I updated my spreadsheet with bitman and Peter_P's results from build 261. We have a pretty clear pattern but my question re. multiple monitors still stands.

This problem might also be very much depending on the used motherboard and BIOS. So I read on page 80 of the ASRock_Z370_Taichi manual :

IGPU Multi-Monitor
Select disable to disable the integrated graphics when an external graphics card is installed.
Select enable to keep the integrated graphics enabled at all times.

I did a test with two monitors and build 261. One Monitor on Nvidia, one monitor on Intel (7700). When the primary display is Nvidia, the render is cpu only but when I switch the active monitor to Intel I get GPU accelerated render

It is less a question of Vegas than your motherboard/BIOS settings and available options there.

No the BIOS has nothing to do with this - BIOS settings are on/off only.

Vegas can not do any thing to activate or deactivate QSV on yur system. You can also use Handbrake to check if QSV is made availabe by your BIOS settings and Intel driver.

that was my original point when I started this post - HEVC Quicksync rendering worked in handbrake but it didn't work in vegas pro

Sorry I missed that one. So I must have been very lucky not having any QSV issue with Vegas 14 nor 15 - so far ;)

I submitted a bug regarding Intel HVEC to Vegas Support:

Bug 1:
8 bit Intel HVEC encode via QSV is not HW accelerated unless I connect a monitor to the motherboard (I have an i7 8700K, and GPU is enabled in BIOS). This ia an issue as I connect my monitor to a discrete videocard (nvidea GTX 1080 Ti).

Bug 2:
When a monitor is connected to the i7 (motherboard), 10 bit HVEC hardware accelerated does not work (a pop up window says there is an issue) and encode cannot continue. I have the latest Intel drivers and windows 10 Fall edition.

Response of MAGIX:

Thank you for your message. Vegas Pro utilizes the primary GPU on the system. For Vegas Pro to recognize and utilize the GPU capabilities on the supported card, the primary display in Windows must be set to a monitor that is connected to the supported GPU capable video card. If the primary display in Windows is set up as the unsupported video card, Vegas will not recognize a GPU supported card is part of the system. 

I wanted to comment on that response, as I do not agree with the above, but the ticket was already closed by MAGIX, so I created a new one with some of my counter arguments (and a copy of my previous bug info and the previous reply of MAGIX):

Dear ...,

Albeit your explanation sounds logical and is technically plausible, I do not believe it is the case here with Vegas 15, Windows 10, a discrete monitor on Nvidea and no monitor on the Intel internal GPU.

I will explain why: If your explanation is correct, then why would Vegas recognize and offer me the use of Intel QSV without a monitor connected to the Intel GPU (when enabling Intel internal GPU in BIOS)?

e.g. I can select and use  Magix AVC/AAC MP4 …. (intel QSV) templates, tracing 3D performance on the Intel GPU (38%) reveals it is being used when rendering, even without a monitor connected …

When I disable Intel internal GPU in BIOS, Vegas correctly does NOT offer me the Intel QSV templates which is
normal. So Vegas 15 on my PC is perfectly able to offer me the use of Intel QSV (and is working as well) without a monitor being connected to the Intel (via the motherboard) in case of Magix AVC/AAC MP4 templates.

It does not work however for Intel HVEC. QSV (HW acceleration) is not used when a monitor is not connected to the Intel, only sw HVEC. I still think this is a bug (see Bug 1 in the ticket) in either the Intel drivers (I have got latest), windows 10 fall edition and/or Vegas 15 for HVEC.

Also bug 2 (when finally a monitor is connected to the Intel 😊) Vegas fails to render 10 bit HVEC see bug 2 (this is confirmed by other users on the Vegas Forum).

I'll try to update here if I get an answer...

@ken-dehoff my mobo bios has 3 possibilities for the internal GPU: enabled, disabled and AUTO. I tried all 3. There is yet another setting in BIOS which is power saving setting for in the internal GPU, I guess you can prevent it going into power save if not used, RC6 Render standby, so I tried that as well. Then there is the BIOS setting which is the initial display output, internal or pci-e, I played with that as well.

I updated my spreadsheet with bitman and Peter_P's results from build 261. We have a pretty clear pattern but my question re. multiple monitors still stands.

For Nicks spreadsheet:
i7 8700K has Intel UHD Graphics 630, not sure what the difference is with HD Graphics 630 of the previous generation...

Intel driver version 23.20.16.4849

I did a test with two monitors and build 261. One Monitor on Nvidia, one monitor on Intel (7700). When the primary display is Nvidia, the render is cpu only but when I switch the active monitor to Intel I get GPU accelerated render

@ken-dehoff How do you "switch the active monitor" exactly?

For Nicks spreadsheet:

i7 8700K has Intel UHD Graphics 630, not sure what the difference is with HD Graphics 630 of the previous generation...

Intel driver version 23.20.16.4849

Thank you. I updated it with your extra details.

Edit: Well, my spreadsheet appears to have vanished into a large, Google Drive black hole. Sorry about that folks 😢

Some information according to the display drivers.

I had problems with the latest HD530 driver provided directly by Intel and was told by the Intel support, that it’s not always best to use their latest version, because these are generic drivers that are adapted by the OEMs to fit their hardware/motherboards. The recommendation was to use the latest driver from the support side of the mainboard.

Hi

A new graphics driver has gone up at Intel which has this amongst several things:

• Enhanced performance in HEVC/H.265 video playback on Intel® 7 th Gen Core processors or higher
• Improvements in the Intel® Media SDK (MSDK), leading to better encoding quality across dependent media apps such as PowerDirector*, MAGIX*, etc.
• Intermittent crashes or hangs may occur in The Surge*, Rise of the Tomb Raider*, SOMA*, SiSoft Sandra Benchmark*, Handbrake* (during AVC/HEVC transcode), or during playback of 3D video Graphics anomalies may be observed in Civilization 6* (DX11*), Forza 7* (DX12*)

It hasn't fixed the problem where 10-bit Intel HEVC footage throws an error. Incidentally I can encode 10-bit HEVC via Intel Quick Sync from TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works without a problem, so that bug is in Vegas.

Regards

Phil

Phil, the problem with that driver on my system is, that the UHD monitor gets waked up every 20s to 40s when it has been switched off by the windows energy save function. The Intel support recommends to use the last published driver of the board manufacturer. At least in case of trouble.

Thanks Phil for the Intel update, It is now on my system, but still no HVEC HW acceleration without a monitor connected. I did not try with a monitor connected to see if the 10 bit bug is solved, as I assume it would not be since that one is sure a VEGAS bug. Changing the monitor to mobo is not an option for me, because it is such a pain to physically move it: I need to be on my knees, remove a top drawer from my desk, squeeze my naked right arm trough the narrow hole where my drawer was, hold a torch and my wife's make up mirror in one hand to see what I am doing, and try move my display-port male from one cavity to the other in reversed movement view (because of the mirror)...

Did I mention my PC is a tight fit in my wooden desk 😀

I just tested the new intel driver. First my extreme irritation that Intel have taken their control panel and added advertising to it - they suck. Second I can confirm that the new driver 23.20.16.4877 fixes nothing on my 6700k and 7700k systems - 10 bit still fails and the Intel Graphics Adapter has to be the OS' primary display in order to get accelerated Intel HEVC rendering.

Hi

@ken-dehoff have you tried adding a virtual monitor? https://helping-squad.com/fake-connect-a-monitor/

Yes the advertising isn't good, although if you dive into Preferences under Options you can turn off promotions, although you still get the big Gameplay splash on the driver settings start page.

The newer drivers on my system (since HDR support) show reduced colour depth on my primary monitor in the form of banding and posterization, visible on pictures, UI elements and even the desktop wallpaper, but the secondary monitor is fine. This has been accepted by Intel as a bug and is being looked into.

The 10-bit HEVC bug is in Vegas as I can render fine from TMPGEnc Video Mastering. How long does it need to take for them to fix it?

Regards

Phil

@phil-d

Virtual monitor method is broken since one or two (or more?) windows 10 major updates ago. The new gui with the detect button does not get you further like you used to. There may be ways to get the old windows screen resolution gui back via registery hacks, but that may brake more than it helps.

There is also a hardware hack floating around the internet, to use a DVI to VGA female adapter and sticking some 75 ohm resistors in the correct holes to fool the mobo that there is a monitor connected to it...

But I am not willing to try that on my new PC 😟

.... to fool the mobo that there is a monitor connected to it...

@bitman

Most Monitors do have multiple inputs that are selected from the monitor. So you might connect an additional cable but select the input you currently use.

@Peter_P

A good Idea, but I already tried this, running 2 cables simultaneously to the same monitor, the display port to the discrete NVIDEA card, and the HDMI to the INTEL iGPU.

I still need to select on the monitor the iGPU input (in my case the HDMI) to have INTEL HVEC HW acceleration.

Wow, this thread was a crazy ride. I'm afraid I'm not an iota wiser on how to render with Quicksync, or any alternative hardware encoding options, for having read all this though. I have a brand new ASRock Taichi (interestingly @Peter_P mentioned the Taichi - any specific pointers Peter?) and an i7-8700K on the way hoping to utilize Intel's hardware assisted rendering.

I want to test a render with the 8700K's built in GPU (or is it a separate QSV component on the die @VEGASHeman, since you said it's not technically part of the GPU?) with no graphics card inserted, just for some baseline tests.

I do have a 6 year old Radeon 5770 I may use as a hold over until I can buy something beefy, but first I need to know if Vegas can take advantage of a graphics card or cpu-internal GPU/QSV at all for hardware assisted render. Is there any clear guide, video, or blog (or just your own summary or screenshots) for what needs to actually be clicked on to do a hardware render in Vegas?

Maybe you all are way past this point, in dealing with whatever bugs you discovered, but I'm just trying to figure out step #1 and that's what I need to select to tell Vegas I want to use hardware rendering.

-Josh