diestler Posted July 26, 2011 Share Posted July 26, 2011 I have another similar thread with higher range cards, but if I'm looking to get a sub-$100 card which one would people recommend for CUDA using Premiere? A lightly used (or preferably new if I can find one cheap enough) GT 240 1GB DDR5 or Their new (Fermi) GT 440 1GB DDR5 - faster clock than 240 running 10.6.8 It sounds like the Fermi's have issues? Is that still true or have those issues been resolved with updated drivers? I am looking for a card that is easy to install and is fully functional/compatible. tonymacx86 lists the 240 under approved nVidia cards. Thoughts? Opinions? The other choice is to scratch nVidia entirely if they are too much of a pain and go with a Radeon - but they don't support CUDA so I don't want to go that route if possible. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgiles Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Did you figure it out. I'm wondering the same thing: I'm on Lion here some info: source: http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm Video Cards for Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 How to Unlock Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 to use almost any NVIDIA graphics card with CUDA acceleration. Download Free software to do the unlock for you for both Premiere CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 Starting with Adobe Premiere CS5, Adobe added the Mercury Playback Engine (MPE). The Mercury Playback Engine can use an NVidia video card’s GPU to accelerate playback, effects and rendering. However, Adobe has only “certified” a few video cards from NVIDIA. (See Note 1, About Adobe's Certified Video Cards). According to Adobe, they only certify video cards that have gone through rigorous testing by Adobe, which takes a lot of time. With all of the different video cards using the NVidia chipset and the variations of these video cards from the various manufacturers, it's easy to understand why Adobe doesn't certify more video cards. If you don't have a certified card or you want to use a non-certified NVidia video card, there is a way to edit a file and add your video card to a list, so Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 will allow your video card to run with GPU Acceleration. Some people call this a mod, hacking or unlocking the video cards, whatever you choose to call it, this will not make it "certified" in the eyes of Adobe. But, you will be able to use the GPU Acceleration feature of Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5.5 and Premiere CS5. There are thousand and thousands of Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5.5 and CS5 users who are using non-certified NVidia video cards without any problems. In fact, we have 8 systems running non-certified video cards without any problems. This article will show you how to "unlock" Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5.5 and CS5 to use almost any NVidia video card with GPU Acceleration in Premiere CS5 and above. There are two methods covered in this article, one is by using a small program I wrote, the other is by doing it manually. Note for Laptop Owners: On some Laptops models, you may not be able to use the GPU Acceleration with Premiere CS5, CS5.5 or CS6. Please make sure you read the section on page 2 marked Special Note for Laptop Owners. This article covers a lot of information, not just how to unlock the video. It coves topics such as the video card requirements for the unlock to work, how to setup Premiere for GPU Acceleration, I show some benchmark results, talk about power supply requirements, video card cooling, how to do the unlock and more. Please read the article in it's entirety. NOTE: Studio 1 Productions does not sell video cards, Adobe products or other products mentioned in this article. We are simply users of Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5,5 and CS5. So we are not trying to sell you anything by providing this article or the unlock software. If you would like to see the products we do offer, simply place your mouse over the products link at the top of the page or click on the products link at the top of the page. There is also a Frequently Asked Question section at the end of the article. This cover different problems and questions that you may have. Please make sure you read it. Number 1 - Introduction There are two modes for the Mercury Playback Engine. The are: A) Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration Mercury Playback Engine Software Only To use the Mercury Playback Engine in Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5.5 and CS5 in the GPU Acceleration mode, you need an NVIDIA graphics cards (aka. video cards) with at least 896 megs of video ram and preferably, one of the newer model video cards. I will explain more on this a little later in the article. When you install Adobe Premiere, and it does not find one of the “certified“ NVidia video cards, the Mercury Playback Engine is set to run in “Software Only” mode, using only the computer’s CPU and not the video card’s GPU. If you don't have a video card with the NVidia chip set, then Adobe Premiere will run in the "Software Only" mode. The GPU Acceleration is for accelerated playback, GPU accelerated effects, deinterlacing, blending modes, scaling and rendering the previews and final output. Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 does NOT use the GPU for encoding or decoding the video, only the CPU is used for that. Number 2 - Maximum Render Quality Mode Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5,5 and CS6 has a setting called the Maximum Render Quality mode (or MRQ). The Maximum Render Quality mode will maximize the quality of motion in rendered clips and sequences. So when you select this option, the video will often render moving objects more sharply. Maximum Render Quality also maintains sharp detail when scaling from large formats to smaller formats, or from high-definition to standard-definition formats. For the highest quality exports you should always use the Maximum Render Quality mode. Whether you are running the Mercury Playback Engine in the software mode or GPU hardware mode, you can turn the Maximum Render Quality mode on or off. Here is how to set the Maximum Render Quality. 1) Open up Adobe Premiere 2) Click on Sequence at the top of the screen 3) Then select Sequence Settings 4) At the bottom of the window select Maximum Render Quality and click Okay Basically, I recommend you always set the Maximum Render Quality mode to ON. Please Note: I receive quite a few emails from people who say they don't see much, if any speed difference between the Software mode and the GPU mode. This is because, when they are testing in Software mode, the Maximum Render Quality mode is set to OFF and is rendering at a lower quality, which makes it run faster. When it is set to GPU mode, the Maximum Render Quality mode is automatically set to ON and rendering in higher quality. PLEASE make sure when you test your video card in Software mode, have the Maximum Render Quality is set to ON, so the test will be equal with the GPU mode. Otherwise, you will not see the true difference in speed between GPU accelerated mode and Software mode. Number 3 - Updates & Drivers When Adobe releases an update to Premiere, you will need to unlock the video card again, as they tend over write the cuda_supported_cards.txt file, which is the file that holds the name of your video card. Important - DO NOT use the video card drivers from the video card manufacturer or from Windows, they are almost never current. Important - Do NOT use auto-updates for the video card drivers, they don't always have access to the latest version. You need to go directly to the NVIDIA website yourself and download the drivers directly from them. Please go towww.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers. Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using. On Windows 7 go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features. Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running. Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card. Once that is done, power up the computer and install the driver you downloaded. Then Reboot your computer. DO NOT down load any Beta drivers. They may not be stable. Only download the WHQL drivers. If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then read the FAQ article on how to fix it. Note: This FAQ article is for Adobe Premiere, but the on board sound fix will be the same. Number 4 - Decoding The decoding of video footage is still handled by the CPU and not the GPU. So if you are using heavily compressed video, such as AVCHD or h.264, you will need a fast processor, since the video card won’t help with the decoding of the video. Also, keep in mind, that if you use a non-Mercury Playback Engine enabled plug-in or effect, the GPU on the video card won’t help you with rendering that effect. Different types of footage, such as DV, HDV, XDCAM, AVCHD, H.264, DSLR footage, RED, etc. will all play a big part in overall editing performance, as the CPU has to do the decoding of the video format. For example, HDV is easier to decode than AVCHD. Number 5 - CUDA Cores Each NVIDIA GPU has a certain number of CUDA cores, which is the computing engine in the NVIDIA GPU. Now some of you might just stop here and think, "I will just buy a video card with the most CUDA cores". While this might seem like a good idea, it may not be for you. There are other factors that are involved than just CUDA cores. We will cover that later, right now I just wanted you to know that different NVidia graphics cards will offer a different amount of CUDA cores. (Your video card should have 96 CUDA cores or more. I will cover more on this later in the article.) Number 6 - Video Card Memory The Mercury Playback Engine requires the NVIDIA video card to have at least 896 megs memory or more. Anything less, the Mercury Playback Engine will NOT work in the GPU accelerated mode. It will work in the Software mode, but you want it to work in the GPU accelerated mode. Video cards come with different types of memory, such as DDR2, DDR3, and DDR5 type of memory. Video cards with DDR2 memory will be to slow for the Mercury Playback Engine causing problems with Premiere. If you have a older video card with DDR2 memory, replace it, plain and simple. If you already have a GeForce 200 series of video card with DDR3 memory, you will be fine with that. If you are buying a new video card, the newer video cards come with either DDR3 or DDR5 memory: The lower end cards generally come with DDR3 memory The mid-level cards can come with either DDR3 or DDR5. In this case, go for the DDR5 version The higher end cards come with DDR5 memory. DDR5 memory is faster than DDR3 memory, when all things are equal. Below, I ran several tests using different video cards with DDR3 and DDR5 memory. You might be surprised that in one test the video card with DDR3 memory was faster than the video card with DDR5. Doesn't make sense does it? I will explain after the test results. Test Number 1 Video Card Number of Cuda Cores Type of Memory Memory Interface Width GT 240 96 Cuda Cores DDR3 Memory 128 bit GT 240 96 Cuda Cores DDR5 Memory 128 bit Results: The video card with DDR5 Memory was approx. 40% faster. Test Number 2 Video Card Number of Cuda Cores Type of Memory Memory Interface Width GT 545 144 Cuda Cores DDR3 Memory 192 bit GT 545 144 Cuda Cores DDR5 Memory 128 bit Results: Both video cards produced almost the exact times. Test Number 3 Video Card Number of Cuda Cores Type of Memory Memory Interface Width GTX 260 192 Cuda Cores DDR3 Memory 448 bit GTX 450 192 Cuda Cores DDR5 Memory 128 bit Results: The GTX260 was approx. 25% faster. Explaining the results: Test Number 1 - Both video cards had the same number of CUDA cores and the Memory Interface Width was 128bit on both cards. The only difference here was one video card had DDR3 memory and the other had DDR5. The DDR5 card was clearly faster. Test Number 2 - Both video cards had the same number of CUDA cores, but look at the Memory Interface Width. The video card with DDR3 memory had a wider, 192 bit width, while the video card with DDR5 memory had only a 128 bit width. In this case, the wider 192 bit memory interface width made up for the lack of DDR5 memory, allowing it to produce almost the exact same rendering times. Test Number 3 - Once again both video cards had the same number of CUDA cores. However, the the GTX260 with DDR3 memory has a memory interface width of 448 bits. That is over 3 times the memory interface of the GTX450. In this case, the wider memory interface width more than made up for the DDR3 memory speed, allowing the GTX260 to produce rendering time that were approx. 25% than the GTX450 video card with DDR5 memory. Bottom Line: The older GTS and GTX 200 series of video cards with DDR3 memory came with a wider memory interface width that allowed them to make up for the slower speed of the DDR3 memory. If you have a older NVidia card, upgrading to a newer one may not gain you that much. It will all depend on the total specs. of the video card. Just remember the video cards needs to have at least 896 megs, 1 gig or more would be best. Number 7 - Chart of NVidia graphics Cards As we said earlier, each NVIDIA GPU has a certain number of CUDA cores, which is the computing engine in the NVIDIA GPU. Below is a list of NVIDIA video cards and the number of CUDA cores that each video card offers. (Note: the more CUDA cores the larger the power supply will have to be, we will cover that next) NVIDIA Card Number of CUDA Cores Size of Power Supply ** Memory Type Memory Interface Width Graphic Clock Speed Processor Clock Speed NOTES 9400 GT 16 300 watt DDR2 or DDR3 128 Bit 550 Mhz 1400 Mhz Not Recommend 9500 GT 32 350 watt DDR2 or DDR3 128 Bit 550 Mhz 1400 Mhz Not Recommend 9600 GT 64 400 watt DDR3 256 Bit 600 Mhz 1500 Mhz Not Recommend - Only has 512 Megs 9800 GT 112 400 watt DDR3 256 Bit 600 Mhz 1500 Mhz 9800 GTX 128 450 watt DDR3 256 Bit 1688 Mhz 9800 GX2 256 580 watt DDR3 512 Bit 600 Mhz 1500 Mhz (128 per GPU) Premiere CS5 at this time only supports 1 GPU GeForce G100 8 300 watt DDR2 64 Bit 567 Mhz 1400 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GT 120 32 350 watt DDR2 128 Bit 500 Mhz 1400 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GT 130 48 350 watt DDR2 192 Bit 500 Mhz 1250 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GTS 150 128 450 watt DDR3 256 Bit 738 Mhz 1836 Mhz OEM Video Card GeForce 205 8 300 watt DDR2 64 Bit 589 Mhz 1402 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GeForce 210 16 300 watt DDR2 64 Bit 589 Mhz 1402 Mhz Not Recommended GT 220 48 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 625 Mhz 1360 Mhz Okay on low speed dual core processors, for about $20 more you can get the GT240 GT 240 96 300 watt DDR3 or DDR5 128 Bit 550 Mhz 1340 Mhz I Recommend the DDR5 memory version of this card GTS 240 OEM 112 450 watt DDR3 128 Bit 675 Mhz 1620 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended Only has DDR3 memory GTS 250 128 450 watt DDR3 256 Bit 738 Mhz 1836 Mhz GTX 260 192 500 watt DDR3 448 Bit 576 Mhz 1242 Mhz GTX 275 240 550 watt DDR3 448 Bit 633 Mhz 1404 Mhz GTX 280 240 550 watt DDR3 512 Bit 602 Mhz 1296 Mhz GTX 285 240 550 watt DDR3 512 Bit 648 Mhz 1476 Mhz End of Life Product GTX 295 480 680 watt DDR3 896 Bit 576 Mhz 1242 Mhz (240 per GPU) Premiere CS5 at this time only supports 1 GPU GeForce 310 16 300 watt DDR2 64 Bit 589 Mhz 1402 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GeForce 315 48 300 watt DDR2 64 Bit 475 Mhz 1100 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended only has 512 Megs memory GT 320 72 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 540 Mhz 1302 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GT 330 96 to 112 300 watt DDR2 or DDR3 OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GT 340 96 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 550 Mhz 1340 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GeForce 405 16 300 watt DDR3 64 bit 580 Mhz 1402 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GT 420 OEM 48 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 700 Mhz 1400 Mhz OEM Video Card - Not Recommended GT 430 96 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 700 Mhz 1400 Mhz Only available with DDR3 memory at this time. You are better off with the GT240 card with DDR5 memory. GT 430 OEM 96 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 700 Mhz 1400 Mhz Only available with DDR3 memory at this time. You are better off with the GT240 card with DDR5 memory. GT 440 96 300 watt DDR3 or DDR5 128 Bit 810 Mhz 1620 Mhz Make sure you get the DDR5 with 1 Gig of memory version. GT 440 OEM 144 400 watt DDR3 or DDR5 192 Bit 594 Mhz 1189 Mhz OEM Video Card - Has DDR3 or DDR5 memory. GTS 450 192 400 watt DDR5 128 Bit 783 Mhz 1566 Mhz GTS 450 OEM 144 400 watt DDR5 192 Bit 790 Mhz 1580 Mhz GTX 460 336 450 watt DDR5 256 Bit 675 Mhz 1350 Mhz Specs are for 1GB DDR5 version of this card. GTX 460 SE 228 450 watt DDR5 256 Bit 650 Mhz 1300 Mhz GTX 465 352 550 watt DDR5 256 Bit 607 Mhz 1215 Mhz GTX 470 448 550 watt DDR5 320 Bit 607 Mhz 1215 Mhz GTX 480 480 600 watt DDR5 384 Bit 700 Mhz 1401 Mhz GT 520 48 300 watt DDR3 64 Bit 810 Mhz 1620 Mhz GT 530 96 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit 700 Mhz 1400 Mhz OEM Card GT 545 DDR3 144 350 watt DDR3 192 Bit 720 Mhz 1440 Mhz GT 545 GDDR5 144 400 watt DDR5 128 Bit 870 Mhz 1740 Mhz GTX 550 Ti 192 400 watt DDR5 192 Bit 900 Mhz 1800 Mhz GTX 555 OEM 288 450 watt DDR5 192 Bit 776 Mhz 1553 Mhz OEM Card GTX 560 OEM 384 450 watt DDR5 320 Bit 552 Mhz 1104 Mhz OEM Card GTX 560 336 450 watt DDR5 256 Bit 810-950 Mhz 1620-1900 Mhz GTX 560 Ti 384 500 watt DDR5 256 Bit 822 Mhz 1645 Mhz GTX 560 TI OEM 352 500 watt DDR5 320 Bit 732 Mhz 1464 Mhz OEM Card GTX 570 480 550 watt DDR5 320 Bit 732 Mhz 1464 Mhz GTX 580 512 600 watt DDR5 384 Bit 772 Mhz 1544 Mhz GTX 590 1024 700 watt DDR5 384 Bit Per GPU 607 Mhz 1215 Mhz Dual GPU - Premiere CS5 at this time only supports 1 GPU. GT 605 48 300 watt DDR3 64 bit 523 Mhz 1046 Mhz OEM Card GT 610 48 300 watt DDR3 64 bit 810 Mhz 900 Mhz GT 620 48 300 watt DDR3 64 bit 810 Mhz 1620 Mhz OEM Card GT 620 96 300 watt DDR3 64 bit 700 Mhz 1400 Mhz GT 630 192 300 watt DDR3 128 bit 875 Mhz 875 Mhz OEM Card GT 630 96 300 watt DDR3 or DDR5 128 bit 810 Mhz 1620 Mhz GT 640 384 300 watt DDR3 128 bit 797 Mhz 797 Mhz Version 1 - OEM Card GT 640 144 300 watt DDR3 192 bit 720 Mhz 1440 Mhz Version 2 - OEM Card GT 640 384 300 watt DDR5 128 bit 950 Mhz 950 Mhz Version 3 - OEM Card GT 645 288 450 watt DDR5 192 bit 776 Mhz 1552 Mhz OEM Card GTX 670 1334 500 watt DDR5 256 Bit 915 Mhz 980 Mhz OEM Card GTX 680 1536 550 watt DDR5 256 Bit 1006-1058 Mhz 1006-1058 Mhz Base Clock Speed 1006 Mhz GTX 690 3072 650 watt DDR5 512-bit (256-bit per GPU) 915-1019 Mhz 915-1019 Mhz Dual GPU - Premiere CS5 at this time only supports 1 GPU. Quadro FX 370 LP 8 350 watt DDR2 64 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 256 Megs Quadro FX 370 16 450 watt DDR2 64 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 256 Megs Quadro FX 380 LP 16 350 watt DDR3 64 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 256 Megs Quadro FX 380 16 450 watt DDR3 128 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 256 Megs Quadro FX 570 16 450 watt DDR2 128 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 512 Megs Quadro FX 580 32 50 watt DDR3 128 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 512 Megs Quadro FX 1700 32 450 watt DDR2 128 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 512 Megs Quadro FX 1800 64 450 watt DDR3 192 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 768 Megs Quadro FX 3700 112 450 watt DDR3 256 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 512 Megs Quadro FX 3800 192 550 watt DDR3 256 Bit Has 1 Gig Memory Quadro FX 4600 112 750 watt DDR3 384 Bit Not Recommended - Only has 768 Megs Quadro FX 4800 192 750 watt DDR3 384 Bit Has 1.5 Gigs Memory Quadro FX 5600 128 750 watt DDR3 384 Bit Has 1.5 Gigs Memory Quadro FX 5800 240 750 watt DDR3 512 Bit Has 4 Gigs Memory Quadro CX 192 750 watt DDR3 384 Bit Has 1.5 Gigs Memory Quadro 600 96 300 watt DDR3 128 Bit Only available with DDR3 memory at this time. You are better off with the GT240 card with DDR5 memory Quadro 2000 192 500 watt DDR5 128 Bit Has 1 Gig of DDR5 Memory - Can vary by manufacturer Quadro 2000D 192 500 watt DDR5 128 Bit Has 1 Gig of DDR5 Memory - Can vary by manufacturer Quadro 4000 256 500 watt DDR5 256 Bit Has 2 Gigs of DDR5 Memory - Can vary by manufacturer Quadro 5000 352 550 watt DDR5 320 Bit Has 2.5 Gigs of DDR5 Memory - Can vary by manufacturer Quadro 6000 448 750 watt DDR5 384 Bit Has 6 Gigs of DDR5 Memory - Can vary by manufacturer **NOTE: The specs and power supply requirements listed above are based on NVidia's web site. PLEASE check with the manufacturer of the video card you plan on purchasing to see what their power supply requirements are. NOTE: Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5 and CS5.5 does not support more than 1 GPU. So the GTX590 and GTX690, which has dual GPU's, only 1 GPU and half of the CUDA cores will be used by Adobe Premiere. If you are looking at the GTX590 or GTX690, you would be better off with the GTX580 or GTX670. Number 8 - Power Supplies The Power Supply - Before you run out and buy an NVIDIA video card, you need to know how big your power supply is in watts. Different video cards will require that you have a minimum number of watts power supply. So open your computer, if you are comfortable doing that, otherwise, find someone who is. Look on the label on the power supply for the number of watts it is rated. It may say something like 300 watts, 450 watts or higher. Once you know the watts, then you can select a video card that will work with your power supply. For example, the NVIDIA GeForce GT440 will work fine with a 300 watt power supply. But, the GeForce GT580 will require a minimum of a 600 watt power supply. This is why you need to know your computer’s power supply size before you run out and buy a video card. You don’t want to use a video card that your power supply can’t handle. For example, if you decide you really want a GeForce GT580 video card and you only have a 300 watt power supply, then you will need to upgrade your computer’s power supply. If you don’t want to bother upgrading your power supply, then make sure you stick with a video card that will work with what every the size of your power supply is. In the chart above, we list a minimum power supply size needed for the each video card. This list above are based on NVidia's web site recommendations. We had some one email us about the MSI N240GT (GT 240) video card with 1 GB of DDR5 memory and that the MSI box says it requires a 350 watt power supply. So why does our chart list a 300 watt power supply? Okay, if you look at the MSI box for the GT240 with DDR5 memory, it does say they recommend a minimum of 350 watt power supply. But, when you open up the installation guide it says the minimum power supply is 500 watts based on a PC configured with an Intel Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor. Wait a minute, the list above says 300 watts. Okay so what is going on here? According to MSI, the main group of people who buy higher performance video cards are people who use the computer to play games. The GT 240 card falls into this category and the GT 240 card with 1GB of DDR5 memory is capable of being overclocked. (See Note 2 on Overclocking). MSI recommends a 350 watts if you are agamer and are going to overclock the video card. If you won't be overclocking the card and you really don't need to for video editing, MSI said you will be fine with a 300 watt power supply. If you are running a quad core system, such as one with the Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor, you will generally have a larger power supply than 300 watts any way and most likely it will be 450 to 500 watts or larger. This is why their installation guide recommends a 500 watt power supply. The more powerful the CPU, the larger power supply your computer will have, since the CPU pulls quite a bit of power in watts. For example, the quad core Qx9650 processor pulls around 65 watts and the I7-930 processor pulls 130 watts. Also, I was informed by several other video card manufacturers that they put a higher minimum power supply requirement on their video cards, since they don't know what other devices or the number of hard drives you have in your computer. This way, they will be on the safe side. Number 9 - Video Card Performance and System Performance. PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. As I will show you below, your video card performance will vary greatly on your overall computer system. Everything from the type of CPU, the CPU speed, the amount of memory in the computer and more, will all play a part in your over all performance with Adobe Premiere. Let's take a look at a couple of benchmark tests using a project in Adobe Premiere. I used the PPBM5 benchmark test with 4 video tracks. This benchmark test was designed to test the performance of various video cards using a project for Premiere. Our First test system (AMD Quad Core): HP Computer with an AMD Phenom II X4 (quad core) CPU running at 3.2 Ghz 8 gigs of Ram Single Samsung 7200 rpm SATA 3.0Gb/s hard drive Windows 7 Home Edition 1 Gig or more of DDR 5 on ALL video cards tested. All tests were run with the MRQ (Maximum Render Quality) set to ON. Each test was run 5 times in the GPU mode and then averaged together. To measure the time, I used a stopwatch. Tests with the Mercury Playback Engine in Software mode was run once. MPE GPU = I was running the Mercury Playback Engine using GPU Acceleration. MPE Software = I ran the test with the Mercury Playback Engine using Software only. First Benchmark Test Video Card # of Cuda Cores Time Line Render MPE GPU On Time Line Render MPE Software MPE GPU On Export to MPEG-2 DVD MPE Software Mode Export to MPEG-2 DVD GT-240 96 34.2 Seconds 373 Seconds 281 Seconds 387 Seconds GT-440 96 33.3 Seconds 373 Seconds 275 Seconds 387 Seconds GTX-470 448 31.6 Seconds 373 Seconds 230 Seconds 387 Seconds GTX-545 144 32.8 Seconds 373 Seconds 258 Seconds 387 Seconds GTX-550 Ti 192 31.9 Seconds 373 Seconds 246 Seconds 387 Seconds GTX-570 480 31.5 Seconds 373 Seconds 193 Seconds 387 Seconds GTX-680 1536 30.0 Seconds 373 Seconds 184 Seconds 387 Seconds Quadro 2000 192 32.5 Seconds 373 Seconds 257 Seconds 387 Seconds Quadro 4000 256 31.6 Seconds 373 Seconds 242 Seconds 387 Seconds Note: the MPEG-2 DVD test above was run by using direct export, by selecting File, then Export and then Media. I used the following settings during the Export. Format = MPEG2-DVD, Preset = NTSC High Quality Widescreen, I then unchecked Export Audio and I unchecked Use Max Render Quality, Use Previews and Use Frame Blending. Our Second test system (I7-920) Intel I7-920 Quad Core CPU running at 3.05 Ghz 16 gigs of RAM Dual Seagate 7200 rpm SATA 3.0 GB/s hard drives Windows 7 Home Edition 1 Gig or more of DDR 5 on ALL video cards tested. All tests were run with the MRQ (Maximum Render Quality) set to ON. Each test was run 3 times in the GPU mode and then averaged together. To measure the time, I used a stopwatch. Tests with the Mercury Playback Engine in Software mode was run once. I used the same PPBM5 benchmark project that uses 4 video tracks, as I did above. Video Card # of Cuda Cores Time Line Render MPE GPU On Time Line Render MPE Software MPE GPU On Export to MPEG-2 DVD MPE Software Mode Export to MPEG-2 DVD GT-240 96 11.5 Seconds 114 Seconds 181 Seconds 176 Seconds GT-440 96 11.5 Seconds 114 Seconds 180 Seconds 176 Seconds GTX-470 448 10 Seconds 114 Seconds 98 Seconds 176 Seconds GTX-545 144 11 Seconds 114 Seconds 168 Seconds 176 Seconds GTX-550 Ti 192 11 Seconds 114 Seconds 159 Seconds 176 Seconds GTX-570 480 10 Seconds 114 Seconds 97 Seconds 176 Seconds GTX-680 1536 9 Seconds 114 Seconds 86 Seconds 176 Seconds Quadro 2000 192 11.5 Seconds 114 Seconds 166 Seconds 176 Seconds Quadro 4000 256 11 Seconds 114 Seconds 155 Seconds 176 Seconds Note: the MPEG-2 DVD test above was run by using direct export, by selecting File, then Export and then Media. I used the following settings during the Export. Format = MPEG2-DVD, Preset = NTSC High Quality Widescreen, I then unchecked Export Audio and I unchecked Use Max Render Quality, Use Previews and Use Frame Blending. Explaining the Test Results - (Please read this section very carefully) In case you are wondering, Adobe Premiere uses ALL of the CUDA cores on the video card. Let's take a look at the results. As you can see even though both computers are quad core systems and the clock speed is close, the Intel processor performed much better. The reason is, most AMD processors do not have SSE 4.1+ instruction set support, where the newer Intel processors do and Premiere uses the SSE4.1 instruction set. Now this doesn't mean you can't use an AMD processor or an older Intel processor, you can, it will perform slower than processors that have the SSE4.1 support. NOTE: Newer AMD FX series processors do have the SSE4.1 instruction set. The AMD computer I ran the test on, that processor did not have the SSE4.1 instruction set. Timeline Rendering. As you can see in the above benchmark tests, there is a huge difference in timeline render speeds between the Mercury Playback Engine running in GPU mode vs. Software mode on either computer. Another thing you will notice is there is NOT a big difference between a NVidia card with 96 cuda cores vs. one with 480 cuda cores, when rendering the timeline. Exporting to MPEG2-DVD format. Here is where things get interesting. You will notice on both systems, that the more cuda cores the faster it is to export to the MPEG2-DVD format with the Mercury Playback Engine (MPE) in the GPU acceleration mode vs. the MPE in software mode. Let's look at the AMD system first. Even having just 96 cuda cores, the MPE GPU mode is faster than the MPE is in software mode. And you will see that with more cuda cores, the faster the export to MPEG-2 is. With the Intel I7-920 system, a video card with 96 cuda cores, was a few seconds slower in the GPU mode than if you used the MPE in software mode. The reason for this is, on this Intel system, the CPU could actually export the MPEG2-DVD footage faster than the video card with only 96 cuda cores. Once I put in a GTX-545 with 144 cuda cores, then the video card was able to export faster than the software mode. Just like on the AMD system, on the Intel system, the more cuda cores, the faster the export to MPEG-2 is. Important Note: When exporting to MPEG-2, the more ram you have the faster the exporting time will be. I did a quick test on the AMD system. I upgraded the memory from 8 gigs to 12 gigs and the render times improved by 20% when exporting to MPEG-2 using all of the video cards above. When I upgraded the system memory to 16 gigs of RAM, the rendering times where approximately 40% faster than when I only had 8 gigs of memory. By adding more system memory, you can actually speed up the time it takes to export to MPEG-2 DVD with what ever NVidia video card you are using. Exporting to h.264 format. Although I don't show the results above in the charts, exporting to the h.264 format with MPE in the GPU mode, was any were from 38% to 50% faster then exporting in the MPE software mode. The difference between a 96 cuda core video card and a 480 cuda core video card was 7 seconds when exporting in the MPE GPU mode. Newer Intel CPU's - If you have a newer Intel CPU, such as the I7-xxx processor, you will benefit by having 300 or cuda cores on the video card when exporting to the MPEG2-DVD format. We Ran Second Benchmark Test Using the same HP Computer that we used in our first test above. I ran a second benchmark test made up of a project I was currently working on as a real world test. Second Benchmark Test (Updated 03/29/12) - I used Adobe Premiere CS5.5 and a 10 minute time line with 3 tracks and multiple effects and dissolves. Each video card had at least 1 Gig of DDR5 memory. Video Card # of Cuda Cores Time Line Rendering MPE GPU Hardware Minutes & Seconds Time Line Rendering MPE Software Minutes & Seconds GT-240 96 5:41 40:12 GT-440 96 5:37 40:12 GTX-470 448 5:34 40:12 GTX-545 144 5:37 40:12 GTX-550 Ti 192 5:35 40:12 GTX-570 480 5:29 40:12 GTX-680 1536 5:16 40:12 A word about the Second Benchmark Test: The second benchmark tests were run only rendering the timeline. This was done so I could show you the difference in using the Premiere in GPU mode vs. software mode using various video cards on a longer timeline. Your results will vary from mine simply because our systems are different. From the chipset on the motherboard, to the memory chips, brand of video card, etc. all of these things will make a difference in the benchmarks. If you run your own tests, make sure you run your tests with the Maximum Render Quality set to ON for both Software mode and GPU mode. Here are some factors that will come into play for overall system performance, they are: CPU Cores and Clock Speed - The more CPU cores you have and the higher the clock speed the better. Remember, the decoding of your video is handled by the CPU and not the GPU. Having a newer Intel processor or an AMD FX series processor will help with decoding heavily compressed video formats such as AVCHD and h.264. Again if you CPU doesn't have SSE4.1 support, it just means it will decode the video a little slower. Hard Disk - The faster the hard drive the better. A rotation speed of 7,200 RPM's is a minimum you want. A rotation speed of 10,000 RPM is better. Raid drive systems will improve performance. The amount of cache the hard drive has can make a difference. The more cache the better. Depending on the video format you are working with, you may find yourself reading very large files from the hard drive. If the data transfer rate isn't fast enough, this may slow down editing performance. RAM Memory - The ram speed and latency will play a part in the overall performance. Plus, the more memory you have in your computer the better the overall performance will be. Going from 4 gigs to 8 gigs, we saw a speed improvement when encoding to a MPEG2 DVD. When we upgrade from 8 to 12 gigs, we saw another 20% speed improvement when encoding to a MPEG2 DVD. Others have reported even higher speed improvements on their systems. GPU and CUDA cores - The more CUDA cores, the wider the bandwidth and having DDR5 memory on the video card, the better performance the video card has to offer. Remember, just because the video card has more to offer, doesn't mean the rest of the computer system will take advantage of it. Most of the time the video card's GPU will be waiting on the rest of the computer to feed it the data to process. When the GPU gets a hold of the data, the more CUDA cores the faster it will process the data. Then it hands this data back to the CPU. For example, the GTX 570 video card has 480 CUDA cores, while the GTX680 has 1,536 CUDA cores. Since the GTX680 has more than 3X the number of CUDA cores over the GTX570, you might expect the GTX680's benchmark times to be 3X faster than the GTX570. But, they are not. They are only about 10 seconds difference. The reason is, the GPU is having to wait on the rest of the computer to feed it the data to process. This is true for all of the video cards. The Video Formant - Different video formats put different demands on the CPU and GPU. For example, if you have an AVI clip on your timeline and you export it to an AVI file with no effects or transitions then the GPU will get around 1% usage. However, if your timeline has the same AVI clip with no effects or transitions and you are exporting to an MPEG2 DVD then GPU will see much more usage. Please understand, do to all of the various computer configurations (ie. amount of RAM, BUS speeds, hard drive speeds, type of video card, the type of RAM on the video card, the CPU type, the speed of the CPU, etc. ) your performance results will naturally vary from others. This is not due to Premiere, but do to the way your computer is configured and to the video format you are working with. Bottom Line: Will you see a performance increase? Yes. How much, will vary with the factors listed above. Now the performance increase I am talking about is between having the Mercury Playback Engine in Software mode vs. GPU Acceleration mode and having the Maximum Render Quality set to ON when comparing between the Software mode and GPU Acceleration mode. Note: Some people have reported they have only seen a small increase in performance, while others say they have seen up to 12 time faster performance. This is because of the video format, the effects and transitions they are using. Each can play a big part in how much speed increase you will see. If you use a simple video format with no effects or transitions, don't expect to see a huge increase in performance. Note: these test results are from our systems, your results will vary from ours, simply because of the hardware differences. Quadro or GeForce Video Cards The only reason to use a Quadro video card with Adobe Premiere is if you are using a 10 bit monitor like the HP Dreamcolor or similar or you need SDI output. Otherwise, the Quadro’s are under powered and over priced. Let’s take a look at some of the Quadro cards. The Quadro 2000 - This video card only has 192 CUDA cores and a 128bit memory interface. Basically, it is just an GTS 450 with a slower clock speed. In other words, the GTS450 would be slightly fast. Also, the GTX 550 Ti, with it’s 192 CUDA cores and 192 bit memory interface would be faster than the Quadro 2000, due to the wider memory interface and slightly faster clock speed. The Quadro FX 3800. This card is now 3 generations old and is based on the GTX 260, but with only a 256 bit memory interface. The GTX260 has a wider memory interface at 448 bit and would produce faster results than the FX 3800. The Quadro 4000 - This video card is based on the same GPU that was used on the GTX 470. However, it performs much slower than the GTX470. In fact, the performance level is like the GTX 460 SE. Even a regular GTX 460 (not the GTX 460 SE version) would give you better performance due to the Quadro 4000 have only 256 CUDA cores, while the GTX 460 has 336 CUDA cores. Quadro 5000 - This is based on a GTX 465, with a wider memory interface 320-bit memory bus giving it an edge over the GTX 465. However, it would be slower than a GTX 470 or GTX 570.. Quadro 6000 - This video card is on par with the GTX470, although the Quadro 6000 is much more expensive. I do not recommend a Quadro video card, unless you have a specific program that requires a Quadro video card or if you have the HP Dreamcolor monitor or similar 10bit monitor or you need SDI output from the video card. You will get better performance for a lot less money with the GeForce cards. Please continue to the Next Page for the Unlock procedure...... Note 1 Unlocking the NVIDIA video card will not make it "certified" in the eyes of Adobe. Adobe would like you to use a "certified" NVIDIA video card, because these are the ones they have put through rigorous testing with Premiere CS6, CS55.5 and CS5.5. With Adobe Premiere CS5 version 5.03, Adobe recommends the following video cards: GeForce GTX 285 GTX 470 Quadro 4000 Quadro 5000 Quadro 5000M Quadro FX 3800 Quadro FX 4800 Quadro FX 5800 Quadro CX With Adobe Premiere CS5.5, Adobe recommends the following video cards: GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac OS) GeForce GTX 470 (Windows) GeForce GTX 570 (Windows) GeForce GTX 580 (Windows) Quadro FX 3700M (Windows) Quadro FX 3800 (Windows) Quadro FX 3800M (Windows) Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac OS) Quadro FX 5800 (Windows) Quadro 2000 (Windows) Quadro 2000D (Windows) Quadro 2000M (Windows) Quadro 3000M (Windows) Quadro 4000 (Windows and Mac OS) Quadro 4000M (Windows) Quadro 5000 (Windows) Quadro 5000M (Windows) Quadro 5010M (Windows) Quadro 6000 (Windows) Quadro CX (Windows) There are a thousands of users out there that are using this unlock technique on their NVIDIA cards with no problems at all and that includes us, at Studio 1 Productions. Mercury Playback Hack Premiere CS5 Premiere CS5.5 Adobe Premiere CS6 Mercury Playback Engine Note 2 The MSI N240GT series of graphics cards (including the N240GT-MD512-OC/D5 and N240GT-MD1G) allows the user to adjust both the voltage and the overclocking configurations via the Afterburner overclocking software from MSI to increase GPU clock up to 30%. The core clock can go from 550Mhz to 625Mhz. We do NOT recommending overclocking ANY video card when working with Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5.5 or CS5. We have experienced, along with other users reporting that when the video card was overclocked, Premiere would crash after using it a few minutes. The crashing can be from high video card temps and/or overclocking the video card to a speed that is beyond what the video card can handle for long periods of time. Number 10 - What Video Card to Buy Some people think they should run out and buy a video card with the most cuda cores (for example a GTX-680). Depending on your computer, that might not be the best idea. For example, if you have an older computer, such as a quad core running at 2.0 Ghz with only 4 gigs of memory, then buying the GTX-680 would be over kill. On this system, you are better off adding more memory to the computer and use a video card with 96 cuda cores to about 300 cuda cores. Also, everyone has a different level of acceptable editing performance. Some people are fine with a working on a slower system, while other people need a high end, super fast system. A lot depends on whether they are a hobbyist, semi-pro or a professional editor, as to what their needs are. From the people I've talked to via email and phone calls, I've noticed that most people have said they are mainly interested in the editing, rendering and playback of the timeline and they don't mind if the exports aren't as fast as they could be with a high end card. While others are looking for not only timeline performance, they are also looking for fast exports. As you can see everyone's needs are different. At this point I recommend you go back and look at the benchmark's again and re-read the section above on "Here are some factors that will come into play for overall system performance". Now remember, you can speed up your exports to MPEG-2 DVD format by increasing your ram size up to 8, 12 or 16 gigs. This can make a huge performance difference without having to get the highest end video card. While I really can't recommend what video card you should buy, I will give you these general guide lines: Note: this may change when Premiere CS6 is released. AMD dual or quad core computer - 96 cuda cores or more AMD 6 or 8 core system - 96 cuda cores or more. 192 cuda cores or higher would be better. Intel dual core - 96 cuda cores or more Intel older quad core - 96 cuda cores or more. Intel newer CPU I7 series - 384 cuda cores or more. Yes, you can run a card with less cuda cores, but your edit performance will be slower. I know some people may feel the number of cuda cores listed above are low, however, you have to remember, everyone has a different level of acceptable performance and they have different editing needs. (This is for Adobe Premiere only). I know a lot of people, including businesses are on a tighter budget these days. If you are, then take a look at the GT440, GT530 or the GT545 with DDR5 memory, especially if you have a 300 watt power supply. Note: the GT440 and GT530 will work with a 300 power supply, where the GT545 will need a 400 watt power supply. Now, if you have more money to spend, then by all means look at the GTX 550 or higher video card. Just remember you may have to upgrade your power supply. NOTE 1: Unfortunately, there are people on the web that like to just make a blanket statement, such as "you need to have 384 cuda cores to get good performance with Premiere" or "you need a GTX-xxx card". They don't stop to think about the type of CPU you have, how much memory your have, what you export your final product to or what your power supply is. Remember, you may have to upgrade your power supply if the video card you select won't work with you current power supply. And they don't take into consideration if you are a hobbyist, student, amateur, part-time editor or pro editor. Plus, they don't take into account your budget. While they are trying to be helpful, they are not asking you enough questions to give you a good answer, just a blanket statement. Another thing that has been brought to my attention through emails and phone calls is, on some of the forums, people are being told their system won't cut it. However, they are reporting to me, that once they have either put in a NVidia video card and unlocking it or unlocked their existing card, they feel they are getting great performance. So they asked me why are they being told their system won't cut it? What is happening here is everyone has a different level of acceptable performance. Some people just need the fastest (and expensive) system in order to be comfortable editing. Basically, they have a high level of acceptable performance. While other people are just as comfortable editing on a slower and less expensive system. They have a lower level of acceptable performance and there is nothing wrong with that. They are not concerned if it takes a little longer to render. To be fair, not everyone on the forums are like this. But, there are those few who are and they can be very vocal about their opinions on what you should have, without regard to the cost, so be careful. I realize that people's budgets are tight. That's why I show the speed differences across a variety of video cards. So you can get an idea of how different video cards perform in the two different systems I ran the tests on. NOTE: If you run games or other programs that are video card intensive, a high end video card may boost your performance in those programs. Okay, before you run out and buy a video card, there is one more thing you need to know...... Number 11 - Video Card Cooling Video cards generate a lot of heat, especially when the GPU is in high use, such as when you are editing with Adobe Premiere with the Mercury Playback engine set to GPU mode. In order to get the best performance from your video card, you need to make sure it's not over heating. If over heating occurs, you will have playback problems and rendering performance problems. NOTE: If you don't have any way to monitor you CPU and GPU temperatures, click here for an article I wrote on monitoring your computer's temperatures and a source for free temperature monitoring software. Even if you already have a video card, please keep reading. There are things you are going to want to know about your video card and options for cooling it. In addition, we will show you how to keep your existing video card cooler, thus performing better. If you haven't bought a NVIDIA video card yet, we are going to show you what you should look for for the best cooling options for a video card. Please note, there are several manufacturer's of video cards that use the NVIDIA chipset and these manufacturer's may make several models of the video card using the same chipset. Below you will see photos of video cards from MSI, these are simply the video cards we use here at Studio 1 Productions. Let's take a look at the video cards above. The two video cards on the left are standard video cards. They both have standard size cooling fans and the bottom video card is completely enclosed with only one fan to keep the video card cool. With the enclosed video card, the air will have to vented out the back. Now, the two video cards on the right are designed for overclocking. They have larger fans and the bottom card has dual fans with heat pipes. Both of these video cards offer better cooling than the standard video cards. They are also open in design allowing air to circulate around the components on the video card, which helps with the cooling. While most standard video cards will work fine, they will run a little warmer than a video card designed for overclocking. If you are buying a new video card, you really should try to buy one that is designed for overclocking, since it will offer you better cooling and you won't have to worry about the video card overheating on long renders or exports. TECH NOTE: With ANY video card, it is best to leave 1 slot open between the video card fans and the next card below it. This will allow for better air flow and better cooling. Number 12 - Cooling your Existing Video Card If you have an existing video card that is a standard (non-overclocked version), like the video cards shown above on the LEFT side, you can add a slot fan to your computer to help keep the video card cooler. Below is the one we use here at Studio 1 Productions. This slot fan has a 70mm fan and a 70mm exhaust blower. The way it works is, you blow air onto the video card and the exhaust blower will suck the warm air from the card out the back of the computer. When I first saw this I was skeptical that it would really work. So I bought one and ran some tests. With the system sitting idle for about 2 hours the video card temps would be around 40c. With the AzenX Blitztorm cooler (shown above) installed the temps dropped to 28c to 31c. While editing with Premiere CS5 for about 2 hours, the temps would be around 48 to 54c. Once we put in the AzenX Blitztorm cooler, after editing for about 2 hours, the temps were now around 36c to 40c. So it really does work. Below is a picture of this slot cooler in one of our systems here at Studio 1 Productions: 1. The air blows up and on to the video card. With the warm air being moved towards the exhaust blower. 2. The warm air from the video card is then exhausted out the back of the computer via the blower. There are other models of slot coolers, that have two fans that will blow air onto the video card, then the warm air will get pulled out by the computer's case fan. These do a good job also, but I didn't like the idea of the heated air from the video card staying in the computer case and having to be pulled out of the top of the case by the case fan. Another type of slot cooler is the exhaust blower. We tried the exhaust blower, like shown below: They do move some air out of the computers case, but they didn't do much for cooling down the video card temps and they tend to get noisy after time. So I can't recommend them. I recommend the AzenX Blitztorm BT-SC70BBL PCI Slot Case Cooler since it has the fan and blower combination. They are not expensive, the are in the $20 to $25 price range. One nice thing about the AzenX Blitztorm cooler is, you can also adjust the speeds of the fans. We have ours turned up about 1/2 way and this gives us good cooling while keeping the fan noise down to where you can't hear the fans. The fan on the AzenX Blitztorm can be tilted so you can position the direction you want the air to blow. When you first get one, the fan is set to blow away from the video card. Simply swivel the fan around until it is blowing towards the video card. If you choose the AzenX Blitztorm or a slot cooler with 2 fans, when you put it in the computer, keep at least 1 slot open between the video card and the slot cooler. This will allow for better air flow and better cooling. Number 13 - What if you have a video card that is enclosed like the bottom video card that was shown above, on the Left Side? As I stated earlier, a standard video card will work, they will just run warmer. If you already have a standard type video card and you are not having any problems, that's great. Don't worry about then. However, if you do experience any performance problems, then you can replace the stock fan and cooling system with an after market cooling system, like shown below: These do a fantastic job at keeping the video card cool. However, I must say if you are not a computer techie, DO NOT try installing it yourself. Call a computer store or find a computer tech who has installed an aftermarket cooler before and let them do it so you don't screw up anything. Also, once you install an aftermarket cooler on the video card, it will void your video card's warranty since you have "modified" the video card. But, this may not really matter to some people. Video Card Fan Speeds On some video cards you can't adjust the fan speed. They usually have a sensor that adjusts the fan speed as the GPU gets hotter, the fan speed goes up in order to keep the video card cooler. However, when the computer is idle or when you are just surfing the web, some people may find the fan noise to be a little loud. Here is a link to a site that has a video showing you how to add a fan speed kit. Making Your Computer Run Better and Faster for Premiere There are two things you can do to keep your computer performing well. First, use a good program for defragmenting the disk, not the disk defrag program that comes with Windows. By keep your hard disk defragmented, file and programs will load faster. Second, run a Registry Cleaner at least once a month. There are two programs that I use and recommend and they are from Auslogics.com and they are FREE. For more information about them and how to set them up for your computer, just watch the video on our blog. Click here to go to that page. Special Notes for Laptop Owners. If you laptop has Optimus Technology or a built-in graphics card with an additional NVidia graphics card, then you will need to do some special setup with the NVidia Control Panel in order for the Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere to run in GPU mode. Finish reading this article and follow the procedure below for unlocking your video card first. If you can not get it to work, then read this article: If the video does not show up in the Preview and/or Program monitor windows in Premiere, then the NVidia Optimus is enabled. Video Card Drivers - Important It is very important that you are using the latest drivers from NVIDIA and not the ones that came with the video card. Please go to www.nvidia.com and download the latest drivers. The NVidia driver MUST be version 301.42 or higher. Dated May 22, 2012 or newer, especially for Premiere CS6 Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using. On Windows 7 go into the Control Panel and selectPrograms and Features. Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running. Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card. Once that is done, power up the computer and install the driver you downloaded. ThenReboot your computer. DO NOT down load any Beta drivers. They may not be stable. Only download the WHQL drivers. If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then read the FAQ article on how to fix it. Now how to Unlock your NVIDIA Card for Premiere CS6 CS5.5 and CS5 For Windows Users (Mac Users Click Here and Scroll to the end of the FAQ Page) NOTE: If you download and install any updates to Adobe Premiere you will have to go back and unlock the card again using either the Automatic Method or the Manual Method. Automatic Method Manual Method To make it easier to unlock your video card, I wrote a small program that will do all of the steps automatically. This program is for: Adobe Premiere CS5 Adobe Premiere CS5.5 Adobe Premiere CS6 Adobe After Effects CS6 and runs under Windows Vista 64bit and Windows 7. Yes, this software will also unlock the NVidia video cards for After Effects CS6. If you have After Effects CS6, then please click here and read the After Effects CS6 article. This Program will work for those of you who have the following video cards: Desktop Video Cards Your video card MUST have at least 896 Megs of video ram. Laptop GPUs Your laptop MUST have at least 1 gig of video ram. GeForce 9400 GT GeForce 9500 GT GeForce 9600 GSO GeForce 9600 GT GeForce 9800 GT GeForce 9800 GTX+ GeForce 9800 GX2 GeForce GT 120 GeForce GT 130 GeForce GTS 150 GeForce GT 220 GeForce GT 230 GeForce GT 240 GeForce GTS 240 GeForce GTS 250 GeForce GTX 260 GeForce GTX 275 GeForce GTX 280 GeForce GTX 285 GeForce GTX 295 GeForce GT 320 GeForce GT 330 GeForce GT 340 GeForce GT 420 GeForce GT 430 GeForce GT 440 GeForce GTS 450 GeForce GTX 460 GeForce GTX 460 SE GeForce GTX 465 GeForce GTX 470 GeForce GTX 480 GeForce GT 520 GeForce GT 530 GeForce GT 545 GeForce GTX 550 Ti GeForce GTX 550 GeForce GTX 555 GeForce GTX 560 Ti GeForce GTX 560 GeForce GTX 570 GeForce GTX 580 GeForce GTX 590 GeForce GT 605 GeForce GT 610 GeForce GT 620 GeForce GT 630 GeForce GT 640 GeForce GT 645 GeForce GTX 670 GeForce GTX 680 GeForce GTX 690 Quadro 600 Quadro 2000 Quadro 4000 Quadro 5000 Quadro 6000 Quadro CX Quadro FX 3700 Quadro FX 3800 Quadro FX 4800 Quadro FX 5600 Quadro FX 5800 GeForce G110M GeForce GT 130M GeForce GTS 150M GeForce GTS 160M GeForce G210M GeForce GT 230M GeForce GT 240M GeForce GTS 250M GeForce GTS 260M GeForce GTX 280M GeForce GTX 285M GeForce 310M GeForce GT 325M GeForce GT 330M GeForce GT 335M GeForce GTS 350M GeForce GTS 360M GeForce GT 415M GeForce GT 420M GeForce GT 425M GeForce GT 435M GeForce GT 445M GeForce GTX 460M GeForce GTX 470M GeForce GTX 480M GeForce GTX 485M GeForce GT 520M GeForce GT 520MX GeForce GT 525M GeForce GT 540M GeForce GT 550M GeForce GT 555M GeForce GTX 560M GeForce GTX 570M GeForce GTX 580M GeForce GT 610M GeForce GT 620M GeForce GT 630M GeForce GT 635M GeForce GT 640M GeForce GT 640M LE GeForce GTX 650M GeForce GTX 660M GeForce GTX 670M GeForce GTX 675M GeForce GTX 680M Quadro 1000M Quadro 2000M Quadro 3000M Quadro 4000M Quadro 5000M Quadro 5010M Quadro FX 880M Quadro FX 1800M Quadro FX 2800M Quadro FX 3700M Quadro FX 3800M Note: Do not host this program on other sites as we will be making updates to it as nVidia releases new cards. Thanks. Program Updated: 07/07/12 Latest Version: 5.0.3 For Adobe Premiere CS5, CS5.5, CS6 and After Effects CS6 when it installed on the C: drive. Program Instructions Please read the instructions below before you download the program. 1. Follow these steps exactly. Remember Premiere must be installed on the C: drive. 2. Download the cuda.exe program. It's below, but you need to read the following steps first. 3. Some Anti-Virus programs may flag the cuda.exe program as the threat simply because it is writing in the C:\Program Files folder. If that happens to you, you can also download this program as a batch file. If your Internet browser opens the program in NotePad, simply click on File and Save As and save it ascuda.bat 3. When you download the program, please pay attention to where you are saving it to. You MUST save the program to your hard drive, do NOT try running it from the download prompt, it won't work that way. 4. Find the program on your hard driver and Right Click on it. Then selectRun as Administrator. (This is the most important step.) 5. The program program brings up a menu giving you the option for Adobe Premiere CS5 Adobe Premiere CS5.5 Adobe Premiere CS6 Adobe After Effects CS6 Make your selection. Then you will get a message that says "The CUDA Supported Card file has been updated. 6. That's it. Simple wan't it? But, your not done yet. 7. Now startup Adobe Premiere and open or create a Project. 8. Then at the top of the screen select Project, then select Project Setting and select General 9. Look under Rendering and Playback in the window, it will say: Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine GPU Hardware If it says -- Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine Software Only. Simply change it for Mercury Playback Engine GPU Hardware and you are done. Okay, now download the updated program. CUDA.EXE Click Here, Download and Save it. For those of you who would prefer at a batch file program or .bat program, here is: CUDA.BAT Click Here, Download and Save it. Save the program, because if Adobe comes out with a new update for Premiere or After Effects CS6, you will need to run the unlock software again. Having a Problem with the Software: If Adobe Premiere does not allow you to change to the Mercury Playback Engine GPU Hardware setting, then one of the following 3 things happened. 1. You didn't follow the instructions exactly as stated above. Such as right clicking on the program and running it as Administrator. 2. Your video card does not have at least 896 megs of memory. 3. Your video card is not in the list above. These are the only three things that will cause the program not to work. Here are the steps, PLEASE follow them exactly as they are written: 1. Go to All Programs, then Accessories. 2. RIGHT click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator 3. Type cd \ it will give you a C:\> Prompt. 4. For Adobe Premiere CS5, then type in cd \Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 For Adobe Premiere CS5.5, then type in cd \Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 For Adobe Premiere CS6, then type in cd \Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 It will give you a C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro> Prompt 5. Type in GPUSniffer.exe Press enter and wait a few seconds You should see something like this: (Note the lines I have highlighted in red) Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896 Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896 Vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation Renderer string: GeForce GTX 295/PCI/SSE2 < The card type Version string: 3.0.0 OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator... OpenGL Version 2.0 Supports shaders! Supports BGRA -> BGRA Shader Supports VUYA Shader -> BGRA Supports UYVY/YUYV ->BGRA Shader Supports YUV 4:2:0 -> BGRA Shader Testing for CUDA support... Found 2 devices supporting CUDA. CUDA Device # 0 properties - CUDA device details: Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3 Total Video Memory: 877MB CUDA Device # 1 properties - CUDA device details: Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3 < The Video Card Name I have shown in red Total Video Memory: 877MB < ---- Total video memory CUDA Device # 0 not chosen because it did not match the named list of cards <---See Below Completed shader test! Internal return value: 7 If you look at the 3 rd from the bottom it says the CUDA device is not chosen because it's not in the named list of card. That's fine. Let's add it. 6. Next, click on the Start icon in the bottom left corner of Windows 7. 7. Then click on All Programs and then click on the Accessories folder. 8. Look in the Accessories folder for Notepad and RIGHT click Notepad 9. The left click on Run as Administrator 10. Once Notepad opens up, click on File and then Open 11. Navigate to the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 folder or Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 folder or Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 folder 12. Find the file: cuda_supported_cards.txt then click on it to select the file, then click Open 13. You will see a list of cards 14. Go to the end of the list and add your video card. For Example, above it listed the video card as: GeForce GTX 295 15. Now just add the name of the card between the “Renderer string:” and the forward slash “/” to the cuda_supported_cards.txt file. Using the example above, you would add only the GeForce GTX 295 part to the file. Make sure you enter your video card correctly. It is case sensitive. 16. Click on File and click Save. Then exit Notepad. 17. In the window that has the GPUSniffer program, type in GPUSniffer.exe again and press enter and wait a few seconds. 18. Look to see your video card is listed and how much memory it is showing. 19. If everything is correct, type in Exit at the command prompt. Otherwise, go back to step 6 and make sure you have the name of the card entered correctly. Now startup Adobe Premiere and open or create a Project. Then at the top of the screen select Project, then select Project Setting and select General Look under Rendering and Playback at the bottom of the window, it will say: Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine GPU Accelerated If it says -- Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine Software Only. Simply change it for Mercury Playback Engine GPU Accelerated and you are done. NOTE: If you can not change to the GPU mode, chances are you did not follow steps 6 to 9 or you didn't type in the name of the video card correctly. Note: Save this page, because if Adobe comes out with a new update for Premiere, you will need to do the unlock again. Help Spread the Word. - If you are involved in any online forums or blogs please spread the word about this article and program so other Adobe Premiere owners can benefit. Thank you. Please read the FAQ section next. This section covers questions and problems other have had. Frequently Asked Questions Make sure you have installed the latest video drivers for your video card from the NVidia website. This will solve a lot of problems you may run into. Please do NOT use the drivers that come with you video card, as they are usually outdated. I updated Premiere and now it is running the Mercury Playback Engine in software mode. Simply go back to the unlock procedure above and redo step 1 to 19 or just run the program above. Now your video card will be unlocked again. When Adobe does most updates, the update installs a new cuda_supported_cards.txt file. So all you have to do is add your video card back into the list. I can not see any video in my Program monitor window on my laptop: If the video does not show up in the Preview and/or Program monitor windows in Premiere, then the NVidia Optimus is enabled. Please click on the button below and read the article on how to setup Premiere or After Effects to run with Optimus Technolong. My video playback stutters even after I render the timeline. This problem is not from the video card. Most of the time the problem is from data transfer rate from a slow rpm hard drive. 1) Make sure your hard drives are 7,200 rpm drives or higher. If your drive is a Green drive or a 5,400 rpm drive, they are not fast enough fast enough to provide a high enough data transfer rate for smooth playback. 2) If you only have 1 hard drive, pick up a 2nd one that runs at 7,200 rpm and put the Media Cache files on a 7,200 rpm drive. 3) If you already have 2nd hard drive and it is 7,200 rpm, put the Media Cache files on the 7,200 rpm drive. Also, clear out your Media Cache File. Here is how: Click on Edit Select Preferences Then Select Media Here you will find a section labeled Media Cache Database Click on the Clean button to clear out the Media Cache Files and Database. NOTE: Cleaning the cache and database files with the Clean button will NOT remove files that are associated with footage for which the source files are still available. How do I change the location where the Media Cache Files are stored? Click on Edit Select Preferences Then Select Media Here you find a section marked Media Cache Files. Click on the Browse button and set your new location. Do NOT check the button for Save Media files next to originals when possible. I just installed a GTS460 (or any other NVidia video card) and I noticed that running the Mercury Playback Engine in the software mode is faster with some footage than when I run the Mercury Playback Engine in the GPU hardware mode. Why is that? This has to due with the Maximum Render Quality mode setting. Adobe Premiere has a setting called the Maximum Render Quality mode (or MRQ). The Maximum Render Quality mode will maximize the quality of motion in rendered clips and sequences. So when you select this option, the video will often render moving objects more sharply. Maximum Render Quality also maintains sharp detail when scaling from large formats to smaller formats, or from high-definition to standard-definition formats. For the highest quality exports you should always use the Maximum Render Quality mode. Whether you are running the Mercury Playback Engine in the software mode or GPU hardware mode, you can turn the Maximum Render Quality mode on or off. You should have it turned ON. Here is how to set the Maximum Render Quality. 1) Open up Premiere 2) Click on Sequence at the top of the screen 3) Then select Sequence Settings 4) At the bottom of the window select Maximum Render Quality and click Okay When you are comparing the speed difference between using the software rendering mode and the GPU hardware rendering mode make sure the Maximum Render Quality mode is set to ON. Depending on the timeline video, effects and transitions that you are using, will depend on how much rendering is done by CPU vs. the GPU. Remember, not all effects and transitions are handled by the GPU. When the CPU is involved in the rendering, the Maximum Render Quality set to On will improve the final overall quality. If you have a mix of GPU effects/transitions and non-GPU effect/transitions in your time line and you have the Maximum Render Quality mode set to OFF, then the non-GPU effects/transitions will be at a lower quality. Bottom line, I recommend you always set the Maximum Render Quality mode to ON, After I installed a GT240 Video Card and the latest drivers I lost the sound from my computer. We had the same thing happen here with a couple of our computers. All you need to do in boot you computer up and enter the Setup program for the BIOS. Look for an entry for the On Board Sound. Ours was set to Auto. You need to change it to Enable. Save and exit out of the BIOS setup. Let your computer boot up and your sound will now be back. I found GPUsniffer in some other Adobe folders. Does this mean that other Adobe programs are using the CUDA cores? No, at least not at this time. GPUsniffer is used in certain other Adobe programs to check the OpenGL version and the total video memory. I upgraded from a GTS450 to a GTX470 and I am not seeing any improvement in Adobe Premiere, why? This is not uncommon. Please go back to page 1 and re-read the article. What is a Fermi video card and are they supported by Premiere CS5? The Fermi video cards are the GT400 and GT500 series. They are more powerful, they offer many more cores, they have a larger memory bus and higher clock speeds. As the Mercury Playback Engine matures with updates from Adobe, maybe you will be able to use more or all of the power of these video cards, but that will also depend on your CPU and other system components. With the GT400 or GT500 series video cards, do I need to use the above unlock procedure (or hack) to make them work with Adobe Premiere? For most cards Yes. For more information please go to Page 1 and scroll to the bottom of the page and read the Notes section. My problem is when I render - if I choose to render with hardware MPE it goes fast then just dies - on the new driver it just stopped rendering, on a slightly older one I get a blue screen instantly. This customer solved his own problem, this is the solution. In the BIOS setting there is an entry that was "Enable nVidia GPU Ex". When I set this to Disable, the problem went away and the Mercury Playback Engine works great now. Also, when I use Magic Bullet Looks, with the BIOS set to Enable nVidia GPU Ex I couldn't use it. I kept getting an error in the memory of the video card. Once I set the Enable nVidia GPU Ex to Disable it now works too. Having the nVidia GPU Ex set to enable must be trying to manage the GPU's memory. Since I have disabled this setting, Premiere CS5 and all my other programs are running just fine and there is no video speed difference in my games either. Make sure the nVidia GPU Ex is set to Disable. I have a nVideo Video Card with 1 gig of memory and it won't unlock. The GPUSniffer reports I only have 729 megs of video ram. What is going on? The problem is the on-board video card that is built-in to your computer is causing problems with the nVidia card. Make sure your video monitor is connected to the nVidia video card. Reboot your computer and go into the Setup BIOS and look for the following: 1. If there is a setting that says something like "Enable nVidia GPU Ex" - set it to Disable 2. If there is a setting for Primary Video Adapter set it to PCI-E or PCI-16x 2. Disable any other settings for On-Board video 3. If there is a setting for how much RAM is used for the On-Board video, try setting it to 0 or to the least amount that you can. If that doesn't work, try setting it to the maximum amount. If that still doesn't work, try different settings in between the least amount and the maximum amount. I have a computer and in the setup BIOS, the video graphic setting has a choice of Auto, PCI or PCI-E. I am using a GT260 PCI Express video card should I change the setting from Auto? Set it to PCI-E, otherwise you may have trouble when the Mercury Playback Engine is in use. I have the NVidia FX3800 video card and after I updated Premiere, when I open a project within Premiere, the screen flashes a few times and goes to non-Aero. If I disabled Aero, the screen still flashes. The flashing is most likely caused by the NVidia driver switching to 10 bit mode. Adobe, with version 5.02 added 10 bit support. The NVidia driver by default is in 8 bit mode and when Premiere tries to do anything in 10 bit mode, the screen will flash black. This only happens with the higher end Quadro video cards and not with the GeForce video cards. There is an option in the NVidia control panel to disable the 10 bit support mode. Can I run Adobe Premiere on a Dual Core computer? Yes, but.... We have Premiere CS5.5 running on a couple of AMD Athlon 64 5200+ systems. Both of these systems have a clock speed of 2.7Ghz and have 6 gigs of memory. These are both HP a1630n stock computers. Now HP specs say you can only run 4 gigs of memory, but we have 2 slots with 1 gig each and 2 slots with 2 gigs each for a total of 6 gigs. The computer BIOS recognizes the 6 gigs and so does all of our other programs. Both of these systems are running a standard 300 watt power supply, so we are running GT 240 video cards with 1 gig of DDR5 video memory in each of these systems with the unlock procedure. We are able to run a two 17mb AVCHD video tracks and a 3rd track with titles with no real problems with the time line at about 60 minutes in length. . If we run more than two 17 mb AVCHD tracks or if we run two 24mb AVCHD video tracks with the 3rd title track, we do start to bog down. These two systems are running Windows 7 Home Edition and Adobe Premiere CS5. That's it. There is NO other programs running in background such a Anti-Virus, CD/DVD creation software or other utilities. Here is the but... On these two systems we are generally working with one or two tracks of AVCHD at 17 mbs or HD Quicktime Photo JPG video or DV AVI and we are not having any problems. Now, since everyone uses different codecs with different bit rates, performance will vary greatly from user to user. I have read on the Internet different peoples opinions and/or experiences on running Premiere CS5 on a Dual Core system. As you can guess the comments range from "it can't be done" to "it works fine". A lot depends on your expectations of speed and performance, along with the video format your are working with. With that said, I really do recommend using a quad core for better performance if you can afford to upgrade. Will Premiere CS6, CS5.5 or CS5 work okay with dual SLI cards? No, Premiere does not support using dual SLI cards and yes, it can cause problem with Premiere. Can Premiere CS6, CS5 or CS5.5 use video cards with dual GPU's such as the GTX590 or GTX690? Premiere doesn't support dual GPU's, so only 50% of the video card will be used. When I start up Premiere the splash screen comes up and it hangs up for about 5 minutes. Help? The problem is Premiere and other Adobe programs need to have access through your Firewall. Try turning of your Firewall. If it loads up faster, then you need to allow these programs to have access through the Firewall: Adobe Premiere Pro.exe Adobe QT32 Server.exe dynamiclinkmanager.exe This solved the problem for me and many other people. We had some one email us about the MSI N240GT (GT 240) video card with 1 GB of DDR5 memory and that the MSI box says it requires a 350 watt power supply. So why does our chart list a 300 watt power supply? Okay, if you look at the MSI box for the GT240 with DDR5 memory, it does say they recommend a minimum of 350 watt power supply. But, when you open up the installation guide it says the minimum power supply is 500 watts based on a PC configured with an Intel Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor. Wait a minute, the list above says 300 watts. Okay so what is going on here? According to MSI, the main group of people who buy higher performance video cards are people who use the computer to play games. The GT 240 card falls into this category and the GT 240 card with 1GB of DDR5 memory is capable of being overclocked. So they recommend 350 watts if you are a gamer and are going to overclock the video card. If you won't be overclocking the card and you really don't need to for video editing, MSI said you will be fine with a 300 watt power supply. If you are running a quad core system, such as one with the Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor, you will have a larger power supply than 300 watts any way and most likely it will be 450 to 500 watts or larger. This is why their installation guide recommends a 500 watt power supply. The more powerful the CPU, the larger power supply your computer will have, since the CPU pulls quite a bit of power in watts. For example, the quad core Qx9650 processor pulls around 65 watts and the I7-930 processor pulls 130 watts. Also, I was informed by several video card manufacturers that they put a higher minimum power supply requirement on their video cards, since they don't know what other devices or the number of hard drives you have in your computer. That way, they will be on the safe side. When I upgraded my 9600GT to a GT 240 video card, my Windows 7 Experience for the video card dropped even though the GT240 has more CUDA cores. Should I worry? No. We noticed the same thing when testing various video cards. Windows 7 Experience rating doesn't care about the CUDA cores, where the Mercury Playback Engine does, so I don't feel it is worth worrying about. Will Adobe block this unlock procedure in the future? Adobe engineers have said publicly on the Adobe forums, that they will not block the hack. The reason is, this is how THEY need to additional support for new cards and according to them, they will be in the future. They didn't hard code the video card list into Premiere CS5, the simply have it in a text file. This allows Adobe to add new supported cards easily, without having to rewrite and recompile the code for Premiere CS5. When Adobe does an update on Premiere, they may replace the cuda_supported_cards.txt file like they did when they issued update version 5.02 and 5.03. When that happens, simply unlock the video card again following the above steps 1 through 19. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitch_de Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 For my my new ASUS GT 440 1GB GDDR5 works running 10.8.4. I don't know if running fermi cards OS X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts