Premiere Pro CS6 and GTX 680

[Nicol Simard]

I recently upgraded my video card from a GTX 580 to a GTX 680. At first, PP did not recognize the card and I had to manually add it to the config(?) file.

My problem is that PP CS6 makes very poor use of my new card. My render times are slower than before. When I check the GPU usage, it keeps jumping up and down. It never reaches above 40 odd percent.

Am I doing something wrong?

[nw42]

Hi,

I've running a GTX 670 here and it works fine...

1. Because of the system design of GTX 580 and GTX 680 you don't will see dramatic speed improvements from your upgrade... (GTX 580 has less shaders but working 2x the speed of the ones in the 680)

the GTX 6xx series are great cards and have a lot of new things to offer... They need less power and don't get so hot as the 5xx series - support up to 4 displays per card and have some other clever enhancements...

But the 6xx series don't outperform the 5xx in terms of CUDA performance - and the second question is: Do you need all the raw renderpower of the card???

Think why NVIDIA is marketing slow old GPU processors on the Quadro line of cards as the "ideal solution" for PP?

Because it currently is more important to have good drivers and fast video ram that to have the maximum count of CUDA cores running...

To get your GTX 680 to the limit you have to add lots of CUDA accelerated effects on multiple HD layers and feed the video from ultrafast RAID or SSD's because your graphics card just is too fast for the rest of your system...

--> Another thing is that you say you are slower than with your old card - that shouldn't be...

take a look here for reference:

http://ppbm6.com/index.html

http://ppbm5.com/DB-PPBM5-2.php

[Jeff Bellune]

[Moved to Hardware Forum]

[Nicol Simard]

Sorry I posted in the wrong forum. Yes, it is about a piece of hardware but it's also making a bit of software use the hardware. At least that was my crooked logic.

Now I hope someone can suggest something to help.

[Todd_Kopriva · Accepted solution]

The GTX 680 is a Kepler-class card. As you noted, this is not a card that Premiere Pro CS6 uses for GPU acceleration. You applied a hack to get it to work as far is it did, but you need to know that there is actually extra engineering/development work to be done on our side to make that card work with Premiere Pro.

I won't comment on when or whether that work will be done, but I can point to the fact that After Effects received an update just last month to use Kepler cards:

http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2012/05/after-effects-cs6-11-0-1-update-bug-fixes-and-added-gpu-a...

You might be able to make some guesses about Premiere Pro based on that fact.

[Nicol Simard]

I found out more last night. I use PP CS6 to do a small news show. When I do a new one, I normally just delete the parts I no longer need from the last episode and add the new material. Last night, I went back and loaded an episode from before I got the card and everything worked fine.

What caused the problem? Here is part of the problem as I understand it: after I installed the card, I saved the episode where the card wasn't recognized. But even after I applied the hack, I kept going back to that same episode and it wouldn't render using the card properly. I had tried a few times to turn on and off the Mercury engine but it never helped.

But going back to something before the trouble started, I have absolutely no problem. I hope this information may help you with your development work.

[Guest]

What do you think about GTX 670?

Is a good card for PP and AE?

[Nicol Simard]

I have no idea. Start a thread on the topic, you will most likely find someone who knows.

[PaulieDC]

It seemed logical that the 670 with 1,344 CUDA cores would be hugely better than my current 570 with 480 cores, but apparently 480 in the approved 570 works just spiffy and a uber-faster card doesn;t benefit unless you have a system behind it that can keep up.

Great thread, y'all just save me $200, I was about to sell my 570 for $225 and spend $425 for a 670. Does double the money mean double the speed? Doesn't sound like it, and I honestly have no complaints with the 570. It's running in a rig with an i7-980, 24gb ram, 80K IOPS SSD for OS and assets on RE3's on a 3ware RAID card, with several single drives for projects and scratch disks and bears oh my. I think we're good for now!

[Harm_Millaard]

There are many architectural changes between Fermi and Kepler, not only number of CUDA cores, but more importantly the memory bus decreased from 384 bits to 256 bits, leaving around the same memory bandwidth. That is the main reason there is only a marginal performance difference between Fermi and Kepler. The major benefits of Kepler are lower energy consumption and thus lower noise levels, possibly a less powerful PSU and the capability to steer up to 4 monitors. Whether that is worth the extra cost is something that each individual must decide.

[nw42]

Harm is right here...

but additional the amount of installed video memory hast changed from Fermi to Kepler - new 6xx Kepler consumer cards typically have 2 or 4GB of video ram insted of 1,5 to 3GB of the 5xx series. 1GB is the lower entry limit for CUDA usage with Premiere...

so I would prever the 6xx series if I would buy a new one...

[Nicol Simard]

I ran into a couple of problems with the 1.5GB size of my GTX580. I hope the 2GB will help prevent some of those problems.

[Harm_Millaard]

Harm is right here...

Have I ever been wrong (language difficulties apart)?

Oohh, nooo, I remember numerous occasions where I was wrong.

Let's just hope that in this instance I was right.

[Edited for content]

[Steven L. Gotz]

I sure hope you are right, old friend!

I bought the GTX670 for my new PC mostly based on your recommendation of the GTX680. The 670 is less expensive and was recommended by Eric at ADK as a better "bang-for-the-buck" option.The cost reduction paid for my overclocking.

I am a little concerned over Todd's comments though. Not that I don't trust Adobe to do for Premiere Pro what they did for After Effects. If Premiere Pro doesn't fully utilize the GTX670/GTX680 features now, and the card works great according to the PPBM, I have to wonder what it might do if/when it is fully supported?

I wonder if I would have as many posts as you have if I had not dropped out of site back around 2008.Four stars and a MVP badge. Wow! Talk about dedication to the cause.

[Harm_Millaard]

Steven,

Although I have not heard about problems with the Kepler range of cards, that does not mean there aren't problems. What I perceived from Todd, there are some issues that need to be addressed by Engineering. However, I feel pretty confident that these issues will be solved soon.

That of course raises the question, what is soon? I haven't the faintest idea. Oh Lord, help me to keep my big mouth shut until I know what I'm talking about.... This was a popular phrase in London telephone booths.

[Steven L. Gotz]

Harm,

I don't believe that there will be much of a a problem. Look at the stats of the GTX680 cards on the PPBM5 results. Numbers 7 and 12 both have a GTX680. It doesn't seem that the GTX680, or my GTX670 will really make a difference over a GTX580, for example, but it doesn't look like it will do any harm. It is a little hard to tell from the stats, but if the GTX670 does as well as the GTX570, and yet I have Ray Tracing in After Effects, I am OK with that.

However, if it turns out that Premiere Pro can't use the GTX6xx cards to play back video on the timeline, I will probably just have to get a GTX580 to hold me over until Adobe addresses the issue.

[nw42]

Hi Harm

got me - but the usual +1 would be a bit short - don't you think?

@Steven:

All I can see here is that the GXT670 is working fine - if Adobe said they had to do additional work- maybe we will see even better performance in the future - but I don't got crashes or wrong rendered files...

I was surprised that there where huge problems at all with compatibility and the new Kepler series...

--> Blender needed a new special build to support GPU rendering with Kepler (Cycles Render Engine)

--> Autodesk iRay until today dosn't support Kepler

--> lots of Nvidias own graphics demos doesn't run on Kepler

--> lots of game demos doesn't run with Kepler

so it seems there are huge changes under the hood - they need to support new CUDA libs and so on...

nw42

[cemengin3]

Hi, I've been trying to decide on getting a GTX 680... And I was wondering if is there any update on the timeline playback issue with PP?

If I get one, will I have a problem with playback?

I did a search on the site about this without any gratification...

So I did open a new question thread..

Yet I also decided to try the orriginal thread even though it seems like the thread is cooled down a bit...

But you never know... ))

Also I should probably mention that I am thinking to get a 4GB version of the card...

Any thought on that?

[Steven L. Gotz]

The GTX 680 is now on the list. Fully approved by Adobe. I say go for it. I bought the GTX 670 because it is almost as powerful but quite a bit less expensive. Weighing cost versus benefit, I chose the GTX 670.

Unfortunately, Adobe did not seen fit to test it at the same time they tested the 680. It works fine, I just have to delete the file that has the approved list, or change the 680 to 670 in the file. I have to do this every time I get an upgrade.

[cemengin3]

My gush! Really? I was aware of  the official approve for AE, but did not know that they finally got the 680 in the list for PP...

Well, I even would be happy to change the code every time an update was released, as long as the playback issue was not a concern...

Thank you for letting me know... I can finally realized this rig that I was trying to figure out for months now... Phieeew... 

This was the last piece in the puzzle...

cheers

-----------------------------------

Okay so I checked the list which is not updated neither for AE nor for PP! They stand still and not validating any of the GTX6xx cards!

Now I am wondering if what you meant was the official support for AE?

[Todd_Kopriva]

See this regarding After Effects and the GTX 680:

"After Effects CS6 (11.0.1) update: bug fixes and added GPU and 3D renderer support"

[Alan_Craven]

The latest Premiere CS6 update (6.0.2/6.0.3) does not appear to include the Cuda_supported_Files.txt file.  My GTX 680 functions perfectly though, without any intervention from me.

[Bill Gehrke]

Alan 6.03 absolutely does have that file and the reason that you did not have to add it to the file is because the GTX 680 now is in the file.

[Alan_Craven]

Ooops!  So it does.  Why did it not show up in a search, then?

[schmitozen]

Update from the 6th of September officially adds GTX 680!!!!!

The Warp Stabilizer is so fast in accelerated mode. Paradise!