GPU rendering with Arnold does not work in 3ds Max

Autodesk Support

Oct 8, 2023

Products and versions covered

Issue:

It is not possible to start a rendering in 3ds Max using Arnold with the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). When setting the Render Device to GPU in the render settings, a warning is displayed: "Unable to load Optix library, Nvidia driver 426.78 is either too old or missing the Optix library." However, rendering with CPU works fine.



Causes:

Outdated graphics drivers or incompatible graphics cards can cause this behavior.

Solution:

To solve issues at GPU rendering with Arnold in 3ds Max:


Update the driver of the graphic card to the required version


The following Nvidia drivers are supported to run GPU rendering with Arnold:  

Check the installed graphic card and driver 


Follow the steps to check, which driver version of your graphics card is installed on the system:
  1. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run Command prompt.
  2. In the Run Command prompt window, enter MSINFO32 to open the System Information Window.
  3. On the left side of the System Information Window, go to System Summary > Components > Display.


If Intel Onboard Graphics Driver (or similar) is listed in the System Information Window, follow the steps to assign the dedicated Nvidia graphics card to work with Maya:

  1. Right mouse click the desktop to open the Nvidia Control Panel.
  2. Go to 3D Settings > Manage 3D Settings.
  3. Program Tab > choose 3ds Max
  4. Set "High-Performance Nvidia Processor" as desired graphic processor. (the screenshot shows Maya, but applies to 3ds Max also).
image.png



Check the compatibility of the graphic card

 
See this article to verify if the installed graphics card is supported to run GPU rendering in Arnold: Supported GPUs
 

 




 
 

Products:

3ds Max; Arnold;

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