View Full Version : Recommend me a graphics card please


Niall Megahey
June 28th, 2011, 07:24 AM
Hi

I’m running Vegas 10, 32 bit on a quad core 2.66 processor over clocked to 3 GHz. 4 gig of ram.

I shoot full slr weddings and sometimes use 4 cameras in the church. When I’m doing multicam edits its really sluggish. Ive been looking at the nvida cards that run Cuda but i dont really know much about them. Has anyone tried one? Or can you recommend any other card?

Thanks

Edward Troxel
June 28th, 2011, 08:24 AM
The video card will make little difference. CUDA is only used during rendering certain formats. The video card will not assist playback during editing.

Niall Megahey
June 28th, 2011, 09:31 AM
Thanks Edward

Is there any card you would recommend? Thanks

Jeff Harper
June 28th, 2011, 09:48 AM
I can't help much but to say that in the U.S. if you spend around $150US you will get a plenty decent card.

I personally like EVGA brand cards, as they have a very nice upgrade program, and they have very good warrantly service, or at least they used to. You might check newegg for ratings, etc. and see what is hot there, that's where I go to investigate prices, ratings.

I can't recommend a specific card, as I haven't bought one for years, sorry.

Gerald Webb
June 28th, 2011, 10:42 AM
One thing to bear in mind,
With the next release of Vegas you would have to imagine it would have CUDA or Open CL enabled preview.
So if it was me, I'd at least get a card with a GB of DDR5 ram.

Jeff Harper
June 28th, 2011, 10:56 AM
Gerald, we have imagined that for awhile now. From your mouth to God's ears.

Gerald Webb
June 28th, 2011, 12:06 PM
Lol, They couldn't could they, I mean release without it.
Premiere, FCX, Avid all have Preview acceleration now, to have a new version without it would be to put yourself on the next tier down before you even start.
Is there a reason that anyone knows of in the base Vegas architecture why it cant be done?
Sounds like a rant, well it is, kind of.

Jeff Harper
June 28th, 2011, 12:16 PM
Gerald, I ranted on many things Vegas pretty harshly about two years ago, and then realized it was only making me angry, so I quit. The list is not long, but the things that bug me are pretty dumb. The menu templates in DVDA are retro, but not in a cool way, they are SO bad, and the lack GPU support is the biggie, and Bluray 1280 X 720 templates that are DVDA compliant would be nice, etc.

Those things are my main complaints. I make my own menus anyway, so it doesn't matter I suppose, and we all just learn to work around the other things, but the omissions are just non-sensical, IMO.

Adam Stanislav
June 28th, 2011, 05:27 PM
CUDA is only used during rendering certain formats. The video card will not assist playback during editing.

So, are you stating with certainty that no Vegas plug-in uses, or ever will use, CUDA?

Mike Kujbida
June 28th, 2011, 07:50 PM
Adam, I've learned to never say never about Vegas.
The developers periodically come up with things no one ever thought they would (3D, RED support, etc.)

Just to get you going, here's a post from the Sony Vegas forum.
Be sure to treat it with all the "respect" that it deserves :)


Some changes rumoured in Beta Vegas 11

File > Realtime Render is selectable without opening a project.
The only option for output appears to be .wav

There is now an option for universal GPU acceleration of video processing (not just AVC) located in Options>Preferences>Video.
This seems to be the BIGGEST change.

Slight graphical facelift on main edit view layers.

The little lights on the layers blink when selected in Vegas 11.

Edward Troxel
June 29th, 2011, 06:57 AM
I'm saying that as of right now, the only feature of Vegas that uses CUDA is rendering.

I'm NOT saying that Vegas will never use CUDA in other ways and I am certainly not saying that plugins can't use it today! I know many plugins DO use GPU acceleration (whether CUDA or something else).

Adam Stanislav
June 29th, 2011, 07:05 AM
So then, getting a CUDA graphics card makes perfect sense. :)

Larry Reavis
July 2nd, 2011, 01:59 PM
personally, I'd wait a bit if I were you - given the minimal benefit you'll get right now by upgrading the card. On the other hand, those who are going to Vegas 10 and use BCC7 may need a card that works (not all do). I got a cheap ($40) nVidia GT240 from Newegg when it was on sale (you'll spend at least twice as much for a GT240 at the moment), and it works with BCC7 (I haven't seen a crash yet - but I haven't use Vegas 10 & BCC7 all that often).

Then, if the new version of Vegas can utilize the GPU, watch to posts to see which cards seem to work best. If you buy now, it may or may not be compatible, or may have undesirable quirks when used with Vegas - even if you get a high-end card. Time will tell . . .

Jeff Harper
July 9th, 2011, 10:14 AM
Just saw what the OP asked about, he's asking about a card to help preview for multicam edit.

Niall, you are going down the wrong road,. You need a faster processor, not a faster graphics card.

Your original question assumed a faster graphics card will help speed up preview, it will not, period. You must upgrade your mobo and processor. There is no way around it.

If your hard drives are slow that will not help either.