OT: Adding an older AMD card to R9 290

dxdy wrote on 12/29/2014, 9:09 AM
My shiny new build has an AMD R9 290 to complement the i7-5960 for running SVP 13. As reported several times on this forum, MC and Sony AVC (MPEG2) codecs do not function with this latest generation.

Overclocking the 5960 to 4.0 GHz performs the MC Sony Red Car Benchmark in 59 seconds with no GPU activity showing. This is disappointing (when compared to Hulk's summary of results.)

http://www.hyperactivemusic.com/vegaspro/vegaspro.html

In the above table, much older CPU chips running with GTX 570 and 580 or AMD 6870 run the benchmark much faster.

I have an AMD 6970 (purchased from ebay). What do I need to be wary of when adding the 6970 to the R9 290? The machine has a 1200 watt power supply, so I don't think that is an issue.

I have AMD Catalyst 14.301 installed. Will the older card work with the newer driver?
Should I just be patient and wait for SCS to update the AVC codecs for the new GPU hardware?

Or even remove the R9 290 and set it aside until the new architecture is supported, and run with the 6970?

90% of my demand is for DVD and BluRay (I service dinosaurs, I know, I know.)

Comments

NickHope wrote on 12/29/2014, 1:14 PM
Will the older card work with the newer driver?

It should do. I am running 14.9.1 beta with my HD 6970. I had a non-Vegas problem with 14.9.1 but I don't remember what.

Read this thread before you install it. Especially JohnnyRoy's post.

Should I just be patient and wait for SCS to update the AVC codecs for the new GPU hardware?

I think there's a strong likelihood that will never happen.

Or even remove the R9 290 and set it aside until the new architecture is supported, and run with the 6970?

You should get better timeline responsiveness from the R9 290 so if that is a priority then leave that card in. But if you're not running 4K or doing lots of complicated stuff on the timeline then the HD 6970 might give good enough timeline performance.

The big question is, if you have both cards in, does Vegas have the intelligence to choose the HD 6970 for GPU-accelerated renders, while still using the R9 290 for playback? You can't specifically choose a card in the render dialogs like (I think) you can in the video preferences. I don't know of anyone who has tried this with 2 different AMD GPUs so I guess you'd have to test it out. If you do then please let us know your results as I am thinking of adding an R9 290 and then I'd be in the same position as you with regards to whether to also leave in the HD 6970. (In truth I'd probably sell the HD6970 and leave in my GTX 580. GPU-accelerated rendering is not a priority for me as I frameserve everything).