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AMD Firepro W8100: It's designed for PCIE 3.0, but my MB is only 2.0. Problem?

enjoiskaterguy
Level 7
So I have just recently bought the AMD professional series GPU..the Firepro W8100.*
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The performance in Autodesk 3ds max and Vray is meh.
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I rendered a simple scene with my old XFX Radeon 6870 2GB and then again on my brand new Firepro W8100 using the Vray 3.00.0.7 rendering engine and I got the same crap performance. *I was also monitoring gpu activity during the render which came back with a essentially zero gpu activity
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wondering if it could be caused by my MB (ASUS Crosshair v Formula-Z) which only has up to x16 PCIE 2.0 slots...not 3.0 which my new graphics card can run up to.
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amd does say this about the card: "Available PCIE x16 (dual-slot), 3.0 for optimal performance"...how much better performance is the question?
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Could the gpu drivers be optimized for PCIE 3.0 of such a thing exists?

So, here is the technical differences between pciw types over the years but what is the relationship of this info to that of my gpu?
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PCIe Raw bit rate Interconnect bandwidth Bandwidth per lane per direction Total bandwidth for x16 link
PCIe 1.x 2.5GT/s 2Gbps ~250MB/s ~8GB/s
PCIe 2.x 5.0GT/s 4Gbps ~500MB/s ~16GB/s
PCIe 3.0 8.0GT/s 8Gbps ~1GB/s ~32GB/s
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I have read that PCIE 2.0 is more than enough for modern gpu's but benchmarking doesnt usually include workstation graphic cards that support this argument.
*I
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here is the GPU specs...
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AMD Firepro W8100 GPU:
SPECS
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8 GB GDDR5 memoryok
512-bit memory interfaceasuhh
320 GB/s memory bandwidth
PCIe® 3.0 compliant, x16 bus interface
2,560 stream processors
4.2 TFLOPS peak single-precision floating-point performance
2.1 TFLOPS peak dual-precision floating-point performance
Available PCIe x16 (dual-slot), 3.0 for optimal performance
A 750 watt or better power supply, with two PCIe AUX power connectors (six-pin)
8GB System memory or greater
Microsoft® Windows 8.1, Windows® 7, or Linux® operating system (32- or 64-bit)
Internet connection for driver installation
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what does all this mean?
MB: Crosshair V formula-Z
CPU: AMD FX8350 (8-core) @ 4.7Ghz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum (8x2) 16gb
GPU: AMD Firepro W8100 (8GB workstation card)
cooling: custom water loop ,Ocool Nexxus U60 420 triple radiator,
Swiftech MCP655-B pump, Bitspower Compression fittings
HDD: OCZ OCZ "Vector" 256gb
PSU: NZX Hale90 v.2 1200W
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4 REPLIES 4

jab383
Level 13
The 'zero gpu activity' may be a clue that the gpu isn't involved - the slow performance is due to using the CPU only. Is there some setting in the application that addresses recognized GPUs? A GPU has to be explicitly selected in some apps.

I guess that you've installed the universal pro driver from AMD, but really have to mention it in the checklist sense. The W5000 didn't come with a driver and I had to search out the latest pro version. Do the W8100 and monitor and their driver versions show up correctly in Windows Device Manager?

My W5000 advances to PCIe3 very rarely, using PCIe2 or 1.1 for most activities. I'm quite satisfied with it in the apps I use, given that it's two steps smaller and a gen older than the W8100.

Jeff

jab383 wrote:
The 'zero gpu activity' may be a clue that the gpu isn't involved - the slow performance is due to using the CPU only. Is there some setting in the application that addresses recognized GPUs? A GPU has to be explicitly selected in some apps.

I guess that you've installed the universal pro driver from AMD, but really have to mention it in the checklist sense. The W5000 didn't come with a driver and I had to search out the latest pro version. Do the W8100 and monitor and their driver versions show up correctly in Windows Device Manager?

My W5000 advances to PCIe3 very rarely, using PCIe2 or 1.1 for most activities. I'm quite satisfied with it in the apps I use, given that it's two steps smaller and a gen older than the W8100.

Jeff


yeah there are some settings to enable OpenCL i found out, but my GPU somehow still isn't being used in OpenCL(single kernal) render engine in Vray 3ds Max. The render window just stays blank.

i think i have the correct driver downloaded. I went to the driver's support page and specified which firepro card i had and made sure that it was for the W8100. The Device Manager also reads the card as "AMD Firepro W8100 (FireGL V)" with a driver version as 14.301.1010.0

Curiously though, I did just find that there are such things as Mobile GPU drivers too which are offered by AMD and are program specific, including a driver for Autodesk 3ds Max. The Driver number here is different...check it out....http://tiny.cc/psyarx

thanks also for the PCIE info. How do you know that the card is using PCIE 1, 2, or 3.0 at any given time?
MB: Crosshair V formula-Z
CPU: AMD FX8350 (8-core) @ 4.7Ghz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum (8x2) 16gb
GPU: AMD Firepro W8100 (8GB workstation card)
cooling: custom water loop ,Ocool Nexxus U60 420 triple radiator,
Swiftech MCP655-B pump, Bitspower Compression fittings
HDD: OCZ OCZ "Vector" 256gb
PSU: NZX Hale90 v.2 1200W

Mosc_007
Level 7
It may be a problem with the OpenCL drivers. Some of the newer cards are not supporting it real well as it's a pretty old standard now. Not used a lot anymore.


Charles
| 5930k at 4.4 Ghz | Rampage 5 Extreme | Corsair 4 x 4 GB 2666 Mhz | GTX 980 x 2 in SLI |
| 512 GB SSD x 2 in Raid 0 | Corsair 1000 Watt PSU | Corsair 900D Case | 90 Inch DLP Projector |
| Custom Water. 1 x 360 Rad, 1 x 420 Rad. CPU + 2 GPU's Water cooled |

jab383
Level 13
To check PCIe version in use at a given time, download and run GPU-Z. It shows PCIe bus state in real time. The little question mark beside the PCIE line in GPU-z invokes an exercise that gives the GPU a little load.

Jeff