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terjejansen

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11 Posts

Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 14-Jan-2008 6:49 PM

Dear Members.

Rendering is inheriently parallel - If the renderer can use any of the graphics card features for rendering, hence the GPU HW is so much faster than the CPU.? ( i.e. the upper top line screencards)

Is there any support for making use of the GPUs raw processing power in relation to rendering.?

I actually read in a local computer magazine some time ago that the NVidia GPU could be used to take part of the processing payload in combination with the main CPU(s). (3 ds Max )

However not any information about how, and with (if any) tools.

Any member that have information / experience with this.?

audeamus

Advanced Poster

248 Posts

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 15-Jan-2008 11:00 AM

Heres the thing, 3ds max viewport can take advantage of GPU processors, now if you have a Quadro, then you have the ability to enable antialiasing in your viewports and pan around with very high quality (this type of "rendering" is OpenGL) and unless you use a renderer to finalize your images which run on OpenGL and not the CPU, THEN yes thats when the GPU is useful. But as of now, most of the renders out there like V-ray or physical renderers like Maxwell all use the CPU, not the GPU, and trying to combine these for these types of renderers is not possible. So basically your graphics card can only approach the 3d software viewport or any type of game renderings (something that is "live" if you should say). I know Autodesk certified a plugin that uses the advantage that Quadros have, so that your 3ds max can run faster- but this does not improve your render times on such things as V-ray or other renderers. The speed of this is determined by CPU power. And its amazing, it is basically true in all aspects, the more cores you have you basically can multiply that times your time and increase speed. So a 10 minute render on core 2 duo (2 cores) would take only 5 min on quad core (4 cores).

Might3D

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859 Posts

18 Products

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 15-Jan-2008 5:08 PM

first of all , CPU is not the final speed of the system

you must include the Hard Disk , Random Memories , Bus speed , the level cash : l1 , l2 , l3 , the GPU speed , and of course the GPU level cash and random memories .

all that combination will give you a Workstation or a simple Personal Computer .

the quad_core CPU cann't be compared as a 4_time bigger or faster than the single one , because the mathmatical and electronic algorithms prevent us to obtain it .

quad core CPU may give us 2.5 to 3 single CPUs .

finaly , the speed of the PC depends basicaly on the speed of the random memories and the speed of the bus .

the CPU is always faster than any hardware you install in the system . that's why when you increase the RAM you increase the speed .

audeamus

Advanced Poster

248 Posts

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 15-Jan-2008 8:28 PM

For renderings, buddy, look at the times... quad cores obviously cut the times for any dual cores, and octo cores obviously cut the times for quad cores...

terjejansen

Poster

11 Posts

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 16-Jan-2008 4:54 PM

Hi, Lucas,.

Can you elaborate a little more about what you say here: "I know Autodesk certified a plugin that uses the advantage that Quadros have, so that your 3ds max can run faster- but this does not improve your render times on such things as V-ray or other renderers. "

I am thinking about the certified plugin. Which one, and where to get it.

As i mentioned in my other question i will look a little into some programming possibilities to make a "glue" between GPU and CPU,. in relation to rendering. The "dream" is that V-Ray could have such a link... that would be the ultimate.. but,... that i think would not be a one mans programming job...

however to look into it for the next upcoming months will be intriguing, and deeply interesting.,. However i do not have a clue what i will meet upon here., It can be an impossible task, or ...?? Time will show..

Though to have the GPUs full power at hands for rendering in like say V-ray is compelling...

thj

elyptic

Advanced Poster

244 Posts

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 16-Jan-2008 5:29 PM

Both Lucas and Might3D are correct here too. GPU will never compete in quality to what a CPU can turn out. The GPU is for online (realtime) performance, not offline rednering. Even the advanced shaders that are offered in DX9/10 or OpenGL pale in comparison to the complexity of the ones available to offline renderers.

That 560MHz GPU is nothing compared to a handful of 3GHz+ 64-bit cores :)

terjejansen

Poster

11 Posts

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 16-Jan-2008 6:14 PM

Hmmm...

You made me start thinking (or more correct rethinking).

I thought that spesialized chips that are constructed and buildt with just "one" task to perform where superior compared with generalized chips, even though running on far less speed rate...

I read an article at the Atom Source for e.g. nitriding GaN, AlN, InN, SiN or Oxide growth., where GPU's where used as primary preferred rendering tool for visual atomic construction. much superior to pc CPUs.

Maybe performance here is more application based.. ?? I dont know.

Thought a co-work (GPU and CPU together would be the ultimate if so).,

I post more when first computer is up and running.

thj

audeamus

Advanced Poster

248 Posts

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 17-Jan-2008 12:41 AM

no, "gluing" them is not possible... well maybe some 3rd party renderer maybe... but no the major ones like V-ray or Maxwell no. CPU is the power

Plastic Man Media

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1 Post

5 Products

RE: Rendering and utilisation of GPU HW in combination with CPU.

Posted 17-Jul-2008 12:09 PM

There is one company that is doing GPU rendering...RT Square. Turbosquid sells the plugin for 3dsmax. I will download the trial and see what they have come up with but reading all the posts here suggest that unless they actually bridge the gap between the complexity of rendering and simple instruction of the GPU there will never be a GPU solution. I think this company is attempting to do just that...bridge the gap and allow a GPU to handle rendering processes (math calculations such as raytracing) and turn them into working quality images. What is interesting is that raytracing methods are being used for games increasing the quality of renderings so if games can use raytracing then the raytracing engines of todays 3D applications could very well be powered by the GPU in the future allowing for terraflop rendering capabilities turning hours into seconds.


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