AE CS6 not recognising graphics card with CUDA

[NorfolkVideo]

Having invested in Production Premium CS6 this year, I wanted to make the best of it, and upgraded both motherboard and graphics card to take advantage of the promised CUDA processing. Having done so, AE (Edit > Preferences > Preview) has consistently refused to recognise the card, and I am looking for advice on what I can try next.

For information, my PC system involves Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, an Asus P8Z68-V/PRO/GEN3 MoBo, 16GB RAM, and the new graphics card, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti (2GB DDR5). I have installed the latest Nvidia driver, 310.70, and the CUDA Toolkit v 5.0. It is possible to run the samples supplied with the CUDA Toolkit, and an application called CUDA-Z functions, both of which seem to suggest to a non-programmer like myself that the 1,344 CUDA processors on the card are working just fine.

It was suggested on another forum that I edit the file raytracer_supported_cards.txt which is in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS6\Support Files to include the GTX 660. Other people have found this to work - i.e. that after doing so and resaving the file, AE recognises their card and its CUDA capability. I haven't.

I've run out of ideas. Does anyone please have either an explanation for the AE response, or a fix?

Peter

Norfolk, UK

[Mylenium]

Your card is not listed anywhere - not in the product tech specs, nor in the update info post for the 11.0.2. update. It really is as simple as that - what's not listed, is not supported. If you can't get it to work on your own, then there probably is no way to get it working at all. The text file is a hack, after all, and the actual code will do its own probing and simply not work if operations are not deemed to be safe within specified parameters. Does it suck? Sure. No argument from me here. It's just a shining example how fundamentally wrong Adobe got CS6. Can you still get your work done without the card? Sure. That 3D raytrace stuff is not worth making any fuss about, anyway. Maker your life easy and just get Element 3D or AtomKraft and forget the whole thing ever happened. Elemet 3D will burn on your card and you can get a lot doen with its "simple" OpenGL renderer....

Mylenium

[NorfolkVideo]

Thank you for your reply.

Oh dear!

Well, at least I can stop trying to 'fix' the unfixable.

Peter

[Szalam]

As Mylenium said, there are other, better ways to do 3d in After Effects (which is really the only thing CUDA-type cards benefit. Out of curiousity, if you were looking to use a new card with AE, why would you upgrade to a card that AE didn't list as compatible?

[NorfolkVideo]

I didn't realise there was a list of compatible graphics cards - and if I had known, I would have taken the view - reasonable in my opinion - that if cards of a higher number and a lower number were listed - e.g. GTX 570, GTX 580, GTX 670, and GTX 680 - then the GTX 660 would also be compatible. Why it should not be is a mystery even now, though I have to accept the wisdom of Forum members and physical evidence that incredibly, Adobe seem to have skipped the 660 card. As you point out (and others), CUDA only comes into its own in 3D rendering, and for everything else the 660 card is just fine.

It's a bit soon since the last purchase to think about bunging out another £300+ GBP on a new card.

Thanks for your advice.

Peter

[Soccer_Dad]

Peter, are you sure you entered the exact name of the card into the text file?  Check the card name using GPUsniffer.exe (C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS6\Support Files).  I noticed in your post that you put "GTX 660" into the file.  Perhaps you just short-handed it here in the forum but it should be something like "GeForce GTX 660 Ti" or whatever GPUsniffer says in the "Name:..." row.

[NorfolkVideo]

Soccer_Dad - I've checked, with GPU Sniffer as suggested, and amended the text file to show the full name, but sadly there's no better response. As others have said here, the fact seems to be that Adobe have for unfathomable reasons skipped the 660 card when deciding which should be compatible with AE.

Thanks for the suggestion

Peter

[Todd_Kopriva]

Each card requires extensive individual testing.

If there is a card that you want us to add to the list of those that After Effects will use for the GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer, submit a feature request here:

http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

As others have said, the only feature that this matters for is GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer. Every other feature of After Effects should work just fine with the card that you have. See this page for details:

http://bit.ly/UHGwMC

[NorfolkVideo]

Thank you for this, Todd. I have put something on the 'wish-list'.

Peter

[Rick Gerard]

approved cards show up on in an embedded file that you can manually edit. Do a Google search and you should find instructions. It was a simple matter for me to add an unlisted but compatible card to my Mac. Folks do it on windows also.

It will take a while for Adobe to update the software to include newer supported cards. They won't put in on a list until it's been tested.

[NorfolkVideo]

Hi Rick

I think I already tried this, thanks. Didn't work.

Peter

[Todd_Kopriva]

BTW, make sure that you've installed all of the recent updates, since we have added several new cards in the recent updates, as well as dozens of bug fixes.

[NorfolkVideo]

Thanks again, Todd. My installation is up to date.

Peter

[Dave_Knarr]

Hi Peter,

Go to http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/AfterEffects.htm  read the article and following the directions.  You card will work once you do what the article says to do.

I have the same video card as you do, the GTX 660 Ti and it works fine for me.  I am using the GPU with the ray trace 3D render engine with no problems.

Also, make sure you have the latest After Effects update installed.  It should be 11.0.2.

Dave

[NorfolkVideo]

Hi Dave

This is a puzzle. I’d tried amending the ‘cuda_supported_cards.txt’ file in Adobe\After Effects CS6\Support Files and it hadn’t worked. I’ve read the article you referred to, and tried it again, after checking for and downloaded the latest driver for the card from the NVIDIA website. Tthe AE version of GPUsniffer.exe in the same folder still does not recognise my card as having CUDA processors.

I had a look at the equivalent files for Premiere Pro CS6. That version of GPUsniffer.exe found the CUDA processors without a problem, and Prem Pro shows it will use the GPU for rendering etc.

The ‘sniffer’ executables are apparently different: I tried copying the one in Prem Pro to the appropriate AE folder, but in order to run, it needed two .dll files which were not present.

It’s weird! I think all I can do is hope that Adobe will at some point do whatever they need to do to have the GTX 660 Ti recognised. The only other thought I’ve had is that the graphics card manufacturer, in my case EVGA, might have worked something into their design which somehow blocks the information being returned to AE’s ‘sniffer’.

Nevertheless, thank you for the suggestion.

Peter

[Dave_Knarr]

Hi Peter,

Try uninstalling the CUDA toolkit and try installing the 301.90 NVidia driver.  It was just release.

If that does fix it, go back to the article link I sent you, once you are on the site, click on Contact at the top of the page and call me directly.  I will help you get it working.  I am in the office from 10am till 5pm Eastern Time.

Dave

[Todd Sines]

Hi Dave, Peter and Todd

Did you ever get the GTX 660 Ti card to work for AE6?

I just bought the card for use with Davinci Resolve [as recommended here:
http://nrsotw.blogspot.com/2012/09/gtx-660ti-in-mac-pro-and-davinci.html ]

but after modifying raytracer_supported_cards.txt

to say:

GeForce GTX 285

GeForce GTX 660 TI

GeForce GTX 660

GeForce GTX 660 ti

GeForce 8800 GT

GeForce GT 650M

Quadro CX

Quadro FX 4800

Quadro 4000

I still don't have any GPU cards showing up inside ae, nor the GPU sniffer:

Texture memory: 512

Vendor string:    NVIDIA Corporation

Renderer string:  NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT OpenGL Engine

Version string:   2.1 NVIDIA-8.1.0

OpenGL Version:   2.1

Has NPOT support: TRUE

Has Framebuffer Object Extension support: TRUE

Has Shading Language support: TRUE

Started compilation of GLSL shaders

Successfully finished compilation of GLSL shaders

Ignoring SM4.0 check for cards on mac

Return code: 3

Not exactly what I'm looking for.

[NorfolkVideo]

Hi Todd

Short answer is – the GTX 660 Ti I have (and I make that distinction in case the actual card manufacturer, EVGA, may have done something to make my card respond differently from cards of other makes) works very well with AE – except that AE won’t recognise it as a ‘CUDA’ card (though Prem Pro does!) and therefore doesn’t use the CUDA processors for 3D ray tracing. I got similar results to the ones you list from the AE version of GPUsniffer.exe

Fortunately, I don’t think I shall be using that particular facility much, so I’m not proposing to do anything about it, having tried every possible work-around offered here.

I am, however, very grateful to all who tried to help.

Peter

[NorfolkVideo]

Hi Dave

I have already tried what you suggest – had installed the latest driver and uninstalled the CUDA Toolkit, but to no avail.

Thanks for your suggestion and offer, but I reckon I can live without AE’s using the CUDA processors on my card as I don’t anticipate using the 3D ray tracing that much, and it’s not as if I won’t be able to – just uses the CPU instead.

Best Wishes

Peter

[Dave_Knarr]

Hi Todd,

I am on a Windows 7 system and I am using the GTX 660 Ti, this model  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696

with no problems.

Dave

[Todd Sines]

Hi Dave - Using it on a Mac.

The PNY XLR8 GeForce GTX 660 Ti model.

Dave Knarr wrote:

Hi Todd,

I am on a Windows 7 system and I am using the GTX 660 Ti, this model  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696

with no problems.

Dave

[CSNewbie19]

Hi Peter

I have just installed After Effects and have a similar problem on my ASUS GTX 660 Ti TOP graphics card, v314.07 driver.

I have edited the supported cards text files for Premiere Pro and After Effects. However, when I launch After Effects, I get this message:

After Effects error: Ray-traced 3D: Initial shader compile failed (5070 :: 0)

Does anyone know what this means?

The weird thing is that when I go to preferences, it looks as if After Effects has selected the GPU for processing anyway:

Sometime today I will attempt ray tracing with the GPU enabled and then disabled. If the card is working ok, it should be much faster with GPU enabled than without and my only problem will hopefully be an annoying message popping up when I start After Effects.

Finally, I agree that GPUSniffer in Premiere Pro and After Effects are not returning the same results:

It may be worth updating your drivers and trying again.

Good luck,

Michael

[CSNewbie19]

Well, I just tried to use the 3D Ray tracing feature and it used the CPU not the GPU.

This is annoying.

I hope Nvidia and Adobe can bang their heads together soon to come up with a driver that can leverage the potential of the GTX 600 series.

[NorfolkVideo]

I wrote asking Adobe to sort things out with the GTX 660 TI. Of course, there's been no hint whether they will, but it certainly seems to be getting up the noses of quite a few people. There doesn't seem to be any point in continuing to bang my head against a brick wall, so I've given up worrying about it.

Peter

[reedpi]

Hey this may sound crazy but it worked for me after trying for three months with CS5.5 and my CUDA Quadra 4000

I installed Jave SE 6 Runtime.

Don't ask me how or why but it worked

I had talked with Mac, PNY, Adobe for weeks.

Hope it helps

I was using my 4000 with CS5.5 with 5K and 4K files and just stopped one day

I believe it was a problem when I did an update but could not figure it out.

Also went back to older settings and did not work

Good luck

John

John Reed

john@reedpi.com

www.reedpi.com

435-881-1010

Have Panasonic HD Cameras, and RED EPIC, Cam Mate Jib and Steadicam - HAVE CAMERA WILL TRAVEL!!!