GPU for After Effects

[Elvin.C]

I need to know the certified GPU card for AE GPU-accelerate,because your System requirements about After Effects was not written clearly.And I still don't understand why the certified GPU for premiere and AE is not same??

[Mylenium]

Unless you plan on using the raytrace 3D stuff, which is obsolete, anyway, any contemporary card will be sufficient.

Mylenium

[SiliconPixel]

There are many plugins that rely on GPU performance so the type of card can make a difference (as can amount of VRAM on the card for things like Element 3D). But I agree, most modern cards seem to work well if you're not concerned about performance In the effects and plugins that use CUDA etc.

Mylenium - I'm puzzled why you say that ray traced 3D is obsolete in AE? Last time I used it a couple of months ago it was clearly still alive and kicking. Ok, performance sucks big time but it's still useful for some projects.

[Szalam]

SiliconPixel wrote:

Mylenium - I'm puzzled why you say that ray traced 3D is obsolete in AE? Last time I used it a couple of months ago it was clearly still alive and kicking. Ok, performance sucks big time but it's still useful for some projects.

Because C4D renders faster, is much more powerful, and is included in AE versions 12 and 13.

SiliconPixel wrote:

There are many plugins that rely on GPU performance so the type of card can make a difference (as can amount of VRAM on the card for things like Element 3D). But I agree, most modern cards seem to work well if you're not concerned about performance In the effects and plugins that use CUDA etc.

The only thing in AE that uses CUDA is the ray-traced renderer (which, as we've already mentioned is obsolete). Plugins like Element 3D and Red Giant's Universe do make use of the GPU, but can use cards without CUDA just fine.

[SiliconPixel]

That doesn't make the ray traced renderer obsolete though, it's a completely different workflow.

[Szalam]

It may be a different workflow, but the end result is the same (or better) and it renders faster. This new workflow makes the old one obsolete.

It's like keying an image.

We could create a matte shot by obscuring the background with cut-out cards. Thus, when the live action portion of our scene is filmed, the background portion of the film isn’t exposed. Once the live action is filmed, a different cut-out could be placed over where the live action now sits on the partly-exposed film. The film would be rewound, and we could film our new background.

However, I prefer the workflow of shooting on a green screen and keying it out thus skipping the double-exposure and, in fact, skipping film entirely.

That's how I see C4D integration as opposed to the ray-traced renderer. It's faster, more powerful, and your end result is better. Plus, as a bonus, it doesn't require a specific GPU from a single manufacturer to work because it isn't reliant on proprietary technology.

[aefilter]

If the feature was dead it would not be released, but yeah it seems that this raytracing may not have a future (and which might factor into future problems for archived projects).

The odd thing is that there's no master list of GPUs supported. You get a CS6 list in Help and some addition in a blog for 12.1, but no obvious notes on on any new support in the last 2 releases of After Effects. You have to have AE installed and dig through the app package contents or prefs to be sure.

Support for a late 2012 Mac disappeared and only reappeared for me with an Nvidia driver update. Maybe it is fair to say this feature is dead, since the number of supported cards hasn't grown for the last 2 releases, leaving users of newer Macs wondering. The good news is that it's easier to enable support on "unsupported" cards -- there's now a checkbox for that. As mentioned, the more recent Nvidia cards should work fine.

[Rick Gerard]

CC 14 gives you the option of trying an unsupported card and it works just fine for the new Macs. I have two brand new ones with NVIDIA cards and they are working perfectly. The only published list is in the System Requirements.

The following NVIDIA GPUs are supported in After Effects CS6.

Mac:

• GeForce GTX 285
• GeForce GT 650M*
• Quadro FX 4800
• Quadro 4000

It's a starting point, but with the move to supporting the Mercury playback engine it makes a lot more sense to look at the PPro System requirements when picking a card for AE.

From the PPro System Requirements page.

Supported AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards for GPU acceleration

Windows CUDA:

• GeForce GT 650M
• GeForce GT 750M
• GeForce GT 755M
• GeForce GTX 285
• GeForce GTX 470
• GeForce GTX 570
• GeForce GTX 580
• GeForce GTX 675MX
• GeForce GTX 680
• GeForce GTX 680MX
• GeForce GTX 690
• GeForce GTX 770
• GeForce GTX 775M
• GeForce GTX 780
• GeForce GTX 780M
• GeForce GTX TITAN
• Quadro CX
• Quadro FX 3700M
• Quadro FX 3800
• Quadro FX 3800M
• Quadro FX 4800
• Quadro FX 5800
• Quadro 2000
• Quadro 2000D
• Quadro 2000M
• Quadro 3000M
• Quadro 4000
• Quadro 4000M
• Quadro 5000
• Quadro 5000M
• Quadro 5010M
• Quadro 6000
• Quadro K1100M
• Quadro K2000
• Quadro K2100M
• Quadro K2000M
• Quadro K3000M
• Quadro K4000
• Quadro K4100M
• Quadro K4000M
• Quadro K5000
• Quadro K5000M
• Quadro K6000
• Tesla C2050
• Tesla C2070
• Tesla C2075
• Tesla M2050
• Tesla M2070
• Tesla K10

Mac CUDA:

• GeForce GTX 285
• GeForce GTX 675MX
• GeForce GTX 680
• GeForce GTX 680MX
• GeForce GT 650M
• GeForce GT 750M
• GeForce GT 755M
• GeForce GTX 775M
• GeForce GTX 780M
• Quadro CX
• Quadro FX 4800
• Quadro 4000
• Quadro K5000

Windows OpenCL:

• AMD Radeon HD 6650M
• AMD Radeon HD 6730M
• AMD Radeon HD 6750
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M
• AMD Radeon HD 6770
• AMD Radeon HD 6770M
• AMD Radeon HD 6950
• AMD Radeon HD 6970
• AMD Radeon HD 7510M
• AMD Radeon HD 7530M
• AMD Radeon HD 7550M
• AMD Radeon HD 7570
• AMD Radeon HD 7570M
• AMD Radeon HD 7590M
• AMD Radeon HD 7610M
• AMD Radeon HD 7630M
• AMD Radeon HD 7650M
• AMD Radeon HD 7670
• AMD Radeon HD 7670M
• AMD Radeon HD 7690M
• AMD Radeon HD 7730M
• AMD Radeon HD 7750
• AMD Radeon HD 7750M
• AMD Radeon HD 7770
• AMD Radeon HD 7770M
• AMD Radeon HD 7850
• AMD Radeon HD 7850M
• AMD Radeon HD 7870
• AMD Radeon HD 7970M
• AMD Radeon HD 7950
• AMD Radeon HD 7970
• AMD Radeon HD 8470
• AMD Radeon HD 8550M
• AMD Radeon HD 8570
• AMD Radeon HD 8570M
• AMD Radeon HD 8670
• AMD Radeon HD 8670M
• AMD Radeon HD 8690M
• AMD Radeon HD 8730M
• AMD Radeon HD 8740
• AMD Radeon HD 8750M
• AMD Radeon HD 8760
• AMD Radeon HD 8770M
• AMD Radeon HD 8790M
• AMD Radeon HD 8870
• AMD Radeon HD 8950
• AMD Radeon HD 8970
• AMD Radeon HD 7480D
• AMD Radeon HD 7540D
• AMD Radeon HD 7560D
• AMD Radeon HD 7660D
• AMD Radeon R7
• AMD Radeon R9 290
• AMD FirePro M2000
• AMD FirePro V3900
• AMD FirePro M4000
• AMD FirePro V4900
• AMD FirePro W5000
• AMD FirePro V5900
• AMD FirePro M5950
• AMD FirePro M6000
• AMD FirePro S7000
• AMD FirePro W7000
• AMD FirePro V7900
• AMD FirePro W8000
• AMD FirePro S9000
• AMD FirePro W9000
• AMD FirePro S10000
• Intel Iris Graphics 5100
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200

Mac OpenCL:

• ATI Radeon HD 6750M
• ATI Radeon HD 6770M
• AMD Radeon HD 7950
• AMD Radeon HD FirePro D300
• AMD Radeon HD FirePro D500
• AMD Radeon HD FirePro D700
• GeForce GT 650M
• GeForce GT 750M
• GeForce GT 755M
• GeForce GTX 675MX
• GeForce GTX 680
• GeForce GTX 680MX
• GeForce GTX 775M
• GeForce GTX 780M
• Quadro K5000
• Intel Iris Graphics 5100
• Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200

[aefilter]

That list is for CS6 ! That's 2 years ago, right?

Todd Kopriva mentioned cards added in 12.1:

GPU changes (for CUDA and OpenGL) in After Effects CC (12.1) | After Effects region of interest

I also am more concerned about support for the Mercury engine, but that's not the question.

[Szalam]

aefilter wrote:

If the feature was dead it would not be released, but yeah it seems that this raytracing may not have a future (and which might factor into future problems for archived projects).

Some of Adobe's After Effects team members have made posts on this forum calling it obsolete, so I wouldn't count on Abeing included in many more versions. I'm not sure how they will deprecate it though. As you say, archived projects would be an issue. Perhaps they will come up with a way to automagically convert them to C4D? Or maybe, since people can download and install past versions of AE via Creative Cloud, they'll just say, "Use the old version if you want an old feature." I'm not sure the Adobe folks even know for sure how they'll do that yet.

[Todd_Kopriva]

I'm on vacation now, but---since my name was used here---I'll chime in briefly:

There is no further work being done on the ray-traced 3D renderer. It is a dead end. We are working on replacing its functionality with integration with Cinema 4D.

Regarding the system requirements: There used to be a different page that actually had the complete list of GPUs for the ray-traced 3D renderer. I don't know what happened to it. I'll forward a link to the folks in charge of Help to have them fix the lack of a complete list on the existing page.

[Szalam]

Todd_Kopriva wrote:

Regarding the system requirements: There used to be a different page that actually had the complete list of GPUs for the ray-traced 3D renderer. I don't know what happened to it. I'll forward a link to the folks in charge of Help to have them fix the lack of a complete list on the existing page.

Thanks, Todd. That would be helpful.

Also, thanks for popping in on your vacation. Now, get back on the road and recharge! That way you can come back and start whipping AE into shape with renewed vigor!

[Kevin-Monahan]

Thanks, Todd.

[Steve Gaskell]

The Adobe help document on Improving Performance for After Effects states that GPU can be used for other processes besides Ray Tracing.  So to say it only impact Ray Tracing is incorrect.  All types of rendering will be improved by GPU processing.  See this excerpt from that document:

After Effects Help | Improve performance

• Make sure that your system includes a display card that supports OpenGL 2.0 or later. Though After Effects can function without it, OpenGL accelerates various types of rendering, including rendering to the screen for previews. See Render with OpenGL.
• In After Effects CC and CS6, OpenGL and the GPU are important for new features, such as Ray-Traced 3D rendering on the GPU, Fast Draft previews, faster blitting to the screen, and a GPU enhanced Cartoon effect. For more information. See Render with OpenGL.

Adobe doesn't need to certify if a GPU supports OpenGL, it does or it doesn't.  Personally, I was concerned with the GPUs in the iMac 5K as this what I just purchased (happy dance).   Looking at the AMD site for the line of GPUs AMD Radeon R9, you can see this whole family supports OpenGL.  Therefore, you can be sure the GPUs in the iMac 5K can be utilized for the functions listed above by After Effects.

http://www.amd.com/en-gb/markets/r9

Not sure about a specific GPU?  Look up the specs on the manufacturer's site.

When it come to Premiere Pro - it is a similar situation.  Adobe states they will not have the time to certify all the GPUs.  GPUs that meet certain minimums (support CUDA, OpenCL and have more than 1G RAM) will be utilized for hardware acceleration.    

I will update after I get my new iMac if my results are different from stated.

[Todd_Kopriva]

> The Adobe help document on Improving Performance for After Effects states that GPU can be used for other processes besides Ray Tracing. 

That Help document is misleadingly written. I'll have our technical writer fix that.

> All types of rendering will be improved by GPU processing

That is false.

The GPU is used for very few things in After Effects, as described here:

GPU (CUDA, OpenGL) features in After Effects

[shameemk74274403]

I was looking the reviews of amd radeon hd 7540d driver which compatible with Windows 10. It’s integrated by the GPU and it also have strong relation with graphics card. We can say that if we install latest version of driver then we can increase the performance of the PC good.

[P.M.B]

You probably want to go with an Nvidia GPU.  They work better with alot of different CG applications..