Would like to utilize my video card power

theundergod wrote on 6/20/2005, 5:49 PM
Hey all, I looked through quite a few threads but did not find what I was looking for. I hope this is not a repeat of a previous thread.

I have a BFG nVidia 6800 GT and Vegas Video 5.0d. I was wondering if there is any way for Vegas 5.0 to use the processing power of my video card instead of rendering completely by way of my CPU. If not does anyone know of any card that is compatible with vegas in order to do so. I would really like to speed up my editing time and this is the only way I can think to make a significant difference. Thanks for any suggestions or input.

Jon

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 6/20/2005, 5:54 PM
Vegas currently doesn't take advantage of your video card's GPU to speed up rendering. As well, there is no hardware acceleration for Vegas (i.e. like how Avid has hardware, how Premiere Pro has the Matrox RTX100, etc.).

Some things you can do:
A- Run multiple instances of Vegas. Render with one, work with another.
B- Get a faster CPU. Dividing "clock speeds" is an alright way of guestimating the performance increase. i.e. a 3.2ghz Pentium is about twice as fast as a AMD 1600+.
That won't work for multiproceesor/multicore CPUs, which don't scale up perfectly.
If you have the money, I'd look at a dual core dual Opteron system.
C- Try network rendering. There are some caveats to it though.
D- Develop patience. :D
Stonefield wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:36 PM
I use the rendering time to do other tasks...check emails, tidy up, grab a cocktail.

Someday soon, there will be no rendering...it'll just be a matter of "SAVE AS" and then you check out your file....that's a ways away though...

Till then, it's nice to have "render time" be also known as "break time."
theundergod wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:38 PM
Excellent thanks for the info. That was a really fast response too.

A: I can do that on the same computer? I have never considered running miltiple instances on the same computer. It seems to me that it would sap more resources than it's worth. I will try it and see what happens. I am sure you have more experience with Vegas than me and would most likely know what you are talking about and I should probably trust what you say :)

B and C I can do soon when I start my new job but D....I'm gonna have to work on that one.

Thanks again for the fast and informative response.

Jon
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:39 PM
You could play a good game of Doom 3 with that card while rendering. :) That's about it.
theundergod wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:40 PM
ah, maybe if I just work on my terminalogy I will feel better about the wait. Come to think of it, semantics is everything :)
theundergod wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:41 PM
Ah Doom 3, great game. I am partial to Valve though so I'll probably play HL2 :P
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:42 PM
I run two instances of vegas all the time. Even though it increases rendering time it's much more productive. Example:

You've got to edit down a musical. You open two instances of Vegas. In the first one you work on, say, the first 15 minute sof the project. Save the file. Open the file in the 2nd instance of Vegas. In the first instance you rener all your changes to a new track (this REALLY save mpeg encoding time) & work on more of the project in the 2nd instance.

Sure, it takes longer to render, but you're not sitting & doing nothing for 30 minutes & getting out of that editing "zone" you're in. Instead you keep on working.
theundergod wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:46 PM
Ah ok cool. I'll try that then. The "zone" is one of the things I hate breaking out of because my attention span tends to be limited and my mental track shoots all over the place unless I can stay focused.
GlennChan wrote on 6/20/2005, 6:49 PM
the only thing to watch out for when having two instances open is RAM usage.

Both instances can max out your RAM. It may help to re-open the project so rendered stuff isn't still cached in your RAM. It may help help to set RAM preview to something conservative.
theundergod wrote on 6/20/2005, 7:14 PM
sounds good. I will experiment and find out what settings work best for me then. thanks for the heads up.