Right Now I have a GTX 1070 Ti. PC has 32.GB Ram and Intel i9-9000k CPU. It renders faster with the GPU than just with the Processor. Was wondering what the next best upgrade would be? It renders about 25 percent faster using the GPU. I see newer GPU that are considerably faster than my GTX 1070 ti. BUT will that translate to faster rendering in Vegas. That is the question. If I could see 70 to 100 percent increase, then I'm all in.

well your 1070Ti is 14,047 and my 1080Ti is 17,644 in Passmark benchmark (https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html ) so your card is pretty good. you may not get hugely more performance extra but it will cost quite a bit more. If however you play games as well then maybe worth it.

For Vegas it's hard to know. With Davinci Resolve it's easy, If your GPU is 100% during a render and your cpu 35% then it's easy to diagnose that the gpu is the bottleneck and if you got a better gpu would get an increase in performance.

With vegas you never see 100% GPU with something like your 1070ti card, so that would mean there would be no point in getting a better card? Well I"m not sure, I've heard people say vegas is inefficient at using your GPU, so does that mean it will inefficiently use a 1070ti and a 2080ti, but the net result is that the 2080ti is faster as Vegas is inefficiently using a much more powerful gpu?

@Jacques-Brassard

Post a screen shot of your Windows Task Manager during "your typical render".

@john_dennis That's a good idea, , open task manager, look at your GPU and the 3D box. then when playing back various content, look to see how much 3D gpu you're using, and if playback is not smooth see if GPU use has anything to do with that. Also check that with encoding renders.

Need too look at the detailed gpu section not just the overview as that's an amalgamation of everything, 3d, decode, encode, copy, but we're only interested in 3d

What a nightmare. So Obviously my setup is not right.

My Video Configuration.

I render using this template

CPU Goes to High Utilization

NVidia GTX 1070 Ti is not being utilized. Onboard GPU is not being used.

I render without using GTX 1070 Ti

CPU again high Utilizataion

On Board GPU goes to 100 percent, but renders slower than when using the original configuration. What gives?????

Well that is the basic vegas problem, it hardly uses your GPU. Your intel 630 is a very weak GPU so 100% of that may equal the 3% use you saw in the Nvidia. You can try a filter such as Vegas Autolooks, choose an effect and maybe you'll see 10-15% use.

It's really the cumulative effect of multiple video tracks, and transitions, combined video fx where you'll see more GPU use

Your setup looks right to me though I get a bit higher % usage with NVENC than that (maybe 20% or so but it varies over the project timeline). It makes sense for the integrated GPU to have more to do when NVIDIA isn't being called on and why the CPU is taxed more.

As an alternative to Magix AVC you could also try the Voukoder plug-in which passes data to open-source encoders. They are efficient for NVENC and very high quality for CPU renders. Install the connector then Voukoder and then choose it as a render template and pick the one you want. (note resolution, audio, etc. will be based on project settings) https://www.voukoder.org/

@Jacques-Brassard

Magix AVC (AMD VCE) 1080p60 rendering in about real time while I type. I'm going to get a cup of coffee.

@john_dennis

What Version of Vegas are you running. I'm wondering if upgrading from my current version 16 to version 18 will improve my performance. Does Version 18 use the GPU more efficiently?

@Jacques-Brassard

The example I posted was Vegas Pro 17-452. I ignored 16 so long it was no longer available, then bought 17 on the promise of GPU hardware timeline decode. (No decoding going on in the example above because the source was MPEG-2.) Backup your system image, download the Vegas Pro 18 trial and decide how it works with your hardware. It should make much better use of the GPU than 16. If you don't like it, restore your current system image and forget that it ever happened.

Warranty

All of my advice comes with a double your money back guarantee.

@Jacques-Brassard

Here is a demo with some GPU hardware decoding going on...

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/cpu-or-gpu-for-playback-preview--125155/#ca778916

@john_dennis

Well I downloaded and installed the trial version of Vegas 18. What a disappointment. It renders even slower than my existing Version 16. So I was going to upgrade with the Black Friday sale of $149.00 but going to keep using 16. Cheers.

@Jacques-Brassard

Do you have a File-I/O tab in Preferences for Vegas 16? GPU Decode/Encode usage looks low, but since I don't have Vegas Pro 16, so I can't advise you on settings. I think the settings methodology even changed from 17 to 18.

At $149, I'll likely buy 18 and let it simmer on the shelf for an update or two since I'm happy and productive with 17-452 on my hardware. I'm going to upgrade my hardware in the near future. It's probably a good time to do it because it'll keep me off the street.

10 4K clips Sony XAVC-S all with 2 sec fade, render template Magix internet 1080p 25p NVENC time 1:45sec

V16 1:53

V18 1:04

If V18 slower than V16 there is something wrong with the settings.

Update

CPU only

V16 4:53

V18 4:12

@john_dennis

I did some testing. I am rendering this particular Video at approx. 77 Frames per Second using Vegas 16 and my existing Hardware.

I have installed the Vegas Pro 18 and made the configuration changes you have suggested as best as I can as it is a little different in Vegas Pro 18. The same Video is rendered at rate of 70 FPS.

This was calculated by doing the same video and dividing the total frames rendered by the time. So pretty accurate.

@john_dennis

I'll have to take a closer look and see if there is any other features that make 18 an option for me.

@andyrpsmith

Can you screen print me your configuration in Preferences and also the Render as Screen. Would be appreciated.

main settings dynamic ram preview 0, rendering threads 4

No idea how to get a print screen to post here.

I can snip to clipboard but how to go from there?

"Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots" and "Upload file".The button is 3rd from right on the bar above the comment box..