NVidia GeForce GTX 285 Sluggish Performance

[Don Smith]

Braggart! 🙂

At the moment I have FCPX running ‘like BUTTAH”!

I had the CUDA preference panel installed in an effort to speed up FCPX when I had the NVidia card inside. I took that out and re-started the computer. Right now it’s flying!

I can go from Safari to FCPX and FCPX responds instantly.

Many thanks for you help T.

NewsVideo.com

[Jamal Watts]

So, are we thinking this has to do with the way Nvidia handles OpenCL vs ATI? Also, I find it strange that I don’t have this issue on my 2008 Mac Pro that still has the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600 (FCPX does not support this card, I installed it on that machine to see what would happen). Are your HDs going to sleep by chance?

[Don Smith]

Jamal, the issue is cleared up for me now that I have the CUDA pref out of my Mac Pro and have switched the graphics card to an ATI Radeon HD 5770, but one of the first things I do when I get a new Mac is to make sure the HDs (or the computer when on AC) never go to sleep.

NewsVideo.com

[Don Smith]

From despair to euphoria!

I’ve already reported that the ATI 5770 card solved my FCPX performance problem but I may have also mentioned that the card won’t drive both my 30″ monitors at full res at the same time.

I was showing my supervisor the performance improvements in FCPX (running on the 30″ monitor that was connected to the cards only DVI-D (dual-link) port and displaying FCPX at full res) but also talking about how I have to live with the other 30″ monitor having one-half vertical res (and thus forcing one-half horizontal res and resulting in one-fourth the pixels on screen) and that I couldn’t see more than one Finder window at a time. Like 1988!

He went to his office and pulled out a Mini-Display Port to Dual Link DVI converter! New in the box! I was skeptical though but I hooked it up and.. it works! Now I’m working on two 30″ monitors both running at full res on a single ATI Radeon HD 5770 card. Many thanks to T and everyone for the help.

NewsVideo.com

[T. Payton]

Not only a great report, but your supervisor has some kind of magic box that can pull out any converter you need the moment you need it!

BTW. I heard about that adapter and that were some troubles with the Apple version. So here is a little article about it:

https://9to5mac.com/2010/11/07/review-kanex-mdpc30-minidisplayport-to-dual-link-dvi-adapter/

Glad things are working!

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Steve Connor]

[Don Smith] “From despair to euphoria!

I’ve already reported that the ATI 5770 card solved my FCPX performance problem but I may have also mentioned that the card won’t drive both my 30″ monitors at full res at the same time.

I was showing my supervisor the performance improvements in FCPX (running on the 30″ monitor that was connected to the cards only DVI-D (dual-link) port and displaying FCPX at full res) but also talking about how I have to live with the other 30″ monitor having one-half vertical res (and thus forcing one-half horizontal res and resulting in one-fourth the pixels on screen) and that I couldn’t see more than one Finder window at a time. Like 1988!

He went to his office and pulled out a Mini-Display Port to Dual Link DVI converter! New in the box! I was skeptical though but I hooked it up and.. it works! Now I’m working on two 30″ monitors both running at full res on a single ATI Radeon HD 5770 card. Many thanks to T and everyone for the he”

Great thread, thanks for posting

Steve Connor
“FCPX Agitator”
Adrenalin Television

[Chad Smith]

I too am running a GTX 285 and am getting odd performance with FCPX 10.0.7 and OSX 10.8.2 Early 2009 4.1 14gigs of ram.

Any of you folks running Resolve on you machines as well? I use the 285 for a render card w/Resolve and a GT120 for GUI. When I click out of FCPX to check email and come back, half the time I cannot get it to work at all and have to quit out. This happens with either card hooked up to the monitors. Perhaps I need to buy an ATI card for the video editing and pull the card and dump the 285 back in when I go to Resolve?

Does anyone have luck with the more recent nVidia cards like the 5xx or 6xx series?

Thanks

[Peter Rudolfi]

Wow, I’ve had this problem with that darn NVidea 285 card for well over 3 years. Tried every possible solution with only moderate results. All the things you experienced and had to do get the project to run somewhat smoothly have plagued my computer too. I do mainly ‘art videos’ and nothing will stop the creative process more one which depends on spontaneity than a herkey-jerky machine. By the time the data is running again or stopped jumping the inspiration has long since passed. Just to determine if the music and image synch up requires exporting a small portion of the project into a .mov file to check since in Motion5 or FCPX itself the play jumped over those critical moments so you could never tell. Once in a .mov file one could see/hear what was happening you then could make an adjustment back in the project and export it again to see if one had it right. This took several episodes of this procedure just for that one edit!

Can’t wait to install that ATI Radeon HD5770 1 GB Card.

One Question please Don: what is the CUDA Preference panel you refer too? Is that a custom install you did a while back? Where would I look to see if its on my machine? Don’t think it is standard content and it appears you have it now deleted.

Thanks for this riveting story Don.

[Chad Smith]

Under the apple menu open your system preferences and at the bottom of the pane you should see CUDA. Click on that to open it and it should tell you if you need to update the CUDA driver. Provided you are connected to the internet. If there is a new driver you should update.

I am running FCPX 10.1.1 and getting much better performance than I was a year ago with my GTX 285. However it was never running as bad as your setup. Is your playback bad even after you render your effects in the timeline? Have you tried selecting “better performance” in the FCPX preferences? I am looking forward to getting an ATI card into my machine soon.

[Peter Rudolfi]

Dont see CUDA In my Systems Preferences Window (OS10.6.8). There are 5 panels in System Preferences: Personal, HArdware, Internet & Wireless, System & Other. In none of those are the words or an icon for CUDA. Must mean I don’t have it on this machine?

RE: sluggish performance I tried all kinds ways to minimize the drag. Once rendered the project of course played slightly more smoothly but rendering took a long time too. The new ATI video card seems to be the answer many have found useful replacing NVidia 285.

Do you happen to know or can advise on the latest ATI Radeon HD card for FCPX? The 5770 1 GB mentioned in the March 2012 post may not be the most optimum available today and for functioning in Mavericks OS 10.1.

Thanks,