Arnold GPU illegal memory access Error

[andymc4997]

Hi everyone, 

I keep getting this same error message when trying to render with Arnold GPU:

// Error: ERROR | [gpu] CUDA call failed : (700) an illegal memory access was encountered
// Error: ERROR | [gpu] GPU context creation failed : an illegal memory access was encountered

How can I resolve this? 

I've updated NVidia drivers multiple times, and updated Arnold versions multiple times.

- Maya '25

- Win 11

- Quadro RTX A4500

- Current NVidia driver version: 560.76

- Current Arnold version: 5.4.2.1 (5.4.3.1 will not render normal/bump maps for me)

As you can guess, getting very frustrated with things just not working, as I have multiple projects due. I've ran diagnostics on my GPU and it's fine.

Any / all help much appreciated, thanks. 

[andymc4997]

Any ideas on this at all? I wasn't getting this until about 2 weeks ago, and it's really hindering my workflow, as I have to restart Maya every time.

This is just ridiculous, as I just shelled out the money this morning to renew my Maya subscription.

[info93AHS]

Having the same problem. Any fix?

[info93AHS]

Found some more info to trigger the issue.
- Clean restart of maya empy scene gpu renders just fine.
- Plugging in a Maya ramp into a Maya Area light color --> CUDA call failed

- Plugging in an Arnold ramp into a Maya Area light color --> Works fine.
- Plugging in an Maya ramp into a Arnold Area light color --> Works fine.

- Plugging in an Arnold ramp into an Arnold Area light color --> Works fine.

- Feeding the ramps with white colors seems to trigger the problem earlier. 2 fully white ramp positions gives me an instant GPU error on any setup. Even with the Arnold Ramps.

So at least in my case maybe some buggy behaviour around area lights and maya ramps?!

[jhotun]

I am seeing this issue pluggin in a ramp on the melanin parameter of the aiStandardHair. The moment I change anything in that ramp the error will appear and I need to restart Maya.

// Error: ERROR | [OIDN] defaultArnoldDenoiser: driver_process_bucket filter error: an illegal memory access was encountered

EDIT: Maya 2025 and MtoA 5.4.8