supported GPU’s for Sony Movie Studio 13

[Norman Black]

[Andras Patak] “On the official site shows the same as for 12 but we already know that’s not as it is.”

You did not seem to ask a specific question.

Sony says they have GPU accelerated effects and accelerated AVC encoders. This is accurate and all there is and ever has been. Not all effects are accelerated. Most can be. Mainconcept AVC has been a little touchy with the newest GPUs. Meaning it many not support them. Sony AVC seems fine with newer GPUs.

[Steve Rhoden]

GPU’s… Still an unsettling topic!

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

[Norman Black]

[Steve Rhoden] “GPU’s… Still an unsettling topic!”

Yes, OpenCL GPU use and their drivers is still pretty new and shaky. Then there is the possibility of mixing OpenCL and OpenGL on a timeline. Vegas using OpenCL and people like NewBlue and Boris using OpenGL. A pure system either way would be cleaner, but that is not what we have.

The video game world is quite stable with pure DirectX or OpenGL.

[John Rofrano]

[Norman Black] “Mainconcept AVC has been a little touchy with the newest GPUs. Meaning it many not support them. “

This only pertains to NVIDIA who changed architectures with their new cards. AMD/ATI Radeon’s don’t have this problem, and perform better with OpenCL (which Vegas uses) so I’d recommend getting a new Radeon card if you’re looking for a new card.

~jr

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

[Norman Black]

[John Rofrano]
This only pertains to NVIDIA who changed architectures with their new cards. AMD/ATI Radeon’s don’t have this problem, and perform better with OpenCL (which Vegas uses) so I’d recommend getting a new Radeon card if you’re looking for a new card.”

Disagree, at least partially. Mainconcept AVC OpenCL does not work with AMD graphics core next architecture GPUs. This is their current architecture. 7xxx and the current Rx series cards. Vegas proper and Sony AVC are fine.
My old 5850 cards absolutely flew under MC AVC OpenCL and my current 7950 is unused in MC AVC OpenCL. Mainconcept hardcoded the encoder to specific architectures and stopped with Cayman.

AMD cards currently are better with OpenCL. Nvidia by design reduced the compute capability in the current generation compared to previous. The only exception to this are the Tesla compute only cards put back some capability taken out. Tesla cards are uber pricey.

[John Rofrano]

[Norman Black] “Disagree, at least partially. Mainconcept AVC OpenCL does not work with AMD graphics core next architecture GPUs.”

Wow, I didn’t realize that. I take it back. It’s sad that GPU support is so messed up.

~jr

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

[Norman Black]

[John Rofrano] “Wow, I didn’t realize that. I take it back. It’s sad that GPU support is so messed up.”

I blame Mainconcept for this. They hard coded their encoder to specific AMD architectures.

This is bad for a couple of reasons.

1) It excludes Nvidia and Intel and anything else that might exist. Mainconcept went out of their way to take hardware independent OpenCL and make it hardware dependent. Who knows the reasoning behind this decision.

2) It is fine to have custom tuned versions of your algorithm(s) for specific architectures to squeeze the most performance out of your code but you must have something “generic” that runs everywhere.

I’ll bet their OpenCL code will run on all AMD Nvidia and Intel if they just removed the checks/tests for specific supported hardware architecture. Maybe not run “ideally”, but run nonetheless.

If Vegas has custom tuned versions of their effects code, they certainly still have “generic” ones which always work with any OpenCL driver. This is the way it should be done.

Mainconcept OpenCL code might be precompiled and could be a source of their issues. Vegas for example, compiles their OpenCL on the fly and saves it in the “AppData” folder. Install a new driver or video card and Vegas recompiles the OpenCL code. Again, this is the way it should be done. New driver versions can have bug fixes and performance improvements and an application should take advantage of this.

[Brian Vincik]

So I am looking to purchase a laptop to use with Movie Studio 12/13. Based on the information above should I get an Intel 4000 integrated graphics card or an Nvidia/ATI card on the approved list to do GPU video rendering? What are my chances that the GPU rendering will work? The HP ENVY 17t-j100 Quad Edition Notebook PC with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M Graphics with 2048MB of dedicated video memory should meet this requirement correct? Thank You for any suggestions or feedback.

https://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/E4S82AV?HP-ENVY-17t-j100-Quad-Edition-Notebook-PC

Thanks

[John Rofrano]

I have no experience with the Intel 4000 graphics and Vegas Pro so I don’t know. My instincts say get the discreet graphics. Whether either of them will improve performance with Vegas Pro is anyone’s guess. That laptop does look like it will get the job done nicely.

~jr

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