Preferences->GPU acceleration for video processing : still buggy?!

Yamiks wrote on 5/16/2018, 12:48 PM

Ever since I started using Vegas (think it was back in them days of vegas 9) a feature in preferences that goes by the name "GPU acceleration of video processing" caused (and still does) cause one of following issues :

Fatal crash (especially during rendering IF preview is turned on)
Transition artifacting (you know that TV screen noise look-alike effect)
Clips going black (that is not rendering or partly not rendering)
ETC small little issues

Is this still an ongoing issue and perhaps someone knows WHY this happens in the first place (in vegas 15)?!

Graphics cards I use to run : GTX780 in SLI(selecting ether one produced the same results), GTX780, GTX1080

I know this is just for the preview window, but having a slow-ass HDD & i7 4790 to edit with makes for a desperate situation!

(and yes yes I will get better hardware, but that's later!)

Comments

AVsupport wrote on 5/16/2018, 6:09 PM

You might find it useful to search this forum for already existing threads concerning this topic, it's well discussed

NickHope wrote on 5/17/2018, 3:03 AM

GPU acceleration of video processing was not introduced until Vegas Pro 11. I didn't own that version, and one of the reasons I didn't was because, according to the forum, GPU acceleration was total carnage to start with.

Most of the specific GPU-related bugs have been ironed out since then, to the point that there are only 4 of them listed in this (non-official) known issues list. 3 of those only affect AMD, 2 of which may already have been resolved with recent AMD drivers and/or Vegas builds. The 4th issue only affects machines that have both NVIDIA and Intel graphics.

So I would say that the situation is certainly better than it was, but media format and system configuration (especially GPU driver choice) still play a big role in stability with GPU acceleration turned ON. Switching it OFF is still one of the first things to try if you're suffering instability.

Another thing still often reported is that GPU acceleration is not having as much effect as users believe it should. For example, low GPU activity (according to monitoring software) and mediocre speed gains. That varies by GPU brand, model, driver, Vegas version (14 & 15 have major differences) and other circumstances, to the point where it's currently very difficult to make recommendations for choosing a GPU for VP15.

Trensharo wrote on 5/18/2018, 6:11 PM

Ever since I started using Vegas (think it was back in them days of vegas 9) a feature in preferences that goes by the name "GPU acceleration of video processing" caused (and still does) cause one of following issues :

Fatal crash (especially during rendering IF preview is turned on)

Transition artifacting (you know that TV screen noise look-alike effect)

Clips going black (that is not rendering or partly not rendering)

ETC small little issues

Is this still an ongoing issue and perhaps someone knows WHY this happens in the first place (in vegas 15)?!

Graphics cards I use to run : GTX780 in SLI(selecting ether one produced the same results), GTX780, GTX1080

I know this is just for the preview window, but having a slow-ass HDD & i7 4790 to edit with makes for a desperate situation!

(and yes yes I will get better hardware, but that's later!)

Because it's more profitable to fix these things incrementally in new versions and get true believers to pay the upgrade fees, year over year, than to actually support the product properly and back patch older versions people have paid [in most cases, significant amounts of] money for.

The subscription exists for a reason, as well, despite the weak rhetoric they have put out about it.

Too bad it's practically the same price as Premiere Pro, and getting VEGAS 365 + Sound Forge 365 subscription makes no sense; as the price is too close to a full Creative Cloud subscription to bother with either of those.