There are lots of good GPU discussions over on the Pro forum.

Thanks guys, just been over there to read up

So i guess on my GTX750Ti i'm stuck with software rendering only? - Very disappointing!

Yes, I was also very disappointed, but i tested different programms which use GPU encoding (e.g. Powerdirector 12/13) and the quality is very bad! Only suggestion from my side is to use the combination of Debugmode Frameserver with MeGUI or Handbrake. The Sony AVC and Mainconcept Codecs included in MS13 are very slow :-(

thanks Marco,

Just been looking around on ebay, do you know if the dual GPU GTX 590 cards are supported?

i have thankfully not invested much in my current 700 series (Kepler) card so i could upgrade backwards if it worked

>Just been looking around on ebay, do you know if the dual GPU GTX 590 cards are supported?

Not sure about the GTX 590. Never read anything about this card in combination with movie studio or vegas... I also expecting not too much performance speed from a 570/580 compared to an intel i7 processor. So why downgrading ... ;-)

why?

just run some more tests, my old GTX-550Ti / i7 using CUDA is 60% faster than my i7 alone rendering the same clip

the 580 is about 50% faster than the 550Ti

@Dexter - Wow! What format is your footage, what processor (or speed is your cpu) and what coidec are you rendering to?

cpu is i7-3770K (3.5ghz, 2nd gen i7)

output is mp4 using the built in MainConcept AVC codec, bitrate is variable average of 25mbps, 1080P at 50hz

original footage is mp4 as a MTS container, from a Panasonic HC-V720 camera, same details as the output but i think has a slightly higher bitrate

i'm probably going to find a 2nd hand GTX570 card, i should be able to drop one in without changing my power supply, which i would have to do if i went for a 580 or 590

just wanted to bump this thread as i have some more developments...

My GTX570 card arrived and i have done some further testing with the same conditions as before

So to summarise all this, i was rendering a clip and counted the frames rendered in 60 seconds.

MainConcept CPU Only: 756
Sony AVC CPU Only: 1420
Sony AVC GPU (GTX570)+CPU: 1590
MainConcept CUDA GTX550Ti: 1920
MainConcept CUDA GTX570: 2630

I have compared the visual quality between clips, and there is actually little difference between them. But there is a big difference in the filesize.

Between the Sony and MainConcept with GPU rendering there is about 23% filesize saving using the Sony codec.
Between the Sony and MainConcept with CPU only rendering there is about 6% filesize saving using the Sony codec.

Another thing i noticed is the GPU load during the test using the MainConcept codec was about 60%, the Sony codec was about 30%. CPU load was always about the same.

So i will be sticking with CUDA rendering using the MainConcept codec for he time being, there is further scope to upgrade to a GTX580, it would also be interesting to see if an SLI setup with two cards provides more performance. If you want to make sure your using the GPU for rendering stick with the Fermi chipset cards (the nvidia 500 series)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_graphics_processing_units#GeForce_500_Series

I hope someone finds this useful!

dexterslab,
Wow! That's good of you to do that work . . . I find SonyCreative's words on GPU use very dull and confusing . . . esp as part numbers in the UK are often different to USA.
So, what I wonder are the Sony software folks doing? Making the best effort with a secondhand card looks like they've not kept up. I would expect a progressive speeding-up over the years, by software AND hardware....and as more Video-Features are introduced the Render-Times should not extend.
If Hardware Co's expect us to buy blower-cooled Graphics cards, then they should be offering us something ( discussions at least) so the Software can benefit the End-User.

Like OS - you pays good money, but receive Half the Promise....Oh dear.