low frame rate when using external monitor

DavidMcKnight wrote on 7/10/2009, 10:42 PM

I'm running an nvidia 9400 GT for a 3rd monitor, pci, 1920 x 1080, DVI to HDMI into a 1080p set. I get full frame rate on DV or HDV in the Preview window, but when monitoring on the external (Alt - Shift - 4) the frame rate drops to 19 - 20 for DV and 5-6 for HDV. I've tweaked everything obvious, I think, as far as Vegas (8 or 9) and the video card goes; drive is internal sata, not the system drive. I know others here are previewing using this method - what else in the PC can I look for that might be dragging this down? pc is a quad core 2.40 w/ 2 gb ram, xp, 32 bit vegas.

Is it the pci interface? I could reconfigure the card in the pciExpress slot I think...will try that first thing in the am. Appreciate any insight; I've read posts where folks talk about doing this, but I couldn't find an answer to why the frame rate would drop only on external preview (actually I did find a post from farss about feeding frames to the ext monitor, but did not find a solution)

thanks!
DM

Comments

ushere wrote on 7/10/2009, 11:00 PM

sorry, no help here but a keen interest in the answers you get.....

i've been toying with pulling my nvidia card from the 'office' pc (9500gt) and using it to feed a monitor.

i've got a few questions about this, so if you don't mind, i'll piggy back on your thread?

a. obviously i hope there's an answer to davids problem, otherwise it's not worth starting off....

b. i was thinking of using a lcd tv, rather than a pc monitor (more real life?), but then i thought, what happens if i use rgb to my sony crt? what will i be seeing - ie, equivalent of 'normal' monitoring?

hope you get it sorted,

an innocent bystander

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 7/11/2009, 1:22 AM

only thing I can say is to make sure that you don't have it displaying in both your preview window and on the TV output, as that will require vegas to do more work.

Dave

JJKizak wrote on 7/11/2009, 5:07 AM

ushere:
The new Sony XBR LCD TV's have gamma, contrast and separate rgb adjustments in the menu, the main difference that I can see between a monitor and a tv. It will show up when you are printing quality prints from previously tweeked stills. (like what happened to the contrast?)
JJK

ushere wrote on 7/11/2009, 5:38 AM

thanks jjk,

i'll take a look at the xbr lcd. there's a couple of buyers hanging out for my old hr trinitron (it's 16:9 switchable), so if the difference is huge, it might well be the way to go....

after all, for all my checking final releases on the crt, i find most peoples homes i visit have either a maladjusted crt that's over saturated, or an lcd that's too bright, or stuck with 'theater' look on all the time....

ah for the days of b&w.....

DavidMcKnight wrote on 7/11/2009, 9:08 AM

more info, the quad core cpu is only using one core during playback. In V8, internal props (as referenced by Frigid / Dave) this setting is false by default, in V9 it is true by default. Neither way makes a difference, I don't get more than 1 core used either way, in either version. Displaying in Vegas preview also makes no difference. I'm inclined to think it has to do with the pci bus, or something closer to hardware or windows than in Vegas but I'm stumped.

DavidMcKnight wrote on 7/11/2009, 9:54 AM

Update - Am getting much better results using the video card on the pci-e bus than the one on the pci bus. Details - pci-e bus has a fairly low-powered dual DVI card for Vegas work. Only other available bus was pci, so I bought a more powerful nvidia 9400 GT card, pci bus, to drive the HDTV. See the OP about the issues there. I now have it configured where the new pci card is driving the secondary Dell monitor, one side of the older pci-e card (an nvidia 7600 GS) is driving the main Dell monitor, and the other side of the pci-e card is driving the HDTV. I now get full framerate on the external monitor at Best / Full on two tracks of HDV video, with color correction applied to both. Sweet. The conclusion I'm able to draw from this is to use the pci-e bus for your external monitor.

ushere wrote on 7/11/2009, 4:31 PM

thanks david, good to read you're back on track....

Downunder wrote on 7/11/2009, 9:11 PM

Hi

I am about to do the same with 2 video cards 1) NVidia 8800GT for my two Dell "working' monitors and 2) NVidia 9500GT for my external preview LCD monitor using either an HDMI cable or a DVI cable (have both connections) which is best ?

I have both of these video cards on PCI-e slots on my Mobo. My question is what settings do you have in the windows display panel ie "extend the desktop onto this monitor" for the external preview monitor? And any other NVidia control panel settings?

Will DV (not HD) still look good on an external LCD monitor with this set up.

I currently use a crt 4.3 monitor via firewire. But I want to change to monitor widescreen and I thought having two graphics cards re the above configuration may do the trick :-)

Look forward to your reply

Cheers

DavidMcKnight wrote on 7/12/2009, 7:45 PM

For the most part HDMI is simply DVI + audio. I think the latest revs of HDMI can include some other things, but for viewing the timeline on an HD set it's the same.

I think as long as your HD output is on the pci-e bus you'll be fine. At least that was the kicker for me.

I didn't change anything in the nvidia control panel; I have all three set to "extend windows on this desktop" and for me the Dell 24" is the primary display.

On mine, DV looks as good from the timeline as it does from any other source. TV is a Vizio 22" 1080p set.

MPM wrote on 7/13/2009, 9:16 AM

"I'm running an nvidia 9400 GT for a 3rd monitor, pci, "

AFAIK it shouldn't hurt, but that's AFAIK... Software (including Windows) for the last several years has focused on multiple pci xpress slots -- it can be hard to find a decent board with just 1 actually -- so there might be several issues for/with pci graphics... Just no one knows because using pci graphics is so rare. Based on your pci card's DVI vs HDMI performance I'd think, David, that the performance increase you see with pci xpress is more about newer drivers coupled with a newer card that can take advantage of them -- that it's a newer, better card doesn't hurt either. The only problems I've read about is HDMI can be L to set properly depending on card & monitor -- nothing on reduced fps at all. For those seeking a cheaper solution than multiple pci xpress, when practical get a board with built-in graphics instead, & run both that & 1 card.

Far as running multiple monitors, it's far more common to drag windows where you want them, comparred to Vegas' ability to just click a button on the small preview display. That's button's a hold-over from/for firewire set-ups. From both what I've read & experienced, instead of using the button, tearing off & dragging the preview window can make a difference, depending on your hardware & version of Windows, and is certainly worth a try for anyone having slow fps problems. On the one hand it's more work for Vegas, using the button to move the preview, & can slow things down, plus you get more flexibility being able to resize the playback window when you drag it. On the other hand, the code & methods Vegas uses to display the preview itself, may have problems when you drag the preview to another monitor -- Vegas 9 can behave like Media Center in Vista or 7 64, where sometimes dragging the video display to another monitor can cause stuttering on playback, particularly when the playback window loses focus. In that case, swapping monitors at the connectors &/or simply setting Primary in Windows can *sometimes* make a difference.