First Light: how much GPU acceleration with Vegas? at DVinfo.net

Laurence Kingston · March 19th, 2010, 01:44 PM

I'm quite enjoying First Light and you can definitely see the GPU acceleration at work when you play color corrected clips back from Media Player.

How much GPU acceleration is in play when you preview and render with Sony Vegas? I know that Vegas uses the archaic VFW instead of the newer and more efficient DirectShow approach that every other NLE seems to have moved to. Is First Light playback still using the GPU in Vegas even though it has the VFW pipeline limitation?

David Newman · March 19th, 2010, 02:57 PM

Your premise is wrong. All CineForm codec color corrections are heavily optimized and threaded CPU code, no GPU involved, anywhere. While the GPUs are getting faster, the CPU has been keeping up. We till prefer the CPU only approach for codec functions, as insures the widest compatibility, and in most cases the GPU would slow us down (moving data to and from the GPU is a significant bottleneck.)

Laurence Kingston · March 19th, 2010, 10:32 PM

OK that makes sense. After I posted my first comment I realized that every clip can have a different set of settings. I don't think there would be any way to even do it GPU wise and keep such complete clip independence.

So then am I correct in assuming that Vegas benefits as much as any other editor would from First Light? And that the GPU power is still free for other filters within Vegas that use it (like the GPU accelerated AAV Colorlab I use on the master video bus to switch between cRGB and sRGB color)?

David Newman · March 19th, 2010, 10:42 PM

Yes, Vegas benefits just as well.

March 19th, 2010, 01:44 PM	#1
Laurence Kingston Major Player Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Clermont, FL. Posts: 941	First Light: how much GPU acceleration with Vegas? I'm quite enjoying First Light and you can definitely see the GPU acceleration at work when you play color corrected clips back from Media Player. How much GPU acceleration is in play when you preview and render with Sony Vegas? I know that Vegas uses the archaic VFW instead of the newer and more efficient DirectShow approach that every other NLE seems to have moved to. Is First Light playback still using the GPU in Vegas even though it has the VFW pipeline limitation?

March 19th, 2010, 02:57 PM	#2
David Newman CTO, CineForm Inc. Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California Posts: 8,095	Your premise is wrong. All CineForm codec color corrections are heavily optimized and threaded CPU code, no GPU involved, anywhere. While the GPUs are getting faster, the CPU has been keeping up. We till prefer the CPU only approach for codec functions, as insures the widest compatibility, and in most cases the GPU would slow us down (moving data to and from the GPU is a significant bottleneck.) __________________ David Newman -- web: www.gopro.com blog: cineform.blogspot.com -- twitter: twitter.com/David_Newman

March 19th, 2010, 10:42 PM	#4
David Newman CTO, CineForm Inc. Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California Posts: 8,095	Yes, Vegas benefits just as well. __________________ David Newman -- web: www.gopro.com blog: cineform.blogspot.com -- twitter: twitter.com/David_Newman

March 19th, 2010, 10:32 PM	#3
Laurence Kingston Major Player Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Clermont, FL. Posts: 941	OK that makes sense. After I posted my first comment I realized that every clip can have a different set of settings. I don't think there would be any way to even do it GPU wise and keep such complete clip independence. So then am I correct in assuming that Vegas benefits as much as any other editor would from First Light? And that the GPU power is still free for other filters within Vegas that use it (like the GPU accelerated AAV Colorlab I use on the master video bus to switch between cRGB and sRGB color)?