Hi Mark

Thanks for the reply.

1) I have checked that Windows 7 sees my graphics card. I ran dxdiag and under "display" the device is described as "NVIDIA Quadro 600" and my Monitor is described as "Dell U2410(Digital)" so I assume the NVidia card is being seen and used by my Windows system. I also checked the "Device Manager" and that also has the Quadro 600 against "Display Adaptor"

2) I have double-checked that the monitor is plugged into the correct slot at the back of the computer and it is. I have even taken the side off the CPU and can see the monitor plug is going into the NVidia Quadro card's connector.

3) I am not sure what you mean when you say "check using GPU-z" but I assume that the checks I have performed in steps 1 & 2 confirm that WIndows 7 is using my Quadro.

Regards
Viddy

Viddy, you don't say what format video you're editing with. Are you sure that using a graphics card is going to help?

Based on THIS thread in the Pro forum, I'm planning to use the integrated HD4000 GPU in the i3770, as my HD video is HDV from MiniDV tape. At least to begin with. If I move to another format, such as AVCHD, then maybe I'll consider adding a graphics card.

OK; physical check passes. Is your NVidia driver up to date?

After that, we can check Vegas settings....as MSmart pointed out, only some of the rendering codecs use GPU acceleration. What format are you rendering to?

For example, render to Sony AVC (1920x1080) template, click customize template. On the system tab, click check GPU. It should say, "CUDA Available".

FYI - GPU-z is a freeware program to check GPU processor/temperature usage.

Hi MSmart and Mark

Thanks for taking the time to look at my problem, much appreciated.

In answer to MSmart:
I generally want to edit video (1280x720) PAL 25fps from my small Sony camera. When I analyse the video type using MediaInfo this is what I am told the video type is:
> Container and general info: MPEG-4 (Sony PSP): 42.8 MiB
> 1 Video Stream: AVC
> 1 Audio Stream: AAC
> Video Stream: Media Info tells me: 1280x720 25fps AVC (Main@L4.0) (CABAC / 2 Ref Frames)

When I ask for info about the video in my VLC player I am told it is:
> H264 - MPEG-4 AVC 1280x720


When I render out from SVMS (NB. have only so far used Sony Vegas Movie Studio 10 for renders - SVMS12 has only been installed a week or so). I used to render to these general settings:
> Type: MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4)
> Frames Size: 1280x720,
> Profile: Main,
> Frame Rate: 25 (PAL),
> Field Order: None (Progressive Scan)
> Pixel Aspect ratio: 1.0000
> Number iof Reference Frames: 2
> Use deblocking filter is ticked
> VBR: Max 8,000,000, Average: 4,000,000

I guess I want to use something similar in SVMS12.

However, at the moment, when I am looking for the GPU Acceleration option for my Quadro 600 etc, I am checking for the option it when I set up a new project in SVMS12 upon starting the program. At this point I was assuming I should see the GPU Acceleration option in the Options/Preferences/Video/GPU acceleration of video processing. However, as mentioned, all I see is "OFF"

In answer to Mark:
I will check my NVidia driver to see if there's a later version available. The computer is only about five weeks old so I kinda hoped the drivers for the hardware (Quadro 600) would be pretty much up to date.

I will also create a simple project and see if I get the "CUDA Available" when I try to render the project.

Thanks again
Viddy

Hi again - just wanted to quickly update.

Mark:
I rendered a small section of video as per your instructions and can confirm that "CUDA Available" was shown. I also rendered the same short video to my more usual type of setting (which is 1280x720 25fps) using the "MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4;.avc)" output format and just changing it to 25fps. That also showed "CUDA Available".

Both renders did seem very quick although with such a short project it's difficult to judge. I presume I am meant to opt for "Render using CUDA if available" in the Encode Mode drop-down field? The other options were CPU or OpenCL (but I am not sure what those mean).

I have also checked the Quadro driver situation and am a bit puzzled. When I use the Windows 7 Device Manager and ask it to check for "Update Driver" it comes back an tells me that it has determined my current driver is up to date.

However, if I visit the NVidia website and check for latest driver version I see that there is version 320.00 for Windows 7 64-Bit whereas my diver version seems to be 314.22 (I am checking this by right-clicking my mouse in the desktop and there's a NVidia Control Panel Option. When I select this on the left-hand side menu there's an option under "Workstation" called "View system topology" - this tells me that my System Topology driver version is 314.22).

I am a bit confused by this driver thing. The driver version 320.00 on the NVidia website is 188Mb in size which seems massive. I have not downloaded or tried this driver yet as I am not 100% sure if it's appropriate as I am being told by Windows Device Manager that my Display Adaptor driver is up to date. Does this 188Mb driver from NVidia sound like the right thing for me?

Hmmmm... I guess no one said it'd be easy!!

Sorry for this rather laborious posting but I am, for some reason, not getting my head around some of these options/terminologies etc.

Think I'll have a coffee and try some yoga for a while....

Many thanks
Viddy

I too use the drivers from nvidia. After download and installation, they will take up MORE than 1GB of space. I use a 90GB SSD, so for me space is important too!

Cuda is for Nvidia, OpenCL is for AMD.

CPU is just that it doesn't use your graphics card for the render, only your processor.

Great response...

-Yes, render with CUDA is the option you want.
- I think Windows checks the Microsoft list, which often seems to be behind NVIdia. It doesn't update each time. It is OK to use the NVidia driver (and yes, they are that large). But as Movie Studio sees the GPU CUDAs (eg. GPU processor), it appears that the issue may be Movie Studio (it sees the graphics card in one menu, but not the other).

To check to see if it Movie Studio is using CUDA, take a sample project (sounds like you have one already), render using CPU only. The render using GPU. Use your codec of choice since that has the option already listed for you. If there is a difference, then it probably doesn't matter what it says in the preference setting and you're good to go! As far as I know, Movie Studio uses the GPU for rendering only (not real time editing). So, you aren't losing anything. On the other hand, if there is no difference perhaps you need to uninstall Movie Studio and then reinstall it. If that fails, a clean install (check the knowledge base for more info) of Movie Studio might do the trick.

I am a bit confused by this driver thing.

You're not alone, back to the Pro forum....

GPU Acceleration Confusion

Hi everyone,

Firstly I would like to say thank you very much to you all for your highly useful and informative help with my GPU Acceleration issue. Not only have I now solved the problem but I also feel more knowledgeable about this aspect of SVMS - and that's (in no small way) down to the enthusiasts who view and post in this forum. It's an excellent community.

The solution does appear to be that my NVidia drivers were not right up to date. It was Mark who initially suggested checking my drivers. To cut a long story short I have now installed NVidia's Quadro 600 latest driver (ver 320.00) and am delighted to report that when I fire up Movie Studio I now see the Quadro 600 as available for GPU Acceleration. Naturally I am somewhat chuffed about this.

Of course I don't know just how much difference this GPU Acceleration actually makes in the day-to-day usage of SVMS but at least I know that I have the program set up correctly and will test it over a period of time. Anything that makes video editing and rendering a bit smoother and quicker has to be worth pursuing.

So, thanks again to you all for taking time out to help me with my problem. Hopefully there may be others reading this post who will also benefit from the wisdom offered here (I can't be the only SVMS user who has had this or similar issues).

Now I can actually start some video editing with greater confidence...

A very appreciative Viddy.

Glad to hear it all worked out and for posting back a result. It will help other readers.

As for the acceleration, it helps...a little bit - check out... link

For a 1 minute project, I saved 6 seconds on a 1:17 min render. Doesn't sound like much, but is about an 8% savings. 8% on a 40 min project is about 3 mins. However, with a slower processor (or perhaps better graphics card), perhaps the acceleration may improve.

I hope that in the future, Movie Studio would be able to use GPU processing power to offload some the processing during editing.

With the latest generation Nvidia cards it is not GPU accelerating in vegas 12. It reports it in use, reports it's available, reports it's using it, but it does not actually speed up rendering. I had a GTX 240 and it allowed rendering at 2x speed. IE 2 minutes of video took 1 minute to render.

After upgrading to a GTX 660 that same 2 minute video takes over 10 minutes with CPU or GPU. It doesn't seem to use the GPU at all.

This is because Nvidia changed the CUDA architecture on their latest hardware and Vegas needs to be updated but in spite of being on the market for almost a year, Sony still hasn't updated Vegas to support them.

I have the latest drivers and I have tested this EXTENSIVELY.

Kodack,

Which codecs were you using to render to? I went back and ran a longer test...

Intel i7 3770k and GTX650Ti.

33m43s AVCHD (1440x1080i) render with 2 motion titles rendered to 1280x720p using Sony AVC codec.

Core Temp was used to monitor processor usage
CPU only:
Render time 24m43s; CPU average processor usage ~50%; GPU processor 16%

GPU/CPU render:
Render time 20m43s; CPU average processor usage ~50%; GPU processor 43%

Conclusion: 16% time savings. Granted 4 mins isn't a big deal, but it definitely works. Another question is why the cpu seems to be limited (is there another bottleneck?) and why the GPU can't take more. Other software does take advantage of more of the processor power (90+% load).

thank you so much guys for your knowledge and experience.
I have VMS Plat 10.0 and I want to upgrade to 12.0. However the specs seem to indicate that i have to have a graphics card that supports GPU acceleration. Your comment shows that I can switch OFF GPU acceleration, so I can upgrade. Fantastic!
For the record, I have a Sony Vaio Z11, fantastic hardware but the hybrid GPU driver is dodgy and can't be upgraded, so i have to switch off GPU acceleration for anything to work.
You are all so brilliant! Thanks!

I have a Geforce GTX 760... checked have OpenCL & CUDA enabled.
In vegas movie studio HD platinum 11, I go to >preferences>video, from what I've seen on line, the third option down should be to select "encode mode". On mine, its missing all together. Goes from Maximum number of threads, to next one down is "Show sourceframe numbers". The menu to select GPU isn't even there.
As far as I know, I have more than enough hardware to get this option.

When I go to create a template... under video section... check for GPU... says none available. Everything else I have sees the GPU. Don't get it.
I bought this video card for the sole purpose of speeding up my rendering time.
Can someone let me know what I'm doing wrong??

Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 does not yet have the "GPU acceleration of video processing" option in its Options > Preferences > Video.
MSP 12, which is discussed in this thread, does have that, so does MSP 13.
From the VMSP 11 Release Notes:
Improved support for GPU-accelerated AVC rendering using the Sony AVC/MVC plug-in.

Check your Sony AVC/MVC render templates to see if you find the "Encode mode" options in the Video tab of the Custom Settings dialog and "Check GPU" in the System tab.

A recent (12/14/2015) SCS KB article¹ states a.o. the following:
"Please note that GPU-accelerated rendering is not available for the Sony AVC/MVC format when using the latest drivers for NVIDIA Maxwell-based GPUs (such as the GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 970). GeForce 337.88 or Quadro/Tesla 341.05 (an R340 driver) or older is required for GPU-accelerated AVC rendering."

The bold paragraph in that article is worth reading.

¹) "GPU Acceleration explained"

I selected the option of "Render using GPU if available".
On the system tap, I hit check for GPU... it says "No GPU available".

I run Premiere Pro and it finds the GPU.

Any ideas??

Judging by some "ideas" in this thread it might be a driver version issue??

I have the newest drivers. Why does adobe premiere pro find it and Vegas wont?

Video Card Info: http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/16/01/29/rqc.png
System: i7 4770 @ 3.4ghz. 16gb ram. Windows 10 64-bit OS

You may have not noticed or chose to ignore some of my post above dated 1/28/2016.
There I quoted from an SCS KB article the following piece:
"Please note that GPU-accelerated rendering is not available for the Sony AVC/MVC format when using the latest drivers for NVIDIA Maxwell-based GPUs (such as the GeForce GTX 750 and GTX 970). GeForce 337.88 or Quadro/Tesla 341.05 (an R340 driver) or older is required for GPU-accelerated AVC rendering."

It mentions "such as the GeForce GTX 750". You say you have the GeForce GTX 760, maybe the SCS warning applies to that as well. The article mentions the driver(s) that are required. It also mentions that "on Windows 10 systems, each time Windows automatically updates the GPU driver will be updated to the most recent driver version in the Windows OS database. If you are using a rolled back driver version for GPU support, it may be necessary to roll the GPU driver back to the supported version each time Windows automatically updates."

Of course a rolled back driver version might mess up your Premiere Pro and/or your gaming experiences, so you decide if you want to try that.

Btw, did you read that article? It does have useful info re the SCS stand on GPU-accelerated AVC rendering in general.

Assuming that another version of Movie Studio will be released at some point, I would love to make your post a sticky at the top of the forum. The KB article discusses key points that have been raised over the last few years in this forum.... A nice find!