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NorfolkVideo
Participating Frequently
December 28, 2012
Answered

AE CS6 not recognising graphics card with CUDA

  • December 28, 2012
  • 4 replies
  • 30230 views

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

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Todd_Kopriva

    Today, we released the After Effects CC (12.1) update, which adds many GPUs to the list of cards that After Effects will use for GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer.

    See this page for details:

    http://adobe.ly/AE_CC_12dot1_details

    4 replies

    Todd_Kopriva
    Todd_KoprivaCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    November 1, 2013

    Today, we released the After Effects CC (12.1) update, which adds many GPUs to the list of cards that After Effects will use for GPU acceleration of the ray-traced 3D renderer.

    See this page for details:

    http://adobe.ly/AE_CC_12dot1_details

    T
    TheDano99
    New Participant
    June 28, 2013

    I've had the same problem-- Premiere Pro and After Effects not recognizing my new GPU.

    The problem is in the file PP looks for is cuda_supported_cards.txt

    And AE looks in raytracer_supported_cards.txt

    If your GPU isn't listed, then the programs assume you don't have the right CUDA enabled card. The problem is that Adobe has a hard time keeping current with the CUDA cards as they are produced. For example, I had a geForce GTX 670 card, which was not listed in those files, but the geForce 570 card was. Clearly, the 670 was just an improvement over the 570, but Adobe hadn't had a chance to update those txt files.

    It has nothing to do with Java or anything else. It's just the txt file that contains the names of the GPUs.

    Also, for AE, it isn't just 3D modeling or ray trace that gets affected. It's also speeds up hardware accelerated panels and the Cartoon Effect. Plus, I've got 4 GB on the Nvidia card and the CUDA cores going to waste if I don't maximize my use of the GPU I paid extra money for.

    In my case, I'm using a souped up laptop with a geForce gtx 675mx chip. And I saw a noticeable increase in render speed once I modified the two txt files.

    Yes, it would be nice if Adobe were faster in updating the cards in their txt files, but in the meantime, if you have a card that is clearly an update of an older card (like going from the 570 to the 670), then I think it is a pretty safe bet.

    The only other thing to remember is that if you update PP or AE, via the Creative Cloud, or otherwise, your carefully prepared txt files are likely going to get overwritten, and you'll have to re-edit them to include your card.

    Hope that helps.

    Todd_Kopriva
    Todd_Kopriva
    Inspiring
    June 28, 2013

    > Also, for AE, it isn't just 3D modeling or ray trace that gets affected. It's also speeds up hardware accelerated panels and the Cartoon Effect.

    That is misleading.

    The Cartoon effect and the hardwre acceleration of viewers have nothing to do with CUDA and have nothing to do with the text file that you refer to. Those features use OpenGL and work on any video card that meets certain minimum requirements without any tampering with any text files.

    Details are here:

    http://adobe.ly/AE_CUDA_OpenGL_GPU

    T
    TheDano99
    New Participant
    July 1, 2013

    If it's misleading, then it's AE's fault

    If you go to  File menu: Edit / Preferences / Previews. Click GPU Information drop down menu,

    Mine says: "Fast Draft Available. Texture Memory: 3948 MB. This setting also affects hardware-accelerated panels and the Cartoon effect."

    Switching between GPU and CPU for Ray-tracing also turns on and off the CUDA section on Current and Maximum Usable Memory 

    I didn't make this up-- I copied it from the AE dialog box. Perhaps the presentation of information isn't clear enough?

    I read the article referred to above-- very informative. Thank you.

    S
    Soccer_Dad
    New Participant
    December 28, 2012

    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.

    N
    NorfolkVideoAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2012

    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
    Todd_Kopriva
    Inspiring
    December 28, 2012

    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

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Brainiac
    December 28, 2012

    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

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    NorfolkVideoAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    December 28, 2012

    Thank you for your reply.

    Oh dear!

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

    Peter

    Szalam
    Szalam
    Community Expert
    December 28, 2012

    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?

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