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Looking for a GPU recommendation for SV 13
Hi,
I’ve read some of the posts here and in other forums regarding Vegas and GPU choices. I know I have one of the least compatible GPU’s for Vegas – a GTX 650 Ti boost (Kepler architecture). I just turn off GPU acceleration of video processing and rely on CPU only – editing and rendering. That’s after many headaches in trying to get the GTX 650 configured & working properly, not only in Vegas, but just in general. This week I’m actually RMA’ing my 3rd GTX 650 in 18 mos. Right now I’m running off of my on-board Intel HD 4600 Graphics. So I decided enough is enough and it’s time it switch to a more compatible card.
I’m looking for an AMD card to take advantage of Open CL.
I’m running Win 7 64bit on an 850 EVO SSD (soon up’ing to Win 10); I have an i7 4790(non-k), Gigabyte GA H97 D3H mobo, 32GB Gskill RAM, 2 WD Black HDD’s, and a Seasonic 620 W PSU.
I’ve been looking at the r9 3xx series cards, as opposed to the r9 2xx series, just because it seems the newer 3xx series cards have a lower TDP and would fit the 620W PSU better – otherwise I’m upgrading GPU and PSU. I do see a lot of posts regarding the 290 – 290x, but I don’t see much here regarding the 370, 380, 390. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong place? If so, and you could direct me to any relevant posts that you know of, I’d be grateful. I do see a lot of consensus that the older Radeon HD cards perform well. Can you still even find those? … I’m in Canada.
It’s also about budget. I’m trying to stay around $350 – $360 CAD, shipping and taxes included. And yes, In Canada we pay more. Ex: I looked at a Sapphire 39 380 Nitro 4GB that lists at $309 (Newegg) – after taxes and shipping it’s $359. So I’m looking at a retail price of ballpark $300 CAD. It’s intersting that when I looked at the Sapphire card on Newegg, the second customer review below it titled “Working Great” (posted Aug 21) had positive comments from the reviewer regarding their experience with the card in SV 12.
I’m not a professional editor but I’ve been using Vegas since v 9. Currently I’m using v 13. I’m rendering only 1080p, and almost exclusively Main Concept AVC AAC. The footage is all over the place – whatever I’m given from students. I’m support staff at a college in Int’l Ed, and students give me anything and everything, to put together compilation vids of their time here. It’s for Youtube or personal content. Also sometimes I’m given movie clips, and add colloquial subs for them. So it is really all over the place for content but Main Concept renders.
One thing that’s really a must for me is a smoother timeline editing experience. I’m sometimes adding transitions, effects, color correction, etc.
Hopefully that gives you an idea of what I’m looking for, considering the specs of my machine, budget and material.
Thanks all,
Tim -
10 Replies
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HD7970
290x / 390x pretty much the same minus the improvements you added.
My opinion is not that popular, but I believe in X or what AMD labels XT chipsets. These are what the likes of Apple choose, and represent what the engineers setout to achieve, more so than the non x series cards. They also offer better computational performance.
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HD7970 … so you’re recommending the 7970? Cause I can’t see any listed at online retailer sin Canada. PC Partspicker also shows none available.
Fair enough with the performance of the 290x \ 390x, but as I mentioned in my op, my budget is about $360 CAD. I can find a refurbished 290x for $410 b4 taxes and shipping – so it’s around $475. The 390x? Nothing under $500 in Canada. So both of those options are waaay over my budget.
Also as I mentioned in the op, my PSU is 620W. That’s a limiting factor as well.
Thanks for responding Aaron, but I’m restricted by the parameters I mentioned in my post.
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You probably don’t see a lot of posts about the R9 3xx series because it’s brand new but I agree, I would go for the newer R9 3xx series over the older 2xx series. Just get the fastest one for can afford.
You did say that you primarily render to MainConcept AVC and that’s not going to work with any new card. I had a Radeon HD 5870 that it worked great with but I recently upgraded to a Radeon HD 7950 but it no longer works with MainConcept AVC. Just something to consider.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
[John Rofrano] ” I recently upgraded to a Radeon HD 7950 “
I’m curious where you found that John? Are you in the US? Was it new? Used?
As far as Radeon HD’s go I can see only one in my Canadian etailer search so far – a 2GB 6970, but I’m thinking from what you’re saying that it might not offer me anything better than a 3xx series card.
So I won’t see any render benefit (Main Concept again) with any new card, but what about smoothness of editing in the timeline. Would a 3xx series card aid in that? Right now the GTX 650 is off, so I’m just on CPU. CUDA support in Vegas is no support. So an AMD card with Open CL has gotta offer me something, no?
Basically I’m trying to find a card that will benefit me in some way, better than a neutered GTX 650, that’s still within my budget.
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The HD7970-ghz I recommend based on your budget, you would have to source one from EBay.
I compiled a list of cards from wiki, and other sources that sorts the cards I recommend by release date. I tend to look at cards that score high in Single Point GFLOP performance, since Vegas is looking to the GPU for OpenCL calculations.
As John said, and I believe read some time ago that the MC encoder stops GPU assist at the HD69xx series. Most export then use Handbrake for upload to something else. I personally just render to XDCAM-ex and upload that directly to YouTube, or use Sony AVC at various levels for something like MPEG-DASH. 32-bit modes, Sony AVC, XDCAM, HDCAM, and XAVC will all use the GPUs HD5700 thru R9-390x.
The 6970 may be a good choice too for the MC encoder reasons, however you also said you have a PCI3.0 board, and so the 7970-GHz would be a better with the upgraded interface. PCI3.0 is a significant upgrade in bandwidth and reduced overhead. This would be more in line with the class of system you have.
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Thanks Aaron, that’s an excellent chart! Thanks for the effort you put into that. The ones in green are your recommends?
It looks like the 7970 – Ghz fits the price and the 620 W PSU limitation. I see a couple refurbished on Amazon.ca There are also quite a few on Ebay. So now I’m leaning in favor of the 7970 …. -
[Tim Riordan] “I’m curious where you found that John? Are you in the US? Was it new? Used?”
Mine is new and I actually paid a premium because I have a Mac Pro 12-Core and I wanted a genuine Mac Edition card so I bought it from OWC who specializes in Mac parts. You can find them all over eBay used for around $250.
[Tim Riordan] “As far as Radeon HD’s go I can see only one in my Canadian etailer search so far – a 2GB 6970, but I’m thinking from what you’re saying that it might not offer me anything better than a 3xx series card.”
The Radeon HD 6xxx/7xxx are like the 2xx series. I believe my HD 7950 is equivalent to the R9 280. I don’t know how they stack up against the 3xx series. The reason I bought that particular card is because it was the fastest Mac Edition card made for my Mac Pro. I would have bought a more powerful one if it was available but the 2010 Mac Pro cannot exceed 350w across all the PCI slots so I had to be careful in my selection.
[Tim Riordan] “So I won’t see any render benefit (Main Concept again) with any new card, but what about smoothness of editing in the timeline. Would a 3xx series card aid in that?”
Yes, you should see improvements in timeline playback and don’t forget, you need to playback the timeline in order to render so it does improve render times too, just not encoding times.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Wish i had the patients and tme as you gentlemen, to hunt for specialized GPU
Cards that works etc, lol.Steve Rhoden (Cow Leader)
Film Maker & VFX Artist.
Owner of Filmex Creative Media.
Samples of my Work and Company can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia -
Thanks for the info John,
As mentioned, I can find some 7970’s used and refurbished on Ebay.ca However the one thing that makes me nervous is lack of a warranty. Some have ‘guaranteed to work’ returns available, but no warranty.
So the r9 280 is basically a rebrand of your 7950. Based on Aaron’s chart I also looked at the r9 280x’s (basically rebranded 7970’s). Slightly over my budget – by $30, but I’d be willing to go there. They offer 2048 stream processors; it’s better than the r9 380’s 1792.
Thanks for clarification on the timeline editing, and encoding vs rendering.
I appreciate all you guys help. It’ll be two weeks b4 I purchase, but it’s all been good info to help with the decision.
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Glad I could help. Yea, the R9 series was mostly a rebranding of the HD series using the same technology / chip sets with some tweaking of the clocks but they mostly perform the same. The 7970 should be awesome with Vegas Pro. Good luck!
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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