• h.265/HEVC is the primary codec one should use to create a file intended for streaming 4K/UHD content.
  • h.265/HEVC was developed and is owned (the intellectual property) by DivX.
    • NeuLion bought DivX.
• NeuLion owns MainConcept, who owns (the intellectual property) of about half the codecs used by VEGAS.
  • MainConcept now sells licenses for the h.265/HEVC codec SDK.
• The responsibility for improving codec performance primarily belongs to those that own the intellectual property (NeuLion:MainConcept).
  • Attempts at supporting CUDA and OpenCL for accelerating encoding appears to have been abandoned.
    • Complaints about precision of using stream processors for accelerating encoding routines can be found.
      • Was the first attempt using single-precision versus currently available double-precision processing?
  • Only Intel Quick Sync is supported to accelerate h.265/HEVC encoding.
    • Appears a graphics unit must be on your CPU die in order to utilize the Intel Quick Sync feature.
      • This is counter-intuitive since most processors that provide the most memory bandwidth (~70GB/s) do not include a graphics unit on die.
        • Memory bandwidth is primarily utilized by bandwidth-demanding interfaces (M.2 SSDs, other PCI-E x4/x8 I/O devices, SATA 6Gb/s RAID-0, Thunderbolt, USB 3.1, USB 3.0, 10Gb ethernet, etc.), which are usually present on workstations designed to non-linearly edit 4K/UHD video!

Just the state of affairs as I see them, and I feel your pain as I would like to accelerate encoding of UHD content edited in VEGAS.

Well, I have no issue using my GTX580 for 4K 264 videos, even with CUDA.

You can complain about it and wait until the cows come home or go the route that works; what ever is more important to you.

..I'm going to upload 4k videos to YouTube...

....

h.265/HEVC is the primary codec one should use to create a file intended for streaming 4K/UHD content.

YouTube doesn't accept H.265.

• h.265/HEVC was developed and is owned (the intellectual property) by DivX.
  • NeuLion bought DivX.
• NeuLion owns MainConcept, who owns (the intellectual property) of about half the codecs used by VEGAS.
• The responsibility for improving codec performance primarily belongs to those that own the intellectual property

The HEVC codec was developed by a joint international group between MPEG and ITU. There are many unique patent holders contributing to the codec. Maybe you are using the term codec improperly. You probably should be using the term encoder. Mainconcept wrote most of the encoders, and decoders, used in Vegas and many other editors on the market. Mainconcept does not own any codecs for the various encoder/decoder implementations. Mainconcept's implementations seems to be only okay. The MC AVC encoder is very weak compared to x264.

The HEVC/H.265 encoder used in VP14 looks to be implemented by Intel. I see their copyright on the DLLs.

CODEC is short for both (en)code and decode, just like MODEM is short for modulate and demodulate. What decoder is used is determined by what file type is input since that determines which is needed.

Don't take this as preaching to the choir, as I am just trying to express how I understand it so far.

I didn't realize YouTube still will not accept h.265/HEVC. Not much movement on that front I guess, for years. Why doesn't Google/YouTube support x265?

And don't think I'm bucking against the legacy GPU crowd, as that is still a work in progress (benchmarks to come). GPUs are here, just have to find time to do some testing, and I'm not keen on putting used GPUs in my main system until they have been tested in other, older systems first.

So many factors that seem to resist change in implementing advances in technology . . .

@Cogdiv

"h.265/HEVC is the primary codec one should use to create a file intended for streaming 4K/UHD content."

Folks who upload content to youtube are not preparing their submittals from "streaming" . youtube's requirements for upload can be found here. The submittals will be re-encoded by youtube to the various pixel dimensions (3840x2160, 1920x1080, 1280x720, etc) and bit rates to match the quality delivered to the receiving device.

If one just absolutely, positively feels they must use CUDA, they should follow Old Smoke's advice on using the GTX580.

All the musings about IP ownership don't advance the discourse or provide a solution to the question as posted.

@GTX9xxRenderingPlease

"The CPU is just too slow"

You've chosen the wrong (a)vocation. The hot thing that everyone's doing in video these days will always take more CPU than you have at any point in you lifetime. 

"(plus I don't want my 6700k to have to run at 100% for 4 hours, as I'm worried it'll overheat)." 

On the contrary, you do want all your computing resources working at 100% so you can get your work (fun) done and you can get your money's worth from your computer dollar spent. If you're worried about overheating, you need to invest in a more robust cooling solution and apply it to every part of the system that might overheat and become the weakest link.  

So many factors that seem to resist change in implementing advances in technology . . .

No, not many, only one...COST!

"What can I possibly do?"

Buy one of these  or one of these for timeline performance.

Buy one of these for rendering thoughput. You'll need one of these to cool a 140 watt processor. 

"I just want to be able to render 4k using my GPU."

Stop telling the hangman that you only want to be hung with a brand new rope. A good serviceable rope that he's used to hang six other people should get the job done with dispatch. 

In this thread Mike returned his 1080 and bought an RX480.

In this thread Mike returned his nvidea 1080 and bought an RX480.

Sorry, while there’s no i in team, there’s also no e in NVIDIA. 😜

You'll need one of these to cool a 140 watt processor.

Then 2 of these to replace its rattly fans.