Magic Bullet CPU hog SOLUTION for Vegas

[John L. Miller]

I must admit that after using Magic Bullet plugin for Vegas I was immediately hooked on the immediate impact that many of their presets had to offer. But the problem I encountered was the fact that I had to pretty much view the Magic bullet plugin on still frames. If I was playing the material that I was editing, the picture would hang from magic bullet forcing Vegas to HOG my CPU at 90%. Most people told me their wasn't a solution for this, but they were wrong. I ordered new Ram memory for my computer but before I even recieved it, after more research, I discovered that the Video Card would be the most effective solution. I went to Red Giant Software site and they said they had tested Magic Bullet with the NVidia 7800GTX video cards and could get 30FPS realtime editing from this card. I went a step further and bought a 512MB memory NVIDIA XFX extreme edition 7900GTX card from ebay, open box, for around 250.00. I installed this card and WOW, problem solved. I am not a computer whiz, but the way I understand it, is the Processors on the card (GPU) in concert with the DDR3 memory on the card, provide the quick memory and processing needed for Magic bullet editors 2 to get the most out of this program. When you enable the Magic bullet plug in, make sure the GPU box is checked at the top of the window just below the name of the effect. More beautiful uses for this card: I bought a 26" LCD Hi def flat panel widescreen tV and put it next to my computer monitor. Installed the Cinema drivers that come with my video card, hooked up an HDMI cable directly to my TV, set my NVIDIA properties to Dualview, which is using two monitors and opened vegas and set preview properties to Windows secondary monitor. I tweaked the resolution back and forth until I got the TV to display the picture properly and I am happy to say that it is nice to edit on the monitor and watch a beautiful highly detailed preview to adjust your colors, effects, etc. I am so happy to have found this solution I thought I write about it in hopes it may help someone else who has the same problem I had. I will gladly answer any questions or help anyone any way that I can. Oh, and thanks Eric Shepard for your suggestions and help.

[Jeff Harper]

"When you enable the Magic bullet plug in, make sure the GPU box is checked at the top of the window just below the name of the effect."

Cannot locate the GPU box you refer to...are you talking about the full version or are you running the version that came with 7.0?

[John L. Miller]

I am using Magic bullet editors 2 edition. This is the plug in for Vegas. When you list your effects to add, click "magic bullet Look Suite" Then when the effect box opens showing "look suite" in the black box at the top of the window,just under that is the GPU box. By default, it should be enabled. Hope this helps. J

[John L. Miller]

One more thing Jeff, if you do not have a video card with the separate GPU, I do not know if this box will show up for you. I do not remember seeing this box until I changed the video card. Lower end video cards have a VPU, or GPU built into the motherboard of the video card which functions for the same purpose but generally does not include much built in memory. The newer GPU video cards operate in conjunction with the built in memory..I suspect Magic Bullet Editors 2 realizes what type of card you have and may only make this selection available based on your particular video card. J

[Michael Y Wong]

John, has the card been able to help out your render times?

[John L. Miller]

Good Question Michael. I have not tried rendering anything yet. I am to shoot some small video stuff tomorrow. I will use MB and some other effects just to try out the rendering to see if it helps. I will let you know. I would assume it does....that is if ANY video card helps in rendering, then this one will too.

[Peter Jefferson]

guys i think your forgetting one fundamental thing..
Magic Bullet 2 is a major leap from Magic Bullet 1.. .
with or without gpu support, if u have MB2 and it supports your card, that check box will be availbale, if not, if wil be greyed out.. or more likely obsolete

also this GPU thing only works with Editors, NOT misfire or the deinterlacer.. so these are still slow as buggery..

As for rendering, its as fast as realtime, if not faster...

I havent had any issues with it since i started using it and im uising it more and more now as I can do most of my colour grading on it witout any problems with render times.. in fact its faster than using filter chains with vegas alone...

[John L. Miller]

Yes Peter I have heard Magic Bullet 2 is much faster than one, although I have never had the first one. I have always had editors 2. But I will say this, without the videocard supporting GPU, it is still slower than the 7 year itch and virtually impossible to work with. Since I added the card, it works beautifully.

[John L. Miller]

Originally Posted by Michael Y Wong

John, has the card been able to help out your render times?

Hey Michael, I just rendered a few 7 minute short instructionals using Magic bullet and 2 sound tracks with automation. They rendered in 14 minutes each. This was much faster than before the video card upgrade. I would say a 90 minute project should render in 3 to 3.5 hours with effects added. without MB, they render pretty much in real time or faster.

[Peter Jefferson]

JOhn, i totally agree...

in regard to render times, im getting 2.5x faster than realtime, and for HDV im gettin realtime output..

using an NVidia6800GS 512mb 256bit with unlocked pipelines.. my dual core lappy with Nvidia GO7300 is just as fast rendering to the actual system drive..

[Michael Y Wong]

Originally Posted by Peter Jefferson

and for HDV im gettin realtime output..

WOW! 7800GTX (possibly in SLI - for some once in awhile gaming) is definately on my list of things to buy.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

The 7800GTX may be hard to find. It was replaced with the 7900GTX. The model numbers of these cards can be confusing, but the 7900GT and 7900GTX are similar with the GTX being clocked faster. The 7900GT is actually most like the 7800GTX and is actually clocked a tiny bit faster for only $210. If you want to spend more money, jump to the 8800 series cards which are all faster than the 7900GTX.

[Michael Y Wong]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

The 7800GTX may be hard to find. It was replaced with the 7900GTX. The model numbers of these cards can be confusing, but the 7900GT and 7900GTX are similar with the GTX being clocked faster. The 7900GT is actually most like the 7800GTX and is actually clocked a tiny bit faster for only $210. If you want to spend more money, jump to the 8800 series cards which are all faster than the 7900GTX.

Thanks for the help! The reason why I stated the 7800GTX specficially is becuase I have seen the video cards being sold used for as low as $100 canadian! :)

I my system supported it I would consider the 7950GX2!

[Michael Y Wong]

Exciting update (for me @ least)!

My system does support the 7950GX2 so I picked up a brand new one for $350 cdn or $300 USD.

This card is slightly faster then 2 7900GT's stacked together in SLI. I ran it in SLI mode and rendered a recent highlight reel I did in HDV (PP2.0 + MB Editors 2.0), P930 D/2GigPC4200.

Altho its not a realtime preview in PP2.0 I would say in SLI mode, the preview is somewhere around 15 fps, quality mode Draft. In non-SLI id say about half that. This is compared to a 2-3 second dead stand still every time I would click any FRAME using MB without the card.
Nevertheless, I was very very happy from seeing the difference then proceeded to give it a full render.

My system is originally had an X800XL AIW.

Using this non-supported card, 4 mins of MB HDV rendering would take me 18 hours (I kid you not). With the only diff being the new video card in SLI, right now the same 4 min clip is estimated < 1 hr 10 mins, or ~1600% faster then using CPU only.

This badboy is worth every single penny, and when I upgrade my comp in due time I will definately pick up another one and setup a quad SLI. One bummer about the technology is that when in SLI mode only one monitor is supported, and that when editing normally without effects, I will indeed need to turn off SLI so i can use both monitors.

Peter, how are you getting those incredible HDV rendering times? Those numbers are unbelievable! Is everyone else getting those incredble numbers in HDV or is it just me?! Or maybe it has to do with Sony Vegas.

[John L. Miller]

Congrats Michael, glad it is working out well for you. I am pleased with my video card upgrade also. J