Iray stuck on 'warm-up' with RTX 5090 – only works with CPU enabled

[eugene_lukas]

Hi,
I recently upgraded to a new ASUS RTX 5090, and I’m experiencing an issue with Iray in the latest version of Substance Painter.
All system and GPU drivers are fully up to date.

When I set Iray to render only on the GPU (disabling CPU rendering), the viewport freezes and displays “Iray warm-up” in the bottom-right corner. The program doesn’t crash, but the rendering does not proceed — the image remains frozen indefinitely.

If I re-enable CPU rendering, the frame immediately unfreezes and Iray starts rendering normally.

I have tested this with both the latest Studio and Game Ready NVIDIA drivers — the issue remains the same.

This problem did not occur with my previous GPUs (GTX 1070, RTX 3090, RTX 4090) — they all rendered fine using GPU-only mode in Iray.

Could this be due to Iray not yet supporting the RTX 5090 architecture?
Is there a workaround or upcoming update planned to support this GPU?

Thank you in advance!

[Ben32990294z6vl]

I have a RTX 5090 also and I can confirm that I also have the problem. I think its because of the version of IRAY that Substance painter uses isnt fully up to date and as such doesnt support any RTX 50 series GPU. This is me just making a educated guess however as so few people have a 5090 its hard to see whats actully causing it.

[charles.e.bolton]

Same here - ASUS RTX5090, latest drivers - but can only render using CPU. 

[Tyrosine25]

I'm testing an Inno3D RTX 5070 and same issue in Substance Designer 2022. If i switch to Iray mode, the 3D window freezes. Not responding at all on camera moves and rotations and stucked at 0/500 render. Tested with latest drivers 576.52 studio and game ready. With my own cards it's working fine GTX 1050Ti and RX 590

[HENRYNei3d]

I'm experiencing the same issue here with an ASUS RTX 5090, IRAY only works with the CPU, and I've tried different settings in the Nvidia Control Panel with no success.   

[charles.e.bolton]

Just updated to 11.0.2 (build 4444) and it's still broken. Sigh.

[Frederic30416370otvm]

Same issue with a 5080. IRAY only works with the CPU.

[eugene_lukas]

just updated to 11.0.2 (build 4444) version and still doesn't work on GPU, lol, thanks Adobe

[charles.e.bolton]

Saw a post over on reddit that mentioned that NVIDIA has confirmed that support for Blackwell architecture GPUs begins with Iray 2024.1.0.

Since SP is currently using Iray 2021.1.6.4.1 (how old?), it looks like therein lies the problem.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hello @charles.e.bolton 

Yes you're right. To be fully honest, we're currently kind of in a dilema. Updating Iray for 50XX GPU would also require from all other GPU users to update their driver, which is also a fair reason not to update Iray. We're still looking for solutions.

As it has been mentionned, (for now) you can deactivate the GPU render to make sure it uses the CPU instead. 

Edit > Settings > Iray Hardware

Best regards,

[charles.e.bolton]

That's a shame - bit of a deal breaker for me if I can't use the 5090. Is it not possible to give the user the option of which version of Iray to use (or install) ?

BTW, it would be great if you could float the Iray window while painting ...

[graphic5FEE]

Yes, I think the possibility of being able to see the result while painting is great. And another possibility if it is provided. I think it will be a revolution in Substance. And that is that we can get output higher than 4k in the final rendering. This is also very effective in competing with the Mari software. It is a pity that a software with the features of Substance Painter only has internal rendering up to 4k resolution. Is this possible?

[graphic5FEE]

If we can render in Substance Painter at a resolution higher than 4k, many tasks will no longer need to be rendered in other rendering engines. Please add this feature to this software and create a new revolution in this software.

[quicknap]

same here. RTX 5090 not supported. Come on Adobe, it's been months now since this hardware has been on the market and your supposedly industry standard software doesn't support. Less money on AI and more on supporting your artists please. 

At least announce when the update will be available!

[Cyril Dellenbach]

To be fair, it's more or less an Nvidia driver issue with a Nvidia renderer. Now we indeed have to make a decision, no matter where the problem comes from. The standard is currently not the 5000 serie, that's in fact why we took a bit of time before taking a decision.

I personally don't have all details, but we should have a fix for the coming minor release.

Best regards,

[quicknap]

This adobe blog is promoting the use of Substance Painter's support of the new range of GeForce RTX 5090 GPUs which is ironic / absurd because I've found that the Iray renderer within Substance doesn't even recognise the GPU. I'd love to know when Adobe plans to build in this support?

Thanks ! 

[RGhost]

In last Substance Designer Adobe moving away from Iray.

(From documentation: "Deprecated This renderer will not receive new features and will be retired in a future version of Designer.)

So I assume Painter will go that way too?..

[graphic5FEE]

It is unlikely that Adobe will not update these two programs, Painter and Designer, for this iray renderer. Because this is a big problem and it is expected that such a company will do something to solve this problem as soon as possible. Because currently rendering with CPU is very slow and 50 series graphics should be supported so that everyone can use this.

[Cyril Dellenbach]

For Designer, we now have released our own Path Tracer, so we are no longer dependent on Nvidia and we are indeed moving away from Iray. Don't get me wrong, Nvidia did a great job with Iray, but with our own renderer it will be easier to control and improve our features related to rendering. Also, the kind of problems we're talking about in this thread should not occur if we have the hand on the renderer.

For Painter and as already mentioned, the Iray/5000 serie issue should be fixed in a coming release.

Best regards,

[graphic5FEE]

Thank you. We are waiting for this update for Painter.
Another question is, will Painter get the feature in future versions to output in the program at 8k resolution?

[eugene_lukas]

Thanks for the update, we're waiting!

[Cyril Dellenbach]

You can already export at 8K, but if you're talking about displaying the maps inside Painter in 8K, that's currently not in our to do list and it won't be until we have significantly improved performances.

[graphic5FEE]

Hello..thanks for the new Painter update..the problem is solved and iray is enabled on the 5080 graphics.

[eugene_lukas]

Hey, with the new 11.0.3 build 4609 and NVIDIA driver 580.88, the Iray GPU issue is fixed. It’s running perfectly and is stable on the ASUS RTX 5090 now. Thank you.