GPU Breakthrough

[Gerald Webb]

My woes with Veg11 have been all due to instability and just plain not working of the GPU acceleration.
Well now Im previewing Best Full 6 tracks of 1080p AVCHD, M2TS, MXF HDV etc on my aging i7 920 and GTX 560TI.
The 560ti at stock clock must have been causing issues, because now after overclocking it, everything appears very stable for the first time. I followed this guide-
[Tested] ASUS GTX 560 Ti DirectCU II GPU Overclocking Session - 3D Tech News and Pixel Hacking - Geeks3D.com
Will report back if anything changes ( or I burn down the house )
:)

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks for posting Gerald. In my case I've found my PSU is likely about 200-300 watts under what it should be. I run 10 hard drives, 3 of them 15.7K rpms, and am overclocked over 30%.

I'm finding that 4 lines of 1080 24p are playing back with audio lagging behind when preview screen is largest size (nearly fills screen) on my 30". When I resize to one size smaller it's perfect, but I want to use full size to see details and be sure shots are in focus.

If new PSU has no effect, and I'm not sure that it will, my next step will be to either overclock my card as you recommend, if I can, or replace it. I have ton of $$$ invested in fast hard drives, controller, and processor, and now that I'm editing 1080 I'm not going to go cheap now. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

I'm hoping my underpowered PSU is affecting my GPU performance, but I'm not an expert enough to know if that is the case. A new GPU at this point will only need more power, so first step for me is the PSU.

[Jeff Harper]

I'm guess I'm on the right track, Gerald. I happen to be buying the same power supply used in the article you link to, the AX1200. I love this place!

[Gerald Webb]

Now Im worried about my PSU Jeff LOL
I think mines only a 750 running 5 drives, Capture card and my GTX 560ti room heater.
But still, just edited in Veg11 for a cpl of hrs and rendered out a job for the first time without one crash.
Im stoked :)

ps It even had Magic Bullet lens distortion and rendered like a stream copy.

[Leslie Wand]

curiosity - when you say you're running 5 drives, is this an internal raid or something?

if so, what format are you working with, uncompressed?

[Phil Lee]

Hi

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

Thanks for posting Gerald. In my case I've found my PSU is likely about 200-300 watts under what it should be. I run 10 hard drives, 3 of them 15.7K rpms, and am overclocked over 30%.

I'm finding that 4 lines of 1080 24p are playing back with audio lagging behind when preview screen is largest size (nearly fills screen) on my 30". When I resize to one size smaller it's perfect, but I want to use full size to see details and be sure shots are in focus.

If new PSU has no effect, and I'm not sure that it will, my next step will be to either overclock my card as you recommend, if I can, or replace it. I have ton of $$$ invested in fast hard drives, controller, and processor, and now that I'm editing 1080 I'm not going to go cheap now. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

I'm hoping my underpowered PSU is affecting my GPU performance, but I'm not an expert enough to know if that is the case. A new GPU at this point will only need more power, so first step for me is the PSU.

A power supply wouldn't effect performance. If it was struggling causing voltage drops or injecting dirty power into your system you computer would crash with blue screen errors, plane reboot with no warning or just die completely. It wouldn't effect performance in the way you describe.

There is also no way your power-supply could supply an extra 200 or 300 watts over it's rated capacity, a lot don't even manage their rated maximums for more than a few seconds as it is. So whatever you have used to make the total power calculation is way over-specifying the power supply you need, which isn't uncommon.

Regards

Phil

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks Phil. Generally speaking I feel you're correct Phil. Conversely, a marginal PSU can and will cause a host of relatively subtle issues short of causing a crash, which I've experienced, so I took a look at my present PSU for that reason and based on a past episode.

For several years I ran two PSUs, and I lost about 6 hard drives over the course of about 2 years, three Velocirpators and two WD Caviar Blacks. I always had indications something was wrong in enough time I lost no data. Anyway, my PC ran pretty well and was overclocked, but the hard drive thing was baffling.

I read somewhere how a marginal PSU can cause HD issues, so I ditched the cheaper, weaker PSU and my system ran like a different PC, it was more responsive. It had always ran pretty good, but with the PSU removed the whole feel of my system changed. As as aside, I also ditched my software raid controller shortly thereafter and then it was off to the races and thing got even better.

Obviously, it wasn't lack of power that caused the issues I had, but a hinky PSU, so that doesn't apply here, I suppose, or does it? I don't know. I've read my PSU isn't as great as I had thought it was when I bought it (Zalman 850W) and it's pretty inconsistent, some say.

PSU calculators are recommending between 865 and 1100 watts, depending on the site (I've tried 5 or so different calculators) and my PSU is 850. The Asus PSU calculator actually came in the highest at 1100W recommended, and to my knowledge they don't market PSUs, so I paid extra attention to that number. But as you say they are said to overestimate.

In the end, after staying up for hours last night looking at PSUs and other stuff, and researching, I changed my mind about the PSU, for now. $300 is a chunk, and I'm not convinced it needs replaced after all. However when I have $ to throw around, I'm sure I'm going to replace it with the Corsair AX1200 anyway.

I just overclocked my GPU (THANKS GERALD!) and actually see a slight improvement when doing mulitcam with Ultimate S, though playback is the same.

Re: PSU, I run a Raid controller that when not cooled properly (mine is fine) gets very hot, almost hot enough to burn your finger, and while I haven't found out what it's pulling, it's clearly significant. Coupled with an OC of 30%, the overclocked GPU, and the large number of HDs including the 15K drives, it's given me something to look at.

I'm not running multiple video cards, and it's very possible I'm set for power, but I'm going to continue to poke around, but I'm not going to buy the new PSU just before Christmas, not sensible. As you say, Phil, I'm not crashing, and I have a stable OC at 4.2, so likely everything is fine.

[Gerald Webb]

Originally Posted by Leslie Wand

curiosity - when you say you're running 5 drives, is this an internal raid or something?

if so, what format are you working with, uncompressed?

No uncompressed Leslie, Im not man enough for that :)
I just divide things up a bit,
128GB SSD for Windows
2TB Cavier Black Partitioned in 2- Fast half for scratch, slow end as a Home folder (Desktop, Documents etc)
2 x 1TB 7200 scratch drives,
1 x 2TB Eco Green drive for Videos, Pictures and everything else that gets archived. This drive is synced to another external drive about once a week.
And forgot, Ive also got 2 x 150GB Raptors raided which run OSX which I can boot into for when I have to deliver Prores files (which I'm discovering seems to be the norm rather than exception).
So 7 drives, not 5.
Feeling better after Phil's "Dont worry about the PSU" reply :)
Thanks guys.

[Phil Lee]

Hi

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

Obviously, it wasn't lack of power that caused the issues I had, but a hinky PSU, so that doesn't apply here, I suppose, or does it? I don't know. I've read my PSU isn't as great as I had thought it was when I bought it (Zalman 850W) and it's pretty inconsistent, some say.

It is highly unlikely your power draw is anywhere near 850 Watt. Most power-supplies soon fail if used at their full rating. Also taking into account efficiency is not 100%, if your PC were using 850 watts your power draw would be around 1000 watts from the mains. As the majority of that 1000 watts gets converted to heat you'd know about it :-)

If you have or buy a plug in power meter that shows the power you are drawing it will give you an accurate figure of electricity used, and your PC total power draw will be about 70 or 80% of that.

I used the Asus calculator and it recommends 450 watt for my system, but the most I've managed to get it to draw is around 160 watts with the CPU max'd out. I'd be okay with a decent 250 watt power supply, which would probably be more efficient than a 450 watt power supply supplying 170 watts but mostly it would be providing me with around 80 watts which is what my system is using now, and that includes a monitor! A high rated power supply is less efficient at providing a low output.

Regards

Phil

[Joe Kollee]

I agree with Phil. My system, has two 6 core x5650 xeon 130watt each cpus, 560GTI, 10 hdds, 8 port raid controller, 12gb ram, blueray burner, firewire card reader, a Quadro 2000 card, and two monitors. ( intel chasis, 1000watt supply, it came with it )

Under max load, my system draws 475 watts from the mains. This includes both monitors too. My 1500watt UPS will run for about 5-8 min under that load.

Jeff I would look for a seasonic 600watt powersupply. I have been selling them for so many years now, and have never had one come back yet. I know it would run your system fine. Seasonic usually make many of the high end PSs you see online that other makers put their names on, and double the price.

Hope this helps.


P.S. I run all my hdds in a mirrored configuration, someone asked about configs...

[Tom Bostick]

sigh* i can preview just fine, but i cant render :(

gtx 570 1284mb ram
core i7 2600 4.2 ghz
16gb ram @1600mhz
4x1tb samsung hdd

[Jeff Harper]

What are you trying to render Tom, 1080?

[Jeff Harper]

Nice overclock Tom!

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks Phil and Joe. Joe, your system and mine likely use similar amounts of power, so I am reassured that my power supply is likely adequate. I'm so glad I did not impulsively buy a new PSU last night!

I might be asking too much for perfect playback of Vegas with 4 cameras of 108024p footage to fill the screen on a 30" monitor. As I mentioned previously, playback of video is good, the audio lags a bit, which is distracting.

[Leslie Wand]

NVIDIA DRIVERS 285.79 BETA

i was reading last night that the above beta driver sorts our a few 'problem' with cuda and other processing in vegas. unfortunately i have no recollection of where i actually read it...

anyone shine a light on the matter please?