Help - Ray Trace


JNSHANK
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The issue I am having is Ray trace and speed, or lack there of.  My tech folks have been working on this, Chief Support has provided little assistance when my tech folks have called them, and so my last resort is posting here.

 

Problem - Ray Trace takes approx 6 minutes per pass (see attached image which shows the time/passes as my CPU performance).  Nothing is open or appears to be running in the background (and I am about to throw my computer against the wall...)

 

Computer Specs:

Alienware 17" lap top

Processor:  Intel Core I7 4910MQ CPU @2.9GHz

RAM:  32 GB

Graphics Card:  Nvidia GeForce GTX 880M

 

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Jeremy

Raytraceissue.PNG

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There is no , one off quick fix , as it depends on the materials used , their definitions and most importantly the Lighting and the type there of..... ie don't use Point lights unless absolutely necessary.

 

And keeping  RT size to something like 1280x720 makes a huge difference in times too...

 

lots of good info in this thread though as well as some basic settings to start with....

 

 

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7 minutes ago, JNSHANK said:

it is set to use all 8 cores

 

Chief is fluctuating between 90 and 100% on all.  Virtually nothing else is registering.

 

Why does your screenshot only show it running at 27% then?  I assumed that's what you were trying to address.  If your CPU is indeed running at 90-100% on all cores than Mick is right.  Its something about your model.  More likely than not it has to do with the number of faces, number of lights, or screen size but there are a number of other settings that come into play too as Mick already pointed out.

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Also, just a side note and I know its a little off subject now, but you can also adjust the number of cores allocated to Chief by going through these 3 steps...

5a57ff841a7be_Step1.thumb.jpg.6b1151733b98e1a29ecbd54d0a5f6147.jpg5a57ff852b73b_Step2.thumb.jpg.03798246d529660d5bbc51003aa4dfbf.jpg5a57ff8627567_Step3.thumb.jpg.5672aa1225af5ca09baa08f265875930.jpg

 

If the low CPU usage WAS your problem (which it seems now was a bad assumption on my part) then you could also check here to make sure this had not been changed. 

 

 

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also 1 mirror and 1 glass shower wall.  that's it.  nothing else to the plan.

 

I was looking at the thread Mick recommended when it shut down.  Going back there now.

 

Thank you both for taking the time.

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5 minutes ago, JNSHANK said:

also 1 mirror and 1 glass shower wall.  that's it.  nothing else to the plan.

 

I was looking at the thread Mick recommended when it shut down.  Going back there now.

 

Thank you both for taking the time.

 

Sounds like an overheating problem.  I would recommend you open your box up and clean it out real well.

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26 minutes ago, JNSHANK said:

it is set to use all 8 cores

 

Chief is fluctuating between 90 and 100% on all.  Virtually nothing else is registering.

 

This is normal ...however I usually set it to use 10 of my 12 Cores , so I have a bit left over for doing other things like reading the Website......

 

now because you are maxxing your CPU out  , especially on a Laptop you need to be VERY conscious of the heat produced or it may crash the computer as you just found out,  as the Processor will protect itself at some point and shut off.. ( thermal protection cutoff) , I recommend installing  CoreTemp or RealTemp and monitoring it closely.

 

M.

 

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our computer guys opened up my lap top multiple times over the past few weeks.  The replaced my HD with a SSD.  The put in another new one with Windows 10 as I was running windows 7 ultimate and Chief would not recognize the Nvidia card - was hung up on the intel card.  The upgrade to 10 fixed that issue but didn't really impact performance.

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I will do that.  I have 8 cores.  I have not been multitasking other than corresponding here.  Thanks for the overheating advice.  Running at 100% I figured it was bound to happen.

 

Thank you both again.

Jeremy

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Ray Tracing is a CPU intensive part of the program , it does not use the GPU at all , the new PBR Camera method uses a bit of each......

 

Be a good idea to fill out your Signature too Jeremy ( see mine for how ) and hang out some more and do a bit of learning , RTing always brings lots of questions.... :)

 

M.

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  • 3 weeks later...

One thing that has helped me out a lot, if you tend to leave ray trace alone and let it do its thing (and not operate any other programs or apps on your computer while its running) like I do. Is set your priority level to high instead of normal. The option for this is right above your affinity tab in your task manager. I usually set mine to realtime, while ensuring I don't operate any other programs (while my hardware is capable of the realtime setting without crashing, not sure what your build is), but this usually speeds up the process significantly for me. Id give it a go on high setting at least and see if this helps. 

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16 hours ago, fmrkva9525 said:

One thing that has helped me out a lot, if you tend to leave ray trace alone and let it do its thing (and not operate any other programs or apps on your computer while its running) like I do. Is set your priority level to high instead of normal. The option for this is right above your affinity tab in your task manager. I usually set mine to realtime, while ensuring I don't operate any other programs (while my hardware is capable of the realtime setting without crashing, not sure what your build is), but this usually speeds up the process significantly for me. Id give it a go on high setting at least and see if this helps. 

 

Curious as to how much of an improvement in Ray Trace times you are getting by doing this. Seems to me that the purpose of having a high core count CPU is to permit a program such as Ray Trace to run in the background and at the same time allow one to carry on with their other work. Your CPU has 16 threads which should give you fast Ray Traces even when multi-tasking.

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On 2/3/2018 at 0:19 PM, TheKitchenAbode said:

 

Curious as to how much of an improvement in Ray Trace times you are getting by doing this. Seems to me that the purpose of having a high core count CPU is to permit a program such as Ray Trace to run in the background and at the same time allow one to carry on with their other work. Your CPU has 16 threads which should give you fast Ray Traces even when multi-tasking.

 

Oh i definetly could still multitask, and usually do. Ive noticed I've gotten roughly 20 HQ passes in around 5 mins with 5-10 lights on realtime max cores. When running normal priority while multitasking and allocating 14 cores to RT I'm around 20 mins for the same amount passes 

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11 hours ago, fmrkva9525 said:

 

Oh i definetly could still multitask, and usually do. Ive noticed I've gotten roughly 20 HQ passes in around 5 mins with 5-10 lights on realtime max cores. When running normal priority while multitasking and allocating 14 cores to RT I'm around 20 mins for the same amount passes 

I'm surprised at the time differentials you are experiencing. I have in the past looked at the priority settings and have found very little difference in Ray Trace times. I could understand that changing the affinity setting or core assignment in CA Preferences could result in such differences as Ray Trace times are directly related to the number of available cores. Possibly there is something else going on or for some reason your AMD Ryzen reacts to this setting differently than an Intel CPU.

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