GTX-570, are all cards created equal?

[Jerry Hart]

I recently had an editing workstation built. I took John Rofrano’s recommendation and built it with a Sandy Bridge CPU – HexaCore i7 3930.
I originally had a AMD Radeon HD 7970 GPU. I ran many render tests and found that the render time with the GPU was slightly slower than with the CPU only. The i7 3930 CPU really did a great job and the render was fast enough for me. ( a short render w/o many FX)

I switched the GPU to a geForce GTX 570 and ran the same render tests, both with and w/o GPU and found the same situation. I tried the latest GPU driver and the GTX ran even slower. I tried many older drivers and settled on 296.10 which performed best. Still, the render times were slower with the GPU acceleration turned on. I have finally given up and do renders on the CPU only. I’m happy with what I have, because I experience no crashes and it seems really stable. I’m fine with the current speed. I hope that soon, a new version of SVP 12 will allow the GTX 570 to perform.

I’m sure the render times without the i7 3930 CPU would be terrible, but I have no problem with render times (about real time length for a simple file, no complex FX. A four minute clip takes about 4 minutes to render)

I guess my point is that if you get a really powerful CPU, then the GPU isn’t such a problem. And hopefully it will get better with new versions of SVP.

[Dave Osbun]

Video card vendors (some of them) make changes to the base chipset. Some perform a mild overclocking, but you’ll see no benefit in your video editing workstation (it’s strictly for gamers, really).

If you can’t fit two video cards in your system, you have to see what’s blocking them. Usually it’s the computer case. The case must be large enough to hold two GPU cards.

The type of motherboard also comes into play here. Most modern mid-to-upper range MOBOS have one PCIe x16 slot. The other PCIe slots will be slower (x8, x4, etc.). Does your video card take advantage of PCIe x16? If it does, you then have to see what the other PCIe port speed is. If it’s x8, then when you install both cards they will run at the slower speed (x8 in this example). This speed drop will not affecting your video editing.

DO NOT FORGET the power supply. Make sure your PSU is powerful enough to run two GPUs (plus all other system goodies). Video cards do use up a decent amount of wattage.

Dave

[David Norman]

you should be able to run 3 monitors off 1 card as well.

my 7970 and 6950 rigs can run 3 or more monitors with active display port adapters.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio
Intel i7 3770, AMD 7970, 32gb, 2xRAID0 Intel 240gb SSD, 2x2TB WD Green, 3×23″ Samsung LCDs
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[John Rofrano]

[Larry Brewer] “I would have made this move a long time ago but one of the most common fixes for Vegas problems is to turn OFF gpu acceleration. Is this a more stable feature on Vegas 12? Was the problem always the users fault? ie… wrong drivers, wrong card, wrong Vegas build?”

Unfortunately, no one can answer that question accurately. I have the recommended $800 NVIDIA Quadro 4000 and I still run into issues now and then so I’m not convinced that GPU acceleration is worth the money of the card when you have to turn it off if you have problems. Mostly it’s stable but sometimes it’s not. Maybe it’s Vegas Pro? Maybe it’s the drivers? Who knows???

Some people have reported stable systems with the GTX-570. I would stick with that.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Larry Brewer]

Thank you for that brutally honest answer. I am aware of the Quadro 4000 and it capabilities but have always felt I shouldn’t put that much money into a somewhat iffy upgrade. If the GTX-570 gives me noticeable preview and render performance improvement, I’ll consider the Quadro 4000 for my next build.

Regarding the GTX-570 card. There appears to be several different versions of the card with the same GTX-570 name on it. Some with overclocking, some with Gigabyte label on them, etc.. Are their any that I should avoid? Any I should look for?

This is pretty new stuff for me.

Thanks for your time.

Larry Brewer

[John Rofrano]

The overclocked ones will be faster. Since the manufacturer has overclocked it, they have obviously used parts that can withstand the extra cycles. It’s not like you are overclocking past the manufactures specs… these are there specs. I don’t see any reason to stay away from the overclocked ones except that they may run hotter and their fans may be louder as a result. All GTX-570’s should be based on NVIDIA’s reference architecture and Gigabyte is a well respected manufacturer.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Larry Brewer]

I appreciate that advice and had already considered that FASTER = BETTER. My real concern was a possible scenario where the overclocked video card needed driver XYZ to operate, but Vegas Pro only recognizes driver ABC, and crashes if it doesn’t get it. So my concern was in the compatibility area with these cards.

And finally, can I really run 3 monitors using a dual video card like the GTX-570 with a display port adapter? My monitor configuration with Vegas Pro is: 1. Project media 2. Main timeline 3. Preview monitor.

Anything I need to know if I decide to do that?

[John Rofrano]

[Larry Brewer] “My real concern was a possible scenario where the overclocked video card needed driver XYZ to operate, but Vegas Pro only recognizes driver ABC, and crashes if it doesn’t get it. So my concern was in the compatibility area with these cards.”

As far as I know, the overclocked cards have no special drivers. They must conform to the NVIDIA spec. They only have faster memory and clock speeds.

One thing to check is if the manufacturer supplies their own drivers or not. Some tell you to go to NVIDIA to get the drivers. Others give you drivers that they have tested. Obviously the ones that they have tested are more stable than the ones from NVIDIA but they might not be the latest drivers.

[Larry Brewer] “And finally, can I really run 3 monitors using a dual video card like the GTX-570 with a display port adapter? My monitor configuration with Vegas Pro is: 1. Project media 2. Main timeline 3. Preview monitor.”

That I don’t know. It has been my experience with other GeForce cards that while they have 3 physical output ports, only two could be active at any one time. So I would double-check with someone who has a GTX-570 to be sure (or send an email to the manufacturer).

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com