Help!!! I just upgraded to a PNY Quadro FX1700 and my renders are slower then with my old unapproved 7900GT. (About twice as long). What could I be doing wrong?[:'(]

maybe the wrong NVidia Driver?

bump

So you have your system specs lined up - but no software or driver versions listed.

like i said, maybe you have the wrong driver?  and maybe you'll get different results with different cards.  Avid can't test them all....

FunkyDragon:

So you have your system specs lined up - but no software or driver versions listed.

like i said, maybe you have the wrong driver?  and maybe you'll get different results with different cards.  Avid can't test them all....

First of all my system specs are all there under my profile. The driver I'm using is the one specified by AVID. As to AVID not being able to test them all this is an AVID recommended card!

I have reformatted my system drive and re-installed Win XP SP2 and MC 3.0 but the problem persists. If anyone can offer any further advice I'd be happy to hear from you.

Regards

Rignold

I know I'm reviving this old thread...

Just curious, did you happen to solve the problem?

I'm not yet completely sold on the Quadro cards. Yes - they are Avid certified, but are they actually any better?  I've not seen one benchmark that can prove it.  Supposedly the Quadro cards do wonders when working in After Effects. Again, I haven't seen one benchmark to prove it.

Once Nvidia can prove these things to me, they will have another customer.

Rignold:

Help!!! I just upgraded to a PNY Quadro FX1700 and my renders are slower then with my old unapproved 7900GT. (About twice as long). What could I be doing wrong?[:'(]

I'll assume you're using MC 3.0 (which now utilises GPU performance)

It's a good starting point to compare the two cards you've mentioned. (Ignore the Quadro vs GeForce debate for now).

Quadro FX1700:

Core GPU: G84GL
Core GPU clock: 460Mhz
Memory Speed: 800Mhz
Memory Size: 512MB
Memory Bus: 128-bit DDR-2

GeForce 7900GT:

Core GPU: G71
Core GPU clock: 450Mhz
Memory Speed: 1320Mhz
Memory Size: 256MB
Memory Bus: 256-bit DDR-3

Side-by-side it's quite easy to see some noticable differences in the raw hardware. Note that the 7900GT's core memory is one DDR generation beyond the Quadro, and twice the available bandwidth due to being 256-bit (not 128-bit)

Then you have to notice that the memory is operating at a significantly faster rate: 1320Mhz vs 800Mhz.

Whilst the Quadro can score a point by having twice the available memory (512MB), that really won't help very much as it's gonna hit that 128-bit memory bus bottleneck.

In my experience there really isn't much to be gained by a Quadro over a Geforce except in the quality-control of certified workstation drivers and the fact that Quadros mostly make their presence known through intense 3D/CAD-related work. Hence why After Effects and programs such as 3dsMAX and Maya tend to benefit more from them.

Quadros (which folk should remember) are basically just GeForce cards underneath. They operate on exactly the same GPU units and architecture. It is the Nvidia driver (often in combination with some hard-wired switches to prevent hacking) which effectively "switches" on the embedded features which make Quadros cost so much. (Mostly related to 3D work such as clipping planes, full-screen anti-aliasing, buffers, hw-accelerated overlapping dialog boxes and so forth).

There are some hardware differences which usually relate to the DVI outputs almost always being Dual-Link on Quadros, to permit distortion free signal transmission to super-high-def screens (Beyond 1920x1080)

In this case I think it's a simple case of good drivers and the fact that all totalled, if your 7900GT is working flawlessly in Avid, I'd suspect it probably will assist the render process far more than the FX1700.

Just my 2p.

devjt2:

 

Just curious, did you happen to solve the problem?

I'm not yet completely sold on the Quadro cards. Yes - they are Avid certified, but are they actually any better?

I have "solved" the problem. I replaced my Intel motherboard with an ASUS board. I basically went with the DIY build machine on the Videoguys website. Extremely fast now with DDR3 ram etc. Also running 2 video cards with 3 displays, 1 in permanent Full Screen Playback for HD monitoring.

Rignold:

I have "solved" the problem. I replaced my Intel motherboard with an ASUS board. I basically went with the DIY build machine on the Videoguys website. Extremely fast now with DDR3 ram etc. Also running 2 video cards with 3 displays, 1 in permanent Full Screen Playback for HD monitoring.

Could you give the details of your two graphics card setup?  I "thought" that you could only display Full Screen Playback on the monitor that displayed the main Avid desktop.  How do you have it configured so that you have FSP on one monitor all the time?  Which cards drive which monitors, what do you have displayed on each monitor, and what did you do to set up Avid to work correctly in this manner?

Thanks for any details on this,

Larry

The Mcfly method?

Just speculating,

/mp

lalittle:

Could you give the details of your two graphics card setup?  I "thought" that you could only display Full Screen Playback on the monitor that displayed the main Avid desktop.  How do you have it configured so that you have FSP on one monitor all the time?  Which cards drive which monitors, what do you have displayed on each monitor, and what did you do to set up Avid to work correctly in this manner?

If you use two nVidia cards, connect your intended FSP monitor to the second port on the primary card.  Since the second card will only be used for non-video functions it can be a lower performance device as long as it uses the same driver as the primary.  Configure the displays in Windows so that you have display 1:primary card output 1, display 2:secondary card output 1, and display 3 (intended FSP): primary card output 2.

Boot up Avid and from the Toolset menu select Source/Record editing.  Layout your displays so that you have your source and record monitors and your timeline on display 1 and your bins and other tools on display 2.  Click on the Settings tab and double click on Full Screen Playback.  Drag the window that appears to display 3, make any settings adjustments you require, and click on Set Monitor.  Click OK, then press Ctrl-Shift-F.  Your full screen display should now be working.

Finally, in the Toolset menu, click on Save Current.  From now on, everytime you launch Avid your fullscreen display should be active by default. (This has been done from memory, so if there is any variation in menu names or dialog box labels I'm sorry.  It should be near enough for you to work out though).

Thanks John - this is very helpful. What I don't get in the case above is how a Gforce card and a Quadro worked together. Don't they use different drivers?

Yes they do - normally.  It was all thanks to the magic of Riva tuner.  And no, I don't still have it that way.  This was done when I was building my new MC 3 system.  I borrowed the GeForce from one of my sons in the spirit of enquiry, since I had two PCI-e slots that could be run simultaneously as x16.

One of these days, though...