@AaronL Hi,

H.264 is fine that's AVC, I avoid H.265 -HEVC,

I'm using V19 so i don't know if it's the same, under the Help button at the top you can check for Driver updates, ther's some debate but Studio driver is the best,

does your file i/o look like this for Hardware decoder to use ?

For Handbrake, try the production standard preset, use x264 encoder and a RF of 23 or so. Keep the resolution the same as the source. Check "constant framerate" and pick the framerate closest to what you shot (60fps, etc.) That will give Vegas an easy-to-decode h264 file. Don't make proxies yet and see if this helps.

For decoding keep it on defaults. Intel QSV is the right one for decoding.

If you disabled so4compound (the new AVC decoder) in internal preferences, undo that. If you don't know how or also made other changes you can't recall, reset Vegas.

I'd turn resample to "disable resample" in project properties.

Try the latest NVIDIA Studio Driver for your GPU, too.

In project properties Resample mode should be set to disabled.

Also you could try using Nvidia hardware decoder instead of Intel, it's possible your intel decoder is disabled on the laptop for thermal reasons.

I still don't think that explains 93% cpu of an 8core(but no hyperthreading) cpu when using proxies, the proxy format doesnt' use GPU decoding, so would be unaffected by GPU decoder settings, Unless VP17 was the version they tried H.264 hardware encoded proxies.

For decoding keep it on defaults. Intel QSV is the right one for decoding.

 

@RogerS Hi, i don't have Intel I have an AMD so that option isn't available, do you think not having it set to the nvidia makes much difference on an Intel system?

For decoding keep it on defaults. Intel QSV is the right one for decoding.

 

 Hi, i don't have Intel I have an AMD so that option isn't available, do you think not having it set to the nvidia makes much difference on an Intel system?

Hi Gid, it depends in part on what you are decoding. There are edge cases where the NVIDIA decoders just plain fail to properly decode files in Vegas (errors) and others where Intel is more compatible (NVDEC would kick you back to slower CPU decoding, though Vegas might still opt to use QSV if it's not disabled in device manager). If you have an Intel decoder I'd use it unless there's a specific reason not to. With my laptop I had stability issues with NVDEC and stopped testing it a while ago as there was no benefit over QSV.

I still don't think that explains 93% cpu of an 8core(but no hyperthreading) cpu when using proxies, the proxy format doesnt' use GPU decoding, so would be unaffected by GPU decoder settings, Unless VP17 was the version they tried H.264 hardware encoded proxies.

IIRC that was an early build of VP 18 that was quickly reversed. So VP 17 proxies shouldn't use any GPU decoding and would be unaffected by decoder settings as you state.

For decoding keep it on defaults. Intel QSV is the right one for decoding.

 

@RogerS Hi, i don't have Intel I have an AMD so that option isn't available, do you think not having it set to the nvidia makes much difference on an Intel system?

@Former user Performance wise, no difference, Nvidia decoder is faster if memory serves me correct. However, and as a non technical person I'll try my best to explain this, but technical people feel free to correct. They appear to use an Intel module? API?, that they just need to plug into Vegas. Intel makes the 'module', all they do is plug it in when a new version comes out. We saw this with the release of the new intel CPU's that supported HEVC 422 decode, very quickly after release Vegas could hardware decode HEVC 422 with those IGPU's.

The unfortunate thing is, for some reason the same process doesn't happen with Nvidia and AMD GPU's, they don't just plug in an Nvidia or AMD module so that causes huge delays when new codecs come out. It has literally been years since some of the most popular cameras have come out and there is no codec support for Nvidia/AMD GPU's.

Depending on the codec, on Nvidia/Amd you may have buggy GPU decoding, no gpu decoding (cpu instead), or a complete inability to play the camera file on Vegas at all. This is my self explanation of the problem, I don't think anyone from Magix/Vegas have ever commented

THANKS everyone for all this great info, It is going to take me a bit to digest all of this, but I hope these turn out to be useful suggestions. In the meantime please allow me to ask for a couple of points of clarification: FROSTY wrote

The GPU can only decode some formats.

When you say "some formats" is that what I call "codecs" or are those terms not equivalent.

ROGER WROTE

Try the latest NVIDIA Studio Driver for your GPU, too.

 

This was suggested last night by an experienced editor friend ( not vegas) last night. But when I downloaded the "studio " version of the driver it was older than my current driver, and then would not install, the error message I think said not compatible"

What am I missing?

I think for this purpose codecs and formats are equivalent (though it may also be the combination of codec x container for Vegas).

For the Studio Driver it is compatible with the GeForce GTX 1660 and may well be older than the gaming driver- that's the point. It's updated less frequently and tested better.

Try here for the desktop driver (notebook is different). If you have more issues uninstall GeForce experience and the current driver first.

@AaronL Hi,

H.264 is fine that's AVC, I avoid H.265 -HEVC,

I'm using V19 so i don't know if it's the same, under the Help button at the top you can check for Driver updates, ther's some debate but Studio driver is the best,

does your file i/o look like this for Hardware decoder to use ?

My I/o tab does not look like this. - Auto NVIDIA IS NOT EVEN AN OPTION, mine looks like this - I am very open to suggestions here:

People are giving advice based on VP 18 and 19- 17's settings were different.

Intel QSV is the best option though you can click on it and turn it off (or change to NVDEC if it's there) if you want to test it. I'd leave it as is.

People are giving advice based on VP 18 and 19- 17's settings were different.

Intel QSV is the best option though you can click on it and turn it off (or change to NVDEC if it's there) if you want to test it. I'd leave it as is.

Thanks for clarifying, if upgrading to 19 is part of the solution here I would pay the $90 (it is on sale till March 1) but I suspect I should first try to get all of the above sorted out first ? unless people here think the upgrade would help?

Hi Aaron, I don't think an upgrade is necessary just for performance, though for $90 it's well worth it for other reasons.

In order of usefulness for performance:

1. Convert variable framerate phone footage to constant using x.264
2. Try to update to the NVIDIA Studio Driver, your driver (456.71?) seems old.

#1 should solve the performance problem and should help with stability. #2 might help stability and prevent future issues when NVIDIA rushes a game patch that breaks other software.

VP 19 does a better job with decoding phone footage but 5-8 streams of it are unlikely to work well anyway.

@AaronL Have a look at this & see if you can install Geforce Experience, that has a drivers tab for updating,

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/geforce-gtx-16-series-super-game-ready-driver/

or

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/graphics-cards/gtx-1660-super/

@AaronL Also can you go to your icon at the top, click it - My Profile, & fill in your Signature with your Vegas version, Windows version & system specs, CPU, GPU, RAM etc. this will then show at the bottom of the comments 👍 

@AaronL Hi,

My I/o tab does not look like this. - Auto NVIDIA IS NOT EVEN AN OPTION, mine looks like this - I am very open to suggestions here:

Do you have (NVENC) at the end of your render options?

Like this

@AaronL Have a look at this & see if you can install Geforce Experience, that has a drivers tab for updating,

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/geforce-gtx-16-series-super-game-ready-driver/

or

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/graphics-cards/gtx-1660-super/

Thanks for this; when I tried to update the driver from device manger it just told me I had the latest driver.

I did not know there are different drivers for creators and gamers. Does not matter to me cause I have no interest in video games. On the other hand my son is into video games and wants to get into video editing. So if someone is into both can they switch back and forth depending on what they are doing at any given moment?

@AaronL Hi,

My I/o tab does not look like this. - Auto NVIDIA IS NOT EVEN AN OPTION, mine looks like this - I am very open to suggestions here:

Do you have (NVENC) at the end of your render options?

Like this

Yes in render options I can choose NVENC - but I dont know yet what any of this means :)

since starting this thread I have :

replaced videos with proxys

updated to latest studio driver

turned off resampling in project preferences

tried NVIDIA NVDEC in file i/o

This simple project ( 1 audio file 8 ios videos) - just cuts no color correction or effects at all , just multi cam cuts, is still pushing my CPU to the limit. In theory this should be well within the capabilities of my system no?

@AaronL When you choose Game Ready driver & at that moment you're on Studio driver, it will load the Game driver, i don't know if it is 'loading' it from the internet or your PC but it feels like an install if that makes sense, for me it doesn't take long but I avoid doing it, it's not just a switch from one to the other,

If you install Geforce Experience you'll see but it also has screen capture, Alt+F1 to capture an image, Alt+F9 to record screen, on mine anyway, i don't know about your card,

On my old PC there's a GTX 1660 Super, i'm not sure how well your son will do on your pc gaming with that card, 🤔🤷‍♂️

Thanks Gid , no worries, he games on his own computer not mine, but when he gets into some editing in the near future, I want to be able to help if he hits some of these roadblocks

I just hit alt F1 and GeFORCE asked if I want to take a screen shot, so that means I successfully installed the studio driver, is that what you mean?