[Bf-committers] CUDA Toolkit Update (Windows + Linux)

[Sergey Sharybin]

Technically it's easy. The only thing which is worrying is we'll have 12
kernels to be compiled now.

Just to mention, fatbin is not gonna to help really. The thing here is ptx
is really fast to compile, it's optimization to a specific arch takes loads
of ram and time, So if we ship ptx with just ptx that'd mean users would
need to have 8 gig to be able to get optimized code (which then being
cached btw). it's not that nice at all.

We can also look into making SSS more or less stable on GPU, or just
declare GPUs not being feature-full. CMJ i don't think would give any
issues btw.

Another idea could be optimizing sm_20-sm_35 in the fatbin, users of sm_50,
sm_52 would optimize on first render. They probably have enough ram for
this :) A bit cruel i know, just throwing ideas for brainstorm of how to
improve the situation.

P.S. i don't mean we shouldn't switch to fatbin, that'd help making blender
users to early users of new GPUs.

On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 3:41 AM, Thomas Dinges <blender at dingto.org> wrote:

> Hey,
> in order to support Geforce 9xx cards optimally, we should update the
> CUDA Toolkit (Release & Buildbot) and compile native sm_52 kernels.
>
> Sergey, Martijn, can you please update the buildbots?
> https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads-geforce-gtx9xx
> This version is equal to the 6.5.14 we use atm, but adds support for
> sm_52. So it should be a smooth and safe update.
>
> There is no version for Mac, but I think the 9xx cards are not available
> yet for Mac anyway.
>
> Thanks,
> Thomas
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-- 
With best regards, Sergey Sharybin