Nvidia GTX480/FX5800 + Adobe Mercury Playback Engine

[David Dwyer]

Bit of a mixed one this. Nvidia are just about to release their new GTX 480 card which I'm guessing will be supported by Adobe but does anyone know how this would compare to the Quadro FX cards?

Nvidia GTX 480:

Voltage Tweak Technology
- Core Clock: 700MHz
- Memory: 1536MB GDDR5
- Memory Clock: 3696MHz (Effective)
- Memory Interface: 384-Bit
- Processing Cores: 480
- Shader Clock: 1401MHz
- Bus Type: PCI-Express 2.0
- Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & 1x Mini-HDMI 1.3a (Includes HDMI & VGA Adapters)
- SLI Ready
- HDCP Capable
- DirectX 11 Support
- OpenGL 3.1 Support
- PhysX Enabled
- CUDA Enabled
- Warranty: 3 Years

Asus GeForce GTX 480 1536MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card [90-C3CH90-W0UAY0KZ] Graphics and Video NVIDIA GTX 400 Series

Nvidia FX5800

GPU Specs:
CUDA Cores 240

GPU Memory Specs:
Memory Size Total 4 GB
Memory Interface 512-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 102

NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 5800 provides professionals with visual supercomputing from their desktops delivering results that push visualization beyond traditional 3D.

Scan.co.uk: VCQFX5800G-PCIE-PB - 4GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 5800, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), GDDR3, SLi, DisplayPort/ 2xDL DVI-I/ Stereo Port, Retail

So the GTX has more CUDA cores and more GB/Sec so would it be faster for Adobe Pr/Ae use in mind? I must be missing something as the GTX is £450 and the FX is £2500

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[Allan Tabilas]

The FX 5800 is probably the same GPU as the GTX 285, with 240 SPs or "Cuda" Cores. They charge a large premium (4x and more) from the Quadro over the Geforce equivalent with driver certification support, larger memory frame buffer, and other requirements from professional/workstation requirements (3D, CAD, and more). I'm also looking at the GTX 470 or GTX 480.

[David Dwyer]

I'd love to see some CS5 benchmarks with these cards. C'mon Adobe!!

[Mark Morreau]

My understanding is that only the Quadro cards will do more than three layers of realtime with the Mercury Playback Engine.

So if you think you'll be doing that often, there's your answer.

[Randy Johnson]

yeah but how does one of the new 480s compare the last year quadros?

[Allan Tabilas]

Maybe the Geforce models (GTX285, GTX 470 and GTX480) will be software restricted to three video layers, even though they have more streaming processors or cuda cores than their sister $1k-$2k quadros.

[David Dwyer]

Originally Posted by Mark Morreau

My understanding is that only the Quadro cards will do more than three layers of realtime with the Mercury Playback Engine.

So if you think you'll be doing that often, there's your answer.

No probably don't use more than 3 layers so its all looking good.

[David Dwyer]

Originally Posted by Allan Tabilas

Maybe the Geforce models (GTX285, GTX 470 and GTX480) will be software restricted to three video layers, even though they have more streaming processors or cuda cores than their sister $1k-$2k quadros.

That would be very poor by Adobe to do that - To them doesnt matter what Nvidia card I buy?

[Randy Johnson]

I seriously doubt that. I think we need to look at it this way. In the early stages of course Adobe is going to use the heaviest hitters that Nvida offers. Now with the fermi coming out the consumer cards will have as much punch if not more than the older pro cards. So in the short term ( a year or so ) we'll really have to pay for performance but as cards drop I think we'll be able to get $200 to $300 cards to do what we need.

[Allan Tabilas]

Originally Posted by David Dwyer

That would be very poor by Adobe to do that - To them doesnt matter what Nvidia card I buy?

David, yes, I'm not sure why Adobe would care what Nvidia card you would buy, but seemingly the slower Quadros will outperform the newer Fermi based GTX Geforces.

Per Mark Morreau's comment, according to Nvidia's website, it says

Experience real-time results when applying multiple color corrections and effects across more than three video layers – but only if the system has Quadro

Adobe Mercury Playback Engine

So either the Quadro's additional frame buffer memory, driver optimizations, or something else (artificial barrier??) is there to make the Quadro "outperform" its sister Geforce cards with additional video layer support, even though the Fermi based GPUs like the GTX 470 and GTX 480 (and even the GT200 based GTX 285) have more power than the older and pricier GT200 based Quadros (CX, FX 5800, etc.).

[Jay Bloomfield]

One additional thing to look for in a consumer model is how much RAM the video card has. That could be a possible future limitation. I have a 275 GTX, but it has 1792 MB of RAM, which is more than the reference design requires.

I can't say what impact this will have in CS5, but I do know that video software like the 2.5D tracker Mocha, that make use of the video card RAM to store textures, benefits greatly from having more RAM.

[David Dwyer]

Originally Posted by Allan Tabilas

David, yes, I'm not sure why Adobe would care what Nvidia card you would buy, but seemingly the slower Quadros will outperform the newer Fermi based GTX Geforces.

Per Mark Morreau's comment, according to Nvidia's website, it says



Adobe Mercury Playback Engine

So either the Quadro's additional frame buffer memory, driver optimizations, or something else (artificial barrier??) is there to make the Quadro "outperform" its sister Geforce cards with additional video layer support, even though the Fermi based GPUs like the GTX 470 and GTX 480 (and even the GT200 based GTX 285) have more power than the older and pricier GT200 based Quadros (CX, FX 5800, etc.).

It seems Nvidia has got into bed with Adobe. Not offering support for the GTX 480 until Q3, limiting the consumer cards to 3 layered effects. I guess they have done it not to pee off the Quadro owners.

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi
I ordered the FX 4800 14 days ago - now I orderd a GTX480 instead - newer , faster and cheaper. No support for mercury yet - but I can wait and I never do more than 3 layers of video.

[Randy Johnson]

Plus I think the 3 layers limit is for effects you can still have more than 3 layers just not with effects in RT. ie a 4 camera multicam switch.

[Jack Zhang]

Just a word of warning: The GTX 480 runs REALLY hot. If the fan is left at automatic, it's running temperature is 95C.

Plus, it's also fairly noisy when it comes to it's fan. Newer drivers from Nvidia have also suffered from stability issues, making TDR errors very frequently.