Rhino 8 render not showing Nvidia GPU. Rhino 7 does

Rendering
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1

Neither Rhino 8 nor the R9 WIP show the GPU tabs on the Render Options page. Notwithstanding the 5070 laptop GPU arrived after Rhino 7, the latter does list it, so it is difficult to see why the later releases have a problem with it.

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image1499Ă—1537 129 KB

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image1499Ă—1436 144 KB

SystemInfo:

Rhino 8 SR31 2026-4-14 (Rhino 8, 8.31.26104.08181, Git hash:master @ 2b632c545519ecab0a6a691f560dfcc31eac2d65)
License type: Commercial, build 2026-04-14
License details: Cloud Zoo

Windows 11 (10.0.26200 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 64GB)
.NET 8.0.26

Computer platform: LAPTOP - Plugged in [100% battery remaining]

Non-hybrid graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 3-4-2026 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 595.79
> Integrated accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display is laptop’s integrated screen or built-in port
Primary OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 3-4-2026 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 595.79
> Integrated accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display is laptop’s integrated screen or built-in port

Secondary graphics devices.
Intel(R) Arc™ 140T GPU (32GB) (Intel) Memory: 2GB, Driver date: 4-16-2026 (M-D-Y).
> Integrated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- There are no monitors attached to this device. Laptop lid is probably closed

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
GPU Tessellation is: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 3-4-2026
Driver Version: 32.0.15.9579
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 8151 MB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Bongo 3.0 (64-bit)\BongoEtoUI.rhp “BongoEtoUI” 1.0.0.0
C:\Users\jeremy\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\8.0\Plug-ins\Bella (813de3fb-18eb-405f-bfcd-b0b4d3da91fb)\24.6.0.0\bella_rhino.rhp “Bella” 24.6.0.0
C:\Program Files\Bongo 3.0 (64-bit)\Rhino8\Bongo.30.rhp “Bongo 3.0”

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.31.26104.8181
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\WebBrowser.rhp “WebBrowser”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoScript.rhp “RhinoScript”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\IdleProcessor.rhp “IdleProcessor”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.31.26104.8181
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.31.26104.8181
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.31.26104.8181
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.31.26104.8181
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.31.26104.8181
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools”

2

Is cycles enabled?

3

Hi @Japhy,

Yes, I realised there was an issue when I saw that a render I started was using the CPU.

4

There are reports of issues with nvidia drivers on applications after windows updates

The typical troubleshooting steps to apply are:

  1. Clean install of the latest Nvidia driver (in the Custom section of the Nvidia installer)
  2. Repair Rhinos
  3. Disable Bella (not likely.. but typical troubleshooting)
  4. more drastic would be to uninstall the card via Device Manager
5

Hi Japhy,

I’ve done 1 to 3 for Rhino 8, rebooting after each, and still don’t see the GPU tabs. Given that the GPU tabs are present in the R7 render options page, and the card shows in the R8 SystemInfo, I feel that the issue is within Rhino rather than the GPU and/or drivers, and so I’m not keen to do 4…

I have also tried reverting from latest Intel and Nvidia drivers to the latest Lenovo distributed variants in case there were machine-specific tweaks but that made no difference to the problem.

I’ve also checked my desktop PC and there the GPU tabs show up, with my gen 2 and gen 3 cards shown.

6

Hi @jeremy5,
There are two command that may help here.
RhinoCyclesDisableGpu
RhinoCyclesEnableGpu

When RhinoCyclesDisableGpu was run, and Rhino WIP reopened, this is what my Rhino Render options looked like:

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image921Ă—809 32.7 KB

When RhinoCyclesEnableGpu was run, and Rhino WIP reopened, this is what my Rhino Render options looked like:

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image920Ă—809 36.8 KB

There may be more going on here “under the hood” so just a stab.
Let us know if this helps or not.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Fugier

7

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately it didn’t help in this case.

Regards
Jeremy

8

Hi @jeremy5,

could you send me the output of the following 4 command, please:
RhinoCyclesShowLog, RhinoCycles_ListDevices , RhinoCycles_ShowInfo and RhinoCycles_ShowPaths.

Thanks.
-Lars

9

Hi @lars,

Here you go:
RhinoCycles_ListDevices.txt (149 Bytes)
RhinoCycles_ShowInfo.txt (212 Bytes)
RhinoCycles_ShowPaths.txt (392 Bytes)
RhinoCyclesShowLog.txt (773 Bytes)

Regards
Jeremy

10

And here, in case it is useful, is a longer log…
RhinoCyclesShowLogLonger.txt (5.2 KB)

11

We had a similar report, rolled back Rhino and Drivers to no success. Is there anything in the Windows Event Watcher during Rhino startup?

12

Hi Japhy,

I started Rhino 8, took it to the point where I opened the render options page and saw no GPU-related tabs, then checked the event logs for that period of time. I saw nothing that raised even a glimmer of suspicion it might be relevant. In fact, having worked with Windows since its inception, this is probably the most benign set of event logs I have ever seen. Sorry!

My laptop is a Lenovo Yoga Pro 9 - what machine was involved in the other report?

Regards
Jeremy

13

Lenovo Legion, I’m wondering if this is one of the cases where an overlay (nvidia setting) or something like that could be interfering.

one thing you can try is closing Rhino and deleting the content of..

%APPDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\8.0\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles (9bc28e9e-7a6c-4b8f-a0c6-3d05e02d1b97)\data

%APPDATA%\NVIDIA\ComputeCache

14

I’m away from my computer now but I’ll try the deletions later.

The laptop is set for Windows to choose which graphics card to use except for apps nominated to use Nvidia. These include R7, 8 & WIP. Setting the laptop to use Nvidia exclusively for everything doesn’t help.

15

Deleting those folders hasn’t helped.

16

Did you use the Lenova Vantage app to change the setting?

17

No, the Nvidia Control Panel. I don’t think that setting is available in my edition of Vantage.

Also, let’s not lose sight of R7 working OK…

18

Is there by chance a file called “disable_gpus” in this location “%APPDATA%\McNeel\Rhinoceros\8.0\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles (9bc28e9e-7a6c-4b8f-a0c6-3d05e02d1b97)\settings”?

If there is close all running Rhinos and delete that file.

19

Hi @lars

That file is present and is zero bytes. I deleted it but when Rhino 8 subsequently started it recreated the file.

The R8 started after deleting the file still does not show the GPU tabs.

Regards
Jeremy

20

I also find it curious, given it is apparently fixed now, that Rhino also doesn’t see your Intel Arc 140T as a valid render device. As OneAPI has been shown by at least one user to be fixed on his 140V for both Rhino 8 (and WIP I assume), then I would expect the Arc to show as well.