Multiple GPU's Only One is runing

[p3taoctane]

I have a Quadra 3700 and GTX480 in a PC i7 with 8 megs of Ram
Running the latest demo version 1.022 Beta 2.2
Installed Cuda toolkit 3.0 also

I run EVGA Precision to see how the GPUs are working and only GPU 2 is active.

Is that a Demo limitation?

If not... Is there anything within the Octane "software" that can fix this. I am talking with Cubix about getting an Octane Cubix render to add GPUs to the mix to increase my VRAM as I generally work with large OBJs (A gigabyte and up) and having tired to import one already it said too complex. I am hoping thats because it is only seeing one card. If I am able to have Octane see all the cards will that improve that situation? Is there a practical limit for GPU rendering

Many Thanks

Peter

[Krisonrik]

I have a Quadra 3700 and GTX480 in a PC i7 with 8 megs of Ram
Running the latest demo version 1.022 Beta 2.2
Installed Cuda toolkit 3.0 also

I run EVGA Precision to see how the GPUs are working and only GPU 2 is active.

Is that a Demo limitation?

If not... Is there anything within the Octane "software" that can fix this. I am talking with Cubix about getting an Octane Cubix render to add GPUs to the mix to increase my VRAM as I generally work with large OBJs (A gigabyte and up) and having tired to import one already it said too complex. I am hoping thats because it is only seeing one card. If I am able to have Octane see all the cards will that improve that situation? Is there a practical limit for GPU rendering

Many Thanks

It doesn't automatically use all GPU. It's under device manager inside Octane. You have to add both cards in and then Octane will use all of them. Also, I think you are having some technical misunderstanding of how VRAM works. VRAM is local memory for GPU. GPU can't access the VRAM on different cards. When you do a render with Octane, all cards will have duplicate info in VRAM. So if you are using multiple GPU, the amount of RAM on your smallest VRAM Video card will be the amount you can utilize. Getting Cubix GPU-Xpander doesn't do squat of helping you expand your VRAM. Only way to do that is to buy a Quadro 5800 (seeing you have a GTX480 already so that's 1.5GB and Quadro 5800 is 4GB of DDR3 RAM). But at the same time, you can't use that max amount of RAM unless you only do single GPU render on that Quadro 5800.

Peter

[p3taoctane]

thank you very helpful. it seems the best way to go for heavy poly scenes then is to get the card with the most ram. Like you suggested a Quadra 5800.

not like I have money to burn... but is a tesla even better then or is that something altogether different

Peter

[Krisonrik]

thank you very helpful. it seems the best way to go for heavy poly scenes then is to get the card with the most ram. Like you suggested a Quadra 5800.

not like I have money to burn... but is a tesla even better then or is that something altogether different

Peter

I doubt Tesla is any cheaper. The new M2050 and M2070 are not officially released yet. But I believe it will be 3GB and 6GB respectively. Man... haha if you got $10k to burn, then Tesla would be great. If I ever get a better job, I might think about getting those. but I'm pretty sure those ECC RAM has an insane price tag.

[radiance]

I have a Quadra 3700 and GTX480 in a PC i7 with 8 megs of Ram
Running the latest demo version 1.022 Beta 2.2
Installed Cuda toolkit 3.0 also

I run EVGA Precision to see how the GPUs are working and only GPU 2 is active.

Is that a Demo limitation?

If not... Is there anything within the Octane "software" that can fix this. I am talking with Cubix about getting an Octane Cubix render to add GPUs to the mix to increase my VRAM as I generally work with large OBJs (A gigabyte and up) and having tired to import one already it said too complex. I am hoping thats because it is only seeing one card. If I am able to have Octane see all the cards will that improve that situation? Is there a practical limit for GPU rendering

Many Thanks

Peter

I don't think you can mix geforce and quadro's in one machine for octane.
you can use a quadro for display of a render rendered on a 2nd geforce, but you must install both drivers, and connect your display to the quadro, and leave the Geforce headless (no monitor)

Radiance

[Krisonrik]

I have a Quadra 3700 and GTX480 in a PC i7 with 8 megs of Ram
Running the latest demo version 1.022 Beta 2.2
Installed Cuda toolkit 3.0 also

I run EVGA Precision to see how the GPUs are working and only GPU 2 is active.

Is that a Demo limitation?

If not... Is there anything within the Octane "software" that can fix this. I am talking with Cubix about getting an Octane Cubix render to add GPUs to the mix to increase my VRAM as I generally work with large OBJs (A gigabyte and up) and having tired to import one already it said too complex. I am hoping thats because it is only seeing one card. If I am able to have Octane see all the cards will that improve that situation? Is there a practical limit for GPU rendering

Many Thanks

Peter

I don't think you can mix geforce and quadro's in one machine for octane.
you can use a quadro for display of a render rendered on a 2nd geforce, but you must install both drivers, and connect your display to the quadro, and leave the Geforce headless (no monitor)

Radiance

I have a GTX260 and a Quadro 4800. I use Geforce as main display and use Quadro as Octane render. Apparent you could use both Geforce and Quadro together and it's blazing fast too... I think mine was somewhere around 9+ megasamples

[p3taoctane]

Many thanks for all the input. I have tried updating the drivers... plugging different monitors independently or together.... after all my effort the whole thing seems to run more efficiently JUST with the 480.

Think I will stay with just that until I can afford another geforce card

Thanks for all the input and help

Peter

I have learn't as an artist you have to be proficient at the technical side of your software and hardware... but when you spend too much time on the hardware trying to make it work you lose days of creative art time and a heck of a lot more stress. I know there are others out there that love solving that side of the equation and I appreciate their skill and willingness to share. I'd be at a loss without them.