VERY LOW GPU USAGE, HIGH CPU USAGE

amir-k wrote on 4/26/2020, 11:14 PM

When using Vegas Pro 16, my PC (i7-7700k + GTX 1070 with Windows 10 Pro) intensively uses my CPU. My CPU usage is always 80 - 100% when editing or rendering whilst my GPU sits at 0 - 15% usage. This is causing editing to be slow and rendering times to be much longer than it should be (EVEN WHEN RENDERING WITH THE MAGIX NV ENCODER).

I have done everything. Absolutely everything to try fixing this problem. I've looked online and visited nearly every forum page relating to this issue and still haven't found any solution that works. I decided to make my own thread as my last hope.

I have enabled 'Allow legacy GPU rendering'
I have selected my GeForce GTX 1070 in Options > Preferences > Video
I have switched between both the Game Ready and Studio Ready drivers.
I have selected Vegas Pro 16 in Windows Settings > Display > Graphics Settings and set the 'High Performance' setting
I have installed the Nvidia CUDA Toolkit software
I have selected Vegas Pro 16 in 'Manage 3D settings' within Nvidia Control Panel (changed CUDA - GPU and OpenGL rendering GPU setting)

My last guess is that a file which allows GPU Acceleration to work is missing from my PC or corrupted.

*NOTE:
WHEN I CHECK GPU IN SONY AVC/MVC TEMPLATE > SYSTEM IT SAYS 'NO GPU AVAILABLE'.
Maybe the software doesn't even detect my GPU. However, NVIDIA GPU Activity shows 'vegas160.exe' under 'Applications running on this GPU'

If anyone reads this and can think of another possible solution, please respond with it. I am losing hope.

Comments

Musicvid wrote on 4/27/2020, 12:00 AM

Are you sure to use latest Studio driver?

Try disabling all legacy acceleration.

Try running with Administrator priveleges.

Try typing your video card and Vegas version in the search box, Assistant, or Support link at top.

amir-k wrote on 4/27/2020, 12:13 AM

I have installed both drivers using the GeForce experience application and both have stated that I have the latest drivers installed.

I just tried rendering with 'allow legacy GPU rendering' disabled and I noticed my CPU was still reaching 100% but reduced significantly to about 20%. This is new but my GPU usage only about 20%.

I just noticed I have not updated my Vegas to the latest version. I will try this, hoping it is the problem.

j-v wrote on 4/27/2020, 2:55 AM

All those figures are looking normal to me.
Most rendering task in Vegas has always been the CPU.
The Nvidia can help at rendering but cannot render alone and it depends on your project and things used there how much that is.
20 % help is a good figure. Has all nothing to do with CUDA and cuda cores but with the NVENC option of Nvidia. Would you like better and higher use than upgrade your NVidia card and upgrade to the last version 17 of Vegas Pro that also give help at decoding heavy files with NVDEC.
BTW latest driver says nothing, state here what your drivernumber is.

LongIslander wrote on 4/27/2020, 3:14 AM

Render Proxies. Set Preview To "Preview Draft" That will elimnate most of the CPU usage, and make your editing process smoother. As for rendering; maxing out your cpu is what every NLE does.

Musicvid wrote on 4/27/2020, 3:49 AM

With a great CPU, that 80-20 ratio is about the best you can expect, even with a great GPU. You're fine.

amir-k wrote on 4/27/2020, 6:15 AM

BTW latest driver says nothing, state here what your drivernumber is.

GeForce Game Ready Driver

Version: 445.87, Release date: 04/15/2020

NVIDIA Studio Driver

Version: 442.92, Release date: 04/16/2020

(I have tried both)

amir-k wrote on 4/27/2020, 6:23 AM

With a great CPU, that 80-20 ratio is about the best you can expect, even with a great GPU. You're fine.

I don't think so. A test 22.11 second video just took me over 9 minutes to render (1080p60, high quality, VBR), using the MAGIX NV Encoder. I will never be convinced that these are normal speeds. (By the way, most of my projects are in 4k)

I have watched many videos saying that using the NV Encoder can generally make your render times 2-3x faster. In my case, it makes absolutely no difference. Either Vegas pro is telling lies, or there IS something wrong.

j-v wrote on 4/27/2020, 6:41 AM

I have watched many videos saying that using the NV Encoder can generally make your render times 2-3x faster. In my case, it makes absolutely no difference. Either Vegas pro is telling lies, or there IS something wrong.

I my cases on laptop and desktop that is true, on desktop I render 4K almost realtime. So i think something is wrong, but Vegas is not telling lies.
Which buildnumber are you using?
What is the MediaInfo of your sourcefiles?
What are your exact projectproperties?
What is your exact (customized?) rendertemplate?

amir-k wrote on 4/27/2020, 7:01 AM

I have watched many videos saying that using the NV Encoder can generally make your render times 2-3x faster. In my case, it makes absolutely no difference. Either Vegas pro is telling lies, or there IS something wrong.

I my cases on laptop and desktop that is true, on desktop I render 4K almost realtime. So i think something is wrong, but Vegas is not telling lies.
Which buildnumber are you using?
What is the MediaInfo of your sourcefiles?
What are your exact projectproperties?
What is your exact (customized?) rendertemplate?

Im currently using Vegas 17 (build 421) and it made no difference

Nearly all the content in my projects are 3840x2160 screen recordings with NVENC H.264 encoder and 20 CQP control rate.

Project Properties:

Render Template:

(MAGIX HVEC/AAC is same)

j-v wrote on 4/27/2020, 8:46 AM

Thank you.
There must be something else wrong with your installation or hardware.
That Vegas is not lying I show you in my screengrab on Desktop from signature .
Sourcefiles are UDH AVC 50p from my GOPro 7, rendertemplate also the same and is visible.
Rendering of 1 minute takes 1,5 x realtime and if I should do it without also running OBS with the NV encoder it would be faster.
You can also see the load of my hardware

Musicvid wrote on 4/27/2020, 9:06 AM

Search gtx 1070 and you will get lots of opinions.

amir-k wrote on 4/27/2020, 4:17 PM

Search gtx 1070 and you will get lots of opinions.

Nothing in the forum or anywhere else online has helped. I guess im just the 1% unlucky ones and I will have to render overnight.

Thanks everyone that has tried to help.

Musicvid wrote on 4/28/2020, 12:19 PM

@amir-k

Nothing in the forum or anywhere else online has helped. I guess im just the 1% unlucky ones and I will have to render overnight.

This comment appeared yesterday on the Handbrake forum:

To get usable hevc encoding with Nvidia card you need the Turing NVEnc, this means it has to be a 1650 Super or better (1660/20xx). The non-Super 1650 don't have this, nor do any of the older Nvidia cards like your 1080 and there's currently no AMD cards with what I would consider an usable hevc encoder.

And as others have noted, even the Turing NVEnc is in the "speed, not quality per bit" group but there's a number of cases where it makes good sense like streaming.

Top

amir-k wrote on 4/28/2020, 7:33 PM

@amir-k

This comment appeared yesterday on the Handbrake forum:

This makes more sense as I am using the H.264 codec. I have another question regarding rendering about the final render, not the hardware I'm using. I will ask this in another thread for more convenience.

Thanks a ton!

JimmyStinson wrote on 7/18/2020, 4:03 AM

The numbers speak for themselves.
I used VEGAS to work on my old laptop, switch to a PC I build.

Ryzen 3900X
64Gb RAM
NVIDIA RTX 2080 SUPER
SSD1TB 5000Mb / s write and 4500Mb / s read

Vegas used 90% CPU and only 20% GPU
It takes 4:00 min to render a clip from 06:35 to 1920x1080 30 fps

I had to learn how to use Davinci Resolve, and although I like it more vegas, the Davinci numbers are better.
CPU 10% GPU 90% Took time to render the same clip 00:59 seconds

VEGAS is not optimized, I hope that one day it will improve. I tried all the GPU acceleration hints, H.264 and H.265 codec and nothing worked. The problem is VEGAS, not NVIDIA

Former user wrote on 7/18/2020, 4:39 AM

Vegas used 90% CPU and only 20% GPU
It takes 4:00 min to render a clip from 06:35 to 1920x1080 30 fps

I had to learn how to use Davinci Resolve, and although I like it more vegas, the Davinci numbers are better.
CPU 10% GPU 90% Took time to render the same clip 00:59 seconds

You are getting 90% cpu with a 3900x doing Nvenc hardware encoding on vegaspro?

That doesn't sound right at all

Davinci results for hardware encoding are likely normal for a 3900x but only paid Studio version does hardware encoding. Are you using studio?

I"m guessing at how you are encoding, what are you actually doing, software or hardware encoding, or are you doing software encoding on vegas and hardware encoding on Davinci resolve studio? Are you comparing basic transcodes or are you using video effects on both?

RogerS wrote on 7/18/2020, 8:53 AM

Which render template did you start with using Vegas? It is an AVC one using NVENC for encoding?

If you are not satisfied with the performance of Vegas, try rending with Voukoder (free donation-ware plugin). I use it for rendering now and find it quick and high quality. voukoder.org/

alifftudm95 wrote on 7/25/2020, 10:44 PM

Yea. similar situation. VEGAS only use 12-14% of my GPU for rendering

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 7/26/2020, 8:08 AM

@amir-k I think your motherboard has an Intel igpu of some sort built in. If so, you might want to try installing the latest gpu driver from the manufacturer support page and set Vegas to use Intel qsv decoding on the I/O tab. Installing GPU-Z from TechPowerUp will tell you exactly what you got in the way of gpu's and api's... I think Vegas can still only use the OpenCL api on the Intel driver. I found I got dramatically better performance after I did both that and disabled legacy qsv. With Nvidia you might also have to go into control panel manage 3d screen and either set it to use Integrated graphics as the preferred graphics processor on the Global tab or go to the program settings tab and add Vegas and set it to use integrated graphics. Here's what my Gpu-z screens look like on my laptop...

adimatis wrote on 7/26/2020, 8:24 AM

In spite of what some fellow forumists do not want to acknowledge here in the forum, Vegas does not make the best usage of GPU and it is NOT optimized well to do it. And this thing is very clear! Why? Because with the SAME hardware, other editor does run smoother and does make better usage of GPU.

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/difference-in-timeline-playback-performance--119796/

vkmast wrote on 7/26/2020, 8:39 AM

adimatis wrote 7/21/2020

Anyway, this dead horse has been destroyed with beating! :)

adimatis wrote on 7/26/2020, 8:47 AM

:) :) Yep... My bad! Thanks!

alifftudm95 wrote on 7/26/2020, 9:27 AM

@amir-k I think your motherboard has an Intel igpu of some sort built in. If so, you might want to try installing the latest gpu driver from the manufacturer support page and set Vegas to use Intel qsv decoding on the I/O tab. Installing GPU-Z from TechPowerUp will tell you exactly what you got in the way of gpu's and api's... I think Vegas can still only use the OpenCL api on the Intel driver. I found I got dramatically better performance after I did both that and disabled legacy qsv. With Nvidia you might also have to go into control panel manage 3d screen and either set it to use Integrated graphics as the preferred graphics processor on the Global tab or go to the program settings tab and add Vegas and set it to use integrated graphics. Here's what my Gpu-z screens look like on my laptop...

Wow, my playback is superb smooth when I add VEGAS into Nvidia program settings and set OpenGL rendering GPU with RTX2060.

But the actual rendering for export still uses the CPU

amir-k wrote on 12/30/2020, 5:00 AM

@amir-k I think your motherboard has an Intel igpu of some sort built in. If so, you might want to try installing the latest gpu driver from the manufacturer support page and set Vegas to use Intel qsv decoding on the I/O tab. Installing GPU-Z from TechPowerUp will tell you exactly what you got in the way of gpu's and api's... I think Vegas can still only use the OpenCL api on the Intel driver. I found I got dramatically better performance after I did both that and disabled legacy qsv. With Nvidia you might also have to go into control panel manage 3d screen and either set it to use Integrated graphics as the preferred graphics processor on the Global tab or go to the program settings tab and add Vegas and set it to use integrated graphics. Here's what my Gpu-z screens look like on my laptop...

Thank you for your input. Well, when I installed my GTX 1070, I actually completely uninstalled my igpu (Intel HD 630). This is interesting as it's not something I've thought about, and could be the reason why rendering takes necessarily long. However shouldn't my GTX 1070, a much more powerful graphics processor, be a lot faster anyway?

Surprisingly, it's been half a year since I started this thread and I still have the same issue with ridiculous rendering times, in fact, it is what caused me to come back here and have a look. I've blamed the support available for this problem but now I'm convinced it's just the vegas software itself that can have problems across different machines which explains why you see people with real-time editing and rendering and also people with much better hardware but still very poor output performance.