Arc GIS pro causing issues for the GPU

[c1asse]

Hello, so i have recently started working with ArcGIS Pro. However it has been causing a problem which has confused me. My previous laptop started having display issues on startup so i bought a new machine (Asus TUF 15 gaming laptop 16GB RAM) considering that the previous one is too old for the software. After a couple of days my new device is also showing similar issues in the display. The GPU drivers gets disabled automatically and on startup there is no display currently. Please note that i have used other simulation software such as HEC-RAS and FLOW3D and have never faced any issue like this. I am unsure what mistake i am making while using the software or saving its files. Any help is appreciated. Thankyou.

[DanPatterson]

Graphics adapter resources—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

also

ArcGIS Pro 3.3 system requirements—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation

the first link to verify your computers specifications 

( Verify your computer's ability to run ArcGIS Pro. )

[RTPL_AU]

Hi @c1asse 
Pro uses the GPU for a lot of things, not just data processing but also all the beautiful dialogs & UI effects.....
That means drivers etc have to be working well before you even open data. 

Asus' laptops are a bit more complex than typical desktops with regards to GPU when it comes to optimised drivers and power conservation (I have a Strix Scar with AMD CPU & Nvidia GPU). 
If yours has the ability to switch between integrated GPU (Intel or AMD)  and discrete (prob Nvidia) make sure to correctly set the switch-over in Armory Crate. 
Double check Windows' power profile in use with Pro. 

Mine has been a lot more stable with Windows 11 than 10 so that may be an option.
The Pro UI is still laggy on a Threadripper + 4090 so don't expect miracles on a laptop. Your machine should handle day to day datasets fine - obviously spatial data optimisation gets more critical the lower spec the hardware it is processed on (FGDB vs SHP, etc).

Try the DX11, DX12, OpenGL + rendering quality settings in Pro - known to affect stability with different GPU driver versions and optimisations, and your workflows. Cross check against AMD or Nvidia driver utility settings (anti-aliasing, etc) as you may have changed something global there to suit another application/game. There was a period last year where I got continuous GPU driver warnings in Pro. Went away with a driver update and next version of Pro. 

Grab HWInfo or similar and check/log temperatures while running Pro.  Check Event Viewer for disk errors when opening Pro (to rule them out and don't get distracted & dive down the error event rabbit hole).

Pro 3.x has been pretty stable for me on desktop & laptop so I suspect you have a Asus Driver/Power setting wrong somewhere.

[MarcoBoeringa]

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@c1asse wrote:

The GPU drivers gets disabled automatically and on startup there is no display currently. Please note that i have used other simulation software such as HEC-RAS and FLOW3D and have never faced any issue like this. I am unsure what mistake i am making while using the software or saving its files. Any help is appreciated. Thankyou.

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Do you mean the display in the Map view is permanently stuck on the "Loading Map" progress icon and the actual map display stays grey, not showing anything, and Pro reporting "Changes in your graphics hardware detected"?

If so, welcome to the club ;-(.

I have had a similar experience with what is still my only laptop, a Core i7-7700HQ with NVidia Geforce 1050 graphics card.

Despite contacting ESRI support about this, I have never managed to get Pro working with the graphics driver, not with DirectX, nor OpenGL, nor by upgrading to any of the latest versions of the drivers or any of the Windows updates since I acquired it.

I finally resorted to disabling the NVidia Geforce 1050 graphics card altogether through Windows settings, and only run on the Core i7-7700HQ's integrated graphics. That actually works better than initially expected, but of course feels a bit dump knowing I have "dead" unused hardware lying around that probably could do a bit better.

Nonetheless, if you have no option to switch laptops, I would say go for it, and run on integrated graphics only. More modern laptops than my 6 years old machine, should have more muscle for that work too, so if I can run it on integrated, you can probably too and with better experience.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Also note that these "dedicated" graphics cards in laptops are not like true desktop graphics cards stuck in a PCIe express port. They are usually essentially a kind of co-processor chips directly stuck on your mother board to help and work together with the integrated graphics. That is fundamentally different from a high end desktop graphics card, and may explain some of these issues as well.

[MarcoBoeringa]

One thing you might still try though, is to disable the graphics card in Windows before installing the graphics driver, than re-enable it afterwards after the successful install of the driver, if the installation process of the driver hasn't already done so.

[Matt-Goodman]

My entire laptop keeps consistently crashing now, when my hotrod Nvidia RTX 3500 GPU reaches temps over 100-degrees Celsius. This happens while just performing simple edits in ArcGIS Pro. 

Basically brand new machine, i7, 32GB RAM.

I'm not sure ArcGIS software is the actual/root cause. Over the course of two days of troubleshooting (drivers, BIOS updates, monitoring software, etc.) we've discovered that the GPU remains in 'normal' operating temps whenever it's not plugged into the HP Thunderbolt G4 dock. We can plug it into a different (lower-grade) dock, and the GPU is happy. Or, run it as a standalone laptop, single display, and it's happy. 

[MarcoBoeringa]

If your GPU overheats, then this is not likely a Pro software issue. Laptop CPUs and GPUs need proper cooling but the cooling grating at the end of the copper heatpipes inside a power laptop easily get clogged with dust.

It can take just a few months on a brand new laptop with heavy usage of the GPU in a dusty home or office environment, to clog up the cooling grating and cause overheating issues.

Open up the laptop and vacuum clean the grating.

The fact that the laptop crashes, would also maybe be reason to send it in for warranty. The laptop should detect improper cooling and downgrade the CPU and GPU frequencies causing a slow laptop, but not a full crash.

[Matt-Goodman]

Of course, thoroughly cleaning it was the very first thing we tried, along with visually inspecting the fan, heatsink, and thermal paste. 

At the end of the day, the machine was significantly over-spec'd to run ArcGIS, yet it just wasn't handling the demand of basic, everyday GIS use, so it was sent back under warranty.

I agree that the defect was in the laptop and not Esri's software, but it just so happened that it was only my GIS work that pushed it beyond its limits.