Daz renders with CPU and not GPU, very weird...
Hi, I have this issue.
I bought a new ASUS some months ago, a laptop i9 12th gen processor, 3070 ti gpu, 1tb SSD,16gb ram.
The thing'a that everytime I tried to render a huge scene in the laptop, which consumed a lot of RAM, it rendered it with CPU. I assumed it was because the RAM was above 80%, with DAZ using 8-9 gb. Then I rebooted the laptop, uploaded the scene again and rendered it with GPU without a problem. I assume it was possible because it was a fresh start where Daz didn't store recent changes in RAM. Fed up by it, I upgraded my laptop with a 32 gb stick and now it's 40gb RAM. With the same scene, now it uses 17gb (almost double than before) and it went to 50% usage. I tried to render and it did it again with CPU. So, no matter what I do, no matter if I close all programs, then only way I can render this huge scene with GPU is by rebooting. Closing DAZ and open it again doesn't work.
The annoying part is that I got a desktop last week, another ASUS, i5 12th gen, 3060 gpu, 512 SSD, 16 gb RAM. When I rendered the same scene in this pc, DAZ somehow optimized the RAM usage and only used 5-6 gb and it rendered it with GPU without any problem. This GPU has 12 gb VRAM, and that could be a reason. However, in task manager it says it's only using less than 8 gb, and as I understand, you need double of RAM than VRAM to fully use a GPU.
Does anybody have any idea why this is happening? Is there a way to make DAZ optimize or limit the usage of RAM when loading a scene? Both PC's are windows 11 and have the same programs and same daz content installed.Thanks.
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How mucgh, if any, RAM does the GPU on the lkaptop have over the base? If it is sharing with the system then it may well be running out, even without needing the full 12GB of GPU memory on the desktop (and Task Manager is not the most reliable tool for getting system usage, though I would think its memory reports would be fairly safe).
Here's the data of the same scene.
LAPTOP 40 gb RAM
DAZ uses 17 gb of RAM
RAM total usage 50% (20gb available)
Renders in CPU
DESKTOP 16gb RAM
DAZ uses 8 gb of RAM
RAM total usage 70-80% (3 gb available)
Renders in GPU.
Are both using the same Viewport drawstyle (e.g. Texture Shaded)? Are both using the same options in Edit>Preferences>Interface tab? How much RAM does the GPU on the laptop have available to it?
Thanks for your answer. I've made some more tests with the same scene and this is what happens.
The options in Interface Tab are the same in both computers.
LAPTOP 40gb RAM, 3070ti 8gb VRAM, i9 12th gen
Only renders it in GPU if I reboot my PC and that's the first and only task I do. Any minimum change, like moving one chars hands, will make the render not use GPU and do it with CPU.
The scene before rendering is around 8 Gb (40% usage). When I render it, the process makes it go up until it reaches 17 gb (60% usage) and stays there. As I said, if I didn't reboot, it renders with CPU
The viewport was in texture shader
DESKTOP 16gb RAM, 3060 12gbVRAM, i5 12th gen
It always renders in GPU, no matter if I make changes in the scene, and even if I have iray preview in viewport. The RAM usage behavior is different. It uses also around 8gb before renderin (80%). When I render it jumps to 11 gb (95%) in the process and then lows to 6gb when the image begins to appear.
I got some theories after this.
1. Having more RAM is close to useless with DAZ. You get more, it uses more, but it barely improves efficiency. Now that I use no more than 40% RAM it works almost the same when I had 85% RAM usage before I upgraded my lap from 16gb to 40gb.
2. DAZ management of resources is weird and its efficiency is questionable..
3. Nvidia nerfed their GPU's.
4. CPU doesn't matter with DAZ.
5. There's something I'm missing, and I'm the one to blame. LOL.
Thanks.
I am getting a little confused about you RAM usage reports - the amount of system RAM used before rendering is not really relevant as that reflects what DS needsfor working - it will have things that Iray doesn't need loaded (all the joint and morph information, for example) but not, by default, the full resolution geometry for SubD figures nor the full resolution maps. When it prpares the scene for Iray it will bake out full resolution versions of the geometry (which is why it will need more RAM then) and Iray will load those and the full versions of the maps, depending on its compression settings, into the GPU memory - if it can.
Thanks. I understand everything you say. The RAM usage reports I wrote were before and during rendering. On both PC's before rendering it's about 8 gb. When makes all the process you mentioned, it jumps on the lap (40gb RAM) from 8 to 17 gb, from 40% usage to 65% aprox and stays there. On desktop (16gb) jumps from 8 to 10gb, from 80% to 95%, and then lowers to 70%
My big questions are these:
Why the different RAM usages between both PCs? Why does DAZ needs more RAM usage on a PC that has more RAM? I understand it maybe that the lap has 8gb VRAM and the desktop has 12 VRAM. But then, why before upgrading my laptop from 16gb RAM to 40 gb, it worked exactly as the desktop, only using 10 gb RAM in the pre=rendering process?
Why a PC that uses 95% of 16gb RAM can render with GPU while another that uses 65% of 40gb RAM can't? Why does the PC with less RAM then lowers its usage while the other doesn't?
Thanks.
Is the laptop usage when rendering to the GPU or when droppin gto CPU (and if it is rendering to GPU is it completing like that or droping to CPU part way through)? I would expect the CPU render to use more RAM as it is having to load data into RAM that is normally sent to the GPU (and probably loaded into system RAM file-by-file for prep rather than all at once). It does sound as if the scene is marginal for the 8GB card and that is why it drops, but then the 12GB has headroom to spare (and doesn't need massive amounts of system RAM compared to a failed GPU render as it isn't actually handling much extra data).
It makes sense that the scene is too much for an 8 VRAM 3070ti, and that's why it works in the 12 VRAM 3060. Now I'm making a test. The lap is rendering the scene correcly in GPU (after I rebooted), and now is using 15.7 gb RAM, not the 17 gb when it renders in CPU. It's not a great difference, but it's something. The only annoying thing is having to reboot the lap every time I want to render a huge scene. If I do any change in the scene I have to reboot. Closing and opening daz doesn's work. Using task manager to end other processes doesn't work. Only rebooting.
Thanks a lot.