I figured out how to activate CUDA acceleration without a GTX 285 or Quadro... I'm pretty sure it should work with other 200 GPUs. Note that i'm using 2 monitors and there's a extra tweak to play with CUDA seamlessly with 2 monitors.

Here are the steps:

Step 1. Go to the Premiere CS5 installation folder.
Step 2. Find the file "GPUSniffer.exe" and run it in a command prompt (cmd.exe). You should see something like that:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896
Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896
Vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
Renderer string: GeForce GTX 295/PCI/SSE2
Version string: 3.0.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 2.0
Supports shaders!
Supports BGRA -> BGRA Shader
Supports VUYA Shader -> BGRA
Supports UYVY/YUYV ->BGRA Shader
Supports YUV 4:2:0 -> BGRA Shader
Testing for CUDA support...
Found 2 devices supporting CUDA.
CUDA Device # 0 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3
Total Video Memory: 877MB
CUDA Device # 1 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3
Total Video Memory: 877MB
CUDA Device # 0 not choosen because it did not match the named list of cards
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you look at the last line it says the CUDA device is not chosen because it's not in the named list of card. That's fine. Let's add it.

Step 3. Find the file: "cuda_supported_cards.txt" and edit it and add your card (take the name from the line: CUDA device details: Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3

So in my case the name to add is: GeForce GTX 295

Step 4. Save that file and we're almost ready.

Step 5. Go to your Nvidia Driver control panel (im using the latest 197.45) under "Manage 3D Settings", Click "Add" and browse to your Premiere CS5 install directory and select the executable file: "Adobe Premiere Pro.exe"

Step 6. In the field "multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration" switch from "multiple display performance mode" to "compatibilty performance mode"

Step 7. That's it. Boot Premiere and go to your project setting / general and activate CUDA

Hope this helps ;)

wow...how bout anyone with a new fermi and cs5 try and see if this trick works with the new cards :P

Doesnt seem to work with the Quadro fx 3700.

EDIT

I get not choosen because 765 are required and 465 present.

Can someone test it with a GTX 280?

It works great. I have 4 Canon 5D H.264 clips scaled, 1 with opacity at 50%, drop shadow and keyframed position and 1 clip accelerated by 200% and my CPU is running at 35%

The only issue i have is when i alt-tab to desktop or another application and come back in Premiere the playback is not as smooth. Does people with GTX 285 experience this too?

Device: 000000000065EC28 has video RAM(MB): 5
Device: 0000000000624118 has video RAM(MB): 512
Vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
Renderer string: Quadro FX 3700/PCI/SSE2
Version string: 3.0.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 3.0
Supports shaders!
Supports BGRA -> BGRA Shader
Supports VUYA Shader -> BGRA
Supports UYVY/YUYV ->BGRA Shader
Supports YUV 4:2:0 -> BGRA Shader
Testing for CUDA support...
Found 1 devices supporting CUDA.
CUDA Device # 0 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: Quadro FX 3700 Compute capability: 1.1
Total Video Memory: 495MB
CUDA driver version: 3000
CUDA Device # 0 not choosen because 765MB are required, and 495MB are present.
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

Can anything be done about mine?

I don't think so because of the video ram.

It says:

Total Video Memory: 495MB
CUDA driver version: 3000
CUDA Device # 0 not choosen because 765MB are required, and 495MB are present.

Apparently they require 765mb minimum based on the results.

please excuse my DOS ignorance but how can I run GPUsniffer under a command prompt?

please excuse my DOS ignorance but how can I run GPUsniffer under a command prompt?

Go to Start>Run and type: cmd

Then if you don't know how to navigate folders using DOS just drag the file from the windows explorer into that CMD window and you can just press enter from there.

Thanks for the info.
This is what I get.


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\edit 2>"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5\GPUSniffer.exe"
Device: 0000000000660928 has video RAM(MB): 1024
Vendor string: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer string: GDI Generic
Version string: 1.1.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 1.1
DOES NOT support shaders!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

C:\Users\edit 2>"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5\GPUSniffer.exe"
Device: 00000000002A0978 has video RAM(MB): 1024
Vendor string: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer string: GDI Generic
Version string: 1.1.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 1.1
DOES NOT support shaders!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

C:\Users\edit 2>

You don't have a Nvidia graphics card Randy?

Going to try with my nVidia 260 card. Will let you know. Thanks Martin.

Update

It worked. I had to restart my computer because I couldn't get video to play back.

I added 4 filters: B&W, Noise, Sharpen, and Faster Color Corrector and the render bar is still yellow. AWESOME WORK.

Hopefully someone with a 480 can chime in. I really want to purchase it.

Going to try with my nVidia 260 card. Will let you know. Thanks Martin.

It does work with the GTX 260 so have fun testing and please let us know your results with MPE enabled and disabled.

of course I do. I have a gts-250 pny.

It does work with the GTX 260 so have fun testing and please let us know your results with MPE enabled and disabled.

Software acceleration I'm running 80% cpu usage. With Mercury enabled, I'm running 50-55%. Can't wait to get a 480.

of course I do. I have a gts-250 pny.

Do you have the latest drivers installed?

Is the card shown in Windows Device manager?

The GPUsniifer is reading it properly thats all.

mmm.. its reading o.k. in the device manager but I dont know about the drivers. maybe because its not a GTX? Its a GTS-250 with a gig of memory.

Latest drivers are GeForce GTS 250 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html)

just to be clear about something here

CUDA does NOT doing anything for your codec decompression - its handling geometrics, scaling, pos, rotation, composite mode ( hidden under opacity twirl down, thats new :) ) and any CUDA supported fx & transitions.

static images like titles too being composited over what ever is below or above.

I gotta a performance question, I went ahead and bought it but im a little disapointed as of yet (after playing for 10 min.) With CS4 I when I edited in a Black magic timeline it would scrub o.k. and do some dissolves o.k. but when I put in a push or something it would drop frames. I thought CS5 would do better with that even without acceleration because its 64bit and I now have a i-7 quad core but it still drops frames on slides and pushes. Is that normal?BTW I edit native AVCHD I dont convert to any other CODECs. Is this one those things that a supported card will fix?

AVCHD is very CPU intensive. I assume you are working on a TL that matches your clips ? yes ? push and slide are not CUDA FX.... for now. what more important is how much RAM is in the machine. 4G would be very bare bones, 12-16G would be better. all 64bit means is that you can now use all the RAM in the machine, its not some magic accelerator feature.... well up to the point of where you use real RAM instead of swapping out to VM as you would with a 32bit app. in those cases, 64bit can indeed improve perofrmance provided your hardware is up to the job.

also are you using a blessed CUDA setup ? or a hacked one ?

o.k. I should have done this to start with. BTW thank you all for your help I have been having bad luck lately getting friendly help. My system specs are:
i-7 quad 920
6 gigs of memory
GTS-250
Gigabyte MB
Currently I am not using CUDA I am trying to see if its worth it for me to buy a CUDA card. I do weddings my needs are minor compared to some of the more intensive editors on this forum. I just need like to streams of AVCHD and 1 to 2 second transistions to be RT and smooth. I use a BM instensity pro card when I pick the BM preset the only red line I get is over the transistion not the video.

you should be ok with that setup unless something is reall wrong with it. does BIOS see the RAM at its rated speed ? sometimes BIOS will down clock your RAM for whatever reason, but lets assume you are OK here. we'll also assume you have OK drive speed / aren't too fragments / ect.

the only way to try CUDA is to have a certfied card, or borrow one. seems like 1G of VRAM on the card is a given. I'd wait a month or two and see if adobe offers more certs for the newer cards.

as for using the BM drivers, try creating a TL that based on non-BM settings - like one of the DSLR presets that matches your camera. I'm suggesting taking the BM card out of the mix to see how that works. if you are good - no dropped frames, ect then the BM drivers / card are the problem. try it an see

as for CUDA, yes you will get RED bar transitions right now for sure, but they should still play, just not at full res / frame rate. with CUDA, you have to pick CUDA transitions ( which is problably most of what you need right now ) and they should all be yellow.

I'll also assume you don't have anything like a web browser with flash content running in the background as these can really eat CPU cycles. AE & PS seem ok, but other apps may get in the way. also any antivirus apps can be a problem with disk I/O, so turn them off

another thing with CUDA. Adobe chose to certify only a handful of cards for a reason - to be sure they work. those cards got a lot of testing to be sure they would deliver what was promised rather then having a looser spec where some cards would work better then others. its not so black and white with video cards - they can all have weird quirks with timing & I/O where the specs say they should work, but in reality, they offer limited performance because of these reasons.

Thanks Steve, FYI My bios do downscale my ram speed to 1024 it is seeing all the ram. this is the performance I have always gotten, with my old system (a older quad core and CS4 as well as my even older core2 duo) I just thought that going to the i-7 and CS5 which from what ive read is supposed to be faster even without a CUDA card that I would have a smoother playback.

I have a GTX275, with 1792 MB video RAM on it (non reference, but no apparent advantage to the extra video RAM that I could see, while monitoring RT with the software Everest). With the so called CUDA "hack", GPUSniffer shows that it's MPE capable and when I turn CUDA on, the CPUs do a lot less work (mostly decoding, I'm guessing) during previewing. Unlike a few other people's experience, PPro has not crashed on me yet. My experience with Vegas 32 vs 64 bit is that 64 bit software is generally much more stable, because of the larger amount of physical RAM available.

BTW, here's something that I posted on another forum, with regard to the term "not supported":

Software vendors use the term "not supported" very loosely. It could mean that the video card won't work at all with the software. Next, it could mean that it might work somewhat with the software, but not optimally. Lastly, it could mean that the video card will work optimally, but the software vendor won't guarantee that it will and won't provide any technical support to you, if it doesn't work properly. Now some software vendors even put a check in their software to look in the Windows registry (or interrogate the video card directly) to see what device ID it reports. The vendor can block usage of hardware that they don't want being used with their software. As some of you know, users have gone to great lengths to tweak nVidia consumer cards to make them appear to the OS as being a Quadro card. nVidia has fought back recently against this "piracy" and has pretty much blocked that type of hacking, except on older model 8xxx and 9xxx series cards.

o.k. thanks to David I got the latest drivers and now this is what I get.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\edit 2>"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5\GPUSniffer.exe"
Device: 0000000000660928 has video RAM(MB): 1024
Vendor string: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer string: GDI Generic
Version string: 1.1.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 1.1
DOES NOT support shaders!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

C:\Users\edit 2>"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5\GPUSniffer.exe"
Device: 00000000002A0978 has video RAM(MB): 1024
Vendor string: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer string: GDI Generic
Version string: 1.1.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 1.1
DOES NOT support shaders!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

C:\Users\edit 2>

seems you got an onboard graphic chip or a driver (remote control ? screen capture ?) that emulate a display adapter.
it is strange it does not see the real adapter (if you really got one !).

Figuring I had nothing to loose I CUDA ’enabled’ my Asus G51Jx-A1 i7 notebook with a GTS 360M GeForce GPU 1GB GDDR5 (rated 1.2) nVidia 197.16.

Wow. Easily handles 3 layers of EX 1920/24p and multiple effects. With the Matrox MXO2 mini pumping full res out to an HD monitor this is field editing! Of course there my be glitches because the notebook card was not certified by Adobe, but my feeling is that I can at lest experiment and take advantage of what works.

o.k. thanks to David I got the latest drivers and now this is what I get.
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\edit 2>"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5\GPUSniffer.exe"
Device: 0000000000660928 has video RAM(MB): 1024
Vendor string: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer string: GDI Generic
Version string: 1.1.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 1.1
DOES NOT support shaders!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

C:\Users\edit 2>"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5\GPUSniffer.exe"
Device: 00000000002A0978 has video RAM(MB): 1024
Vendor string: Microsoft Corporation
Renderer string: GDI Generic
Version string: 1.1.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 1.1
DOES NOT support shaders!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Use basic OpenGL (aka CPU mode) only!
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

C:\Users\edit 2>

For some reason its not reading the details of your card - Not sure why that is though.

GeForce GTS 250 (http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gts_250_us.html)

It should be reading OpenGL 3

Figuring I had nothing to loose I CUDA ’enabled’ my Asus G51Jx-A1 i7 notebook with a GTS 360M GeForce GPU 1GB GDDR5 (rated 1.2) nVidia 197.16.

Wow. Easily handles 3 layers of EX 1920/24p and multiple effects. With the Matrox MXO2 mini pumping full res out to an HD monitor this is field editing! Of course there my be glitches because the notebook card was not certified by Adobe, but my feeling is that I can at lest experiment and take advantage of what works.

David, just wondering do the Matrox MX02 drivers for CS4 work with CS5? I did not see that Matrox had released new drivers yet?

o.k. for some reason I am having trouble copying from the cmd window BUT yes its showing now. I got the hack to work! but I guess the bad news is it actually is slower in CUDA mode ie a dissolve is a CUDA transistion which can be done easilly in RT in software mode BUT it chokes in CUDA mode. So I guess one of 2 things is happening 1. The hack is'nt really taking advantage of the card even if its unlocked or 2. maybe anything from my card back is actually slower than CPU. BTW when I play 1 stream of AVCHD my cpus are working at about %30 sometimes they spike to %80 when I hit play.

yeah unless im doing something wrong my performance isnt much of a "game changer" with and without CUDA if I simply take 2 streams of AVCHD and setup a PIP Premiere simply stops.

Randy:

That the new CS5 works very well for some, doesn't work well for some, and is utterly unstable for others seems unfortunately typical. It is working very well for me. Maybe, I'm one of the lucky ones? I've applied the patch with a PNY nVidia GTX260 (896 mb), imported a project that was choking CS4 (multi-cam project with four HDV streams and one AVCHD) and got something very much like editing standard def DV. Better yet, rendering subjectively seems to be about twice as fast with CS5 with two color correction/matching video effects that used to really slow things down in CS 4.

David Cherniak:

What did you do to get the MXO2 mini to run with CS5? I tried uninstalling it before installing CS5 and then reinstalling it afterwards. It still works with CS4 but doesn't seem to show up in any presets under my CS5.

Randy,

What is your hard drive setup that your AVCHD files reside on? That might be an important factor. Are you using a single drive or a RAID array?

I am using a single drive, I can try a RAID. You know I havent really had a chance to really put it through its paces yet but so far it doesnt seem that fast. Id hate to buy a $500-$1000 video card and have it still be clunky. I noticed when I scrub sometimes it freezes when I hit play and I have to hit play twice to get it to play. Is that normal?

I am using a single drive, I can try a RAID. You know I havent really had a chance to really put it through its paces yet but so far it doesnt seem that fast. Id hate to buy a $500-$1000 video card and have it still be clunky. I noticed when I scrub sometimes it freezes when I hit play and I have to hit play twice to get it to play. Is that normal?

Ah you really need a 3 disk setup,

I have:

OS 74GB 10,000rpm
MEDIA 2*400GB 7,200rpm RAID 0
SCRATCH 750GB 7,200

oh I got 10 drives but I dont have any of them setup as a RAID.

Hello fine people

You need a raid system with 3 or 4 hard drives in a raid 5 or 0 to be fast enough for high compressed video and a fast cpu. This has nothing to do with MPE!!!.

I have a dedicated raid card (adaptec 3085) with it's own Intel CPU on it, this with 4 x 1TB disk in a raid 5. This with 12GB of DDR3 Corasair in speed of 1600. Then an i7 920 and it's flying.

Regards
Mikael

good to know, thats not a big upgrade for me. I just dont like putting all my eggs in one basket with a RAID.

I wouldn't use RAID 5 for my editing PC, I'd use RAID 5 for storing final videos. AC&NC | RAID.edu - RAID Levels - RAID Level 5 - RAID 5 (http://www.acnc.com/04_01_05.html)

Best option

SSD OS Disk
RAID 0 for MEDIA ( AC&NC | RAID.edu - RAID Levels - RAID Level 0 - RAID 0 (http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html) )
Scratch Disk could be anything really min 7200rpm though.

good to know, thats not a big upgrade for me. I just dont like putting all my eggs in one basket with a RAID.

Of course if you mean RAID 0 then yes but as long as you take backups you'd be fine. I use Windows Home Server has has a RAID 5 setup that can restore my PC via USB pen and network. - Works as well!

I figured out how to activate CUDA acceleration without a GTX 285 or Quadro... I'm pretty sure it should work with other 200 GPUs. Note that i'm using 2 monitors and there's a extra tweak to play with CUDA seamlessly with 2 monitors.

Here are the steps:

Step 1. Go to the Premiere CS5 installation folder.
Step 2. Find the file "GPUSniffer.exe" and run it in a command prompt (cmd.exe). You should see something like that:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896
Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896
Vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
Renderer string: GeForce GTX 295/PCI/SSE2
Version string: 3.0.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 2.0
Supports shaders!
Supports BGRA -> BGRA Shader
Supports VUYA Shader -> BGRA
Supports UYVY/YUYV ->BGRA Shader
Supports YUV 4:2:0 -> BGRA Shader
Testing for CUDA support...
Found 2 devices supporting CUDA.
CUDA Device # 0 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3
Total Video Memory: 877MB
CUDA Device # 1 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3
Total Video Memory: 877MB
CUDA Device # 0 not choosen because it did not match the named list of cards
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you look at the last line it says the CUDA device is not chosen because it's not in the named list of card. That's fine. Let's add it.

Step 3. Find the file: "cuda_supported_cards.txt" and edit it and add your card (take the name from the line: CUDA device details: Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3

So in my case the name to add is: GeForce GTX 295

Step 4. Save that file and we're almost ready.

Step 5. Go to your Nvidia Driver control panel (im using the latest 197.45) under "Manage 3D Settings", Click "Add" and browse to your Premiere CS5 install directory and select the executable file: "Adobe Premiere Pro.exe"

Step 6. In the field "multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration" switch from "multiple display performance mode" to "compatibilty performance mode"

Step 7. That's it. Boot Premiere and go to your project setting / general and activate CUDA

Hope this helps ;)

Do you know how to run a command prompt in windows 7? The box opens and then quickly closes.

David what "I wouldn't use RAID 5 for my editing PC"????

You also get a very good safety if something goes wrong (has occurred several times for me where I could easily just replace the failed disk without losing material)

I and my Colleague have used this raid 5 in 3 years now and it's fast enugh with no problem what so ever!!

This is our last film we made with one such raid system with over 4 hours of material in the bin and timeline.

(in Swedish thought)

Utö Värdshus on Vimeo

good to know, thats not a big upgrade for me. I just dont like putting all my eggs in one basket with a RAID.

Click Windows key and R
type "cmd" without the ""

and then at the prompt type
c:
cd "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5"
GPUSniffer.exe

Wow I converted my footage to DVCpro HD using a free tool from Panasonic. I know it uses lik 4X the space but Wow! thats some performance! VERY smooth.

Using the GPU hack with a GTX 260 works fine in most conditions, but I have a problem when I import HDV material (m2t 1440*1080i) to a Blackmagic 1080i59 8-bit YUV project. The video is downscaled by a factor of 1.33. If I switch to non_GPU mode, the scaling is correct. 1920*1080 footage is OK in GPU and software mode. I don't know if this effect is related to this hack, a decklink driver problem or a general bug.

Please advise, I can not figure out how to get the command prompt thing to work. It keeps telling me "program in not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." Any advice would be appreciated.

Please advise, I can not figure out how to get the command prompt thing to work. It keeps telling me "program in not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." Any advice would be appreciated.

Marc,

Download and run the the following:

http://www.northern-loop.tv/Video/gpu.cmd

Its just a basic batch file that runs the GPUsniffer in the default CS5 directory.

Hope it helps,

David

If you are on windows 7 here are the steps. For XP it's the same but instead of search field it's the RUN menu.

1. Click the Start Menu Button
2. In the search field (Search programs and files) type: cmd
3. You will see a black icon at the very top called "cmd", click on that.
4. Go to your Premiere CS5 installation folder and drag the file "Gpusniffer.exe" into that "cmd" window(Black window with white text in it.)
5. Press enter to run the Gpusniffer program.

Thanks guys, I think I got it! Although in the playback window it looks like I am getting a 4:3 aspect ratio

Curious, should I even bother trying this with my card?

ASUS ENGT240/DI/1GD3/A GeForce GT 240 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

I'm running Win 7 64bit, i5 860, 12Gb DDR3 RAM, single monitor.

Thanks,
Roy