Core 2 Question:
areg5
Posts: 617
I've been running Daz Studio 4.7 on a Dell latitude e6430 i-7 laptop with 16 gig ram. It has an onboard nvidia nvm card. Ive been playing around with Iray and it's pretty slow. I also have a Core 2 desktop which has a pretty good relatively new nvidia graphics card, 4 gig of ram. I was thinking of using it for renders. In other words, I would do all of the scenes on the laptop and copy them to the desk top and batch render them. I think the processor may be to slow for it to be worthwhile even though it's listed in minimum requirements. An option is to upgrade the desktop ram to 8 gig, but I don't want to spend the money if its going to be too slow
Thoughts?
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Define slow...
What are the full specs on the desktop? Which Nvidia card?
For Iray the fastest renders are from machines with dual 4 GB or higher, top end video cards. Any relatively modern machine that has dual 16x PCIe slots that doesn't drop them to half or worse speed when both are used is going to be faster...regardless of what CPU it has. Any CPU Iray render is going to be much slower. Running it so none of the cards is driving a monitor will shave a little off the render times and probably save enough video memory to add another character, go to higher res textures/overall image size, etc.
So, to figure out if it will be faster you'll need to set a baseline...Sickleyield put up a test scene. Run it on the laptop...use the defaults.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53771/
Then I'd run it on the desktop. That should give you some idea of the times...
The display card is an nvidia 650xti.
I tried that sample render in my laptop and I turned it off at 30 minutes and 85% done. I'll try it in the desktop now.
The display card is an nvidia 650xti.
I tried that sample render in my laptop and I turned it off at 30 minutes and 85% done. I'll try it in the desktop now.
Ha ha. The oh so mystical world of computing! Well, the Core 2 desktop with the nvidia 650 xti card made it to 85% in about 3 minutes. I was pretty excited, it clearly was going faster than my i7 laptop. Then it crashed the system. Tried it again, crashed again. Then a third time. I'm wondering if its overloading the 4 gig of Ram, or if the processor just can't handle it. CPU was running at 100% despite the fact that Iray was set to use only the video card. Ram was at about 3 gigs at the time of the crash.
Well?
Ha ha. The oh so mystical world of computing! Well, the Core 2 desktop with the nvidia 650 xti card made it to 85% in about 3 minutes. I was pretty excited, it clearly was going faster than my i7 laptop. Then it crashed the system. Tried it again, crashed again. Then a third time. I'm wondering if its overloading the 4 gig of Ram, or if the processor just can't handle it. CPU was running at 100% despite the fact that Iray was set to use only the video card. Ram was at about 3 gigs at the time of the crash.
Well?
Make sure it is GPU only then...it could be just about anything causing the crash, though. Start with making sure the drivers for the video card are the current ones...direct from Nvidia.
Ha ha. The oh so mystical world of computing! Well, the Core 2 desktop with the nvidia 650 xti card made it to 85% in about 3 minutes. I was pretty excited, it clearly was going faster than my i7 laptop. Then it crashed the system. Tried it again, crashed again. Then a third time. I'm wondering if its overloading the 4 gig of Ram, or if the processor just can't handle it. CPU was running at 100% despite the fact that Iray was set to use only the video card. Ram was at about 3 gigs at the time of the crash.
Well?
Make sure it is GPU only then...it could be just about anything causing the crash, though. Start with making sure the drivers for the video card are the current ones...direct from Nvidia.
It is set on GPU only, and it is the latest driver direct from Nvidia. When I say it crashes, the computer shuts off and restarts.
Windows can do that, if it is set to reboot after a BSOD.
Or a weak/poor power supply can do it when stressed.
Or, and the one I'd be leaning towards...heat. A quick check for heat/cooling issues....open the case and point a small desk fan into it. If it will complete the render while the fan is blowing in, you can be pretty sure that heat is the problem.
Windows can do that, if it is set to reboot after a BSOD.
Or a weak/poor power supply can do it when stressed.
Or, and the one I'd be leaning towards...heat. A quick check for heat/cooling issues....open the case and point a small desk fan into it. If it will complete the render while the fan is blowing in, you can be pretty sure that heat is the problem.
Its a robust power supply, I think 700W. I don't think its heat. It cuts off at the exact same moment every time, like 83.9%. System restarts, and I get the "Windows is recovering from an unexpected error message. Here are the details:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA8008297140
BCP2: FFFFF88007369480
BCP3: FFFFFFFFC00000B5
BCP4: 000000000000000A
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1
Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\041015-26379-01.dmp
C:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-110214-0.sysdata.xml
Just tried it again, and I had installed a temp monitor. CPU was at 56 degrees when it crashed. Not icy cold, but it doesn't seem hot enough to crash the system
Windows is set to reboot...so you aren't going to see the actual error message...but Google is your friend. And it seems to be a driver related crash. Not sure which ones, but drivers.
I'd start with the Nvidia driver...if it is 347.88, then I'd roll it back to the last version 341.44 from February.
Motherboard drivers would be next on the list, followed by network and audio.
So uninstall the latest driver then install the older one?
Ok, I installed the older driver (341.44) and flashed the Bios. Exact same result. Crashed at the same moment. Could this be a ram issue? I only have 4 gig on that machine.
Ok, I installed the older driver (341.44) and flashed the Bios. Exact same result. Crashed at the same moment. Could this be a ram issue? I only have 4 gig on that machine.
It's really an IRQL BSOD, which usually is driver related...they can be RAM related, but not amount, though, rather, as in bad RAM. Memtest may be worth a shot.
Crashing in the same, specific place every time does suggest memory but...
It could still be excessive temps. on the GPU.
Try CPU only, it may take ages but it will test whether its a GPU problem.
This time, I turned off some of the globes. It rendered for about 5 minutes and got to about 96% before it crashed. Is this some sort of pattern?
It's sounding more and more like a RAM issue.
Turning off those globes would get you a bit more time before it reaches the 'bad' spot in the RAM...
I'd run Memtest on it...
http://www.memtest.org/
There's a pre-built ISO that you burn to disk and boot up to.
Ok. Running memtest now. The windows memory diagnostic didn't show any problems. I presume you're referring to the system ram rather than the gpu ram
Either could have a bad spot, but the error type usually indicates system RAM, if not a driver problem. The basics of the error are that either the driver or something is trying to access something in memory that doesn't exist, but thinks it should be there. And if a couple of versions of the driver are throwing the same error, then it's more likely the culprit is the actual RAM, as opposed to the driver.
Memtest puts a lot more 'stress' on the RAM than the Windows memory tester...and it does it outside of Windows. Windows can mask some memory problems because of the way it maps things.
I ran the windows 7 memstest which only checks available ram, and it was fine. I rolled back thje driver to the Feb version as suggested. I think it may be in the card itself. It only has 1 gig memory and 4 is recommended. Of course, I could put in a new card only to find that the system is too dated and weak to handle iray.
Either could have a bad spot, but the error type usually indicates system RAM, if not a driver problem. The basics of the error are that either the driver or something is trying to access something in memory that doesn't exist, but thinks it should be there. And if a couple of versions of the driver are throwing the same error, then it's more likely the culprit is the actual RAM, as opposed to the driver.
Memtest puts a lot more 'stress' on the RAM than the Windows memory tester...and it does it outside of Windows. Windows can mask some memory problems because of the way it maps things.
I've done several renders with Iray on a 1 GB 4xx card (can't remember the exact card and can't go check...). If there isn't enough memory on the card, it will drop out, usually, gracefully and go to CPU only. But if it does crash, it's not this kind of crash...it's more like Iray/DS just go away...a crash to desktop, not a BSOD.
Ok. Any other thoughts? I'm at a loss.
Ok. Any other thoughts? I'm at a loss.
Two but rather last ditch ones...wipe/reinstall Windows and just on the off chance it's an undetected by software RAM problem, swapping RAM...
Windows can do that, if it is set to reboot after a BSOD.
Or a weak/poor power supply can do it when stressed.
Or, and the one I'd be leaning towards...heat. A quick check for heat/cooling issues....open the case and point a small desk fan into it. If it will complete the render while the fan is blowing in, you can be pretty sure that heat is the problem.
You are correct, sir! I updated drivers, reinstalled Windows, did every software thing I could think of, and then I FINALLY did the obvious. Opened up the box. I have a large power supply with a bunch of extra cables. One of the cables was sitting on the GPU fan so it wasn't turning! I cleared the way, and it "worked." I put worked in quotes, because although it rendered the test image by Sickleyield, it took a really long time to do it, probably about 30 minutes. The cpu was maxed at 100% the entire time even though it was on GPU only.
However ...I now have a plan. I'm going to build a rendering computer. I already copied all of my Daz libraries to the core 2 hard drive. I'm going to take that drive, the power supply and the GPU and put it in an old Altair case. Also take the DVD drive, put in some new case fans. Then I'm going to get an I7 motherboard and processor, found a bundle with 16 gig Ram at Tigerdirect for about $650. That ought to do it. I'm going to make the scenes on my laptop and batch render them on the desktop. I figure that should really save time. When I start using Iray I'll be set up to use it in a reasonable time frame. Hopefully Iray will batch render too.