GPU acceleration in Pro 11 at DVinfo.net

Mike Kujbida · October 17th, 2011, 06:55 AM

Those of you who have wondering about this can now finally get all the details.
Vegas Pro 11 GPU acceleration

Benchmarking GPU Acceleration in Vegas Pro 11

Vegas Pro™ 11 leverages the processing capabilities of modern GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) using the industry-standard OpenCL™ framework. Rather than being tied to a single manufacturer or technology, this hardware-agnostic approach enables Vegas Pro 11 users to enjoy remarkable performance improvements across a broad range of popularly-priced, widely available GPU devices. By utilizing the amazing parallel computing resources of the GPU for video processing, the main CPU is freed up for other tasks, such as video decoding and user interface display.

Vegas Pro 11 accelerates both video playback and rendering, providing improved performance results from start to finish. Significant portions of the application were entirely reworked, resulting in an enhanced and more creative editing experience. Over 45 effects, transitions, generators and compositors are GPU-accelerated in Vegas Pro 11, as well as a substantial amount of built-in video processing such as crossfades, fades, alpha compositing, framerate resampling, interlace processing, pan/crop, track motion, opacity, fade-to-color, and multicamera display.

Vegas Pro 11 was benchmarked on a very affordable Dell Studio XPS 9100 PC, featuring an Intel Core i7 960 3.2 Ghz CPU and discrete GPU cards from both AMD and NVIDIA. The motion graphic test project uses AVCHD, XDCAM EX, and XDCAM HD422 video formats, along with PNG still images, generated text and a noise texture. The project takes advantage of GPU-accelerated compositing, track motion, fades, crossfades and time remapping, as well as a number of accelerated effects including gaussian blur, black and white, cookie cutter, bump map, mask generator, sepia, lens flare and chroma keyer. It also includes accelerated transitions such as cross effect, iris, and clock wipe.

Adam Stanislav · October 17th, 2011, 09:25 AM

I am test rendering as we speak. It is only using 60%-70% of my CUDA on the average. Very disappointing.

Jeff Harper · October 17th, 2011, 10:44 AM

What aspect of a video card affects the level of improvement, # of bitstreams?

I have a GTX 460 and it will be utilized to some degree, but I wonder how much. I am going to install 11 in a bit and run comparison. I am working on a 1080p render now, so this is the perfect opportunity!

Adam Stanislav · October 17th, 2011, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

I have a GTX 460 and it will be utilized to some degree, but I wonder how much.

Download GPU Shark - lightweight and free GPU monitoring tool for NVIDIA GeForce and AMD/ATI Radeon graphics cards | oZone3D.Net. It will tell you exactly how efficiently any software uses the GPU.

Nicholas de Kock · October 17th, 2011, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Geeks3D: All GeForce 8 and higher are OpenCL-capable devices.

Quote:

Sony NVIDIA: GPU-accelerated video processing requires an OpenCL-enabled GPU and NVIDIA driver 270.xx or later with a GeForce GT 2xx Series or newer GPU.

I can't enable "GPU acceleration video processing" in Vegas Pro 11, has anyone else been able to activate this? What video card do you have? Any ideas why mine won't activate?

Jeff Harper · October 17th, 2011, 01:19 PM

Mine is on by default, it might be your card. Have you checked your card against those listed in the link?

Jeff Harper · October 17th, 2011, 01:26 PM

Nicholas, if your card is as old as I think it is (3-4 years?) it won't work.

Don't feel bad, my relatively new card is a GTX 460, and it works, but has very little effect. Playback is the same, and rendering speed so far seems barely affected. I haven't researched it yet, but let's see who gets what results, and when they post that we'll know how much to spend on a new card, and if the results are worth it.

Nicholas de Kock · October 17th, 2011, 02:13 PM

Jeff true I have a 2009 video card but according to Sony it's supported, oh well. GPU accelerated rendering only applies to AVC & selected plug-ins I figure.

This is my results from 1MIN of Sony EX1 footage with an added "Glow" filter. Setting for codec's wasn't the same only compare results within each codec to itself.

MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4)
CUDA indicated in "System" tab.
Vegas 10: 00:03:49
Vegas 11: 00:03:02 - Faster

Cineform (*.avi)
No CUDA or "System" tab.
Vegas 10: 00:04:35
Vegas 11: 00:04:42 - Slower

V10 was actually faster with Cineform! I did this test twice to confirm these results. My conclusion is that GPU acceleration only applies to AVC rendering, I almost always render out to Cineform so I'm not sure what benefits V11 has for me?

Installed V11 on my brand new Dell XPS i7 laptop and for the life of me I can't tell if there is an improved preview video with GPU acceleration turned on, they both look pretty much the same to me.

Danny Fye · October 17th, 2011, 03:35 PM

A few months ago I decided it was about time I got a new video card. The one I had was seriously out of date and there were no recent updated Windows 7 drivers for it.

I got the HD 4600 series. Reasonable price and uses OpenCL.

B U T Vegas 11 does not support my newer card!!! So it Would cost me another $100 plus for a supported card on top of the price for Vegas 11.

So for the first time since I have had Vegas (since version 6c) I will not upgrade this time.
Sad…

Steve Rusk · October 17th, 2011, 03:49 PM

Well, according to their website, previews and timeline functions are supposed to be improved by GPU acceleration...not sure because I also can't activate the button. I suspect my problem is related to my inability to load catalyst on my workstation. I suspect there's some remnant of an nvidea driver causing a conflict...I'll see if I can fix that tonight. On another note. I downloaded the trial of Boris Chroma Key and it seems to work fine with 11.

Edward Troxel · October 17th, 2011, 04:17 PM

You might also need to verify that the video driver is also up to date if the card is listed as supported.

Nicholas de Kock · October 17th, 2011, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

So for the first time since I have had Vegas (since version 6c) I will not upgrade this time.
Sad…

Truth be told Vegas updates always suck to a degree, I'm always super excited and then disapointed, always hoping Vegas will become more kick-ass, on the bright side atleast they design a new shortcut icon for every new version ;) along with a few new features. I'll upgrade before the promotional upgrade price expires. Do I need V11? Probably not but the smaller updates to come will be worth the upgrade.

Chris Harding · October 17th, 2011, 06:27 PM

It seems to do well with the Quadro 5000 cards but will anyone want to hand over $2399 for a graphics card!!! That's what my wholesaler has them listed at!!! (Order by special request only)

I don't think 11 will help me any...My current card is the el-cheapo Nvidia GT430 1GB (list price is a mere $62) .. to take advantage I would need at least a GTX570 and here that's $500!!!

I think I'll stick with 10 for a while and see what happens!!

Chris

Adam Stanislav · October 17th, 2011, 07:19 PM

Chris, I have a GT 430 as well. Vegas Pro 11 works with it just fine. GT 430 is a Fermi card, CUDA v. 2.1, precisely what Vegas wants. It has 96 CUDA cores, so, in theory, everything should run up to 96 times faster than without CUDA. In reality, Vegas only uses about 70% of its abilities, which would make it only about 67 times faster than no CUDA.

Still, nothing to sneeze at.

Dror Levi · October 17th, 2011, 07:33 PM

I have the GTX 570 and it works very good.
I did a 4 track multicamera editing with 7d footage while preview is Best(full) without no hiccups.
My computer is a I7 with 16GB RAM

October 17th, 2011, 06:55 AM	#1
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	GPU acceleration in Pro 11 Those of you who have wondering about this can now finally get all the details. Vegas Pro 11 GPU acceleration Benchmarking GPU Acceleration in Vegas Pro 11 Vegas Pro™ 11 leverages the processing capabilities of modern GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) using the industry-standard OpenCL™ framework. Rather than being tied to a single manufacturer or technology, this hardware-agnostic approach enables Vegas Pro 11 users to enjoy remarkable performance improvements across a broad range of popularly-priced, widely available GPU devices. By utilizing the amazing parallel computing resources of the GPU for video processing, the main CPU is freed up for other tasks, such as video decoding and user interface display. Vegas Pro 11 accelerates both video playback and rendering, providing improved performance results from start to finish. Significant portions of the application were entirely reworked, resulting in an enhanced and more creative editing experience. Over 45 effects, transitions, generators and compositors are GPU-accelerated in Vegas Pro 11, as well as a substantial amount of built-in video processing such as crossfades, fades, alpha compositing, framerate resampling, interlace processing, pan/crop, track motion, opacity, fade-to-color, and multicamera display. Vegas Pro 11 was benchmarked on a very affordable Dell Studio XPS 9100 PC, featuring an Intel Core i7 960 3.2 Ghz CPU and discrete GPU cards from both AMD and NVIDIA. The motion graphic test project uses AVCHD, XDCAM EX, and XDCAM HD422 video formats, along with PNG still images, generated text and a noise texture. The project takes advantage of GPU-accelerated compositing, track motion, fades, crossfades and time remapping, as well as a number of accelerated effects including gaussian blur, black and white, cookie cutter, bump map, mask generator, sepia, lens flare and chroma keyer. It also includes accelerated transitions such as cross effect, iris, and clock wipe.

October 17th, 2011, 09:25 AM	#2
Adam Stanislav Trustee Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Rhinelander, WI Posts: 1,258	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 I am test rendering as we speak. It is only using 60%-70% of my CUDA on the average. Very disappointing.

October 17th, 2011, 10:44 AM	#3
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 What aspect of a video card affects the level of improvement, # of bitstreams? I have a GTX 460 and it will be utilized to some degree, but I wonder how much. I am going to install 11 in a bit and run comparison. I am working on a 1080p render now, so this is the perfect opportunity! __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

October 17th, 2011, 01:19 PM	#6
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 Mine is on by default, it might be your card. Have you checked your card against those listed in the link? __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

October 17th, 2011, 01:26 PM	#7
Jeff Harper Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 8,425	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 Nicholas, if your card is as old as I think it is (3-4 years?) it won't work. Don't feel bad, my relatively new card is a GTX 460, and it works, but has very little effect. Playback is the same, and rendering speed so far seems barely affected. I haven't researched it yet, but let's see who gets what results, and when they post that we'll know how much to spend on a new card, and if the results are worth it. __________________ "The horror of what I saw on the timeline cannot be described."

October 17th, 2011, 02:13 PM	#8
Nicholas de Kock Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: KLD, South Africa Posts: 983	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 Jeff true I have a 2009 video card but according to Sony it's supported, oh well. GPU accelerated rendering only applies to AVC & selected plug-ins I figure. This is my results from 1MIN of Sony EX1 footage with an added "Glow" filter. Setting for codec's wasn't the same only compare results within each codec to itself. MainConcept AVC/AAC (.mp4) CUDA indicated in "System" tab. Vegas 10: 00:03:49 Vegas 11: 00:03:02 - Faster Cineform (.avi) No CUDA or "System" tab. Vegas 10: 00:04:35 Vegas 11: 00:04:42 - Slower V10 was actually faster with Cineform! I did this test twice to confirm these results. My conclusion is that GPU acceleration only applies to AVC rendering, I almost always render out to Cineform so I'm not sure what benefits V11 has for me? Installed V11 on my brand new Dell XPS i7 laptop and for the life of me I can't tell if there is an improved preview video with GPU acceleration turned on, they both look pretty much the same to me. Last edited by Nicholas de Kock; October 17th, 2011 at 03:30 PM. Reason: More Info

October 17th, 2011, 03:35 PM	#9
Danny Fye Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Independence MO. Posts: 318	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 A few months ago I decided it was about time I got a new video card. The one I had was seriously out of date and there were no recent updated Windows 7 drivers for it. I got the HD 4600 series. Reasonable price and uses OpenCL. B U T Vegas 11 does not support my newer card!!! So it Would cost me another $100 plus for a supported card on top of the price for Vegas 11. So for the first time since I have had Vegas (since version 6c) I will not upgrade this time. Sad… __________________ www.dannyfye.com

October 17th, 2011, 03:49 PM	#10
Steve Rusk Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Stuttgart Germany Posts: 63	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 Well, according to their website, previews and timeline functions are supposed to be improved by GPU acceleration...not sure because I also can't activate the button. I suspect my problem is related to my inability to load catalyst on my workstation. I suspect there's some remnant of an nvidea driver causing a conflict...I'll see if I can fix that tonight. On another note. I downloaded the trial of Boris Chroma Key and it seems to work fine with 11.

October 17th, 2011, 04:17 PM	#11
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 You might also need to verify that the video driver is also up to date if the card is listed as supported. __________________ Edward Troxel [SCVU] JETDV Scripts/Scripting Tutorials/Excalibur/Montage Magic/Newsletters

October 17th, 2011, 06:27 PM	#13
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 It seems to do well with the Quadro 5000 cards but will anyone want to hand over $2399 for a graphics card!!! That's what my wholesaler has them listed at!!! (Order by special request only) I don't think 11 will help me any...My current card is the el-cheapo Nvidia GT430 1GB (list price is a mere $62) .. to take advantage I would need at least a GTX570 and here that's $500!!! I think I'll stick with 10 for a while and see what happens!! Chris

October 17th, 2011, 07:19 PM	#14
Adam Stanislav Trustee Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Rhinelander, WI Posts: 1,258	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 Chris, I have a GT 430 as well. Vegas Pro 11 works with it just fine. GT 430 is a Fermi card, CUDA v. 2.1, precisely what Vegas wants. It has 96 CUDA cores, so, in theory, everything should run up to 96 times faster than without CUDA. In reality, Vegas only uses about 70% of its abilities, which would make it only about 67 times faster than no CUDA. Still, nothing to sneeze at.

October 17th, 2011, 07:33 PM	#15
Dror Levi Major Player Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Pembroke Pines FL Posts: 331	Re: GPU acceleration in Pro 11 I have the GTX 570 and it works very good. I did a 4 track multicamera editing with 7d footage while preview is Best(full) without no hiccups. My computer is a I7 with 16GB RAM __________________ www.nostalgicFrames.com