GPU for VP17

TheRhino wrote on 9/28/2019, 9:55 AM

When I built a new 9900K system I tested it with an AMD RX570 ($130 USD) before installing a (refurbished) AMD VEGA 64 liquid-cooled ($350 USD). The RX570 was fine for previewing 1080p work & provided a marginal boost for GPU assisted rendering. However, it was not ideal for previewing 4K multi-cam. In comparison, the VEGA 64 increases 4K preview quality/speed (I don't need to use proxies) & also provides more GPU assistance during rendering. On the "RedCarTest" posted on these forums, my $350 VEGA 64 is as fast at rendering as a $700 Radeon 7 & nearly as fast as the pricier Nvidia 2080ti / 1080ti.

Although I purchased Vegas 17, I am still using V16 for paid work. Until they release another update for Vegas 17, hardware decoding of video on the timeline, a new feature, is not yet available for AMD cards. Therefore Nvidia will outscore AMD in Vegas 17 benchmarks until this feature is enabled in a future update for V17.

The VEGA 56 is based on the same tech as the VEGA 64 & has similar performance in Vegas. Occasionally the VEGA 56 can be found for <$250 which makes it a better bang/buck than a similarly priced RX590 & worth the price-difference between it a RX570... If I were building a budget system I would pass on the RX570 & 1059ti & get the $250 Radeon 56...

For Vegas 16 GPU benchmarks, look here:
https://techgage.com/article/exploring-magix-vegas-pro-16-gpu-performance/

pierre-k wrote on 9/29/2019, 3:27 AM

if you have a 4 core processor, it doesn't matter what graphics card you have. preview and rendering will be the same. thus slow. I tried gtx 970 and amd Vega 64. the difference is really minimal. replace the processor to 8 core and higher and you will be happy.

v17 does not yet fully support amd cards. the Vegas team said it has different priorities now. so the future seems to be with Nvidia cards.

fr0sty wrote on 9/29/2019, 8:09 AM

8 core is the minimum CPU spec for 4k in Vegas 17.

I use a Radeon 7 and cannot do 4k multicam mode with 4 4k angles without building proxies, with a Ryzen 7 1800x 8 core 16 thread CPU and 64GB DDR4.

NVENC Decode will dramatically accelerate your timeline performance, but only if using the formats it supports decoding of, AVC or HEVC. If you're using something like ProRes, it will still rely on your CPU to do the decode.

Rendering performance may work out better on the AMD card.

I don't like my AMD card for reasons beyond its Vegas limitations. It has never worked right since the day I bought it, and I've read many reports of others having the same issues.

zdogg wrote on 9/29/2019, 5:36 PM

When I built a new 9900K system I tested it with an AMD RX570 ($130 USD) before installing a (refurbished) AMD VEGA 64 liquid-cooled ($350 USD). forums, my $350 VEGA 64 is as fast at rendering as a $700 Radeon 7 & nearly as fast as the pricier Nvidia 2080ti / 1080ti.

You should do more "full disclosure" on Vega cards. First of all, liquid cooled, and they are typically priced higher on the USED market (which is what you're discussing for Vega Cards), about +$400 on Ebay. Yes, it is possible to find them lower, but you've got to scour. Then these cards are Power hogs, and you'd typically being going to a thousand watt power supply.

That said, you made a savvy purchase, glad it's working great, I would go that way myself, but the power supply upgrade with my hard to reconfigure HP workstation was not worth the upgrade, and it would be a lot more that $350.

john_dennis wrote on 9/29/2019, 7:05 PM

"Then these cards are Power hogs, and you'd typically being going to a thousand watt power supply."

I don't have a Vega card, but since my electric utility has rates that are tiered by time-of-day, I'm prone to actually measure my usage and sometimes even alter my habits for the sake of economy.

Running a CPU only render and an AMD VCE render simultaneously on the system in my profile, I managed to get the whole thing done for 219 Watts measured at the wall outlet (including the monitor). I happen to run a very efficient 750 Watt power supply currently and I'll have to see some real hard evidence that I need to replace it with a 1000 Watt power supply when I do my next upgrade in 2021, no matter which video card I happen to choose.

Background

I ran a data center serving 26 hospitals for 12 years with 1.5 million Watts of connected server and I/O load. I've heard every version of power utilization hyperbole from every IT vendor in the known universe. Real measurements are all that matter to me.

john_dennis wrote on 9/29/2019, 7:23 PM

Just one more thing...

Water cooling helps...

Reyfox wrote on 9/30/2019, 6:34 AM

v17 does not yet fully support amd cards. the Vegas team said it has different priorities now. so the future seems to be with Nvidia cards.

So what you are saying is that Vegas will not be supporting AMD in the future?

I'd need further official clarification on this. Moderators? Gary?

Dexcon wrote on 9/30/2019, 6:38 AM

@Reyfox ... MAGIX have already addressed the AMD issue fairly recently on this forum. Please see:

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/still-no-amd-decode-thought-that-was-a-priority--117248/#ca730484

Reyfox wrote on 9/30/2019, 7:14 AM

Thanks for the reminder. I had thought I read something like that, but didn't quite remember. I understand stability, etc will have priority, as long as AMD is not abandoned.

fr0sty wrote on 9/30/2019, 9:27 AM

Water cooling is also expensive, takes up a lot of space, and then you've got to worry about your system leaking, changing out the fluid, etc... and in the end, the gains vs the best air cooled units aren't that great. The main reason I'd water cool would be for space saving on the GPU not having to take up 2 slots anymore... but I travel with my system to do video projection mapping, and there's no way I'd put water in a system that moves around.

As for AMD, it's sad how many people took "AMD decode not yet ready" as "Vegas is abandoning AMD support entirely". It might do the Magix team some good to keep putting that word out, maybe even make an announcement thread about it, make facebook posts about it... as the misinformation is surely costing them sales.

TheRhino wrote on 10/1/2019, 3:00 PM

For the 9900k I use a Corsair H150i self-contained liquid cooler with 3 fans. VEGA 64 LQ has separate self-contained liquid cooler & only occupies one slot. Im using all of my PCIe slots, so I needed a 1 slot GPU... IMO this combo is a good bang/buck for now. Vegas appears to do best with 9900K's 8 cores @ 5ghz vs more cores at slower speeds... Also, Vegas does not appear to benefit from Radeon 7 vs Vega 64. I have a 1000W PS for stability & RAID arrays...