PC Drivers & Software

[TheLovermind]

As a 2D/3D professional, I never use my graphics workstations for games.
I had migrated to Amd Ryzen (5990X) some time ago, not that I was disappointed with Intel, but the price/performance ratio was an argument.
Very happy with the processor... I was tempted by the AMD GPU because I was planning to buy the Nvidia 4090 RTX (currently on RTX 2080 Ti)

As soon as the new card was installed (7900 XTX 24 go) I installed the nice adrenalin interface... and did some personal bench test (rendering on 3D soft and Davinci resolve studio...). So far, nothing abnormal, even if I note a problem of reading under Davinci (4k without effect) a first baking test on substance (last update) : the machine froze immediately after the calculation of 'ambient occlusion' during the baking process...

I tried the same thing on Toolbag : same thing, but on Marmoset, it's just after the Baking process that the machine stopped... however, on small 3D objects not very complex, the baking is very fast. Also, the display and rendering is fluid and does the job.

Everything else seems to work well: Zbrush, the rendering of textures (ambient occlusion in this case) goes well, the display is fast... a speed gain overall... except that, when we ask for a precise task (here the Baking of a rather complex texture)... it seems that the card (or the drivers) are not up to the task....

A strange fact, I tried a "stress test" from the interface, this one, set to 60 sec, put the GPU in stress only for a few seconds... then, (while there was still 40 seconds of test, the "stress" was non-existent, no resumption, no alert, just a "rest" mode in the metrics)

I also noticed, on the interface GPU Tweak of Asus (my motherboard is Asus ROG VIII Formula) that display gpu freq at 2990 mhz ! I've also uninstalled this app...

So now I don't know what to do, I'm wasting time (I downgraded the drivers to version 22.12.2) I'm disappointed, tired and very angry that I don't have a hardware that should work and now I have to remove this little jewel to put back a card whose capabilities I already know (2080 Ti 11GB), but which never put me in such a professional mess

Hardware: 128GB DDR4, 6 x SSD 2TO, Ryzen 5990X, XTX 7900 24GB, Mobo Asus Cross VIII formula...

If someone has the solution... my appreciation will be happily "explosive".

thanks

[GasikG]

Hi bro, first want to tell, you too fast buy new videocard for work, need time for make new drivers and no reference card. I think temperature is your problem. you need check hotspot temperature in adrenalin you can make it. If temperature is ok, try proff driver 2022Q4 with blue interface.

[TheLovermind]

Hi,

thank you for answering...

About the 2022Q4 driver ? how to handle it : the installer does not recognize my card !
about the temperature, not really...
I didn't notice any increase in metrics on an ordinary benchmark (I even have excellent results) nor during rendering tests under UE5 or 3D max when this card pushed far away somes limits...

During the baking process... I think it's a phenomenon linked to the management of this kind of calculations (since it's a matter of throwing rays of an object in high resolution in order to create textures (normal map, ambient occlusion, curve, thickness, etc for the same object in low resolution...)

Then, concerning the purchase of hardware... yes, I already went through the "pro" hardware (at Nvidia... in fact, it's the first time I go through Amd for the GPU), I had several Quadro, at the time... and I was really disappointed by the "gain" brought compared to the financial cost.
From experience (I have been building my own workstations for at least 30 years... at this level, I would have killed someone the day I switched from win 3.1 to Win95 -> well, it's better now ;)) : I know that good graphics cards designed for "gaming", behave very well in graphics applications and especially for "indies" like me... and I'm not the only one in this case.

A lot of professionals will tell you... they prefer to invest in a good card for gaming, rather than having a "pro" card, worth 4 to 5 times the price and for not so optimal performances.
No, I think you can get by with cards and stations optimized for gaming, but I still hope to believe that it's a configuration problem, a poorly managed driver layer... (because I've seen some pretty good testimonials about the 7900 XTX under marmoset... but maybe not for the same reasons)

So to come back to the subject, no it's not about temperature : the fans are running correctly and when I do ordinary tests on benchmarks, I systematically check the metrics (moreover, I'm in a rather "cold" place and my workstation is amply optimized to manage high temperatures : water cooler, several chassis fans, optimization of hot/cold air flows)

If you have any other suggestions or if someone has the same problem especially with these two softwares (Substance and Toolbag 4) and during the baking process...

[TheLovermind]

For those who have the same problem, I found a temporary solution ....

In marmoset ToolBag 4.05 -> preferences -> GPU:
Baker priority : Responsive
Ray Tracing : Generic (and not accelerated)

This will not prevent you from finding the time long... very long, but it is the only solution for the moment to avoid changing card (I was before on 2080 Ti) and to be able to work again...

In fact, I maintain what I said above, I think that the driver (or the card?) is not adapted to handle Ray-Tracing at very high load, as in the process of Baking (creation of texture from a high resolution model and projected on the UV of the map to improve the visualization of a model in low resolution)
While Nvidia (old model) takes care of it without much effort... it's a pity, while I was very happy with AMD CPUs, I'm still disappointed (until maybe an update)... especially since the benchmark (furmark in particular) shows a quite bluffing score...
Unless it's simply the Toolbag designers who didn't optimize their development around this new card (for Substance, it's almost the same... and the problem occurs especially for the ambient occlusion or the "thichness", where the ray tracing load is at its maximum!)

[MADZyren]

Is your PSU powerful enough? Also if it is getting old, capacitors become weaker over time.

If your 7900XTX is of reference design, its cooler might be defective and problem could be overheating.

In some cases you might have to reinstall software or operating system if there are major hardware changes. The system might work, but not as well as it should. If you have not tried this, maybe unplug other drives and install Windows and some software you use on a separate drive (could be an old one or some small SSD you can pick up and costs like 30-40€) to see if it works, so you don't have to delete/reinstall all the software just for testing.

I don't use those programs. I tested Blender once and noticed that AMD drivers did not work well when GPU acceleration was used, but this was years ago. I did try both the gaming driver and the other one, can't recall what it was called.

[TheLovermind]

Hi MADZyren... oh yes, 1350 watts PSU... I think that's enough. As I mentioned above, benchmarks (and also Zbrush, Maya, etc) behave remarkably well when it comes to "normal" rendering even if in frame by frame rendering, generally the GPU is the forgotten hardware... But in real time, it's a nice advantage.

Here (in this case marmoset Toolbag 4) it is clearly a problem related to the hardware handling of raytracing... but I think I found a temporary solution and it works (see above), even if I don't have the "hardware speed". By the way, this is clearly a problem related to the fact that many of my colleagues usually work on Nvidia (I did for years...) but, given the crisis and the prohibitive prices of these days, I wanted to opt for another solution... and developers (Toolbag, Substance...) clearly don't want to bother with AMD compatibility: it's the least of their worries; I have the impression that for them, AMD's gaming line doesn't really interest them, while on the other hand (Nividia Game GC), they're quick to fix any problem because they know that most of the independent creators are on Nvidia (2D/3D, editing). Well, that's my point of view... and it's a pity, because I have a lot of respect for AMD, and their effort to offer us "accessible" and performing hardware.