Question Autodesk Products, Revit & Autocad + Nvidia drivers

[atticus_maytrap]

Hi there,

this is general request for comparative information from anyone who regularly uses the above mentioned software - Revit and/or Autocad - that also uses a GPU with Nvidia drivers.

Simply put, if you use either Revit or Autocad with any of the following Nvidia drivers installed (studio or game ready):

466.77
471.11
471.41
471.68
471.96

and you have a diagnostic program such as GPU-Z or MSI Afterburner, can you please tell me how your GPU clock is behaving while either of these programs is open and running?
Is your GPU clocking up to load levels while they are open and being used?

Any and all information regarding this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Why are you running an uncertified GPU and gaming ready drivers with Revit/Autocad? You should be using only the GPU and drivers certified for that use by Autodesk. That's likely 90% of your problems.

 

[atticus_maytrap]

Why are you running an uncertified GPU and gaming ready drivers with Revit/Autocad? You should be using only the GPU and drivers certified for that use by Autodesk. That's likely 90% of your problems.

"studio or game ready" - we've been having issues with both.
But to further answer your question, i use game ready drivers on my home machine (because i game with it when not working) and have been for the past 4-5 years easily, and never once had an issue with the card upclocking while using those programs.

This is from Autodesk themselves:
"As a general rule, installing the latest driver available from the graphics card manufacturer is recommended. "

However, with the last batch of drivers - from 466.77 up to 471.96 - i've been noticing that when using either Revit or Autocad the card clocks up to load levels.
Stranger still, it does NOT clock up when using other similar programs like 3Ds Max or Sketchup - 3DS Max being another Autodesk product.

This is on my 1080Ti. Last week in our office we had a new guy start, fresh machine, fresh install of everything, RTX 3060, using studio driver 471.68, and while we didnt have a diag. app to see the clock rate, he was getting odd graphical behaviour (objects started vaniching after extended use) and the task manager showed the card using 50+% when it shouldnt have been above 20-30% for the task at hand, to then having the CPU jam itself up to 100% when he wasnt doing anything at all.

We rolled it back to 466.47 - the last driver ive found to not have the upclocking bug - and everything worked as it should.

The behaviour of the drivers even then is a bit all over the place, this has been my results from testing them:

466.47 - no unusual upclocking
466.77 - upclocking when using Revit or Autocad
471.11 - upclocking when using Revit or Autocad
471.41 - upclocking when using Revit or Autocad & when more than one screen is enganged (should / always has remained at base levels here, this was one was very out of the ordinary)
471.68 - upclocking when using Revit or Autocad
471.96 - upclocking only when using Autocad

Im currently using 471.96 and the upclocking bug is not present for Revit which is fine for the time being, its our main work program, but it is certainly curious.
I plan on spending some time on the office machines tomorrow running similar tests (studio and game ready drivers) to try and replicate the problem, was hoping to see what other people in similar situations are experiencing.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

You're running uncertified GPU's, that's at least 90% of your problems right there. If you want to run NVidia cards with Autodesk products you must run the certified Quadro cards. That's what they're there for. That's also why they're far more expensive.

 

[atticus_maytrap]

Sure, but like i said, we've been using uncertified drivers (read: never quadro cards, ever) for years and never encountered this problem before.
We use Geforce cards since we also use real-time render programs for all our rendering, animation and VR purposes.

It also seems as though a lot of Revit users (according to the Autodesk forums at least) also use GTX or RTX cards - because like you say, they arn't as expensive.

Hence why i came here to see what other peoples experience might be, if they had something similar happening.

Back to the issue at hand, the upclocking is very much new behaviour.
It is not clearly a driver issue based on the testing and varying results of said drivers?

....and even then, as i said, on one of the tested drivers we saw the GPU clocking up to load levels simply by having a 2nd and 3rd monitor turned on, nothing related to Autocad or Revit - or any other software for the matter, just sitting idle at the desktop.
This specifically is very much abnormal behaviour, since it should just be sitting at base levels when 2 or more screens with different refresh rates are connected.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

And this is exactly WHY you do not run uncertified GPU's with Autodesk products. It is irrelevant that this has worked previously as it is not a supported configuration to start with. It's very likely that they have made changes to the product that do not play well with uncertified GPU's/drivers. And if that's the case you do not have a leg to stand on when complaining. What did Autodesk tell you when you contacted them? Part of what you pay for with your license is support when you need it.

 

[atticus_maytrap]

And this is exactly WHY you do not run uncertified GPU's with Autodesk products. It is irrelevant that this has worked previously as it is not a supported configuration to start with. It's very likely that they have made changes to the product that do not play well with uncertified GPU's/drivers. And if that's the case you do not have a leg to stand on when complaining. What did Autodesk tell you when you contacted them? Part of what you pay for with your license is support when you need it.

my guy, who's complaining here?
This is a problem that already has a short term solution - simply rolling back to a non-buggy driver.

I came here to see if there were any other users in a similar situation, just to make sure if it wasn't in fact a driver problem but rather an issue with my system configuration, or - as you very helpfully pointed out - the choice of GPU itself.

I have contacted Autodesk about it, both in support and the forums, still waiting on a reply.

Thank you for replying though boss, you've been a big help.