Render performance with Nvidia Tesla

[Kevin Camp]

this thread has a link that demos the new cs6 gpu acceleration features, if that’s what you are looking for:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1018199

gpu acceleration is still mostly a preview render agent, and isn’t used much for final renders (some effects may be able to use the gpu for final rendering, but not ae itself).

this is actually true for a lot of software…. it’s been years since i used c4d, but it too could only use the gpu for previews/interactions. when it came to rendering it was all cpu. i found similar results with earlier version of apple’s motion.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Walter Soyka]

[Randy McWilson] “The nVidia specs show impressive gains, but I know that AE primarily uses CPU not GPU for rendering, so how are the gains possible?”

AE’s new ray tracer is CUDA-accelerated, and its CUDA rendering significantly outperforms CPU rendering. This is new in CS6, and applies to the ray tracer only. Classic 3D rendering still happens on the CPU as before.

Tesla C2075/Maximus is on the supported list [link] for the ray tracer.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Kevin Camp]

hey walter,

i have a question that i wasn’t clear on in todd’s demo about the gpu raytracer feature (i suppose i could ask todd, but you seem more convenient at the moment).

does ae use the gpu for the final rendering with a ‘raytrace gpu capable’ card? – i may just need to watch the demo more closely…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Walter Soyka]

[Kevin Camp] “does ae use the gpu for the final rendering with a ‘raytrace gpu capable’ card? – i may just need to watch the demo more closely…”

Yes.

The ray tracer is not using the GPU to process graphics OpenGL-style; it’s using it to crunch numbers.

The output of the ray tracer is identical from both GPU and CPU rendering, but a good CUDA card will render it much, much faster.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Hi Kevin, as Walter has explained the GPU works during previews and renders. This off course requires that your GPU is supported by CS6 for ray-tracing.

There are other levels of GPU acceleration that involve drawing CS6’s UI and when working in Fast Draft mode. These types of hardware acceleration in CS6 uses OpenGL which is supported by lots of nVidia and ATI GPUs.

FWIW, here’s a link to a few tests I did with a ray-traced supported GPU –
https://www.broadcastgems.com/mediastreamer/AE_CS6_RoRK_3DRaytracer_01.mp4

The GPU ray-tracing sped up my renders by a factor of between 15-20. That’s a lot!

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Singapore and Malaysia
Adobe ACE/ACI (version 7) & Imagineer Systems Inc Approved Mocha Trainer

[Kevin Camp]

thanks walter and roland. looks like i can start building a case for getting both a hardware and software upgrade here.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW