VMS11: GPU rendering not working

Weakling wrote on 10/20/2011, 5:48 AM
My graphics card is not used for rendering eventho Vegas sees that my card supports CUDA (via the "Check GPU" button). I use the Sony AVC plugin and set the rendering to "GPU (if available)", but it does not work. The GPU utilization stays at about 6%, the same as with a CPU only render. A ten minute clip takes about 20 minutes to render in whatever mode (no effects used).

I am sure my rig can use CUDA rendering, because in Nero Video, the same clip with the same settings takes 6 minutes to render (!) and the GPU is used for about 30%. So it must be possible for Sony Vegas, which in my eyes should be the more professional product, to match that performance.

Anyone any ideas how to get the GPU rendering working?

My system:
- i5 860
- 4GB ram
- Asus GTX560
- nVidia driver 280.26
- Windows 7 64 bit
- Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11

Comments

abelenky wrote on 10/21/2011, 12:02 PM
I too cannot render using my GPU. Its a Radeon HD 5770, with all the latest drivers.

But the "Check GPU" button says "No GPU available".

I've found very, very little about any reasons why, diagnosing the problem, or potential resolutions. If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Markk655 wrote on 10/21/2011, 1:00 PM
Still no reason - also see here but at least they may be aware of an issue.

Where do you check GPU utilization?
rdandrea wrote on 10/22/2011, 11:11 AM
Prompted by this thread, I checked mine also. I have a GeForce 9600 GSO with the latest drivers (280.26). I also get the "No GPU Available" message.

It's seen by other programs, such as the GIS I use.

I submitted an email support request to Sony the other day. We'll see what they say. If a reply comes, I'll post it here.

Edit: Well, I found my own problem in this Knowledgebase article:

https://www.custcenter.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5067/kw/gpu/related/1

It says that "NVIDIA GPUs with Compute Capability prior to 2.0 are currently not enabled for GPU-accelerated video processing. We are working with nVIDIA on this issue."

My card has compute capability 1.1
abelenky wrote on 10/22/2011, 1:43 PM
I've seen the article on Sony's Customer Center that says Radeon Catalyst Driver 11.3 doesn't work, and you should use 11.2

However, on AMD's website (http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/radeon_win7-64.aspx), they say the latest drivers are 11.9.

(well, at least they talk about 11.9 as the latest version of the "Catalyst Software Suite", I can't be sure thats the same thing as the "Driver").

I'm running 11.9, and unwilling to roll back all the way to 11.2.

I wish Sony and AMD would both come out with more definitive statements about if versions up to 11.9, and if the "Catalyst Software Suite" is the same thing as the "Driver", or if not, how do I discover my exact driver version number?
Markk655 wrote on 10/22/2011, 9:42 PM
VMS 11; GT240 NVidia drivers 266.58. Compute capability 1.2...GPU check in VMS --->CUDA Available.

I think that help file is for Vegas Pro 11 - not for VMS 11. The date is similar to the other Vegas Pro answers that came out for Vegas Pro 11 (such as Mainconcept AVC GPU encoding).

Weakling wrote on 10/26/2011, 12:07 PM
It saddens me that there seems to be no solution to this problem. So basically we have a GPU rendering option in VMS11 (Platinum HD version in my case), but it does nothing at all. Strange.
Markk655 wrote on 10/26/2011, 2:58 PM
Did you contact Technical Support?
Weakling wrote on 10/28/2011, 2:46 PM
Yes, still waiting for an answer tho. But I will give it a week or two, because I am probably not the only one ...
Goldeneagle wrote on 12/18/2011, 11:03 AM
I've submitted a support ticket for my system regarding GPU rendering. My system is:

Dell XPS8300
Intel 2nd Gen Core i7 2600
6Gb Ram
Radeon HD 6670 GPU
1TB HDD

I'm trialling this software at the moment and I have a choice between Power Director 10 Ultra which utilises my GPU just fine, or Vegas. I rendered a test file in each with the same output settings and whilst Vegas took 20 minutes to render, Power Director only took 7 minutes.

I would rather buy Vegas as I like all the features, settings etc and it's £25 cheaper than Power Director Ultra at the minute ( for the Movie Studio HD Platinum version ) but rendering time does make a difference for me so if they fix this soon I will buy Vegas in a second.

64-bit OS support would also be good too as it would make use of the full 6Gb of Ram I have on my system. Power Director is 64-bit.

Sykes wrote on 12/19/2011, 11:35 PM
I believed the latest build update of Vegas 11 supports 64bits. I haven't updated yet but that's what I thought I read from their release notes.
Weakling wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:10 PM
@Goldeneagle: same here and after much discussion between me and Sony they cannot provide me with a solution other than: "buy the pro version". Sigh, really? Because that is the strange thing: GPU rendering does work with the Pro version.

Would have thought both products shared the same code base with some features disabled for the VMS one. But seems they do not, or at least not concerning the GPU rendering feature. Huge disappointment.
vkmast wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:33 PM
Weakling,
have you tried the nVidia drivers v 285.79 (or the two newer ones)?
Weakling wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:45 PM
No, I have not tried those. Not too keen on trying beta drivers to be honest and besides: it works with Vegas Pro (and other video editors like Nero Video), so I would find it very odd if another graphics driver made any difference. By the way: I am now using version 285.62.
vkmast wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:48 PM
I have a lower end card with the 285.79 drivers and GPU-Z shows some 30- 40% utilization with Sony AVC. 285.62 driver was the first with VPro to show the option.
Weakling wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:49 PM
Ah, and did you get that as well with 285.62?
vkmast wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:51 PM
See the edit above. Didn't try the 285.62 myself.
Weakling wrote on 1/3/2012, 4:54 PM
Do I understand correctly that you use the Pro version? Because that is where my problem lies: it works for me in the Pro version as well which I do not own, but it does not work in the VMS HD Platinum version which I do own.
vkmast wrote on 1/3/2012, 5:01 PM
I use both. The comment referred to my experiences with VMS HD 11 Platinum.
Weakling wrote on 1/3/2012, 5:13 PM
Ah, because your edit earlier mentions VPro. In the meantime I tried 285.79 and it did not do the trick either.
vkmast wrote on 1/3/2012, 5:17 PM
Too bad :(
One last Q. Did you get in encode mode 'Render using GPU if available'?
Weakling wrote on 1/3/2012, 5:22 PM
Yep, I do get (and set) that option and the "Check GPU" button on the video tab does say that CUDA is available. Everything is just like in the Pro trail version, but the GPU is not used in VMS.
vkmast wrote on 1/3/2012, 5:46 PM
Anyway, these are from my machine.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50473571/gpuzvms11sonyavc.JPG

and cpu only:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50473571/gpuzvms11sonyavccpuonly.JPG

VMS 11 Plat b283.
Sykes wrote on 1/4/2012, 1:57 AM
What kind of format are you guys rendering to? GPU-accelerated rendering is only available for rendering to Sony formats, also, what are the benefits of using cuda? Is it faster? From what I heard, video rendering is very CPU intensive so my corei7 is doing a fine job, and along with 8GB of system RAM, why would anyone wants something lower and go with the gpu?
vkmast wrote on 1/4/2012, 4:29 AM
80sGuy,
good questions. This was just to test if it was working with Sony AVC or not.