Premiere Pro CS5.5 stopped recognizing my CUDA-enabled card

[evie_harris]

I just fired up the project I've been editing on a 3-year 2 x 3 GHz QUad-Core Intel Xeon old MacPro, which I upgraded with a Quadro 4000 a few weeks ago to get the benefits of the Mercury Playback Engine, and got a message saying that the last time I opened this project I was on a Mercury enabled machine, but now I'm not so it's opening my project up in "software only" mode.  Weird because of course it's the same machine both times.  The Mercury box in the "project settings" menu is grayed out set to "software only" so there's no manually changing it.

The only two things that I have changed on my system since yesterday are

1.  I installed FCP X (which won't open, just crashes)

2  I installed the OS X 10.6.8 system update

Anyone else having this trouble?

Thanks.

R

[lightprism]

That's great news Todd!!!

Thanks for the urgency AND good communication - it really helps to know what's going on instead of the silent treatment that some companies employ.

I am sure many here really appreciate your effort to keep us clued in. It helps bring calm and patience.

[lightprism]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-cuda-4.0.19-driver.html

The fix is located here.

Restores CUDA GPU acceleration within Premiere using 10.6.8 and the new nVidia graphics driver for their cards.

Thanks to everyone for the quick work and effort to make this happen so fast.

HAPPY< HAPPY HAPPY !!!

[Todd_Kopriva · Accepted solution]

Here are the full details and instructions from the Nvidia folks:

"Quadro 4000 driver and CUDA driver update for Mac OSX v10.6.8"

[Gast]

It worked! Goodbye FCPX, hello adobe Premiere Pro ...Oh happy days. Good response time. Respect.

[churchillstudios]

Okay guys will someone check this out for me?  I upgraded to the newest drivers this morning, however now I'm seeing a MAJOR bug with a simple dissolve transition in Mercury GPU acceleration... Test this out please:

1. Add footage to the timeline (In my case HDV) and edit a cut between two clips.

2. Apply a dissolve transition between them with Mercury GPU on... on my system it's just a cut.

3. Disable Mercury GPU playback ... the dissolve works fine.

Please confirm this as a bug and let the powers that be know.  Thanks!

- BC

[churchillstudios]

This is still on on a Mac Pro, by the way, OSX 10.6.8, Cuda driver 4.0.19, GPU driver 1.6.37.0 (256.02.25f01)

[churchillstudios]

Hey folks I was caught editing all day long and had to do several workarounds to finish due to my continuing problem with dissolves in a Mercury GPU accelerated project.  This repeatable has occurred - or at least I started noticing it - only after I updated to the latest Nvidia drivers for OSX.  I was able to create a small project that duplicates the problem… Could anyone load this up and tell me if this is repeatable on their machine?

You can download my test project (53MB) from my FTP, here:

ftp://0320579.netsolhost.com

User: newguest1

PW: churchill1!

filename: "Dissolve Problem.zip"

In this test project, the problem occurs twice.  Once at 7:20 and again at 8:13.  Look close and you'll see the dissolve is mistakenly fading to the previous clip, then hard-cutting to the next.  It's easy to spot, unless my system is the only one creating this error.  My email is churchillstudios@aol.com and studio line is 901-754-6675 if you have any direct questions.  Please advise … and thanks!!

Brian Churchill

Churchill Studios, Inc.

www.churchillstudios.com

[marcusmoonen]

I didn't run into the dissolve problem, but I tried the new drivers and soon the troubles started with my Magic Bullet plugins.

I applied Looks to some HDSLR footage, no problems, then I added Denoiser and the whole thing went pear-shaped. I started getting errors that wouldn't go away and eventually it crashed Premiere. It seems there are still lots of problems with these new drivers.

Adobe, I've sent you the crash report.

[churchillstudios]

Hi Marcus did you use the test project off my FTP?  I'd be interested to see if this is unique to my system, or something others may have to watch out for. I've failed to mention that most dissolves on the timeline work, then something in Mercury GPU acceleration breaks two of them.  I have Colorista II and will run it thru some tests as well.

[Todd_Kopriva]

Thanks for the report. We've seen some issues with the Cross Dissolve effect with CUDA acceleration (Mercury Playback Engine Hardware Acceleration) turned on.

We're working on a fix for that right now.

Try the Film Dissolve effect. Is that working OK?

[churchillstudios]

Film Dissolve does not fix the problem I'm afraid.  Just tried it out.... Additive, Cross and Film Dissolves all create the same bug.  In testing other real time effects, I noticed that the dissolve problem can be worked around by placing a "Noise" effect on a clip that leads into a problem dissolve.... In other words place a Noise effect (no need to mess with the settings) on the first clip right before the buggy dissolve, and poof: it will "fixes" the issue.  Not sure how well this workaround is since "Noise" is not YUV or 32 bit.  Hope this helps.

- BC

[SteveHoeg]

Thanks Brian, I can confirm your bug and will work on a fix, but obviously cannot commit to any timeframe. The workaround you mention of placing an accelerated effect on one end will work fine, and any accelerated effect that by default doesn't render such as fast color corrector should do. Note that your comment about Noise not being YUV or 32 bit isn't quite correct. The badges are for the software capabilities and all CUDA effects, such as noise, are always 32-bit float even when the software effect isn't.

[churchillstudios]

Thanks Steve.  Good news is it looks like we've got a viable workaround for this strange dissolve problem.  So I take it this was not a result of the CUDA update?  (If so, sorry for the threadjack; I hadn't noticed the problem until now.)  Can you share more information as to what causes the bug by e-mail or perhaps on a separate thread?  Also, I'd love to read more info on how accelerated effects are always 32 bit, even if they aren't marked that way.

- BC

[Colin Brougham]

Also, I'd love to read more info on how accelerated effects are always 32 bit, even if they aren't marked that way.

Check this article: CUDA, Mercury Playback Engine, and Adobe Premiere Pro « Premiere Pro work area

From it:

CUDA-accelerated processing is always performed in a 32-bpc linear color space

Since accelerated effects are processed by CUDA, which always operates in 32-bit color, by default the accelerated effects are also processed in 32-bit color.

[DMHP]

What Display card driver and Cuda driver do you all suggest if you  haven't moved to 10.6.8? I am on 10.6.7, and with all the problems  10.6.8 is causing, plan to stay there. I have a Mid 2010 Mac Pro 5.1  (latest) Hexacore Westmere 3.33 Ghz with Mac GTX 285 EVGA ready to  install. Radeon 5870 at present. Both Premiere 5.0.4 and 5.5. Is the  March release the best for this combo, both for display and Cuda? Please  be as specific as possible.

Thanks

[Gast]

Note that there are newer NVidia drivers out if your didnt upgrade the yet.