Good CS4 GPU-acceleration Benchmarks

[Eric S.]

If anyone was considering getting a Quadro CX for working in Premiere or After Effects, check out these benchmarks:

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Nvidia-Quadro-CX-Workstation-Graphics-Card/?page=6

Basically, the Quadro CX smokes the competition in H.264 encoding, but only because it's bundled with the RapiHD plug-in (link here (http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/products.php?id=5)). Unfortunately, while the plug-in could use many flavors of Nvidia cards, it's bundled exclusively with the Quadro CX. I'm hopeful that CS5 might build on CS4's first foray into GPU-acceleration and maybe offer more options in the way of GPU-accelerating plug-ins.

Should be interesting to see how GPU-acceleration progresses, especially with OpenCL and Intel's Larrabee in our midst.

Eric

[Roberto Lequeux]

but only because it's bundled with the RapiHD plug-in (link here (http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/products.php?id=5)). Unfortunately, while the plug-in could use many flavors of Nvidia cards, it's bundled exclusively with the Quadro CX

Eghh... If only I could kick people in the shin every time they purposely hold editing grading and vfx software back... AGHH!!!

I wish they got on with developing something based on multiple GPU based processing... we'd could be doing all sorts of things RT with four $300 gaming cards.

[Adam Glick]

If anyone was considering getting a Quadro CX for working in Premiere or After Effects, check out these benchmarks:

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Nvidia-Quadro-CX-Workstation-Graphics-Card/?page=6

Basically, the Quadro CX smokes the competition in H.264 encoding, but only because it's bundled with the RapiHD plug-in (link here (http://www.elementaltechnologies.com/products.php?id=5)). Unfortunately, while the plug-in could use many flavors of Nvidia cards, it's bundled exclusively with the Quadro CX. I'm hopeful that CS5 might build on CS4's first foray into GPU-acceleration and maybe offer more options in the way of GPU-accelerating plug-ins.

Should be interesting to see how GPU-acceleration progresses, especially with OpenCL and Intel's Larrabee in our midst.

Eric

FYI, all new NVIDIA GeForce and Quadro boards support the hardware-accelerated features in CS4 - you don' thave to buy the Quadro CX card (which is simply a Quadro FX 4800 reconfigured).

Also, if you have a need for lots of H.264 encoding, you might think twice about doing it "in hardware" using the RapiHD plugin...

The side-by-side testing I have seem shows a noticeable difference in image quality between the Elemental Technologies-GPU vs. good old fashioned software H.264 encoding. The software encode looks better and has much less aliasing and macroblocking.

Also, using the new i7 chips (3Ghz+) and a quality software encoder for H.264, the processing speed is about the same now...

My point is that there may be some benefit for you by using some of the new hardware-accelerated toolsets, but you will probably want to look into it more closely...

Adam
BOXXlabs

[Eric S.]

FYI, all new NVIDIA GeForce and Quadro boards support the hardware-accelerated features in CS4 - you don' thave to buy the Quadro CX card (which is simply a Quadro FX 4800 reconfigured).

The hardware specs are eerily similar, yet unfortunately the CX is a couple hundred smackaroos more expensive than its FX brother. C'est la vie. I guess Adobe marketing and the RapiHD plug-in will do that to a card. Then there's the lack of SDI too, but I guess DisplayPort is slowly building momentum.



Also, if you have a need for lots of H.264 encoding, you might think twice about doing it "in hardware" using the RapiHD plugin...

The side-by-side testing I have seem shows a noticeable difference in image quality between the Elemental Technologies-GPU vs. good old fashioned software H.264 encoding. The software encode looks better and has much less aliasing and macroblocking.


Interesting. I was aware some users were reporting quality differences, but not having used GPU-acceleration for encoding myself, I couldn't be sure. It's nice to hear it from someone who's seen the primary source material. I'm thinking that many users would use GPU offloading to help render out non-final projects, or at least that would be my strategy.

We should chat tech some time. I'm sure I could learn a ton from you and I bet you have some interesting ideas about what direction the industry is heading.

Eric

Edit: And the acceleration is all done through CUDA, right? So AMD/ ATi need not apply?