Relative CPU/GPU performance?

sploo wrote on 8/27/2013, 5:53 PM
I've been trying out Movie Studio on an old Q6600 machine with a similarly ancient GeForce 9400GT. This has been for some simple editing of 1080p footage from a Canon 5D3, with a few filters (white balance, unsharp, curves etc.) and then rendering out to MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4;*.avc) Internet HD 1080p.

Obviously the machine's slow; though the CUDA option for the rendering does make a ~20% performance difference.

I was thinking of upgrading to a 4770k based machine, but wondering about suitable graphics support.

I believe the 4770k is about 3x faster than the Q6600, and ironically I believe its built-in HD 4600 graphics is also about 3x faster than the 9400GT. However, I may be able to get hold of a Quadro 4000 (maybe 3x the performance of the HD 4600), so that looks like a good option.

However, if I were to spend some cash, I was thinking about the GeForce GTX 660Ti (maybe 2x the performance of the Quadro). However, I've seen a number of messages on the forum indicating that Movie Studio doesn't seem to like the 660Ti (compatibility issues with CUDA).

Is anyone successfully running with the 660Ti (or the Quadro 4000 for that matter) and could give some guidance on good GPU choices for Movie Studio?

Out of interest, has anyone done any benchmarking of performance with different CUDA or OpenCL cards? I found this http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1750719/tabulate-sony-vegas-speed-gpu.html, but it appears there's not much data yet.

Comments

MSmart wrote on 8/27/2013, 8:15 PM
sploo, welcome to the forum.

There are a number of threads discussing your question on this forum and the Vegas Pro forum, use the Search link above to find them.

Use keywords such as gpu or 4770 or hd4600 to find them.

I'll throw you a bone, here's one on the Pro forum:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=867552
videoITguy wrote on 8/27/2013, 8:18 PM
must read:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=866817
Markk655 wrote on 8/27/2013, 9:19 PM
In short, I have seen the same posts as you - the 660Ti doesn't seem to work...yet.

I have a 650Ti which Vegas recognizes and works. With a faster processor, the GPU gains have been nominal (~10%) in all of my render tests (3770k@4.2 GHz).

At this point, I wouldn't overpay for a GPU. The next version of Movie Studio may change that (but that is anyone's guess).

I would be interesting to see the results of the Tom's Hardware discussion when it finishes.
MSmart wrote on 8/27/2013, 9:50 PM
sploo, I see now where you've already looked through several posts... carry on.
sploo wrote on 8/28/2013, 3:51 AM
All - many thanks for the helpful responses, and the welcome to the forum (and to the Sony tech who resolved a problem to allow me to post in the first place!)

Yes - I had seen some of the threads that have been linked; as it was those that'd sparked up my questions.

Broadly, it does seem that the performance figures people post are roughly in line with the relative figures at http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html so that's a useful way of comparing cards.

As I might be able to get hold of a Quadro 4000 at no cost I think that would probably be a good start (paired with a 4770k), and perhaps upgrade (ironic, given the lower cost) to a 660Ti or similar later... when it perhaps works in Movie Studio.

It's all just a bit confusing regarding which cards will or won't give a boost, and people seem to report slightly differing compatibility results with various cards!

EDIT: One thing I forgot to ask - it occurs to me that systems with a remotely useful on-board graphics system (i.e. a 4770k) that also have a separate gfx card have two potential OpenCL/CUDA targets. Is there any way to make apps such as Movie Studio use both simultaneously? I suspect there would be numerous difficulties in implementing this, but it'd certainly be a good performance boost (other bottlenecks permitting).