What does OpenGL have to do with Premiere

[Art White]

Thanks for taking the time.
I have spent the last 8 days trying to figure out why my computer keeps crashing but I have narrowed it down to 2 possibilities. Updating my graphics card driver or Windows 7 updates. Each time I either add one of those, my computer crashes, won't let me restore to an earlier point unless I load the original Windows disc, boot from it, use a restore point and start all over again. A nightmare of a loop...crash, DMI screen, Dump, Safe mode, Windows original disc. Anyway, its stable now but I shut down Windows Auto updates (installed service pack 1 from a disc) and I have not attempted to update the driver. The last error I have is when I installed Digital Juice, juicer (Video downloads) Error read: "Open GL hardware not found. Will revert back to software mode. Check if you have the latest drivers..."

So, my question is what the heck is an Open GL and do I need it for Premiere Pro CS5? If anyone knows how to fix it, that would be great. Somebody told me Open GL if for games which I have never played. They told me to download this game and if it doesn't play then my Open GL is not working but he didn't know anything about Premiere.

I ask in this thread because CS5 is about all I use. I build this computer 3 years ago. I usually make about 50 mistakes before I can make 1 decent video but hey, I've been making mistakes for over 10 years now. No big deal. <grin!>

If you have an answer, don't feel bad throwing it to me underhanded. I learn better that way. I'm not beyond snatching that card out and putting a new one in if that's the fix. Here's my set up:

Windows 7 professional 64 bit
Gigabyte GA EX58-UD5
i7CPU 920@2.67Ghz 2.66 Ghz
Gskill Ripjaw f3-8500CL7S-4gbrl DDR3-1066 PC-8500 4gbx1 spd cl7-7-7-1 8 1.5v
24 gig ram 6x4
Nvidia Quadro FX4800

Thanks folks!

Art

[Bruce Watson]

Open GL is a graphics standard.

There's a fair amount of chatter on the 'net about the latest few tries at video drivers by NVIDIA causing problems.

Other than asking NVIDIA directly, consider searching around the Adobe PPro forum. IIRC there's been some discussions in the last few weeks about "safe" NVIDIA drivers and ones to avoid.

[Art White]

I didn't know there was a problem. Yes, reading up on it now but they really haven't come up with a solution for my model, ...at least I haven't found it yet.

Thanks

[Battle Vaughan]

Art, I had that problem with a desktop back in Vista, crashed repeatedly. RAM tested good with everthing I tried. I replaced the GPU, the power supply, etc. When, in desparation, I replaced the ram I noticed the fine print on the original chips that gave a different voltage requirement than the package info had done, and I had been running the chips on low voltage. Quick bios tweak would have fixed it. Not a problem after, and 0 problems on Win 7 ever.

Now this might not be your exact problem, but have a thought to a bad RAM stick or other ram problem....

[Harm Millaard]

Art,

Premiere Pro uses DirectX for video processing, After Effects uses OpenGL. Both are standardized approaches. A number of plug-ins for PR use both DirectX and/or OpenGL for their processing, others use only OpenGL, like MB Looks.

Adobe has acknowledged that recent drivers from nVidia have caused problems in certain cases and especially with older generation video cards, like the 2xx or 4xx range of cards, this appears to happen much more frequently than with Kepler cards. The general suggestion is if you use an older generation video card to stay with a driver in the 29x.xx version. With my Kepler card I have not yet experienced any problem with the 310.xx range of drivers, but maybe I'm just lucky.

[Art White]

Battle,
I thought bad ram for a moment because I vacuumed out the case and took canned air to it. I pulled a rack of ram to check the serial numbers. Thought maybe it did nt seat correctly. Looked at it and it was fine.

Harm,
Can't hurt to try that. It took me a few days to narrow the problem down to the windows auto update or the new graphic driver since I added both at the same time

Thanks folks!

[Bart Walczak]

I had to scale back to 29x drivers, because I was experiencing similar problems with 30x. I've heard 310 is pretty stable, but I have not tried it myself.

[Panagiotis Raris]

Originally Posted by Harm Millaard

Art,

Premiere Pro uses DirectX for video processing, After Effects uses OpenGL. Both are standardized approaches. A number of plug-ins for PR use both DirectX and/or OpenGL for their processing, others use only OpenGL, like MB Looks.

Adobe has acknowledged that recent drivers from nVidia have caused problems in certain cases and especially with older generation video cards, like the 2xx or 4xx range of cards, this appears to happen much more frequently than with Kepler cards. The general suggestion is if you use an older generation video card to stay with a driver in the 29x.xx version. With my Kepler card I have not yet experienced any problem with the 310.xx range of drivers, but maybe I'm just lucky.

306.97 has zero stability issues with the GTX460 1GB and GTX470 1GB we use. I borrowed a friends' GTX590 (the dual GPU 5-series) and it crashed almost every time with the latest drivers, as did my GTX 460 with the latest drivers. This is with CS5 version 5.0.

For now, i suggest the 306.97 for 4xx and 2xx series cards. Have not used any Kepler cards yet, though eyeing the GTX 690 4GB for the next build.

Typically, once i have a machine stable, i rarely update the software. Too many headaches in the past and usually little to no gains anyways.