topic Re: CPU or GPU for rendering? in Installation & update

CPU or GPU for rendering?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 19:48:18 GMT

hello,
i'm in the search for new notebook up to price 700 eur, and i have a dilemma which one to buy.
so, I have few questions:
1st: is it more important to have more cpu cores or better gpu for faster rendering in archicad, artlantis, lumion etc.
2nd: some i7 cpu comes with only 2cores and others with 4 cores. is there significant difference?
3rd: how important is number of threads, because i saw AMD cpus with 4 cores and 4 threads, unlike the i7 which has 4 cores and 8 threads

Thank You very much!

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 20:18:10 GMT

1. As far as I know CPU is what is being used by most current rendering applications. Some applications start to appear that use the GPU or GPUs but there is only OctaneRender currently (that I know about) that is using GPUs:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=41417

So for ArchiCAD, Artlantis etc. CPU is more important.

2. A 4-core processor is better than a 2-core processor as it can handle 4 processing threads instead of 2.

3. Number of threads is what really counts. Intel has Hyperthreading which means that 1 physical core can run two processing threads in it. A 4-core 8-thread processor is better than a 4-core 4-thread processor. From the application's standpoint the former can process 8 threads for ArchiCAD or the rendering application, while the latter can process only 4 threads.
Even in Graphisoft's pages they say they recommend as many cores as possible:

http://www.graphisoft.hu/support/system_requirements/

Note: Processors with 4-8+ cores are recommended to fully exploit ArchiCAD 17's performance capabilities.

In the last several releases Graphisoft has made great efforts to fully utilize multi-core processors and get as much performance out of them as possible. This is especially true with AC17 where they specifically say 4-8+ cores is really recommended. Previous they only said you should use multi-core processors, which means at least 2 cores.

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Steve Jepson — Wed, 06 May 2015 06:28:54 GMT

and what about now. Can ArtLantis 6 use GPU graphics card?

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Nuge — Wed, 06 May 2015 09:19:58 GMT

Try Octane for archicad

http://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/

Nuge

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Steve Jepson — Wed, 06 May 2015 15:59:00 GMT

I want to know if Artlantis 6 can use GPU processing. That was not clear from what I was able to find on their website.

I don't think I need Octane. I have Maxwell Studio/Render 3.1,an older version of Artlantis Render, and of course CineRender in ArchiCAD.

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Laszlo Nagy — Wed, 06 May 2015 16:17:44 GMT

I don't think Artlantis 6 uses GPU for rendering.

http://artlantis.com/en/features

If it did they would be widely publicizing it as it would be much much faster than CPU-based rendering:

http://www.gpurendering.com/technology/gpuVsCpuRendering.html

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Steve Jepson — Wed, 20 May 2015 21:20:28 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
I don't think Artlantis 6 uses GPU for rendering.

http://artlantis.com/en/features

If it did they would be widely publicizing it as it would be much much faster than CPU-based rendering:

http://www.gpurendering.com/technology/gpuVsCpuRendering.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VHzONYfgUg

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Steve Jepson — Wed, 20 May 2015 21:28:07 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
I don't think Artlantis 6 uses GPU for rendering.

http://artlantis.com/en/features

If it did they would be widely publicizing it as it would be much much faster than CPU-based rendering:

http://www.gpurendering.com/technology/gpuVsCpuRendering.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VHzONYfgUg

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?346401-Maxwell-Render-on-GPU-(CUDA)

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 03:18:23 GMT

I was wondering if there was a way to utilize my GPU for 3D view?
I have fiddled around with the Nvidia control panel and all that. But still, Archicad uses 0% of my GPU

I have a GeForce 870m and it has openGL 4.5 ( thats why I baught it. I thought it would help.)

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Karl Ottenstein — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 20:47:20 GMT

spacant wrote:
But still, Archicad uses 0% of my GPU

AFAIK, only BIMx uses the GPU. ArchiCAD itself does not:

http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/setup/hardware-compatibility/recommended-hardware-for-graphisoft-products/

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 15:50:06 GMT

From what I can see, and from carefully selecting my GPU to run on artlantis in windows;

http://www.artlantis.com/en/support/faq/questions/show/1215

This link suggests that Artlantis 6 must use the GPU.

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Laszlo Nagy — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 15:15:12 GMT

That link shows you only how to use the Dedicated GPU (NVidia or AMD card) instead of the integrated GPU (GPU on the Intel CPU - much less performance).
This does not mean that Artlantis is using the GPU instead of the CPU for rendering.

The application uses the GPU all the time to display stuff in 3D while you edit materials, change viewpoint, place lights, etc. That does not mean that it is using the GPU specifically when creating the Rendered image.
The application must be specifically written to use the GPU instead of the CPU. This usually results in "real-time" rendering.

For example, OctaneRender is using the GPU for rendering. Look what its wikipedia page says:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_Render

Octane Render is a real-time 3D unbiased rendering application that was started by the New Zealand-based company Refractive Software, Ltd and OTOY took over on March 2012. The first non-beta stable version, v1.0, was released on 28 November 2012 and later versions of Octane Render continue to be deployed as a Web release software. It is the first commercially available unbiased renderer to work exclusively on the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and has the ability to work in real time. This allows users to modify materials, lighting and render settings “on the fly” because the rendering viewport updates immediately whenever a change is made. Octane Render runs exclusively on Nvidia's CUDA technology (which restricts it to running on video cards from Nvidia) although Octane Render 3.0 is planned to remove this restriction.

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 16:07:58 GMT

I feel like I wasted all that money on a top-spec graphics card.
I had a look at Octane, and while I love integration in ArchiCAD, I am not so keen on the interface or workflow.
Oh well, Artlantis really needs GPU-base. Now.

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

Steve Jepson — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 18:01:25 GMT

Maxwell Render 4 - coming very soon will render with GPU. Upgrades are for sale now.

Re: CPU or GPU for rendering?

alemanda — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 06:47:12 GMT

Lumion uses gpu so if you're going to use lumion you must have a fast Nvdia Gtx card.