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Arne Berg
Arne Berg
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PrPro 5.5 and nVidia GeForce 7600 GT - do they get along..?

Jul 1, 2011 12:39 AM

This question should probably be directed to nVidia, but since I know that this forum is used by some very talented people, my hopes are that there's one out there that can help..:

 

After installing Premiere Pro 5.5, using 2 x nVidia GeForce 7600 GT GPUs, I've experienced multiple BSOD's while exporting HD footage from PP 5.5 through Adobe Media Encoder 5.5. Furthermore I've experienced several occations of my screens going black for a second, followed by a "Your GPU driver stopped working and was restarted" Windows message.

 

I suspected the problems to be related to the co-relation between PP 5.5 and my GPUs (the "driver stopped"-thing almost for certain) and by checking the Adobe GPU compliance list and not finding my GPU there, my suspicion was enhanced.

 

However, on its driver download site nVidia states that the latest driver 275.33 "Supports the new GPU-accelerated features in Adobe CS5". This statement is not limited to certain versions of GeForce GPU's, so I have to assume that it counts for the 7600 family as well.

 

So my questions are as follows:

 

• Am I right in assuming that my BSOD problems can be related to the GPU?

 

• If so: Keeping in mind that nVidia states that the 275.33 driver supports Adobe CS5's GUP accelerated features, is there any way around forging out a fortune on a new GPU to make things work as intended..?

 

My set-up:

 

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ 2200 Mhz • Motherboard: M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition • RAM: 4 GB Kingston HyperX pc3200 • GPU: 2 x MSI NX7600GT Diamond Plus (Sli) • Harddisks: 4 x Hitachi SATA, total of 1360 GB • OS: Win 7, 64 bit

2352 Views   12 Replies   Latest reply: Arne Berg, Jul 4, 2011 9:56 PM
 
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  • Harm Millaard
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    1. Harm Millaard,
    Jul 1, 2011 4:18 AM   in reply to Arne Berg
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    Arne,

     

    SLI is likely the culprit here. Adobe does not support SLI or dual GPU's. You can try to remove one of those old cards and see if it works, but be prepared for snail like speeds with your system specs. Possibly around 100 times slower than a fast system.

     

    Hardware accelerated MPE is not possible with this video card, since it requires at least 896 MB of VRAM. Your 256 MB just is not enough.

     

    For HD work, your system is seriously underspecced. Look here: Adobe Forums: System requirements for CS5

     
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  • Bill Gehrke
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    2. Bill Gehrke,
    Jul 1, 2011 7:05 AM   in reply to Arne Berg
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    Arne,

     

    To give you an idea of how your performance compares to others go to Harm and my Premiere Pro Benchmark (PPBM5) site and look at the Results page.  If you go to the bottom of the list of ~500 results you will find an AMD Athlon 64 x2 about four lines up and it is a 2.6 GHz clock.  Sorry but your configuration is just not suitable for CS5.5.

     
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  • RjL190365
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    3. RjL190365,
    Jul 1, 2011 7:46 AM   in reply to Arne Berg
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    Arne,

     

    Actually, the GPU-accelerated support IS limited to certain GPUs: Only those GPUs which support CUDA are supported in CS5.5's GPU-accelerated mode (this means the GeForce 8 series or higher with 896MB or more RAM). Unfortunately, the GeForce 7600 GT was manufactured prior to the advent of CUDA. And since the 7600 GT does not support CUDA at all, it is treated the same way as a non-Nvidia GPU; therefore, you're permanently stuck in software-only mode even if the 7600 GT had 2GB of RAM.

     

    Also, you misstated the name of the motherboard and/or RAM: The motherboard that you listed supports only DDR2 RAM while you listed DDR1 RAM. The motherboard/RAM combo would not have even worked together at all (the RAM would not have even physically fit the motherboard's DIMM slots).

     

    At any rate, looking at the PPBM5 results list, your PC is severely underspecced for CS5.x: No dual-core CPU will perform as well as even a mediocre quad-core CPU in CS5.x.

     
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  • Arne Berg
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    4. Arne Berg,
    Jul 1, 2011 10:03 AM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    Harm,

     

    Thank you for your reply. It seems I'm left with the choice between removing PrPro again or wheel out the old box and do some serious investments in new gear. I think i'll go for the first.

     

    I made a mistake though while typing my system specs. The processor is an Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (3.21 GHz) and the RAM is Kingston HyperX 6400. Not that I imagine it makes any difference. Since it's already 4 years old, it's most likely still too slow and ready for the PC graveyard...

     
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  • Arne Berg
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    5. Arne Berg,
    Jul 1, 2011 10:07 AM   in reply to Bill Gehrke
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    Bill,

     

    Thanx to you too. I think i'll pass on the benchmark site. I suspect it will only make me even more depressed... Reading the answers to my earlier post has already made me make up my mind anyway: PrPro must go.

     
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  • Arne Berg
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    6. Arne Berg,
    Jul 1, 2011 10:11 AM   in reply to RjL190365
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    RjL

     

    You know what they say: If something sounds too good to be true, it's probably because it IS too good to be true. Not that I'm all that surprised: Somehow I found it hard to believe that a driver update should solve my problem, and the answer is clearly No, they don't get along, despite what nVidia states on their driver download site.

     

    Thank you for your reply.

     
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  • RjL190365
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    7. RjL190365,
    Jul 1, 2011 12:18 PM   in reply to Arne Berg
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    Arne,

     

    Don't feel so bad about this. You're not alone in experiencing such indifferent support. AMD, the owner of ATi, is even rougher than Nvidia when it comes to support of older GPUs: AMD has ceased further driver releases for all of its GPUs older than the HD 2xxx series except for critical compatibility fixes (the so-called "legacy support" status), beginning with the Catalyst 9.4 drivers (which pre-date the release of Windows 7).

     

    By the way, if you don't perform any tweaking or hacking (software-wise), the only Nvidia GPUs that are certified to run in GPU-accelerated mode in CS5.5 are:

     

    GeForce GTX 285

    GeForce GTX 470

    GeForce GTX 570

    GeForce GTX 580

    Quadro FX 3700M

    Quadro FX 3800

    Quadro FX 3800M

    Quadro FX 4800

    Quadro FX 5800

    Quadro 2000

    Quadro 2000D

    Quadro 2000M

    Quadro 3000M

    Quadro 4000

    Quadro 4000M

    Quadro 5000

    Quadro 5000M

    Quadro 5010M

    Quadro 6000

    Quadro CX

     

    The other GeForce GPUs of the GeForce 8xxx or later series with 896MB or more RAM can be made to work in the GPU-accelerated mode in CS5.5 by modifying the cuda_supported_cards.txt file. Your 7600 GT will not work at all in that mode because not only the card has too little RAM, but is also too old.

     

    Hope this helps.

     
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  • Arne Berg
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    8. Arne Berg,
    Jul 1, 2011 10:48 PM   in reply to RjL190365
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    RjL

     

    Thank you for taking the time to guide me once again. Well, it helps - but it confuses as well...

     

    You mention ATi. According to the Adobe Hardware Requirement list, the ATI FIRE GL V5600 offers full support. However, as far as I have been able to find out, this GPU has only 512 MB RAM. But in one of the previous answers to this thread, Harm states that the GPU has to have at least 896 MB RAM. If that is the case, how did the V5600 end up on the Hardware Requirements list..?

     

    The ATI FIRE GL V5600 could be an affordable solution for me - but does it REALLY get along with PrPro, or would it be a waste of time and (especially) money to switch to this GPU?

     

    But apart from that:

     

    We have now established that my system was carved in rock in the early stoneage, my processor is so small that it is barely suited for a toaster, my GPUs were manufactured while President Lincoln was still in office and my system RAM is marginally larger than that of the original Commodore 64 . So far so good. But i'd like to return to my original question:

     

    Since my GPUs doesn't support the hardware acceleration (and I don't have that option in the Project Settings-menu of PrPro, so I haven't chosen that feature by mistake) - is it likely that my BSODs are related to my GPUs? Harm mentions SLI as a possible cause, but my GPUs are not configurated in a SLI set-up, so should I look elsewhere? I am beginning to think that perhaps it could be a question of lacking system (not GPU) RAM instead. Any thoughts on that..?

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    9. Harm Millaard,
    Jul 2, 2011 1:22 AM   in reply to Arne Berg
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    Arne,

     

    First video cards. Almost any $ 30+ video card is supported, including the ATI Fire series. But only CUDA capable nVidia cards with more than 896 MB can be used for hardware accelerated MPE. The list Randall showed are the nVidia cards that are officially supported, but other nVidia cards can be made to use hardware acceleration by applying the 'hack'.

     

    Second, BSOD's are hardware related. On an older system like yours it could well be the PSU or temperatures, because of dust in the machine, but also memory is not unheard of.

     
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  • Arne Berg
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    10. Arne Berg,
    Jul 4, 2011 3:04 AM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    RjL, Harm

     

    Thanx yet again for baring with me!

     

    What (also) confused me was that RjL's list above is not identical to the one I found on the Adobe Products website. However, after a loooong detour through nVidias website and back to Adobes, i found RjL's list "tugged away" under tech specs...

     

    Well, now I have a much clearer view of the facts thanks to you guys and Bill. And the only question remaining is: Is it PrPro that has to go or is it the stone age residue under my desk that has to go..? I suppose no forum can help me with that...

     

    Thank you all for your time and efford!

     

    Arne

     
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  • RjL190365
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    11. RjL190365,
    Jul 4, 2011 8:19 AM   in reply to Arne Berg
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    Arne,

     

    It's the "stone age residue under your desk" (yes, four years IS an eternity with regards to computer technology even though that amount of time is not really that old) that pretty much has to go. AMD CPU-based systems (at least up to the present) do not perform as well as a system that's powered by even a middle-of-the-road mainstream Intel CPU because the AMD CPUs lack support for SSE 4.x that's featured on Intel CPUs (and Adobe makes good use of SSE 4.x).

     
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  • Arne Berg
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    12. Arne Berg,
    Jul 4, 2011 9:56 PM   in reply to RjL190365
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    RjL

     

     

    So there WAS actually a forum that could help me with the decision! Isn't that amazing?

     

    Now I only need a forum that can help me produce the 9-12.000 DKK (= app. 1.750 - 2.350 USD) it will cost me to bring it to life. But based on my experience with fora so far, that shouldn't be impossible

     

    Okay, jokes aside, I do get your point, but out of respect for my economy I think I'll start with a new GPU and doubling the RAM and see where that takes me. If it lifts the performance from "poor" to "acceptable" (and I realize that "acceptable" leaves plenty of room for interpretation), then I'll take it from there. The GPU isn't wasted - it can be used in an overall upgrade of the stoneage rig, and the RAM is only 1.000 DKK (= app. 200 USD), so that's not a great loss.

     

    But I was thinking: Someone close to the Adobe people should point out to them the inconsistancy between the two "approved GPU"-lists on their website. "Your" list opend far more opportunities than the Hardware Comparbility-list they publish under Products > PrPro > Hardware Comparbility - so if anyone with similar problems is reading along: Please be sure to check the tech specs list for GPU comparbility since it seems that list is the most updated - at least for now. You'll find the link above.

     

    I hereby consider this thread closed for my part. Thank you all for participating and making me much wiser!

     

     

    Arne

     
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