“New” graphics card

[Steve Rhoden]

Wish i could help, i stay away from GPU cards.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[Rich Kutnick]

Curious you should say that, Steve, as I just discovered that my NVidia Geoforce 560 actually not only slows down my frame rate while editing, but it also renders significantly slower than if I shut it off altogether in SVP 12! However, since we all need a graphics card to use our computers (unless you use the motherboard’s built-in graphics processor to view screen contents), what is recommended for those of us that use an external graphics card? What do YOU use, Steve? I know that John Rofrano likes his Quadro video card, is that correct John (feel free to jump in)? I am starting to tire of not being able to edit in less than 1920X1080i without jerky video during motion, so what is the best bang for the buck these days that is compatible with Vegas and won’t break the bank?

Rich Kutnick
VIDEO IMPRESSIONS

[Dave Osbun]

Steve is smart…..this is always a touchy subject!
Video cards are kind of like women: You pick one with a nice ‘asset’ and she ends up having bad breath.

I think you catch my drift.

Dave

[Steve Rhoden]

(unless you use the motherboard’s built-in graphics processor to view screen contents),

Exactly Rich. I am exhausted and fed-up with this entire GPU Card
series hunting with what works with which software, And with all
manner of odd results like what you have mentioned above.
At times they work ok for only a period.

So my solution that i am happy with Rich (if you read one of my
earlier GPU Card rants some time ago) lol, i simply just purchase
and use the average Joe’s powerful off-the-self laptops, Nothing more.
Im in editing heaven, lol…..sometimes simplicity is the best solution!

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[Steve Rhoden]

lol, That’s a good one Dave, lol

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[Malcolm Matusky]

I have been running a Quadro 4000 for my GUI, and have an old GTS250 for my third monitor, I do set that as the “GPU” in Vegas and started this thread to see if there was something “better” I can pick up a used Quadro 4000 or move to something else. I also use Resolve “lite” and having a second card for that program is beneficial too.

Intel i7 930 with 12GB ram, I would like to keep this computer a while longer and that is why I’m looking for a GPU as a half-step upgrade before building/buying a new computer in a year or two.

M

Malcolm
http://www.malcolmproductions.com

[John Rofrano]

[Rich Kutnick] “I know that John Rofrano likes his Quadro video card, is that correct John (feel free to jump in)?”

Curious you should mention that… 😉

My Quadro 4000 just DIED!

The good news is it has a 3 year warrantee and I bought it 2 years and 11 months ago (no joking) in April 2011! I went to the PNY web site and contacted customer support via email and told them what happened. Within 2 hours I got an email reply asking to see my purchase receipt and serial number, so I sent them a PDF copy. Before the end of the day I had a second email with an RMA number and shipping instructions to get a replacement, no questions asked.

That’s why you pay the big bucks for Quadro cards. The customer service is outstanding. I don’t think you would have gotten that kind of response with a gaming card. Having said that, you are really paying for stability and not performance with the Quadro. The gaming cards are a lot faster for less money but the drivers are not as stable.

~jr

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

[Dave Haynie]

My AMD Radeon HD6970 has been nothing but stellar in Vegas. It’s true that some other things out there in the world don’t work on OpenGL, but want CUDA for their GPGPU coding. Which is of course limited to nVidia stuff. But for editing or rendering, the effect can be rather dramatic, depending on the job. For example, with GPU enabled, I get full screen/full quality playback of the old “red car” Vegas GPU benchmark project at 29.97fps. Without the GPU, it’s very jumpy, and sometimes down to single digits.. and that’s on a 6-core i7.

When Vegas 11 first came out, I did a head to head of the HD6970 vs. the nVidia GeForce GTX570 — because they were about $300 each. The AMD was faster at everything, but it wasn’t day and night. Vegas 12 uses the GPU better, and some plug-ins, like the Main Concept AVC CODEC, use it very effectively.

Which also brings up a problem… the GTX570/580, the HD6970, they ain’t exactly new cards. They’re well understood in Vegas, and they’re supported by Main Concept. We’ve recently established here, I believe, that Main Concept is hard-coding chip revisions in their CODEC, and won’t accelerate for any chip they know. So if getting the best performance in an AVC render is important, the HD6970 or maybe the GTX580 (should be faster than the GTX570 I tested) would be good choices. That’s because the HD7xxx, GTX6xx, and newer devices, while supported for Vegas internal GPGPU stuff, isn’t supported in Main Concept’s AVC encoder. If you don’t care about AVC and/or you’re mostly trying to speed up editing, perhaps a newer GPU card would be a better bet. I had thought about upgrading the HD6970, but since Vegas is the primary reason I have a good GPU, I figured I’d wait for the next version, and see how that benchmarks on newer hardware. No sense in just guessing.

I know some people are wary of AMD (ATi) driver issues, and certainly there’s some merit there. I had been an ATi fan years ago, and really left them for a some time based on the drivers just plain not working right… and going months without any attention to the bugs. The HD6970 was where I switched back, and I’ve had no problems at all with drivers. In fact, when I did the benchmarking of the two, I compared OpenGL performance in other things, not just Vegas. There were no problems with the GTX5760 in Vegas, but it failed a few of the OpenCL benchmarks back then, as well as being slower than the AMD. But again, the GTX580 might be faster than my AMD, certainly has to be about the same if not faster, and those driver issues were like fall-of-2012 era issues. Certainly not a lingering problem in current drivers… that wasn’t long after nVidia had officially started supporting OpenCL, not just CUDA.

-Dave

[Dave Haynie]

Woops… that would be fall of 2011; when Vegas 11 was new. Sure has been some time since the last update….

-Dave

[Steve Rhoden]

Always a detailed post from you Haynie (smile)

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019