I did some benchmarks recently with Vegas 5 comparing dual-Opteron to single & dual-Xeon systems (I'm looking into a replacement for my current system). I also just now repeated the test in a couple of cases with Vegas 6.

Here's a table of rendering times I got for the "editing sample\24p widescreen.veg" file in the vegas 5 samples download. Each system had WinXP installed with all latest service packs and updates. These renders were done with the WMV9, 8 Mbps HD 1080-30p template. I would have liked to actually test the MPEG-2 codec but I didn't have my licensing information with me at the time.

Home System
Single P4 1.7 GHz
750 MB RAM
V5 Render time: 44:12

Test System 1a
Single Xeon 2.4 GHz
2.5 GB RAM
V5 Render time: 20:27

Test System 1b (Added 2nd processor and repeated test)
Dual Xeon 2.4 GHz
2.5 GB RAM
V5 Render time: 18:35

Test System 2
Single Xeon 2.66 GHz
1 GB RAM
V5 Render time: 17:09
V6 Render time: 16:44

Test System 3
Dual Opteron 2.0 GHz
2.5 GB RAM
V5 Render time: 9:53
V6 Render time: 8:26


Although V5 to V6 times are not that different for the WMV codec, you can see that the dual Opteron far outperforms any of the other systems tested by almost 2:1. Unfortunately, I don't have any Athlon systems available to test with. By the way, its interesting to note that the single Xeon 2.66 performed better then the dual Xeon 2.4.

Based on this and my benchmarks with my 3D modeler (again, dual opteron was about 2x better than the fastest Xeon), I'll be looking for a dual-Opteron system for home (probably the Tyan 2895 K8WE motherboard). This should give me a 5X rendering performance improvement from my current platform!

Hope this helps...

Steve

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/index.html

follow the links at the bottom of the page for specific tests

from what I have seen I think the multi proc support in Vegas is geared to mpeg rendering, it would be great to see these with mpeg as the output

Interesting stuff

Paul

slr, thanks a bunch for the tests - this kind of stuff is very helpful. I'm going to be building a new system around V6 soon and I'm very interested in the Dual chip/dual core stuff. Practical experience counts for a lot!

slr, thanks for your posting results. Maybe B_JM can post his results from his work machines. I believe that B_JM probably has one of the most optimal configurations in commericial use for vegas6.

yes, thank!

To Endless: Here's a benchmark for V5:
http://www.hyperactivemusic.com/msprofiles/sony%20vegas%205/sony_vegas_5_audio_benchmark.htm

it proved that the "extreme" versions of the pentium offered no increase vs non-extreme. But, form slr's test, I'd say Opteron is the way to go (i keep getting more & more evidence I should of spend the extra $100 & gotten the opteron instead of my AMD 64! :) )

Thanks everyone For your Input , i think ill go Dual Opteron Processor ... ill think i should back up a while ... thanks again alll

I've got a dual Xeon 3.4 w/4G ram. In version 6, I am having rendering problems that are as yet unresolved (from tech support). I have heard of other people having rendering problems with V6 on dual processor machines. V5 works fine. No benchmarks here.....just a comment.
-Steve

Thanks Guys For all the Input ... its a bit hard to decide , and i realy dont care if system A renders 20 seconds less than system B , my aim was a stable NLE system that would let me open several applications while capturing or doing other tasks , maybe dedicating a processor to editing , what would surve my needs a longer period of time is my best choice without worrying much about improvments comming in NLE's in the near future .. thank you again for sharing your thoughts everyone

informal test:

amd64 3500+ 2GB mem winXP64 5:49seconds
amd64 3500+ 2GB mem winXP Pro 5:39seconds
P4 2.66 1GB mem winXP Pro 8:39 HT off
P4 3.2 2GB mem winXP Pro 7:05 HT Off


(beta_render_test_nu.veg ) = render test veg using draft mode

i'll run the test mentioned above tonight (after i download it) on the machines above (at home) ...


first thing i notice is that winXP64 is slower than XP32 in this test .... - yes i am running ALL 64 bit drivers and using a nvidia 3 250 chipset on an asus motherboard -- of course vegas the only 32bit thing running ..
going to repeat that a few times as vegas FEELS faster in XP64 ...

this would be the screaming system(s) though right now:

Athlon64 X2 4800+ dual core

Athlon FX-53 single core

Intel Extreme Edition Pentium dual core 840 CPU

tested here: http://www.elitebastards.com/#news9950