VRAM Bottleneck in Vegas Pro 22 – Considering GPU Upgrade to RX 7900 X

Nizar-AbuZayyad wrote on 11/21/2024, 4:05 AM

Hi everyone,

I’m running Vegas Pro 22 on the following system:

CPU: i9-12900F / GPU: RTX 3080 12GB / RAM: 64GB DDR4

I occasionally encounter a VRAM bottleneck when working on large projects, especially when the project media contains 600+ video files. While this is rare, it does happen when I'm editing films with a substantial amount of video material. especially those that are 4K-heavy or entirely based on 4K footage. Vegas Pro typically consumes nearly all the available VRAM on my RTX 3080, often hitting the 12GB limit. This causes lags and slower playback performance on the timeline, which can be quite frustrating.

I’m considering upgrading to a Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 7900 XTX with 24GB GDDR6 VRAM, which has double the VRAM of my current card. My question is specifically for those who are using GPUs with higher VRAM:

Will upgrading to a 24GB GPU like the RX 7900 XTX significantly improve timeline playback and overall editing performance in Vegas Pro, particularly for 4K workflows?

The upgrade will cost me around $1,300, which is roughly the same amount I spent on the RTX 3080 two years ago. Before committing to this investment, I’d like to know if the performance gains are worth it.

I understand that Vegas Pro relies heavily on GPU resources, so I believe the 12GB VRAM on my RTX 3080 is a limiting factor. I’d greatly appreciate insights from anyone who has made similar upgrades or has experience with GPUs offering higher VRAM.

Also What are your thoughts on the Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 7900 XTX 24GB? It’s relatively more budget-friendly compared to the RTX 4090 Gaming OC 24G. I thought of waiting for the RTX 50 series expected in January 2025, but the prices will likely be quite high.

Thank you in advance!

Back to post

Comments

RogerS wrote on 11/30/2024, 6:31 AM

The video engine itself is being reworked so this isn't a surprise. Helping report these issues is the only way to get it fixed.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 11/30/2024, 9:18 AM

Are you using the free version of Resolve, I think I always assumed you had studio like a few others here, I wonder if your lower quality encoding results are somehow the cause of software decoding?

@UltraVista I have studio on my laptop and 11900k desktop. Free on the rest, I'm still on 18.6.

Btw, I was just doing some testing trying to match v21 b208 32-bit project quality with 8-bit projects which render hevc much quicker in vp22. Doesn't take much change in render bitrate to offset the quality difference. So I tried it with and without neg. I see the ffmpeg6 I'm using for this lowers vmaf scores slightly with neg. Last time I checked with ffmpeg4, I thought they were the same. The vmaf scores have been inching upwards with every ffmpeg release. Looking at the json text, they seem to be scaling vmaf scores based on transient changes in bitrate which I would guess discounts low-motion video more than my constant motion reference.