Is my Geforce GTX 970 slowing down Substance Painter? Will the GTX 1060 run Smoothly?

RashedAlmetrami

Hey Guys, just a quick question regarding performance on Substance Painter. If I change any parameters substance is slow and goes through the red loading bar at the bottom of the screen, this happens with all parameters, even base colour.

I'm working at 2k resolution and have nothing else open apart from substance painter (Which was launched first before anything).
Working at 1k runs smoothly. 
This also happens if I use only one 1920x1080 monitor.
I also have all groups collapsed and only the layer/group im working on visible.
I've also disabled threaded optimization. 
Model Polycount: 150k

System Specs


Current Scene:

Scene with all model visible:
http://i.imgur.com/8NWMRhX.jpg

If it is my graphics card, would the GTX 1060 6GB run smoothly at 2k? or even 4k?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Graphics-Cards/ASUS-GeForce-DUAL-GTX1060-6G-Graphics-Card/B01IPFN7UQ/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1489156470&sr=1-4&keywords=GTX+1060+6GB&th=1#Ask

Thank you all in advance!

Jerc

The 970 is known for its memory issues and Painter hits it right where it hurts. A 6GB 1060 will definitely improve things a lot.
Even a 960 with 6GB gives me better performance than a 980 with only 4GB on big projects.

RashedAlmetrami

Thanks Jerc 1060 arrives tomorrow!

RashedAlmetrami

I've installed the 1060 and I don't see any improvement in performance changing parameters causes the transition to stutter instead of change smoothly 

RashedAlmetrami

Also, not sure if this makes a difference but GPU-Z says that I'm using 5GB of VRAM. On the old card the maximum it used was 3.7GB

Jerc

If you have a sharpen filter applied to the layer you are tweaking, it is likely the cause of the slowdown, since it's a substance filter and every time you modify the color, it has to be run again, at 2k resolution, resulting in stuttering, make sure you deactivate it when tweaking stuff if you want a smoother experience.
As for the VRAM, 3.7 was the maximum it could get from your 970. Now that you have 6GB, Painter can use as much as he needs to avoid swapping and should result in an overall better performance, especially when working with multiple texture sets.

RashedAlmetrami

Hey Jerc and thanks for the help. I've disabled all the levels and sharp filters in each of the materials and it's still fairly stuttery. If i drop the resolution to 1024 it runs perfectly. Any other ideas on why It's not running smoothly?

Thanks again

Steppenwolf

Just a hunch. Check your RAM settings in the UEFI/Bios. It says 1499Mhz there on your screenshot but for your motherboard 2133MhZ DDR4 is the slowest that you can buy. I think it might run only at half speed and cause the lag.

RashedAlmetrami

@Steppenwolf  The Ram I have is actually at 3000Mhz. The BIOS says its running at 3000MHZ but speccy says otherwise. I'll have a look into whether it's running at the right speed.

Could that really have an impact on performance? I've heard Ram Speed doesn't really impact performance overall. 

Froyok

I suggest reading this page : https://support.allegorithmic.com/documentation/display/SPDOC/Performances

Vozz

Personally running Substance right now on 1060 and never had much performance issues, I would also guess something else in your PC is causing a ruckus.

RashedAlmetrami

@Vozz Not sure what it could be. My PC crashes when I try to bake an 8k AO map.

RashedAlmetrami

@Froyok  I Took some advice from the page, I merged all the texture sets of the model so I'm only working with one at 8k, I attached instanced models so the model-count was less. I Restarted my PC, closed down all unneeded background applications (Including Flash) and managed to bake at 8k.

I then tried to un-hide a group in the layer stack. My screen then bugged out, substance crashed and my screen resolution changed to something tiny like 1024x768  

Any advice? I love substance painter but it's become un-usable, surely my PC should be able to handle baking at 8k but working in 4k/2k?

Vozz

Hmmm, I usually cap myself to 2k personally, very rarely touch 4k. That could have an impact, but crashing seems odd. I am guessing your drivers are up to date? I know old Nvidia drivers plus Substance can cause a lot of crashing problems. I'm guessing if you got a new card you are probably up to date. I hope you find a fix soon, sounds frustrating.

RashedAlmetrami

@Vozz  Thanks man. Drivers are up to date.

I disconnected my 4k monitor and baked using one 1920x1080 monitor which made the baking way faster.  changing parameters is still stuttery though 

Froyok

RashedAlmetrami said:

@FroyokI then tried to un-hide a group in the layer stack. My screen then bugged out, substance crashed and my screen resolution changed to something tiny like 1024x768  

Regarding this, we can't do much. It's either the driver which is unstable, or that your GPU is too weak to handle 8K textures.

RashedAlmetrami

@Froyok  Would running a 4k monitor affect the performance of Substance Painter a lot?

Froyok

A lot, not necessarily, but it will have an impact yes. Simply because we need to render a bigger viewport resolution (even if you are using the high-dpi scaling setting in your OS preferences).

RashedAlmetrami

@Froyok Good to know, thanks for the help!

AyyLemonz

My GTX 890 with 2gb ram runs all of AAllegorithmic stuff  vay smoothly. 

AyyLemonz

My GTX 890 with 2gb ram runs all of AAllegorithmic stuff  vay smoothly. 

RashedAlmetrami

Tried out just using one piece of the model. 

I've got two basic layers on top of each other and have added a mask editor generator. Parameter changes load slowly and still take a while to load at 1k resolution. Is this because Im using 8k baked maps? Im sure that with my PC specs, substance should be running incredibly smoothly; Especially at 1k.


I love substance painter but it's become unusable for me, any help is much appreciated

Jerc

With 8k bakes, the mask generators will be processed at 8k too, and will be slow. This behavior will change in the next update. Try using lower resolution bakes in the meantime.

RashedAlmetrami

Aah okay thanks @Jerc. I'll bake at 4k first then will re-bake at 8k when texturing is done. Thanks for the help!