NVidia GeForce GTX 970

In Task Manager the GPU is fluctuating between 38% & 100% staying mostly over 50%. I guess it's time to upgrade my GPU. Are there any recommendations here about a good performing GPU for this kind of work?

That's just about the minimum for a GPU that will work in VEGAS these days. If my signature you can see two benchmark projects. There's one that has an AI render test (style transfer). I can't say Smart Mask is identical but you can get an idea how modern GPUs perform here.

If you have a 970 I wonder how old this system is and what GPU it will work with. You have to take into account newer GPUs can have very high power usage- is your power supply big enough? They are also often physically large and take up multiple motherboard slots. If your system is 10 years old consider upgrading all of it at once.

Personally I use NVIDIA as CUDA accelerates AI work (not just VEGAS) and performance is good. Price is not good so for my desktop I just got a used 2080 Super from Ebay. I don't see a need to upgrade at present.

Our recommended spec for AI tasks is a Nvidia RTX 20xx or AMD 5xxx. It's helpful to have at least 8GB of VRAM because this is about the size of the SM2.0 model. The performance of the SM2.0 AI model scales nicely with a faster GPU. A Nvidia RTX 3080/90 or RTX 4080/90 will perform significantly better than the low end variants.

As for the GPU load in the task manager. To see the the real load of the GPU when doing AI tasks you have to configure one of the graphs to something like 'CUDA' or 'Compute'. This depends on your GPU how this is called.

*sigh* I just hate this GPU roller coaster ride man lol

Wow, it sounds like my $150 software upgrade, is going to cost an additional $2K or more, in order to efficiently use some of the new features. Even my 750w PSU is too "weak" to support the recommended GPUs.

But to be real, video editing is always hardware intensive and new features are always built for contemporary hardware. How long are you planning to use a 10 year old system?

I built a fairly high end desktop for around 1300USD.

A 750W PSU is probably adequate for most CPU and GPU combinations though whether it has the right connectors is another question.

Our recommended spec for AI tasks is a Nvidia RTX 20xx or AMD 5xxx. It's helpful to have at least 8GB of VRAM because this is about the size of the SM2.0 model. The performance of the SM2.0 AI model scales nicely with a faster GPU. A Nvidia RTX 3080/90 or RTX 4080/90 will perform significantly better than the low end variants.

As for the GPU load in the task manager. To see the the real load of the GPU when doing AI tasks you have to configure one of the graphs to something like 'CUDA' or 'Compute'. This depends on your GPU how this is called.

Good to know.

How long are you planning to use a 10 year old system?

As long as it does the job I need it to do. I have 5 Dell D630 laptops from 2007, that are still doing what I need them to do, which is running lights, sound and video for live theater productions.

How long are you planning to use a 10 year old system?

As long as it does the job I need it to do.

Then AI smart mask will not be part of that job...

How long are you planning to use a 10 year old system?

As long as it does the job I need it to do.

Then AI smart mask will not be part of that job...

Wow, that's a pretty bold assumption. If AI Smart Mask is the job I need it to do, and the system I have can't do that job with reasonable efficiency, than I guess I'm going to have to upgrade. If you read the thread, I asked for upgrade recommendations.

@ken-coughlin when I read the thread, you're wondering that your ancient hardware, which does still your jobs, is not a able to do AI jobs. I think it should be obvious that today's software (with its AI possibilities) also only work well on today's hardware.

I share your values of only upgrading when there is a clear need to do so. For photo editing I find little technological development that necessitates upgrades. My last computer upgrades in 2011 were to use VEGAS and again in 2017 to be able to edit 4K natively and use new GPU features (encoding, decoding, etc.) That 2017 machine is unreasonably slow for AI features and requires proxy files for heavy media types so I built a desktop in 2022 again just for video editing.

I don't know if you looked in the benchmarks in my signature but those have render and playback metrics for modern AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. You also got recommended minimums from Magix staff- isn't that enough to start with?

@ken-coughlin when I read the thread, you're wondering that your ancient hardware, which does still your jobs, is not a able to do AI jobs. I think it should be obvious that today's software (with its AI possibilities) also only work well on today's hardware.

 

Apparently this technology is ahead of the hardware capabilities.

"As you’re experimenting with this feature, it’s a good idea to use a very short section
of video since the AI calculations you need to do later can take a good deal of
time, even on a fast computer."

I don't know if you looked in the benchmarks in my signature but those have render and playback metrics for modern AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. You also got recommended minimums from Magix staff- isn't that enough to start with?

I'm not arguing the need to upgrade, in this particular use case, and I'm currently looking at my options. Someone else just questioned how long I was going to use a 10 year old computer, and I was responding with my general take on technology upgrades. In this case, I had no idea how poorly my current system would perform until I ran my first test.

If you want me to run something on my RTX 2080 Super as a performance test, let me know (you can see how it compares to your GPU and can then extrapolate to better ones). A project file and media would be helpful for that. Yes, it can take quite long, but look at Hollywood movies that rendered using server farms overnight. Long is relative : )

If you want me to run something on my RTX 2080 Super as a performance test, let me know (you can see how it compares to your GPU and can then extrapolate to better ones).

Thank you for the offer. Right now I have a project that has to be out by Monday, and it will, just without any AI. :)

@ken-coughlin Hi, pls don't take any comments about your PC personally they're just being honest, have a read of this post - Smart Mask 2.0 - Mask Out a Person in Less than 90 Seconds (I'm Former User in that post) & have a look at the specs of my PC in my signature. You mention 2K+ to update your PC so maybe Google how much my CPU, GPU, RAM & Motherboard cost.

Everything is relative, so slow to some will be fast to others, with my PC & others with decent GPU's who commented in that link found rendering just an 8sec clip to be slow, I wouldn't even attempt a 2min clip,

Smart Mask 2.0 has some work to be done on it, admitted by @fr0sty in that link "Yeah, render times could improve, and hopefully will..." so as you say you're better finding a different option 'just without any AI' 👍

Sorry, but I do take it personally. As someone who spent 50 years in the virtually every aspect of the computer industry, including hardware support and software design, I'm the best person to decide how much longer a 10 year old computer can serve my purposes.

@ken-coughlin All I was trying to say is if you did upgrade even to the latest & greatest GPU you might not get the performance from Smart Mask as it is now that you expect or would hope for.

Can you click your icon at the top of this page - My Profile & fill in your Signature with the full name of your CPU, GPU & amount of RAM, also inc the Windows & Vegas version, this will then show at the bottom of your comments,

It has nothing to do with the GPU or what's inside your computer. I'm using a 4090 RTX. But i never seen such a slow render percentage. I'm now using Adobe After Effects Rotobrush for masking. I don't know why Vegas is so bad if we are talking about the newest technology.