo rendimiento, le falta mucho para decir eso. Al menos el 70% de las aplicaciones gpu no son posibles usar en blender para amd radeon.

Pero si hay que reescribir el codigo opencl en amd y es muy grande que ventaja tiene si tenemos este tipo de errores a futuro.

Lo que me gustaria ver si ese reescrito funcionaria con otros motor en mejores condiciones ejemplo indigo render y luxrender.

0 Likes
cusa123
Adept I

This is my first 3d character I've managed to do. The evidence is on display with a amd fx 8120 and 7870.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=312310&d=1401546212&thumb=1

0 Likes

Ok so the latest Buildbot of Blender 2.70 for Windows 64bit Now works Thanks to Blender Dev

Dingto.

Render of the MikePen BMW now takes 22sec on my 7970.

0 Likes


jaxom191 a écrit:



Ok so the latest Buildbot of Blender 2.70 for Windows 64bit Now works Thanks to Blender Dev


Dingto.


Render of the MikePen BMW now takes 22sec on my 7970.



Your time is wrong I've the same card and i've tested today it's :

1mn.11 secs for HD 7970

1.01 in oC mod

22 scs is TITAN black render time (I've two TITAN BLACK in BOX at JOB

0 Likes

what tile size are you using?

AMD Cards and I would think Nvidia need to have 256 X 256 or in some cases 512 X 512 to fully load the card.

I have mine set to 256 X 256.

And no I do not count the first Render as it is the Kernel compile time added to it. the 22sec is the second render of just render time.

And just to note as I am sure you know. Just because you have the same Saphire HD7970 6gb Toxic edition Card, does not have anything to do with why our render times may not be the same.

Unlike most People I have a AMD CPU the FX-8150 a Crosshair V mother board and 32gb of corsair DDR3 ram running OS-windows 8.1 on a SSD Drive and Blender on its own SSD Drive.  

0 Likes

Just retested with today's build, time is back up a little

29sec to render BMW. Long time to compile Kernel 3min 45sec

0 Likes


jaxom191 a écrit:



Just retested with today's build, time is back up a little


29sec to render BMW. Long time to compile Kernel 3min 45sec


I'm not sure ! really this is not my experience with the HD 7970 .

and the best tile size to render with amd is 64X540.

please give us a solide proof of our feedback.

maybe a video on youtube here on blenderartits:

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?254521-A-good-news-for-AMD-ATI-Graphic-cards-owners/p...

0 Likes
bobwhitecotton
Adept III

AMD would like to thank everyone for being patient while we work to identify a fix to the Catalyst driver which is impacting Blender Cycles and LuxRender. We’ve completed preliminary testing of a fix which is currently in our QA process.  We anticipate a driver release later this month, barring any unforeseen issues during the QA process.  Concurrently, we are also performing some benchmarking tests to determine the level of improvement.  Stay tuned and we’ll provide an update in the next week or so, concerning QA and benchmarking progress and hopefully, a specific availability date.

Thanks again for your patience,

Bob

Thank you Bob for the status update! Can't wait for the release !

Thanks for all the efforts,

Tolga

0 Likes

Seriously thanks a lot ! with this Fix you deliver many application and artists from shadows not only blender cycles and luxrender !

Redshift devs wait for this to release an opencl version !

Vray will be fully supported now

can get good perf with Furry ball last path tracer (opencl & Cuda)

Ae effect render engine will be well supported too

You will see many Nvidia consumer switch to RADEON (we will open a special forum thread for this).

THANK a LOT

0 Likes

Bob Whitecotton

Any more update on the new driver?

Brian

0 Likes

Unfortunately, the driver we expected to release this week did not pass the QA process.  Fixes are being applied and the update will go through the process again.  The update release has shifted to mid-July but I'll provide a further release update as we get nearer to that date.

Bob

thank a lot for this help Bob ! we expect all our wrong with opencl solve soon ! It will be  great to use the full potential of AMD GCN GPU wich is an amazing architecture for GPGPU. Now the most big bug to solve are around performance :

*** Speed : for comparison the R9 280X  can seriously compete with 780 ti and titan : Luxmark bench with the last nvidia driver (nvidia driver with 60% performance increase) show RADEON more powerfull again (with less optimized driver)

***  Vram  : Many test with cycles show that for the same project AMD opencl use more VRAM memory than Cuda based one ! Vram is Very important as it is the most epic limit for GPGPU computing ! If you can work on big data with less memory you are the winner here ! I'm not a programmer but if you find some trick to reduce seriously memory used by 3d geometry and texture it will be great great so great ! maybe a compression tech ! Yes i know it's more work and maybe blender dev responsability but Nvidia is a true shark to fight; they don't wait to innove and help dev in they job !

Thank a lot for the job and info thank !

0 Likes

Well, looks like new driver is out. Is this the one we have been waiting for?

0 Likes

It seems to have same OpenCL version that the two previous driver had. So, I think we still need to wait longer...

0 Likes