Recommended GPU setup for CS6 apps ?

[Dave Luda]

I was recently cutting a multi-camera segment in PP CS6 and realized my system was struggling to keep up in realtime, I had allot of "red" in timeline render bar. It's a system I built from scratch (specs below) using a pair of old NVIDIA 512MB GT8800 GPU cards knowing I would need to upgrade them at some point. Well that time has arrived.

I "borrowed" a GeForce GTX 670 w/ 2 GB DDR5 and it made a huge difference BUT it still isn't as smooth as I would like (no more red in the render bar...it was all yellooow). I've checked that all my drivers are updated and ensured that PP is using the Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (not the software).

I can't keep the GTX and I've heard great things about NVIDIA Quadro "K" series GPU cards. I have my eye on a PNY NVIDIA Quadro K2000 2 GB DDR5 that I can get for a good price BUT I'm concerned if it may be just under what I need. I do a bit of compositing in AE & Cinema4D as well. My budget is at $1,000.00 so the K5000 is out.

Anyone have experience with the Quadro K series particularly editing in CS6 apps? OR other suggestions such as using cards in tandem. I'd like to max out performance in my budget as much as possible. Thanks!

my setup is a:

-GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with Dual Thunderbolt

-Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770

-CORSAIR Vengeance 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model CMZ32GX3M4X1600C10

-SeaSonic SS-750KM3 750W ATX12V V2.3/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

-1 x SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) as the "scratch disk"

-OCZ Agility 4 AGT4-25SAT3-128G 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for the OS

Running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit.

[Justin Molush]

After doing a ton of searching on this topic, Ive found the GTX Titan and GTX780Ti to be faster than the current generation of kepler quadros for video editing. They are both based on the GK110 Kepler and the titan actually uses the same exact driver as the Kepler Quadros to further muddle the differences between them (this might have changed since the last article but I have seen no updates on this since then).

Here is a good read for you: Balanced Systems

[Dave Luda]

Wow I am really surprised at the performance vs price. Looks like the GTX 760 is the best bang for my buck. Thanks for that info Justin!

[Dave Luda]

actually I went with an EVGA GTX-780. I figured the higher bit rate and twice the CUDA cores would be well worth the additional $200.

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Dave,

It is entirely possible to have too much video card, if the rest of the system is not powerful enough to utilize (keep up with) what the video card is capable of. So the 780 may not necessarily be much better for you than say a 770. Per the "Balanced Systems" link that Justin provided.

Curious, what are you using for video drives? I only saw the SSD drives listed for OS and Scratch.

Thanks

Jeff

[Dave Luda]

Hey Jeff, I hear what you are saying. It's one of those things I can never really wrap my head around but based on the "balanced" approach I think my system matches up well with the 780 unless I am missing something, please feel free to point it out. For drives I only have the 2 SSD's but have a 3rd on the way which I plan to use for "media". My thought was to keep the 1 SSD for the OS, the 2nd for project/scratch and the 3rd for the RAW/media files. After each project is complete I off load everything to a NAS and then wipe the scratch and media drives clean. If you see a hole in that setup, I am always open to suggestions on how to improve. On a side note I see you are in my home town of Milwaukee, how's the weather?

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Dave Luda

actually I went with an EVGA GTX-780. I figured the higher bit rate and twice the CUDA cores would be well worth the additional $200.

I agree with Jeff (to a point). That GTX 780 might be a bit overkill for your system's non-overclockable i7-3770 non-K running at its maximum 3.7GHz turbo'd speed with all four cores in use. As such, with the rest of your system the way it currently is, don't expect the performance with the GTX 780 to be meaningfully faster or smoother than what you had achieved with a borrowed GTX 670. (Or put it this way, if your system is equally as "choppy" with the GTX 780 as it was with the GTX 670, your CPU and/or disk system is/are the bottleneck(s).)

And be glad that you didn't go with a Quadro K2000: That GPU is essentially a GeForce GTX 650 that's been clocked at a lower speed than the GTX 650 that it's based on. Yet the GTX 650 2GB costs about $140 while the Quadro K2000 costs a whopping $430.

[Dave Luda]

Thanks Randall. If I don't get the performance I want then I can return the 780 and get something else OR I can upgrade my CPU. I'd be very surprised if 3 SSDs (OS/Projects/Media) was a bottleneck, could they really be?

I'm very curious what you all would consider a more then capable setup for editing say 2K content with heavy motion graphics and comps?

[Randall Leong]

Dave,

With your source material go with nothing less than an i7-4930K (6-core, 12-thread) CPU and an X79 motherboard that supports the new Ivy Bridge-E CPUs out of the box with its currently shipping BIOS version. The only available upgrade from your system's current i7-3770 that's compatible with your system's current motherboard would be the K version (i7-3770K) of that same CPU, which IMHO does not perform sufficiently better than your system's current CPU to justify its still nearly $300 asking price (even when overclocked to its maximum stable speed). But given your $1,000 maximum budget for upgrades, you would be left with too little budget for an anywhere close to decently fast GPU. Thus, for your setup and staying well within budget go with a GTX 650 Ti Boost (which IMHO really should have been named the GTX 660 SE) or a GTX 660 GPU for your current setup: For all practical purposes either GPU would perform almost as fast as the GTX 780 would with that same CPU that's currently in your system. (If on the other hand you're playing GPU-dependent games on your PC, then by all means keep the GTX 780.)

The SSD-based disk setup is not the real bottleneck right now (seeing that you have a pair of Samsung 840 Pro SSDs). It's that 2K material is quite a bit more demanding on the CPU than ordinary 1080p HD material is.

[Dave Luda]

I will see how this 780 works out and go from there. I'm not really working with any 2K content right now....it's all 1080 and then mostly distro'd to web. I was just thinking down the road which is probably not the way to think ;) thanks again!