Would like to use nVidia CUDA software for automated builds, but it requires loading disaply drivers

[Krist Smith]

The project we're working on requires building art assets. These assets require a very long time to compile (sometimes 9+ hours). The art compiling pipeline has a feature that would allow us to cut this build time down to less than 1 hour, but it requires that we use the nVidia CUDA toolkit. In order for this toolkit to work, it needs to load the nVidia display drivers.

My question is really about how Bamboo uses remote agents - does it load in a non-interactive mode? Does it load any display drivers at all? According to the CUDA documentation, any remote connection software that uses its own version of display drivers (such as Windows Remote Desktop Connection) will bypass the nVidia drivers and prevent CUDA from working, whereas software such as VNC or Slashtop use the nVidia drivers as normal. So, I guess it comes down to three categories, and I'm just wondering which of these Bamboo would fit into:

-No display drivers loaded at all

-Custom drivers loaded

-Default (nVidia, in this case) drivers loaded

I assume that it's one of the first two of those categories, and my hope would be to bring it into the third somehow (if it's at all possible).

Thanks.

[Krist Smith · Accepted solution]

Our solution was to put a Quadro card in one of our build agents. This card doesn't require the display drivers to be loaded in order to use CUDA. Not exactly the cheapest of solutions, but the only one that actually worked.

[AmitB]

I have the same issue? Did you ever resolve this problem?