Tesla C2050 GPU not detected when trying to use the AMG-MF solver

[Anonymous]

I have a Tesla C2050 GPU and I am trying to see whether using the AMG-MF solver is any faster than the straight AMG solver.  However, I keep getting a "no GPU device detected - not using GPU" message at the start of the analysis.  I have checked the settings to make sure the Tesla card is set to TCC  so that it is recognized as a GPU and not a video card (it is), but it still doesn't work.  Are there any additional settings within Simulation Mechanical that I need to look for/set?

As for why am I using an iterative solver in the first place....most of the work I do in Simulation Mechanical deals with high speed impacts of components and assemblies using Mechanical Event Simulation...usually with non-linear material models.  Its not unusual for me to do 100 to 300 time steps in an analysis over the space of just a few thousandths of a second, so anything that might speed things up would be useful to me.

[KubliJ]

Hi Joe,

I apologize, but it is likely this is due to a bug with the solver regarding NVidia graphics cards.  We have issues with cards that use Cuda 1.3 or newer.  As best I can tell, the C2050 uses the Fermi micro-architecture which uses Cuda 2.0.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Thanks,

James

[Anonymous]

Do you know if this is something that is going to be addressed if it is indeed a bug? It's not like the GPU cards are going to be going away..

Thanks,

Joe

[KubliJ]

Hi Joe,

The issue is currently logged as a bug and being worked on by development.  It does not appear that a resolution is close at hand.

I apologize for the inconvenience of this.

Thanks,

James

[AstroJohnPE]

Hi Joe,

From what I know (which isn't much), the GPU solver is not that much of an advantage -- some models it is slightly faster, and some models it is slightly slower.

Another thing to investigate for speed improvement is to try running the analysis from a command prompt. See How to run a Simulation Mechanical analysis from the command prompt (DOS window). I have not done any dedicated testing, but my impression is that some models run much faster from a command prompt.

Of course, there are some obvious disadvantages:

1. It takes a little bit of effort to setup.
2. You cannot monitor the convergence progress live. What you can do is use Windows Explorer to browse to the folder containing the design scenario (mymodelname.ds_data\#) and use Notepad or another text editor to open the log file (ds.alg). Close and re-open the file periodically to "refresh" it.
3. You cannot monitor the results live. Actually, you might be able to, but I do not know what impact this has on the speed of the analysis. Start Sim Mech and go to the "Open" dialog. Change the "Files of type" to "Autodesk Simulation Results (*.fem)" and browse to the model. Once it opens in the Results environment, you can set the "Results Contour > Load Case Options > Analysis in Progress" and "Automatic Advance" to check the results.

Give it a try and let us know how it works out.