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NVIDIA card

wildhunt1_f3a1879e76wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 Posts: 23
edited July 2015 in New Users

All right.  I've read and read that NVIDIA is the graphics card to have and I discovered I have one.  I have the NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 M 512 MB card.  Is this a bad one to have because people keep talking about CUDA and I see nothing about that in my Daz render preferences?  I want to use Iray because it handles shadows like I want but I'd rather not take 15 days to do one simple picture.

Post edited by wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 on

Comments

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891

    In Render Settings with nVidia Iray selected as the Engine, click on the Advanced tab, and you should see a Hardware tab.

    It lists CPU and then the name of your Graphics Card.   You can tick one or the other (or both) for use in rendering.   If your card has only 512 MB, then you will only be able to load and render very small scenes using the GPU, once that memory is used up, Iray will switch to CPU mode anyway.

    I use CPU mode only (i7 chip) on my PC since my graphics card is even older than yours, and less powerful, and I can render that way with Iray, usually in minutes, certainly not even hours.   There is a lot more to using Iray than just clicking the render button.

    There are several large threads on using Iray in the forums here, but if you want general help, please let us know what is in the Scene, and what lightring you are using, and what your basic Render Settings are.

  • wildhunt1_f3a1879e76wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 Posts: 23

    See, first off, I don't have anything listed under Advanced except CPU.  I have Hardware:  Photoreal Devices:  CPU and OptiX Prime Acceleration; then I have Interactive Devices: CPU.  And that's all I have.  That's it.  That's why I'm wondering if my graphics card isn't the right one.  Everyone talks about having other things to check off, but I have nothing.  

    As for what is in the scene, there is only a building from DM's Gadomar, a gravestone, and a clothed V4 with a light set from DM's original Circle of Light.  That's it.  It's a simple scene that takes seconds to render with 3Delight--but the problem is, I don't like how 3Delight can't seem to give me good shadows.  In fact, it seems to ignore most of them.  Iray gives a much better picture, but it takes 45 minutes to do 1% of the picture.  

    I've looked at threads here, but none of them seem to have the answers I'm looking for.  Apparently I'm so computer-inept that I have no clue what they're talking about.  It might also be because I'm using a Mac that I don't have access to everything.  I just don't know.

    Maybe it would be best for me to just keep using Daz 3.5.  I don't completely hate the renders I do there, and it's far less frustrating than Iray.

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 said:

    light set from DM's original Circle of Light.

    I don't know anything about this light set, but the point is, you don't need light sets for Iray or other unbiased renderers    They work best with HDRI or a single light source representing the sun, that is probably why it takes so long.   Have you tried without the lights, using the HDRI that is supplied?    In the Environment tab, select Dome and Scene, and Iray will use the HDRI image that comes with it,    If you don;t want to see the image of the HDRI, make sure that Draw Dome is set to 'Off'

    It also looks like you are using a laptop?   How much RAM do you have, and what is the CPU, and have you the latest driver for the card?

    I have a GT 420 which is about 5 years old, and it appears in the Advanced tab, although it doesn't do much good.   Perhaps you need to update your drivers.

  • wildhunt1_f3a1879e76wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 Posts: 23

    Actually, I'm using a desktop.  It's an iMac running OSX Yosemite with a 2.7 GHz Intel Core I5 with 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory.  It's not that old.  But if I can possbily update the drivers, I don't know how to possibly do that.  Do I just go to the NVIDIA website and look for updates?

    And I have not tried rendering without the lights.  I've always used preset lights, so it could just be a habit I'll have to break myself of.  Though what's the point of preset lights if you can't use them for their lighting effects?  But I can give anything a try.  I just don't understand how a date can affect lighting.

    Thanks for llistening and whatever help you are giving me.  I just hate feeling this stupid with a program that I used to help other people understand.  If you can tell me if the NVIDIA website will have the updates I need, then at least I can start there.

  • wildhunt1_f3a1879e76wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 Posts: 23

    Oh well...so much for that.  I did a search on NVIDIA's website for driver updates, and there are none.  My computer just sucks.

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 14,313

    Here is the driver page for your card

    http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/86504/en-us

     

    Here is where you should be searching for Nvidia drivers http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

     

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,789
    edited July 2015

    Which is Yosemite? Very recent Mac OS versions do not include the CUDA drivers, those should be available (if at all) from nVidia I think - that's not the same as the video driver per se so depending on your search terms you might not have found them.

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • DekeDeke Posts: 1,635

    I'm not sure you can upgrade the cards on an Imac.  I have a mac pro that's a few years old and was able to put a nvidia gtx 670 in it with 2 gb and that has enabled me to take advantage of Iray. If I could I'd put another card in and sinc them to achieve 4 mb which is a recommended amount for rendering.

    There is always 3Delight and utilizing things like uberenvironment to similate the look achieved in Iray.

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,099

    Deke - CUDA/Iray will use each card separately, no syncing, and card sync is a nono whe it comes to Iray/CUDA.

    The "best" bang for the buck right now seems to be the 960 4GB card. 

    Wildhiunt1 - Minimum VRAM for CUDA is 1GB I think. 512MB won't fit the needed CUDA stuff I guess.

     

     

  • wildhunt1_f3a1879e76wildhunt1_f3a1879e76 Posts: 23

    Thanks, Totte.  I guess I bought my computer a few months too early to get a Daz-usable graphics card.  I just don't know that much about 3Delilght's Uberenvironment because everything about camera is greek to me.  I just want to hit the render button and actually get shadows in the right places.  I guess I just don't understand enough about Daz to make that possible.  I'm just not that smart.  

    Thanks for your help, everyone.  At least I know 4.8 is rather useless for me to continue using.

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