2
$\begingroup$

I noticed that there is now a tag presumably due to the influx of driver issues and problems users are coming to the site asking for help with.

A few years ago, we had a similar problem with nividia hardware that caused extreme lag with affected hardware. No tag was created then.


So the question is, do we want or need GPU specific tags?

$\endgroup$

2 Answers 2

5
$\begingroup$

I am against hardware related tags for a few reasons.

Hardware tags are often a strong sign of an off-topic question.

  1. Either it is a blatant question about hardware which is off topic
  2. A case of unsupported hardware
  3. It is an issue with hardware which should be resolved and is out of scope here
  4. It is an issue with drivers which basically always boils down to either update to latest version, or roll back to last known good configuration
  5. It is a bug and should be reported in the official channels, as such doesn't belong here

Other than that Blender should ideally run well on all supported hardware, as long as it is officially approved. If it doesn't then it should be reported.

For the narrow cases of asymmetrical feature parity (like different feature support for GPU rendering between CUDA, OpenCL or Optix) where hardware is actually relevant, I supposed a simple descriptions in the body of the post should suffice.

As for the current issues we are experiencing due to a bug in recent AMD drivers, I don't think the tag would help much, since most users are new comers and aren't well versed in our tag system, or aren't aware of the source of their issue, so they probably wouldn't tag their question properly anyway.

The current AMD tag should probably be eliminated

$\endgroup$
2
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ I fully agree. While the current issues with the AMD drivers are quite unfortunate, they are also an example how a) we can't really help here beyond saying which driver version does work or what workarounds could be used b) all answers to such question will likely soon be obsolete c) not even the Blender developers can do much besides implementing workarounds for buggy graphics drivers. None of this would warrant hardware specific tags and most question about hardware will fall into the off-topic categories listed in your answer. $\endgroup$
    – Robert Gützkow Mod
    Dec 23, 2020 at 22:40
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Good point obsolescence is also a valid concern. White the current situation is indeed aggravating it will be over eventually and those questions will quickly become irrelevant and useless, just like the NVidia issue a few years back $\endgroup$ Dec 23, 2020 at 23:17
0
$\begingroup$

There are only three possible GPUs

AMD

INTEL

NVIDIA

Each one of them is very specific in the way it is used by blender, and each one of them creates unique problems. Those problems are not interchangeable, and can be addressed in a very targeted way. If a tag is not useful for that then what is it good for?

And who uses tags anyway? I created the label for easier search for the answers in a sea of poorly titled questions, and no way to find the info otherwise...

$\endgroup$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .