Good video card(s) for VP13 & NewBlue Titler

WayneM wrote on 1/29/2015, 4:28 PM

Thanks for the link to the Corsair cases! Was not aware of that kind of case. Something along that line is in order for the next workstation.

I did some research on alternative cards and size options. I'll be building another custom workstation from the ground up in a year but for me it doesn't make financial sense to hang onto the R9 290X at the price I paid for it when I can get a full refund and return shipping pre-paid.

I'm going to also post the info below in another starter Post so it's more easily found, but would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks again.

So, I've come up with a couple GPU options that will easily fit. Nothing killer like the R9 290X but will outperform the on-board chipset and should meet my minimum need to use the NewBlue Titler with VP13. I'm going to list a couple modest cards and see if anyone has good or bad experiences. On the products, the brands or the driver availability. Target workstation is Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Other current info is in my profile. I'm having to scale back on the GPU power and mostly seeing boards with 2GB.

- ASUS R9 270-DC2OC-2GD5

- XFX R9-285A-CDFC Radeon R9 285 2GB 256-Bit DDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP

- Sapphire DUAL-X 100314-4L Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

- Sapphire Radeon R7 240 2GB DDR3 HDMI/DVI-D/VGA with Boost PCI-Express

- Sapphire Radeon R7 240 4GB DDR3 HDMI/DVI-D/VGA with Boost PCI-Express

- Gigabyte R7 240 DDR3-2GB DVI-D/D-SUB/HDMI OC Graphics Card (GV-R724OC-2GI)

I also saw this recommendation:

"If you are simply upgrading an existing/older computer system, my very strong suggestion is that instead of wasting money for very little return on a brand new card, you instead buy a 2nd hand GTX560 or GTX460 from eBay. The older Nvidia GTX400 and GTX500 series graphics cards work exceedingly well with Vegas and rendering with Mainconcept AVC and Sony AVC."

Those run in the $60-70 range.

Wayne

Gabonviper wrote on 1/30/2015, 3:50 AM

Hi
I am on the verge of bidding for a used Gigabyte gtx-580 on auction for 112€ to replace my old Asus Gtx 650 vdc-1GD5 graphics card but I am not sure if it will fit my pc housing, motherboard and power supply unit.
I wonder if any of you could say if it might fit this combination:

motherboard: msi Z68A-G43 (G3) (2x PCIe x16 expansion slots), ATX (22 cm x 30.5 cm)
Power supply: Corsair PSU CXV2 600W (I know this the minimum for the gtx580 but would it suffice?)
PC case: Xigmatek Pantheon -Mid Tower USB 3 (206 (W) x 543 (H) x 500 (D)

The computer is an IntelCore i5 2500K CPU 3,30 GHz with 8 GB RAM and 64-bit Win7.

The gtx580 measures 280 mm x 137 mm x 43 mm
Itrequires 600w minimum psu with one 6-pin and one 8-pin external power connectors - are the connectors an issue here?
Sorry about making these questions which might sound silly but I am at work now and the auction is closing in a few hours so just in case you have a similar setup or can tell otherwise, it would be very useful.
Sorry about sounding like a teen.

WayneM wrote on 3/7/2015, 2:22 PM

New card on the way. . .here's the post with the full info:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=920003

Rich Parry wrote on 3/13/2015, 3:02 AM

Anyone know the difference between these two versions of the R9 290X

VAPOR-X R9 290X 8GB GDDR5 PCI-E TRI-X (UEFI)
Tri-X R9 290X 8GB GDDR5 OC(UEFI)

I've looked at the comparison tables on the Sapphire web site, but can't see a difference other than one has BLUE fans and the other ORANGE fans.

Rich

Stringer wrote on 3/13/2015, 7:26 PM

It looks like the Tri-X only has 4GB RAM..
The 8GB of the Vapor will not provide any advantage in Vegas, and the higher clocked Tri-X should actually provide better performance.

The $150 additional cost of the Vapor will not buy you anything for Vegas..

Rich Parry wrote on 3/13/2015, 8:44 PM

@Stringer

Thanks for your response and taking the time to look at the video card specs. They both have 8GB, the only difference I see is one runs OpenGL4.4 and the other OpenGL4.3. I have no idea if that is important.

One card has 1020 MHz Core Clock and the other 1030, a 1% difference, barely worth mentioning. I can't help but feel I am missing something between the two cards. Anyway, thanks again for the reply.

Stringer wrote on 3/14/2015, 3:19 PM

OK, I missed the 8GB version in my searches...

I would still go with a 4GB version and save ~$100 ..

Unless you know you will be playing some games that use an 8GB frame buffer, that extra 4GB will never see any data..

Rich Parry wrote on 3/15/2015, 2:21 AM

Oldsmoke states he uses 2X R9 290X video cards. What is the advantage of two cards?

I believe the R9 290X supports 4 monitors, so I don't understand what 2 cards get you.

OldSmoke wrote on 3/15/2015, 7:56 AM

Two cards means less load on one card and Vegas can actually use both cards as long as you don't have them in Crossfire or SLI for Nvidia. But, you need a system that does allow for two cards to operate at PCIe x16 and that means socket 2011 and 2011-v3.
Another good use for it are certain plugins; NeatVideo for example can make use of both cards too.

Rich Parry wrote on 3/15/2015, 4:26 PM

@Oldsmoke, thanks for response.

Forgive my ignorance, but assuming I have PCIe x 16 compatibility, are you saying that I just stick 2 cards in and Vegas automatically takes advantage of the second card even if you have only 1 monitor?

If you have 2 monitors (like I do), does it matter how I connect them to the cards, for example, can I connect both monitors to one card?

BTW, are you still running driver 14.4 on your R9 290X which I saw you mention in a post? A friend loan me his 7950 for testing and am running 4.12 driver. I've heard reports later drivers may result in some loss of performance.

Thanks,
Rich in San Diego

Rich Parry wrote on 3/15/2015, 10:25 PM

@Oldsmoke,

My MoBo, supports dual Xeon chips using LGA 1366 CPU sockets. The MoBo has 7 PCI-E x 16 slots, so. I will assume the PCI-E x 16 is the critical factor and not the CPU socket. In other words I should be able to install 2 video cards, agree?

I have two Sapphire 7950 boards, I'll try installing the second card in the next few days, if you know it won't work, let me know. I would appreciate that.

I have plenty of room in the case and a 1200 watt power supply, so I should be good to go installing dual video cards.

Rich

OldSmoke wrote on 3/15/2015, 10:56 PM

I think even a single 1366 socket does support dual PCIe x16 so yes, you will be fine. Just check your manual to see which slots to use to get the 2x PCIe x16. Does the MB support PCIe 3.0?

Rich Parry wrote on 3/16/2015, 2:18 AM

@Oldsmoke,

Again, thanks for response. To answer the PCI-E3.0 question, my MB supports PCIe 2.0 only.

Rich

OldSmoke wrote on 3/16/2015, 11:09 AM

I am back at my system. The current drivers for my 2x R9 290 are:

Driver package: 14.301.1001-140915a-176154C
Catalyst Version: 14.9

Rich Parry wrote on 3/16/2015, 11:40 PM

@Oldsmoke,

I've installed two Sapphire 7950 cards in the hopes of improving my incredibly slow timeline playback frame rates. I have one monitor connected to one card and a second monitor connected to the other video card.

Using the Official Sony PressReleaseProject.veg project, I get timeline playback speeds of 2-6 fps for most of the video, with brief jumps to 12fps in some places.

AMD Catalyst recognizes the cards, since it is asking me if I want Crossfire support. I don't have a bridge connected and not using Crossfire.

2 x 7950 cards hasn't helped. I running the latest drive 4.12. You said you were using 4.9.

Got any suggestions?

OldSmoke wrote on 3/17/2015, 2:39 PM

Rich Parry

I don't mind having a look at your whole system, send me a PM. A dual Xeon workstation should be running the SCS Benchmark project just fine.