Update minimum GPU requirements #63519

Closed
opened 2019-04-12 08:54:50 +02:00 by Brecht Van Lommel · 13 comments

Based on #61936 (EOL GPU problems tracking report) we will define minimum requirements for GPU. Once this is decided blender.org, the release notes and user manual need to be updated.

  • macOS: 10.12+ is required due to driver bugs in older versions. GPUs released in last 10 years appear to work fine, but newer recommended for working well in Eevee.
  • NVIDIA: need GT 200 or newer.
  • Intel:
    Windows: known issues with older drivers, which are on Windows 7 and 8, as well as older cards on Windows 10 (HD 4000). Blender works but Eevee has issues. Linux: cards from last 10 years appear to work.
  • AMD
    ** GCN or higher are working stable, older Terascale cards have many reported bugs. On Windows there were no Terascale drivers released in the last 3 years, so we can't realistically support them well. On Linux the situation for Terascale may be a bit better, but still GCN is probably required for good results.
Based on #61936 (EOL GPU problems tracking report) we will define minimum requirements for GPU. Once this is decided blender.org, the release notes and user manual need to be updated. * macOS: 10.12+ is required due to driver bugs in older versions. GPUs released in last 10 years appear to work fine, but newer recommended for working well in Eevee. * NVIDIA: need GT 200 or newer. * Intel: **Windows: known issues with older drivers, which are on Windows 7 and 8, as well as older cards on Windows 10 (HD 4000). Blender works but Eevee has issues.** Linux: cards from last 10 years appear to work. * AMD ** GCN or higher are working stable, older Terascale cards have many reported bugs. On Windows there were no Terascale drivers released in the last 3 years, so we can't realistically support them well. On Linux the situation for Terascale may be a bit better, but still GCN is probably required for good results.
Clément Foucault was assigned by Brecht Van Lommel 2019-04-12 08:54:50 +02:00
Author
Owner

Added subscriber: @brecht

Added subscriber: @brecht

Added subscriber: @ZedDB

Added subscriber: @ZedDB

For both Windows and Linux I propose that we use the same EOL cutoff for support as the GPU manufactures. It seems to match quite well with the reports in #61936.

An added bonus is that we could potentially then kick the manufactures to fix bugs in their drivers and not have to implement as much workarounds. (If we try to support EOL cards, they will never get these kind of fixes)

I don't have a tracker for mac issues exactly (as even non EOL cards have big issues), but it seems to me like the best course of action would be to only support the latest macOS release.
@WilliamReynish do you have any input on this (macOS version support)?

For both Windows and Linux I propose that we use the same EOL cutoff for support as the GPU manufactures. It seems to match quite well with the reports in #61936. An added bonus is that we could potentially then kick the manufactures to fix bugs in their drivers and not have to implement as much workarounds. (If we try to support EOL cards, they will never get these kind of fixes) I don't have a tracker for mac issues exactly (as even non EOL cards have big issues), but it seems to me like the best course of action would be to only support the latest macOS release. @WilliamReynish do you have any input on this (macOS version support)?

Added subscriber: @WilliamReynish

Added subscriber: @WilliamReynish

Added subscriber: @GavinScott

Added subscriber: @GavinScott

Wherever this is documented it should clearly explain the difference between Workspace/Eevee and Cycles GPU acceleration, and link to the appropriate Cycles documentation if it's not included (I think just having one document that explains all of this in one place for 2.80 might be simplest).

For supported Cycles Nvidia cards, there are some places like https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/cycles/gpu_rendering.html that say things like "We support graphics cards starting from GTX 6xx (computing capability from 3.0 to 6.1)." when in fact there are quite a few 600+ Geforce cards that only support Compute Capability 2.1 (mostly mobile devices, including a dozen or so 600 series cards as well as the 800M, and 820M, and a couple of them are GTX models. See:

https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus

which maybe we should just link to and tell people to see if their card supports Compute Capability 3.0 or greater.

I'll throw in another very frequent confusion which is that people rarely seem to understand that the Cycles Render Devices system preferences does, in fact, only apply to Cycles rendering, and they often twiddle these settings hoping to affect Eevee or Workspace behavior, or they get hung up on the fact that there are no OpenCL devices listed for Nvidia cards. It may be wroth adding a note to the above documentation to try to clarify this, or even add some text to the Preferences screen to help people avoid confusion in the purpose of those settings.

Wherever this is documented it should clearly explain the difference between Workspace/Eevee and Cycles GPU acceleration, and link to the appropriate Cycles documentation if it's not included (I think just having one document that explains all of this in one place for 2.80 might be simplest). For supported Cycles Nvidia cards, there are some places like https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/cycles/gpu_rendering.html that say things like "We support graphics cards starting from GTX 6xx (computing capability from 3.0 to 6.1)." when in fact there are quite a few 600+ Geforce cards that only support Compute Capability 2.1 (mostly mobile devices, including a dozen or so 600 series cards as well as the 800M, and 820M, and a couple of them are GTX models. See: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus which maybe we should just link to and tell people to see if their card supports Compute Capability 3.0 or greater. I'll throw in another very frequent confusion which is that people rarely seem to understand that the Cycles Render Devices system preferences does, in fact, only apply to Cycles rendering, and they often twiddle these settings hoping to affect Eevee or Workspace behavior, or they get hung up on the fact that there are no OpenCL devices listed for Nvidia cards. It may be wroth adding a note to the above documentation to try to clarify this, or even add some text to the Preferences screen to help people avoid confusion in the purpose of those settings.

Added subscriber: @ChristopherAnderssarian

Added subscriber: @ChristopherAnderssarian

Once this is decided blender.org, the release notes and user manual need to be updated.

and Steam. Please don't forget to update the Steam page as 2.80 won't run on Windows XP.

> Once this is decided blender.org, the release notes and user manual need to be updated. and Steam. Please don't forget to update the [Steam page ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/365670/Blender/) as 2.80 won't run on Windows XP.
Author
Owner

I'm trying to define clearly which Intel GPUs we support on Windows. To me it seems Haswell (2013) and newer work generally ok.

Two serious issues for that range of Intel GPUs I'm aware of, that we could try to fix:

  • #62947 (Box selection not working with Intel HD Graphics 620)
  • #63376 (Eevee: Plane with reflection plane rendered as transparent (alpha=0))

Intel only has a 3 year support window for graphics cards, so we are still dealing with old drivers that won't get bugfixes. But only supporting Intel cards from the last 3 years seems too short.

@fclem, do you agree with officially supporting Haswell or newer?

I'm trying to define clearly which Intel GPUs we support on Windows. To me it seems Haswell (2013) and newer work generally ok. Two serious issues for that range of Intel GPUs I'm aware of, that we could try to fix: * #62947 (Box selection not working with Intel HD Graphics 620) * #63376 (Eevee: Plane with reflection plane rendered as transparent (alpha=0)) Intel only has a 3 year support window for graphics cards, so we are still dealing with old drivers that won't get bugfixes. But only supporting Intel cards from the last 3 years seems too short. @fclem, do you agree with officially supporting Haswell or newer?

@brecht I think this is a good compromise.

@brecht I think this is a good compromise.
Author
Owner

The Blender requirements page has been updated now:
https://www.blender.org/download/requirements/

The user manual just links there now, instead of duplicating the information and potentially going out of sync then.

@fclem, this is what I have for the blog post, feel free to add or edit:
https://code.blender.org/?p=3603&preview=true

The Blender requirements page has been updated now: https://www.blender.org/download/requirements/ The user manual just links there now, instead of duplicating the information and potentially going out of sync then. @fclem, this is what I have for the blog post, feel free to add or edit: https://code.blender.org/?p=3603&preview=true
Author
Owner

Changed status from 'Open' to: 'Resolved'

Changed status from 'Open' to: 'Resolved'
Author
Owner
https://code.blender.org/2019/04/supported-gpus-in-blender-2-80/
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Label
Interest
Alembic
Interest
Animation & Rigging
Interest
Asset Browser
Interest
Asset Browser Project Overview
Interest
Audio
Interest
Automated Testing
Interest
Blender Asset Bundle
Interest
BlendFile
Interest
Collada
Interest
Compatibility
Interest
Compositing
Interest
Core
Interest
Cycles
Interest
Dependency Graph
Interest
Development Management
Interest
EEVEE
Interest
EEVEE & Viewport
Interest
Freestyle
Interest
Geometry Nodes
Interest
Grease Pencil
Interest
ID Management
Interest
Images & Movies
Interest
Import Export
Interest
Line Art
Interest
Masking
Interest
Metal
Interest
Modeling
Interest
Modifiers
Interest
Motion Tracking
Interest
Nodes & Physics
Interest
OpenGL
Interest
Overlay
Interest
Overrides
Interest
Performance
Interest
Physics
Interest
Pipeline, Assets & IO
Interest
Platforms, Builds & Tests
Interest
Python API
Interest
Render & Cycles
Interest
Render Pipeline
Interest
Sculpt, Paint & Texture
Interest
Text Editor
Interest
Translations
Interest
Triaging
Interest
Undo
Interest
USD
Interest
User Interface
Interest
UV Editing
Interest
VFX & Video
Interest
Video Sequencer
Interest
Virtual Reality
Interest
Vulkan
Interest
Wayland
Interest
Workbench
Interest: X11
Legacy
Blender 2.8 Project
Legacy
Milestone 1: Basic, Local Asset Browser
Legacy
OpenGL Error
Meta
Good First Issue
Meta
Papercut
Meta
Retrospective
Meta
Security
Module
Animation & Rigging
Module
Core
Module
Development Management
Module
EEVEE & Viewport
Module
Grease Pencil
Module
Modeling
Module
Nodes & Physics
Module
Pipeline, Assets & IO
Module
Platforms, Builds & Tests
Module
Python API
Module
Render & Cycles
Module
Sculpt, Paint & Texture
Module
Triaging
Module
User Interface
Module
VFX & Video
Platform
FreeBSD
Platform
Linux
Platform
macOS
Platform
Windows
Priority
High
Priority
Low
Priority
Normal
Priority
Unbreak Now!
Status
Archived
Status
Confirmed
Status
Duplicate
Status
Needs Info from Developers
Status
Needs Information from User
Status
Needs Triage
Status
Resolved
Type
Bug
Type
Design
Type
Known Issue
Type
Patch
Type
Report
Type
To Do
No Milestone
No project
No Assignees
5 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
The due date is invalid or out of range. Please use the format 'yyyy-mm-dd'.

No due date set.

Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: blender/blender#63519
No description provided.