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This page will help you configure V-Ray for GPU rendering. For help with common questions, please see the V-Ray GPU Frequently Asked Questions page.
Overview
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Why V-Ray GPU?
V-Ray GPU has a number of advantages:
- Graphics cards often outperform CPU devices when it comes to processing parallel tasks, such as raytracing;
- A single machine can host multiple GPU devices but in most cases only a single CPU;
- Hybrid rendering (CUDA only) allows maximum hardware utilization by harnessing the computing power of both GPU and CPU devices;
- V-Ray GPU has all the required features to be production ready;
V-Ray CPU advantages:
- Allows rendering complex scenes requiring a substantial amount of memory;
- Supports all V-Ray features;
- Does not pre-occupy single-GPU machines during rendering
Supported Hardware and Drivers
V-Ray GPU offers rendering with NVIDIA CUDA and RTX platforms.
Below is a list of tests we have performed and the results:
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Rendering on multiple GPUs is supported, and by default, Interactive rendering for GPU uses all available GPU devices. See the sections below to learn how to choose devices on which to run IR GPU.
If V-Ray GPU cannot find a supported CUDA device on the system, it silently falls back to CPU code. If V-Ray GPU cannot find a supported RTX device on the system, the process stops.
To see if the V-Ray render server is really rendering on the GPU, check out its console output.
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When rendering, the output window provides information about your current driver version. If the version is not compatible with V-Ray GPU, you will find a message with the recommended version. |
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When rendering, the V-Ray progress log provides information about your current driver version. If the version is not compatible with V-Ray GPU, you will find a message with the recommended version. |
Unsupported driver version and recommendation to upgrade
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Тo use NVLINK on supported hardware, NVLINK devices must be set to TCC mode. This is recommended for Pascal, Volta and Turning-based Quadro models. For GeForce RTX cards, a SLI setup is sufficient. Also note that to prevent performance loss, not all data is shared between devices. For more information, see the OptiX and NVLink FAQ page. |
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Though GPU rendering with CUDA on macOS devices is no longer supported, the old behavior can be brought back by using the following environment variable: VRAY_APPSDK_UNHIDE_DEVICES=1. Chaos Group does not guarantee the functionality and quality of the GPU engine if you choose to proceed with using this environment variable. Environment variables can be set specifically for V-Ray for SketchUp on macOS by editing the config file located at: |
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The RTX engine type is not supported on macOS. The RTX engine type only works with NVidia RTX cards. |
Choosing Which Devices to Use for Rendering
You may not want to use all available GPU devices for rendering, especially if you have multiple GPUs and you want to leave one of them free for working on the user interface or you may want to combine your CPU and GPU together (see the Hybrid Rendering section below).
There are two ways to do this: by using the supplied standalone device selection tool, accessible from both the V-Ray Tools menu and the Start menu search, or from the Asset Editor's GPU device dropdown list.
When selecting devices from the standalone tool, that will set the default setup for the work station. After changing this option, you need to restart SketchUp and/or any Standalone DR servers (if any are running) for the changes to take effect. If the Standalone DR server is running as a service, you may need to restart it.
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The GPU Device Selection tool is not available on Mac OS X. |
When choosing the devices from the Asset Editor - it is done only for the current session in SketchUp.
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If you see your CPU listed twice, choose the option with "C++/CPU " in the name. |
Hybrid Rendering with CPUs and the CUDA Engine Anchor#Hybrid #Hybrid
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Starting in 3.60, V-Ray GPU can perform hybrid rendering with the CUDA engine utilizing both the CPU and NVIDIA GPUs. V-Ray can now execute the CUDA source on the CPU, as though the CPU was another CUDA device. To enable the hybrid rendering mode, simply enable the C++/CPU device from the list of CUDA devices.
The hybrid rendering mode does not require any special drivers. Furthermore, you can use the CPU as a CUDA device even if you don't have an NVIDIA GPU and/or NVIDIA drivers installed. Meaning, this mode can be used on computers that don't even have GPUs. The hybrid render engine running on a CPU supports the same features as the regular V-Ray GPU CUDA engine.
More info about the nature of Hybrid rendering is available at the blog post Understanding V-Ray Hybrid rendering.
Notes
Memory usage can be viewed from the Stats section of the new V-Ray Frame Buffer.
References
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