GPU Memory Not Freeing Up After Render

[Isaac.miller101]

With each consecutive Arnold render, my GPU memory gets used until all 8 gigs are occupied and it is forced to abort. It's treating my VRAM as single use and only becomes available again after restarting Maya.

• 1.3 gig scene
• RTX3070 8gig
• Up to date studio driver (also tried gaming driver).
• Same results on MtoA5.1.0, Arnold Core 7.1.0.0 and MtoA 5.0.0.1, Arnold Core 7.0.0.0

I've cleared caches manually and flushed caches in Maya. I also tried to pre-populate GPU cache but it was taking so long I had to leave it overnight and it failed. Googled and searched forums but can't seem to find any resolution. Attached is a succesful render and then a failed render, along with my render settings.

Any help appreciated!

[thiago.ize]

Does it stop leaking memory if you remove the imager_denoiser_optix?

[thiago.ize]

Also, it wasn't clear: did you also test with the latest Arnold? It's currently at 7.1.1.1.

[Isaac.miller101]

Hi @thiago.ize! Thanks for your response. No, the problem persists regardless.

[Isaac.miller101]

@thiago.ize 7.1.1.1 wasn't actually available last time was was trying to solve this issue, so in the spirit of trying to make sure everything is good, I did a clean install of Maya, Arnold + a new studio driver update from NVIDIA. Before doing any renders I pre-populated the GPU Cache and the unfortunatly the problem persists.

[thiago.ize]

Do you mind sharing your scene so we can try and reproduce the problem on our end?

[Isaac.miller101]

Sure, it's happening with every scene (new and old), so I'm not sure it will help, but I will send one through anyway. Thanks!

P.S. I tried attaching .MB file but it only accepted .MA.

[thiago.ize]

Thanks, I'll give this a try tomorrow. By the way, for future reference you can zip the file and then you'll be able to upload whatever you want.

[Isaac.miller101]

Thanks man, I appreciate your help.

[thiago.ize]

I wasn't able to reproduce the memory leak. First off, can you confirm it's supposed to render black (I think there are no lights)? And how are you rendering each time: ARV stop and start? Render sequence? Different scenes without restarting maya?

[Isaac.miller101]

Sorry I just removed the world light because it was connected to a HDRI that you wouldn't have. It's happening with every scene. No I am rendering just one scene. Tried rendering current frame, sequences also just opened arnold render view and clicking the "play" button, then stopping it once it's complete. Check out my screencast.

[Isaac.miller101]

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/troubleshooting/caas/screencast/Main/Details/ce271eae-0d...

[thiago.ize]

Thanks for the video, it makes it very clear what you're doing 🙂

I can get memory being used for the first two or so renders, but after that it seems to stop increasing. It's not as bad as what you're experiencing, but maybe that's a good enough reproducer for us, as I'd have hoped gpu memory would go completely back down after ending the render. We'll keep on investigating on our end. Thanks!

[Isaac.miller101]

No problem, glad you were able to see some progress. I really appreciate the help.

[Isaac.miller101]

Hi @thiago.ize, were you able to figure out what might be happening? It's been incredibly debilitating. I had to move to rendering in Blender.

[thiago.ize]

No, we were not able to figure out the issue as we could not reproduce the memory leak past the first couple renders. We are in the midst of a major GPU rewrite as we upgrade from OptiX 6 to 7 so it's possible when that's completed it might fix this for you or at least make it easier for us to fix this as we now have more control over memory usage in Optix 7. Unfortunately we can't give an ETA.

[designimation]

Maya has this issue also.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-shading-lighting-and/arnold-memory-leak-running-standalone-arnol...

[alikasb]

I have same problem in 3dsmax 2024 Arnold render. GPU memmory is full and Arnold r render start rendering very slow. Swichng to other rendering or closing scene memory  GPU still full. Only after closing 3dsmax memmory GPU is about 0 precents.

[CiroCardoso3v]

Are you using the latest version? Perhaps a log could help with what is happening.

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-get-an-Arno...

[alikasb]

Yes Latest (or at least one of the latests). I Instalet 3dsmax about month ago.