I've got a workstation based around an Intel 980x processor (w/ 12GB RAM, RAID0 SATAIII discs, etc...) and an Nvidia GTX470 video card (EVGA version FWIW). I found out that this card didn't support 2 monitors plus HDMI out so I added a Blackmagic Intensity Pro so I could get that functionality.

Picture is great- everything seemed to be working fine, except now the computer seems lethargic compared to what it was before. Almost like the acceleration from the video card is non-existant anymore. Now, things like a simple cross disolve on a single AVCHD stream cause the computer to stop playback. Before, I could edit from 3 streams without issue. Even a Title causes things to choke as well... On render to DVD, a 78 minute program that used to take about 2-1/2 or 3 hours to render is now taking over 5 hours to render.

Any idea why this is happening? What did the Intensity Pro do to my hardware acceleration? Why is everything working so slowly?

Thanks for your help.

--Ben

Ben -
I installed a BM intensity shuttle via USB3, although it was delivering a great full res picture to an HD monitor it could not playback a few seconds without dropping frames. I eventualy gave up on getting it to work and returned it after reading many user posts of such issues. Are you dropping frames? BM support was very quick to answer the phone but I failed to get any real answers to the issue, they blamed the cineform files I was using.

I'm not having issues so much with dropped frames. On just a straight video playback, things are fine. The problem lies when I do anything else. A simple edit or disolve will cause the computer to stop playing. A title overlay causes hiccups.

Is this a similar experience that you had? I confess I didn't find much info on the PCI-e version of this card and that is part of the reason why I went with it. It looks great, but I need playback.

What cards work well with CS5 and still allow for the CUDA acceleration? I've seen plenty of threads with issues with the Matrox interface. Is that the next best choice? How about MOTU (remembering I'm on a PC- I know with their audio interfaces, the Mac drivers are far better than the PC drivers). All I need is to get a HDMI output that I can use with the dual screens I currently have for the computer.

--Ben