GDI or Direct 3D?

[Aaron Cadieux]

Use GDI. Direct 3D is used for gaming. I don’t know why it is even an option in Premier since it has no real bearing on the program. Using GDI will make your playback smoother, especially as your projects increase in size.

[Tim Kurkoski]

That is incorrect. You should use Direct3D over GDI if it is available and works well for you.

Direct3D is not necessarily a gaming technology. Premiere Pro is able to take advantage of acceleration in the video card provided by DirectShow and Direct3D.

I’m not really familiar with all of the internal mechanisms, but here’s the basic difference between GDI and Direct3D: With GDI, Premiere Pro has to do all the work for drawing the images to put in the monitor window. With Direct3D, Premiere Pro can hand off some of the work to the video card drivers.

Using the Direct3D option in Premiere Pro generally results in faster, better quality previews of your timeline. But if your video card is older and doesn’t support the newer versions of Direct3D, or if you are having a system resource issue that is slowing down the video card, using GDI may be a better solution.

[Victorypoint]

Cadge31, could you explain why you say GDI is better? My understanding is that DirectX/DirectDraw/Direct3D is newer technology that talks directly to video memory whereas GDI is slower because it has to go through windows to draw. I’m also told that Direct3D takes maximum advantage of any hardware acceleration that is available.

-AJ

[Aaron Cadieux]

I have read from several sources (not on Creative Cow) that Direct 3D is primerily used for gaming. I could be wrong. In my own experience (with a 5-year-old PC 512MB of RAM and a 1.0ghz pentium 4 processor) that m playback is choppy (on larger projects) when I am using Direct 3D. I switched Premier to GDI mode (after reading several other forums) and the plackback is perfect. I was really speaking from my own experience (which I should have clarified). Perhaps things are different with newer, faster PCs. Sorry if I messed anyone up. Lata.

-Cadge31

[Victorypoint]

I think that makes sense in your case with an older system and video card. Direct3D really shines with newer video cards. What video card are you using with PPro?

-AJ

[Mike Carro]

I wanted dual montitors so I just picked up an Nvidia GeForce 6200.
Is this a pretty good card? It was OEM and only 100 bucks.
Thanks

[Aaron Cadieux]

I actually just bought a brand new Radeon (I don’t know the model number since I am at work right now). I bought it so I could switch to a duel monitor system. Even with the new card, though, I was still having slowdowns with Direct3D. Odd huh?
-Aaron

[Tim Kurkoski]

There are other factors that could be affecting you. Make sure you’re running the latest drivers for the card. Make sure your system is optimized for working with digital video (shut down unnecessary apps and tasks, defrag, etc.; Adobe has some docs on this in their knowledgebase).

Also, don’t assume that because the card is new that it’s instantly capable of handling Direct3D efficiently. You can still buy an ATI 9700 with 32 MB of RAM, and probably comes with 3 year old drivers on the included disk. Especially since you’re pumping dual monitors off that card, double-check it’s specs on the manufacturer’s site.

[Aaron Cadieux]

I always make sure that I turn off the major stuff like Virus software (by quitting the whole process tree) and other annoying stuff that shouldn’t be running. However, where can I access this knowledgebase to find out what Adobe recommends? Thanks a lot.

-Aaron

[Victorypoint]

I typically stick to the recommendations provided by Videoguys for PPro and AE (https://www.videoguys.com/system.htm). I’m finding that more and more VARs and 3rd-party plugin manufacturers and recommending nVidia (GeForce 6 series as mimimum to Quadro FX as high end) because of their stronger support of OpenGL and DirectX GPU processing. See Red Giant Software’s website (https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/mbe2whatsnew.html#chart) for an example.

-AJ