New GPU for Darktable/ video encoding

Hardware
, ,
48

@rkowalke, sadly it seems that the OpenCL implementation on AMD cards is not at all stable. I had issues on both Kubuntu, and Manjaro KDE on my RX580.

It would also appear that AMD is also with drawing support for some Radeon cards with the ROCm 4.0 release. So sometimes having the latest and greatest via rolling releases isn’t so good if it results in support for your graphics card being withdrawn.

I’d personally rather use closed source drivers which work, rather than opensource ones which do not.

I’ve certainly had my fingers burned with AMD Radeon GPUs. I suspect my next GPU will be something along the lines of an Nvidia GTX1660 Super or similar.

1 Like
49

As long as they push the needed functionality upstream, I would be fine with that.

50

Don’t worry I understood that. In fact, I added the tomb raider comment as a “heavy” openCL operations but maybe they aren’t. :slightly_smiling_face:

51

I’ll check it tomorrow, if I have time to sit in front of the computer :persevere:

52

More than likely Tomb Raider uses OpenGL acceleration, rather than OpenCL.

53

oopss , you’re totally right :man_facepalming:t2:

54

I’ve only done a test with the model BMW27 (downloaded from here: Demo Files — blender.org).

First time it took like 5:15-30 and next tries 4:30 aprox.
I don’t know if it’s what you were looking for.

Screenshot from 2021-01-31 20-40-43
Screenshot from 2021-01-31 20-40-431974×802 228 KB

1 Like
55

You see, that’s just one frame and it took 4:30 in 960*540px! Imagine rendering a 10s animation :smiley:
I’ve done a glitch effect where I put a lens element, and emissive path behind it. It takes roughly 60s min per frame. That is too much especially on my GPU on which they advertised millions of polygons being rendered in less than 30 seconds in 8k.

56

I thought, it was because of the lighting or something like that.

But yes, really slow compared to these benchmark results:

Screenshot from 2021-01-31 23-36-16
Screenshot from 2021-01-31 23-36-161225×314 56 KB

Source: Benchmark Results

57
  • AMD works great for me !
  • No it’s a mess !

Guys, OpenCL is an off-loading computing library. Just because OpenGL, aka the graphics lib used in GUI painting and games real-time rendering, works “great” doesn’t mean OpenCL is supported as well. “Drivers” mean nothing.

2 Likes
58

AKA AMD is :poop: for any OpenCL work. Should have gone with Nvidia and save myself a world of trouble.

2 Likes
59

Nvidia is still stuck at OpenCL 1.2 (2012)
 lots of candies from 2.0 and 2.2 we can’t use. Slightly better but not that much.

1 Like
60

Do you have any experience running AMD and Nvidia gpu on the same system at the same time?
I wonder if that could work ok because I’d like to move to Nvidia but I don’t want to have an 800eur AMD gpu sitting on a shelf.

61

No, I have ever used laptops and whatever GPU was shipped in them (Nvidia + Intel Optimus). Bagging my whole office in a backpack is kind of required.

62

It’s like when I started with 3d studio 4 “some years ago” in my 486SX (SX = no i487 math coprocessor). Years later I had a pentium with coprocessor, what a difference!

63

I know the difference between OpenGL and OpenCL. Also most of the time I find users complaining about older generation cards like RX 580, and that people got frustrated here is conprehensible.

But what about the new generations, RX 5700 and especially RX 6800 series? Here the benchmarks indicate that the OpenCL performance of these AMD cards is at the same level or higher than actual cards by NVidia: Radeon RX 6800 Series Has Excellent ROCm-Based OpenCL Performance On Linux - Phoronix

64

Due to the shortages of GPUs, you’d probably be able to sell your AMD Gpu for a profit, to gamers!

1 Like
65

You know what, I may try that!

1 Like
66

Probably best to buy a new GPU first though, as there doesn’t seem to be much available at the moment. There are a few “pictures” of high end GPUs for sale on Ebay though! I wonder if anyone will be silly enough to bid on them? :rofl:

1 Like
67

A spot of googling this evening, and I found a retailer which had an MSI GTX 1660 VENTUS XS 6G OC 6GB Graphics Card in stock. So all being well, it should be with me in a few days. A tad more expensive than the RX580, but should be a better card for my uses!

1 Like