AE CS6/ CC + GPU/ CPU
Need testers and insight:
For After Effects, Adobe has a list of supported video cards. 4-cards for mac, some 20-cards for windows. So, if you have a video card, that is not on this list, it would seem to say, you do not have a comparable (cuda) video card and thus, AE will not be 'able' to access it, and presumably AE will have only the cpu and the system RAM to utilize.
So here is the question: For either pc/ mac users using a video card(s) that are on Adobe's tested card list: launch AE > tap on AE > tap on Preview > tap on GPU information > tap on Ray-tracing CPU and from that drop down menu, are the letters, GPU grayed out? If it is not, meaning it is accessible, have you tapped on GPU so that AE accesses it?
I know of machine builders and users that are using Titans in pc's and Quadro 5/ 6000 in mac's and yet they are not supported? Have these builders/ users checked to see if AE even sees the cards?
It would seem that AE is a CPU and RAM intensive program and the video cards either take on some particular duties * while working within the program or are primarily for physical rendering once footage has been added to the render queue.
I was even told by a builder, that whether or not your card is supported, even if the GPU is grayed out, the card is being accessed. So why would there be a door to open, within AE that gives access to the video card?
And interestingly enough, there are two type of renders: the first is a visual render, the second, is the physical render via the queue. Most benchmarks involving machines and gpu's have to do with the latter. And almost no benchmarks regarding working within the program without lag. (Especially in ray-tracing 3D.) I would sacrifice final render times for zero lag within the program, if I had to make a choice.
Thanks everyone in advance. All constructive input wanted.
Brian
PS. I know that Adobe writes here: The ray-traced 3D renderer can run on the CPU, but the CPU-based ray-traced 3D renderer is rather slow in Final Quality mode. That’s why After Effects also has a GPU-accelerated 3D renderer. To use the GPU-accelerated ray-traced 3D renderer, you must have one of a specific set of graphics cards. *
And here: If your GPU is not supported, or you have an old driver, the ray-traced 3D renderer will render on the CPU using all physical cores. *
*http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2012/05/gpu-cuda-opengl-features-i n-after-effects-cs6.html