help System stats question poor performance makes no sense

[davidkmiller]

hoping someone who might be smarter then i can give some direction on why this would be this way?

Running 2 systems side by side. Same system specs same ventuz app systems manufactured at the same time.

On statistics none of the systems appear to be stressed at all
system 1 ranging from 42fps - 60fps

system 2 holding steady at 60fps

specs:
hexacore i7 cpu
32 gig of ram
w8000 graphic card
resolution: eyefinity 3x 1280X720

System 1 : obvious glitches and stutters in animation
system 2 : silky smooth


any suggested trouble shooting methods to see why ventuz would be struggling on one machine but not the other.
Obviously something is not the same but need some feedback where else to look
I have duplicated this issue twice where 2 supposed identical machines don't run the same.

Resource monitor shows some network traffic but nothing stressing the core components like cpu or memory.

running out of ideas.

[Karol]

Hi David!

Are the two machines somehow sync´ed? Via Ventuz Cluster sync or AMD syncboards?
Have both machine the same configurations? I mean the Ventuz AV configuration etc.: http://www.ventuz.com/support/help/late ... figuration

Cheers
Karol

[davidkmiller]

Originally we had 2 machines synced with as400 amd sync boards and we were attempting to cluster in master slave machine

it seemed like no matter how we configured machine 2 was seeing tremendous amount of lagged frames and dropped frames


issue followed whatever machine was specified as # 2
removed clustering and replaced one of the servers as it was obvious that the one machine was slower then the other
seeing similar behavior in the replacement machine where its just not getting as good of frame rates

we have since removed all clustering and grouping and machine 1 ranges from 43 to 56 fps while machine 2 consistently is 6 to 8 fps faster
we would be ok with that but even when we drop to 50 fps visually noticing stuttering and general unsmooth animations. I would think that even at 50 fps it should appear to be silky smooth

[Karol]

Hmm!?

Which Ventuz version are you using? We fixed some issues with cluster sync in version 4.2.1.
Which AMD driver version are you using?
What if you just run a very simply scene in a synced environment?

Best Regards
Karol

[davidkmiller]

Due to show schedule and coming up with a different workaround this issue had got put on hold for awhile.

This past week needed to revisit this issue as it is still going on and would really like to get a better understand how to help our Render Machines perform better.

Currently running 4.3.1

2 machines both identically configured. Built at the same time with about the same amount of hours used.


Machine one 60 fps occasionally dropped framed but overall satisfactory performance.
Machine 2 48 FPS but noticeable amounts of frame drops and very rough animations with noticeable glitches.
definitely doesn't seem to be running at true 48fps or its dropping like 5 frames in a row which creates a big jump in the animation
Running 3 screen eyefinity off w8000 card @ 5160X1080p pixel space


Clustering makes the performance worse as the faster machine slows down to match the slower machine.

for the time being No clustering control is from a Director Machine but we found this problem even when the machine is in single stand alone.

Just not sure where to chase to try to address this issue.

updated graphics drivers

noticed in windows task manager that on the slow machine graphics driver is using 67k memory and cpu is at 3% load while on the machine that is performing faster it is only using 18k memory but 12% cpu.....

ventuz render statistic doesn't indicate any sort of issues everything looks like it isnt even being stressed....but visually its acting like its experiencing massive processing load.

Looking for ideas of what to chase.

Looking into the memory discrepancy. We ordered 8 machines identically configured on the ones we tested most were running more like the slower machine and not the faster one.

I feel like there is a mode or check box somewhere that adjusts something on the graphics that vastly effects ventuz performance.

any ideas? What type of logging could i do that might indicate where ventuz is struggling?
I have tried quiet a few ideas but would love to hear what the ventuz community has to say about it.

Thanks!

[Karol]

Hi David,

We still have no idea what could be causing this bad performance.
It would be helpful if you could answer some questions and make some tests on the slow machine:

1. Set all Ventuz Config parameters to (None).
2. Create a new Ventuz Project and start a simple Scene with just a rotating Cube.
Is this running smoothly?

If you encounter bad performance, is this happening in the Runtime only or also in Designer?
What does the log file (C:\Users\Public\Documents\Ventuz4\Log) say?
Disable Eyefinity and just run on a single screen! Still the same issues?

Swap the graphics boards between a good and bad machine. Any changes?

You could install Ventuz 3 PLE on the bad machines and see if it renders the same as Ventuz 4.

Best Regards
Karol

[davidkmiller]

Just an update:

2 things we have discovered.

When we disable 2 video input ports (2X blackmagic decklink quad). From 8 inputs to 6 inputs. Performance improves to 60 fps. This has made life livable.

We have one machine that has been performing stronger when under load and with all 8 inputs live. So the question has been what is different about this one machine.

All of our machines have identically specs to use the same hardware. Except for this one that had made its way into inventory. Identical in every way, case, accessories, but different CPU mobo combo. Fortunately it allowed us to inadvertently discover a configuration that seems to be running better.

Strange thing is the slower machines are the ones that on paper at least have higher end specs.

I will post the specs for comparison upcoming.