warning that the GPU accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer does not have enough free memory to operate

Report · Nov 01, 2013

[UPDATE: Memory handling for the ray-traced 3D renderer is greatly improved by installing the After Effects CC (12.2) or After Effects CS6 (11.0.4) update.]

You may see a warning message when using After Effects CC (12.1) that the GPU accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer does not have enough free memory to operate.

When the GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer is disabled, the CPU version of the ray-traced 3D renderer will operate.

The message about the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer not having enough free memory to operate is because of a change in After Effects CC (12.1) to actually warn you when your computer was in a dangerously low VRAM state. In After Effects CC (12.0) and After Effects CS6 (11.0), a computer with very little VRAM could still try to use the GPU accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer, but it would very, very, very often crash. So, now, After Effects CC (12.1) is just detecting the condition that would lead to a crash, telling you about it, and disabling the GPU acceleration until you have dealt with the problem.

So, how do you deal with this low-memory condition? You free up VRAM. This means closing all applicaitons that use GPU memory, which includes web browsers (yes, web browsers these days use the GPU). It also means disconnecting additional monitors, each of which uses a lot of VRAM. In some cases, restarting the computer is necessary.

This is primarily a problem on Mac OS with cards with 1GB of VRAM, such as the GT 650M in the MacBook Pro. These cards on this OS have just barely enough GPU memory (VRAM) to make use of the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer under even the best of circumstances. If you want to use the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer, you should really be using a more powerful GPU, one with more VRAM.

Note that this has nothing to do with the OpenGL GPU features in After Effects. Details of the GPU features are here: http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2012/05/gpu-cuda-opengl-features-in-after-effects-cs6.html

Report · Dec 14, 2013

The After Effects CC (12.2) update and After Effects CS6 (11.0.4) update include fixes and changes regarding the OptiX library for the ray-traced 3D renderer that make VRAM handling better, prevent crashes, and otherwise improve the experience in this area.

Let us know how it's working for you after you've installed the updates.

Report · Jun 24, 2014

The problem with this is that I have the top of the line Macbook Pro with Retina display, 16GB Ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB, Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 running Mavericks which uses VM in a different way. I have plenty of virtual memory available but After Effects sees it as used up even though it is not.

This needs to be addressed and has needed to be addressed for over a year. Adobe, please stop telling me to close applications as this is not the cause of the issue.

Report · Jun 27, 2014

I've been dealing with the same exact issue on my mac book pro, although mine says it's an NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 1024 (16 GB ram, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7.

Report · Jul 07, 2014

Been having the same issue as both of you. I would love to be updated when a fix is found.

I have the same setup as JQizzle (NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 1024) but only 2.6 GHz and 8GB.

Report · Jul 07, 2014

I believe its caused by the way Mavericks uses Virtual Memory, which is much more efficient. I have the same issue with Davinci Resolve, gives me a "you're out of Vram" error.

I am definitely not out of virtual memory.

Please Adobe, fix this.

Report · Jul 08, 2014

Tiny Mouse Media wrote:

I believe its caused by the way Mavericks uses Virtual Memory, which is much more efficient. I have the same issue with Davinci Resolve, gives me a "you're out of Vram" error.

I am definitely not out of virtual memory.

Please Adobe, fix this.

If you're seeing an issue in more than one program after an OS update, perhaps the issue is not with one of the programs, but with the OS update.

Report · Sep 02, 2014

How many VRAM is needed? My MacBookPro MD103 (Mid 2012) only have 512MB.

Can it run?

Report · Sep 02, 2014

> How many VRAM is needed? My MacBookPro MD103 (Mid 2012) only have 512MB.

1GB of VRAM is needed for GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer.

Report · Sep 03, 2014

That so unfortunate, thanks Todd!

Report · Sep 05, 2014

I'm really confused over this subject. I have read a little about the subject but can't find the answer to what if I don't have a NVIDIA card?

When I open After Effects I get the error message "Ray-tracing on the GPU requires an approved NVIDIA graphics card and CUDA 5.0 or later. For now ray-tracing will use the CPU..." etc.

I appreciate rather than using the GPU it will now use my CPU but how will this effect my workflow?

I totally understand that to make this message go away I would need an NVIDIA graphics card. How ever I'm not really ready to get rid of my AMD Radeon HD 7950 with 3072MB of VRAM(Total).

So again - how does this problem effect me? should I expect crashes or will it just render slower than it would with a NVIDIA card?

I'm running Mavericks on Mac Pro with 16GB of RAM and 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon.

I would really appreciate a simple explanation as to whether I can still use After Effects or not and what fall backs I can expect?

Thanks

Report · Sep 05, 2014

> I would really appreciate a simple explanation as to whether I can still use After Effects or not.

Yes.

> I appreciate rather than using the GPU it will now use my CPU but how will this effect my workflow?

It won't.

This is only relevant to one minor, obsolete feature that you very likely don't care about.

Report · Sep 05, 2014

Thanks Todd

I haven't received such good new for a while.

One last question - how do I turn off the error message on launching AE?

Guess - change GPU to CPU under preferences?

Out of interest, because you've left me hanging what is the obsolete feature I don't care about?

Thanks again

Mark

Report · Sep 05, 2014

> One last question - how do I turn off the error message on launching AE?

There's a control in the warning message dialog box for that.

> Out of interest, because you've left me hanging what is the obsolete feature I don't care about?

The one being discussed throughout this thread: GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer.

The ray-traced 3D renderer is an obsolete and overly simplistic way of working in 3D in After Effects.

Report · Sep 05, 2014

Thanks Todd

Yeah stupid me, I realised that there is an option to never show warning again.

Thanks for all you help, much appreciated.

Report · Nov 26, 2014

The ray-traced 3D renderer is an obsolete and overly simplistic way of working in 3D in After Effects.

Out of curiosity, do you guys have something planned for replacing that feature then? As I recall the raytracing haven't actually been around for that long.

Report · Nov 26, 2014

Yes.

We're already a fair distance down that path:

details of CINEMA 4D integration with After Effects

Report · Nov 26, 2014

I've used this feature in a couple of projects that I still need to update. So even if it is outdated, I hope that you are not planning to drop it from future versions.

Report · Nov 26, 2014

We'll only remove it after we're certain that the replacement feature set is superior. That won't happen for a while. Even after that occurs, you'll still be able to update older projects with the last version that has the old feature set, since a Creative Cloud subscription gives you access to all major versions from CS6 forward.

Report · Dec 12, 2014

Todd, forgive me if I'm missing something here but I can't figure why all of a sudden I have no GPU capabilities. AE tells me I have an incompatible device or outdated driver but when I check I have installed the latest Cuda driver which is 6.0.54. Is it because the GT 650M is open gl? I have 1 gb of vram and have done 3d extrusions and rendering in the past. Thanks for any help.

Report · Jul 04, 2016

Alright, enough is enough... I've been digging through the internet for over 2 weeks looking for an answer to this Ray tracer/cuda cores-issue... and this is all I keep hearing. So, I'm going to say this and I don't care who I annoy in the process.
I think you and all the other Adobe representatives' answers regarding why the ray tracing feature is obsolete are incredibly lame, cop-outs, to say the least. Especially since EVERY Adobe rep who is asked about this takes this overly, pretentious "oh, why are you still trying to use that, that's last year!..." type attitude, yet won't admit that:

-1: Cinema 4D lite is cool... but otherwise, still pretty overly complicated to use and not as "user friendly as everyone at Adobe claims it is...

-2: though it's supposedly the more "efficient" option, integrating C4D projects back and forth between Aftereffects, though functional, STILL takes some advanced skill based, understanding... as opposed to the "overly simplistic" Ray-traced 3D effects feature of AE, which was quick and accessible because it was IN AE!
Didn't anyone at Adobe stop and think that maybe "simplistic" was actually kind of helpful for newbies in the realm of 3D and AE in general? Anyway, I'm sure there will be a lot of people jumping down my throat for saying what a lot of us are thinking... so I'll just end with this: Maybe it would be a lot more helpful if Adobe reps would actually try to address this issue head on, instead of just telling us all that we shouldn't waste our time because this feature is "obsolete" or "overly simplistic." After all, am I to assume that Adobe sells products that are malfunctional and buggy?

Report · Feb 02, 2015

hey Todd

i have the exact same problem but with my new macpro with renderay no matter what i do even a simple 3d extraction the renderay crashes! My cuda is full up to date and everything not sure why! if you have any way to resolve this issue would be awesome and help us out since i am on a deadline! at the moment!

I have attached a few screen shots and my computer specs! as you can see the GPU Should not be running low on memory xD since its pretty much nearly full speced!

The error!

This is what was there! and all i added was a extractor after this and the error above appears!

and this is my computer specs as you can see there is no lack of Power, Ram or VRAM here! so not sure why this error is occurring even after updating CUDA

if you have anything else i could try please let me know! Thanks!

Report · Mar 10, 2015

Did you ever figure out how to fix this? I just ran into the same issue.

Report · Mar 10, 2015

risk1710 wrote:

and this is my computer specs as you can see there is no lack of Power, Ram or VRAM here! so not sure why this error is occurring even after updating CUDA

if you have anything else i could try please let me know! Thanks!

Well, you have an AMD card. If you've installed CUDA, you've just messed up your system.

Read this: Avoid installing NVIDIA CUDA drivers on computers with AMD GPUs

tschreiber0724 wrote:

Did you ever figure out how to fix this? I just ran into the same issue.

If your system is the same as Risk's, it's because you don't have an NVIDIA card and you can't install CUDA on an AMD card or it will cause problems.

If your system is different, we will need to know a lot more in order to help you. I'd suggest starting a new thread (with a link to this one) explaining as much detail as possible: FAQ: What information should I provide?

Report · Mar 10, 2015

No, it's the same as Risk's.