ratGPU OpenCL ray tracing benchmark

Hi!

I've created a free program to render images using raytracing and the GPU and to benchmark the OpenCL's performance. It's called ratGPU and you can get it at http://www.ratgpu.com'>http://www.ratgpu.com ( which redirects temporally to http://www.xnormal.net/ratGPU ).

I've added a small benchmark mode with web verification. If you could test it a bit it would be really appreciated.

Usage:

1. Download and install the program ( http://www.ratgpu.com ). You should reset after installing it ( see limitation #3 to know why ).

2. Execute the StandAloneRenderer.exe ( easily from the "start" menu S.Org->ratGPU->StandAloneRenderer ). Notice if you use a 64bits OS like Windows 7 x64 you should execute the "Standalone renderer (64bits)" or, due to a current limitation of the Forceware drivers, the program will fail. So, you cannot execute the 32bits version currently in a 64bits OS. Use the x86 version in a 32bits OS and the x64 version in a 64bits OS as is natural.

3. Press the "benchmark" button on the top of the toolbar and wait until it finishes.

You can see the progress of the current test or to cancel it with the button.

4. Copy the verification URL link and save it if you need to validate the result after.

Limitations/problems:

0. As it uses the GPU, your monitor or Windows's UI can be very unresponsive.

1. Old drivers ( Forceware 197 ) might have problems. The FW 25X are problematic too. You should use the FW 260 atm.

2. If you use an ATI card, you must download and install their OpenCL SDK runtime ( because Catalyst drivers don't include it... don't ask me why... )

Download it at http://developer.amd.com/gpu/ATIStreamSDK/Pages/default.aspx

Note: Only Radeon 5XXX are fully supported, 4XXX series lack the required functionality.

3. If you use Windows XP, a thing called "GPU watchdog" could pop resetting the graphics drivers and aborting the program execution. That's a thing Microsoft added in the 90s to reset the driver in case a program would be using more than 5 seconds of constant GPU computations. Of course, that was before GPGPU was created because modern OSs like Vista/Windows 7 include a mechanism to avoid that ( I do it automatically in the installer, but for WinXP simply cannot be disabled ).

To solve that problem I suggest you to get a second GPU and disable the primary card ( the one connected to the monitor ) inside ratGPU using the "config" menu and, then, unchecking the "use this device" checkbox.

Again, nor Vista/7 requires that because the watchdog is disabled automatically.

My score with a reference Gainward GTX460 (192bits), W7 x64, FW260b and an i7 920 is 598s-601s.

Here is an screenshot showing several things:

You can use BOTH cpu+gpu hybrid rendering ( play a bit with the "use this device" option ), but sometimes the GPU has to wait the CPU so the result might be worse than using only the GPU. If you disable the GPU device and you use only the CPU you'll notice the GPU is much much much faster. I recommend to check in only the GPU devices to render fast and only the CPU to perform a CPU OC stress test.

For instance, compare the 600s of the GPU-only renderer with the 2000s of the CPU-only:

Btw, I'm porting it to Ubuntu 10.10 too.

Thanks!

I've just uploaded the 0.4.3 with some minor bugs corrected and Ubuntu 10 support.

I've just uploaded the 0.4.4 with Ubuntu and OpenSUSE support and improved speed:

I just uploaded the 0.4.6 for Windows:

v0.4.6 Alpha

- Extended the alpha to June 1, 2011.

- Patched several problems with ATI cards.

- Removed the version from the 3dsmax's plug-in filename because it was causing some duplicate GUID messages. Newer versions will just overwrite the file.

- Fixed a color mismatch between 3dsmax and the standalone renderer.

- Now the plug-in for 3dsmax uses the 3dsmax's gamma settings.

- The gamma slider have been removed from the ratGPU's config dialog.

- Recompiled using the latest libraries.

I've patched it for ATI cards. Now it does not hang as the previous 0.4.5... but the problem is not really fixed, there's a bug in ATI's OpenCL JIT compiler that makes ratGPU to render at half the speed it should...

Any ETA on Ati fixing that OpenCL bug?

Any ETA on Ati fixing that OpenCL bug?

Oh, wait. I found another way to recover the speed lost and to avoid the bug.

I'm gonna upload another version tomorrow.

Ok! the 0.4.7 has been released!

Bugs with ATI cards should be now completely fixed and they should run as fast as the previous version.

Thanks!

I've just uploaded the 0.4.8 with some bugs corrected.

I've uploaded the 0.4.9 with some minor bugs corrected, improved ATI speed and smaller tiles for SLI/CF.

I've also change the status from alpha to beta because now it's stable and I'll just add some new features like AA, etc...

thx.

I've uploaded the 0.5.1 with AA and fixed several bugs with Catalyst 11.3.

I've uploaded the 0.5.2:

- Added Maya 2012 support ( Windows and Mac ).

- Added support for ATI Radeon HD 4XXX cards.

- Optimized a bit the precomputation phase.

- Fixed several installation problems under linux.

- Removed the need for an Internet connection and the expiration date.

- Improved rendering speed for ATIs a lot ( 33%-100% ) ... BUT you'll need Catalyst 11.5 or above or ratGPU may hang.

I've uploaded the 0.5.3: optimized the CPU rendering and fixed some problems with Catalyst 11.6

Uploaded the 0.5.4 with some minor optimizations and bugs fixed.