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Slow AVC rendering after OS reinstall :-(
When I initially installed Vegas Movie Studio, I had very slow AVC renders, but after some GPU fiddling, I got good results. I then upgraded to Vegas Pro 12 because I switched to P2 and needed that capability. I managed to get 12 Pro to render using my Nvidia laptop GPU, and was seeing very consistent 37 seconds per minute to render to 720p AVC MP4 files.
Well, I had an issue with a COM port not working, and thinking it might be some sort of virus, I decided to reinstall my OS (Win 7 Pro 64) from scratch. Everything seemed fine, until I tried to render my normal files. It now takes 57 seconds per 1 minute to render the same files with the same settings as before. Same computer, same hardware/software, same GPU driver, just a reinstallation. I tried playing with every possible setting in my Nvidia control panel, including forcing GPU features for Vegas directly. All Vegas options are for GPU, and when I click test, I get CUDA available. The thing that is pissing me off is that CPU only AVC rendering gets the job done 7 seconds faster…..ugh.
Using GPU-Z, during GPU on rendering it shows 60% GPU (K2000m) load, and 0& Video Engine load whatever that is. With CPU only rendering, GPU-Z shows the K2000m is still using GPU, but at 30%……..why does CPU only rendering still use GPU, only less, but now render faster?
Obviously this is a simple settings issue somewhere…..but I simply can’t figure it out. i remember being frustrated before with this issue, but i don’t remember this complete inability to solve it. 20 seconds per minute rendering time increase is like 30%, and I didn’t pay $250 extra for my GPU for this. Anyone have any idea besides the obvious of select GPU, test CUDA, or change rendering settings? I am installing an SSD soon, and I would like to solve this problem prior to that so that I can burn a backup image of the original working install and not have to go through this again. I would probably be wiling to do a remote assistance with anyone willing.
Thanks!
Paul
PS: XDCAM EX 1080p 35Mbps MP4’s render in like 30 sec to a minute, but the files are too big!
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18 Replies
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CPU only render as is for the file encoder. Vegas is actually “rendering” the video stream from your sources to show you in your preview and/or send to the file encoder.
So there are two separate things that may or may not use GPU and have their own separate settings to control that use. Vegas (video prefs) and the Sony or Main Concept AVC encoders.
GPUz might still show some load with all GPU in Vegas not used as the video card is being used for some things. Not sure of the specifics of what GPUz is actually measuring for the GPU load sensor.
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GPU-Z shows GPU processing usage in general, it doesn’t show the software using the GPU or what parts of it (directDraw, direct3D, OpenGL, CUDA Shaders, Computing units… future revisions of GPU-Z will show what is being used by who, but that’s not an easy task for a software aimed mostly for quickly showing and logging basic GPU real-time stats with very low CPU usage).
Even if you’re not using GPU for encoding, as long as you have your GPU enabled in Vegas 11-12 it will be used to accelerate previewing while editing/rendering, that’s what you’re seeing in GPU-Z when the GPU is not rendering but just accelerating previews and sharing its VRAM with VEGAS since a sizable bit of the GPU VRAM is used as cache and scratch memory. We do know Vegas doesn’t support consumer-oriented Kepler cards for rendering (GTX 600 series) but still they do accelerate previewing quite a bit and their VRAM used for scratch and cache memory…
As for the performance issues, well, look in Control Panel – Add/Remove installed software – Show Windows Updates -> look for update “KB2670838”, if it’s installed… uninstall it, it downgrades performance and causes random crashes in OpenGL and DirectDraw-3D software.
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Make sure that you are running on all CPU cores.
Run Vegas, start the Task Manager, find Vegas, right-click, go to process, right-click, set affinity, make sure “All Processors” is selected.Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
OK, did that and all processors are selected.
Also tried the following…..
Went into BIOS and selected DISCRETE as the graphics option, no change.
Reinstalled (clean option) Nvidia drivers, no change.
Tried rendering at draft quality instead of best, no change.
Selected “Enable video editing mode” in Nvidia control panel, no change.
Tried various project settings, HD, SD, no change.I am at a loss here as to why the same hardware/software/drivers render SLOWER with GPU than with CPU only! Obviously it’s a user adjustable setting, everything was reinstalled off of the same disks and the software updates are all identical between the old and new install……. 🙁
Paul
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When you reinstalled Windows, any processes that you turned off in MsConfig are turned back on.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
have you tried to run stress-tests to both your CPU and GPU to check whether they’re being properly powered? (specially your GPU) I’d suggest giving a go to FurMark, post your results, if it runs ok for 10+ minutes then there’s nothing wrong with your PC build…
Download Furmark stress test tool (freeware)
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I downloaded Furmark, will see what it says…..
I give up……Vegas and GPU acceleration has always given me issues……I am going to download some free trials of competing software and see if anything else can beat my 37 second best rendering speed I had previously.
For kicks, I tried some renders using the Main Concepts MP4 templates…..much worse, with GPU or CPU I am seeing like 1:20 renders per minute….
Thanks for the help guys!
Paul
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What Stephen said is a MUST for any workstation. The only thing that should be enabled to run when the computer boots up is your anti-virus software.
If you don’t know how to make this change, type ‘msconfig’ in the ‘Run’ box. Click the ‘startup’ tab and deselect everything that has a checkmark except your anti-virus software.
I have seen many systems where people complained how slow the computer ran, and when I had them make this change they were AMAZED at how much faster the computer ran (and booted).
You’d be surprised how much bloatware is added there when you download/install stuff.
Dave
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The Main Concept AVC software encoder is much slower than the Sony AVC encoder. In the ballpark of 2x difference.
The Main Concept OpenCL and Cuda encoders are very fast but they do not have near the quality of the software encoder. This quality thing only means something at low bitrates. x264 is the King at low bitrates with Main Concept likely coming in second or third. No idea where Sony ranks. It is a captive encoder and does not get ranks in roundup tests. None that I have seen and not that I look that hard for it either.
the Sony AVC encoder does not get much of a performance boost from GPU use, unlike Main Concept AVC. With Main Concept they are actually completely different encoder implementations with GPU and without, and hence the quality difference.
I wish we could have x264 as an encoder option. It is faster than the GPU encoders at similar quality and has better quality when you crank it up, where of course it encodes much slower.
Sony needs to publish an encoder plug-in spec so someone can do an x264 encoder plug-in. x264 is GPL so Sony cannot include it in Vegas.
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Thanks for reminding me about msconfig…..I always forget all the bloatware stuff that autoruns at startup!
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