CUDA driver version

Accelerated Computing CUDA CUDA Setup and Installation
1

I have compiled few samples from CUDA 8.0.44 with VS2012 SP1. However running them has been chalenging. The issue is probably related to CUDA driver

My test PC has a Nvidia M2000M. 64 bit Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise’s Device manager reports the driver is up-to-date. CUDA 8 Toolkit (cuda_8.0.44_windows.exe) is not installed. Sytem information from Nvidia control panel states that NVCUDA.dll’s version is 6.14.13.6179 (which is part of Nvidia version 361.79) and it is called NVIDIA CUDA 8.0.11 driver.

With this version, I cannot run samples like deviceQuery.exe or deviceQueryDrv.exe (both reports nothing). In other words, the standard way to update the driver (Windows’ device namger) will not install the CUDA 8 compatible driver.

My colleague who has CUDA 8.0.27 (CUDA 8 beta) can run deviceQuery.exe BUT NOT deviceQueryDrv.exe (latest exe reports nothing).

If I install only the CUDA driver using cuda_8.0.44_windows.exe on the test PC, both executables reports the device’s details.

I have not try to download the latest version for M2000M from www.nvidia.com as most IT will have concerns doing the update that way.

From both PCs I would have expected that deviceQuery.exe to work (I read on post https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/973788/cuda-setup-and-installation/driver-required-for-cuda-7-5-and-cuda-8-0/ that CUDA 8 requires at least 361.xx).

From our user’s viewpoint, how to resolve this sort of issue? Are you planning to issue a driver only install (like 353.82-quadro-grid-desktop-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe)?

Thank you in advance for your help.

2

For Quadro M2000M, try the Quadro New Feature Driver, 372.95:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/108189/en-us

If you don’t want to install any driver, then it is correct that you may not be able to use CUDA 8 compiled codes. They require a compatible driver.

3

I admit I am puzzled by the recommendation. What makes it superior to this:

375.63-quadro-grid-desktop-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe

from

[url]http://www.nvidia.com/content/DriverDownload-March2009/confirmation.php?url=/Windows/Quadro_Certified/375.63/375.63-quadro-grid-desktop-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe&lang=us&type=Quadro[/url]

[Later:] I think I might have found the answer here ([url]http://folding.stanford.edu/home/blog/[/url]):

“We have received a number of reports that the recent release of Windows NVIDIA drivers 375.57 (released 10/20) and 375.63 (released 10/23) is causing many core 21 (OpenMM) projects to fail. We don’t yet know the cause of this problem, but are actively investigating it. In the meantime, we strongly encourage you to stick with or downgrade to the last known working Windows NVIDIA driver (372.70) if you would like to continue folding core 21 (OpenMM) GPU projects.”