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windows xp 64 bit+CUDA


amph
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I just rebooted my pc, and installed windows xp 64 bit. Then I installed CUDA for my graphic card geforce 9800 gt.

I upgraded to 3dcoat 3.5 for windows 64 bit and CUDA.

¿How can I know if 3dcoat is using CUDA? because I installed the cuda drivers, and the sdk pack, but i'm not sure if CUDA now is working on my pc.

THNX and CHEERS from Spain!!!!

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Well if you set up a very dense model you should see a difference when you turn CUDA on and off in the Voxels menu, especially if you use large brush. For example if I pick the largest sphere on the start screen and increase the res 3 times (to 8X) and use a 6.0 radius brush it's almost unusable with CUDA off, with CUDA on it's much more friendly.

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You guys that have 470-480GTX's...should DEFINITELY see a difference. I have a 275GTX, and I can tell a massive difference between my desktop and laptop (i7) that has a discreet ATI 5730 card (1GB dedicated VRAM). CUDA scales in performance with the number of GPU cores. The 400 series has double that of the 200 series.

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A quick test you can do is to look at the fps in the lower left of the program screen. Turn on Cuda, see how many frames per second. Turn off Cuda and see if it's the same, faster, slower etc. Also, make sure your brush size is fairly small for the test. I don't think Cuda is as effective with a large brush? Not sure.

Anyhow, mine was around 64fps with Cuda, and about 24 without. So, worth using!

Greg

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This has to be prefaced with "I dont fully know 3dc or my card"..... And also a little off topic as using xp 32 bit os.

In the sculpting, I dont see some kind of speed improvment, what I see is an "accuracy" improvment... ( the frames per second didnt really change much)

So here is a screen grab of a 5 stoke grow. Top is cuda off, bottom is cuda on... With Cuda off, the brushes are less precise and just kindof "Blot things on".. With Cuda on, there is more finite scultping of the voxels.. So "15 strokes" to grow the same with cuda as 5 stokes no cuda.. Far better control (Of course I could jack up the brush settings with the cuda on and blob away if I needed to)

But overall brush stroking showed little difference (Like makeing my brush size the size of half the workpiece)

One cool thing I did find while fooling around with this, was in My Nvidia control panel-application management, I hadnt "manually added 3dc" as an application to control.. Nvidias "show only installed applications" tickmark, only listed "2 APPS' on my computer.. I added 3dc's Executable and my "interface" performance went through the roof.. 3dc's startup time and room switching and all this stuff went up alot in performance.. It didnt change the brush performance I described at all.

Using a quadro fx 5600. Driver 6.14.12.5957 on xp 32 bit.

post-2885-12867449187184_thumb.jpg

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Nice find on the Nvidia control panel! I'd never looked at that.

I just read this in the help manual..

"CUDAs efficiency is limited on very large brushes, so, when

reaching a particular radius, CUDA will be automatically disabled

in tools like the Airbrush, Increase, Build and Smudge. On a scale

of 1:1 it is a radius of around 65. The surface and object tools are

not getting any advantage from CUDA."

So, I guess larger brush sizes don't show the advantages

Greg

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I just read this in the help manual..

"CUDAs efficiency is limited on very large brushes, so, when

reaching a particular radius, CUDA will be automatically disabled

in tools like the Airbrush, Increase, Build and Smudge. On a scale

of 1:1 it is a radius of around 65. The surface and object tools are

not getting any advantage from CUDA."

So, I guess larger brush sizes don't show the advantages

Greg

Well this would make sense for me because as a beginner, I tend to start everything off at "Huge and resolution high" due to an initial startup and learn curve of seeing "Not smooth, ugly faceting in my new work and imported models.... I do understand that this is not nessasary and there are way's and means to keep it low until needed, or even have it look well while staying low....This is mostly the area I'm working on now little by little, though my need to start massive is there so I can review tools and proceedure/methods while seeing proper results... I'm lucky I have a computer that allows this overkill for me...(Though still waiting to load 64 bit :o)

Anyway...

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That tells you what you have installed, not whether or not its working.

Hi Phil,

Thanks for clarifying that for me.

regards Colin

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