I seek optimal PC HDD SSD configuration for MEP17+ HD. Ich suche optimale PC HDD SSD Systemzusammenstellung fuer MEP17+ HD

starosta wrote on 1/8/2013, 3:57 AM

(I'm seeking answers in either English oder Deutsch unten)

Hi, what have people found to be the optimal system configuration for running Movie Edit Pro 17+ HD? I have a 256Gb Solid State Drive, and a couple of 1 and 3 TB HDDs. The pc is an eight core i7 running Windows 7.

Right now the system c: drive is a 1TB hard disk, including the MEP software installation. I use the SSD to keep files / video clips that I am actually working with on a project. My thinking is that when editing or rendering, MEP would like to fetch needed data off of the fastest possible drive. All my renders go to the SSD also. When I'm done with a project, all files end up removed to hard drive(s).

But I'm pondering a different setup, because MEP still seems slower than it could be:

Could I put the operating system on the SSD (i.e. make the SSD The c: drive), also with the MEP software installation on the SSD?

Then what if I kept all data, including working data on the 3TB drive? (1TB I'd use to clone/backup the SSD, and/or provide a scratch partition.)

Does or can MEP use a "scratch" (virtual memory) disk/partition? Where would that be? Does that just default to the system disk? (Some software - e.g. Adobe Photoshop - prefers that the scratch disk be set to a different disk from the one containing the system/application software).

Perhaps putting _everything_ on the SSD would be ideal, but I don't think I have enough room for that.

What have people found to be the best configuration?

Many thanks.

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Die Frage in Deutsch:

Ich suche optimale Systemzusammenstellung fuer Movie Edit Pro 17+ HD. Ich benutze einen 8-core i7 mit Windows 7, und hab dazu eine 256GB SSD und einige 1TB und 3TB Festplatten.

Zur zeit hab ich das system und MEP auf einer 1TB Festplatte. Die SSD benutze ich um die Dateien/videos zu speichern, die in einem Aktuellen Projekt bearbeitet werden. Ich stelle mir vor, MEP hat es gern, wenn die Dateien auf dem schnellsten Speicher vorhanden sind. Nachdem ich mit einem Projekt fertig bin, werden all diese Dateien auf die anderen Festplatten verlagert.

Nun ueberlege ich mir eine andere system Konfiguration, weil MEP scheint immer noch ein bisschen traege:

Kann oder sollte man das System und die MEP Installation auf der SSD speichern?

Dann wuerde ich die Arbeitsdateien auf einer 3TB Festplatte halten.

Wenn System und Application auf der SSD laufen, mit Dateien/video auf Festplatten, koennte dann das ganze schneller laufen?

Benutzt MEP einen "scratch disk" (i.e. virtual memory), und sollte dieser auf derselben oder auf einem anderen Speicher sein als das system/application?

Welche Erfahrungen haben sie?

Vielen Dank.

Boris Starosta

Comments

Scenestealer wrote on 1/13/2013, 5:43 AM

Hi Boris

You could have a look at this post for some relevant comments http://www.magix.info/us/performance-issues.forum.892964.html?sort=oldest&page=2 . Unfortunately the thread has not progressed because the OP has not come back.

My personal feeling after playing around with many settings and configurations in many versions of MEP is that the disc configuration is not that critical with modern hard drives. I have not used a machine with an SSD yet but my guess is that putting the OS and program and project files on it would not bring a noticeable increase in smoothness of preview or speed of rendering. Why - because I think everything important happens in RAM - the program and project (MVP) is loaded into ram at the start and a buffer is created in RAM into which the video files (from whatever drive they are on) are preloaded just prior to clip being played. The data rate of compressed video is quite low compared to the read speed of 7200 rpm discs, so this is not a bottleneck until you get to Professional compressed or uncompressed HD formats, which MEP does not handle anyway. The main thing that makes a difference is RAW processing power to handle the decompression and compression carried out by the codecs before any applied effects can be rendered (on the fly) and previewed in real time. Later versions of MEP are using more and more paralell processing on the GPU to help accelerate these processes, which is witness to this fact. In creating the final movie the disc performance becomes even less important as the final rendering of the timeline is processed at 1/2 real time or less even on a top end machine.

I run three Sata discs - 1 with OS and program and project file, 2nd with video (capture) files and 3rd for page (swap) file. In your case Disc 1 should be the SSD. A good midrange Video card with a minimum of 1GB of video memory is all that is required for accelerated effects and MPEG4 output file creation. The most GPU usage I have seen with my Nvidia GTX460,even with MEP2013, is 30% of GPU processing during preview and 70 - 80% during file output and about 750MB of video memory usage. With a 64 Bit OS I would choose 8 to 16GB of RAM.

Hope this helps.

Peter

starosta wrote on 1/13/2013, 8:35 AM

Peter, thanks for your reply, which is very illuminating. I forgot to say that I'm using a Nvidia Quadro 2000 card with HDMI out to a 3dtv. (192 GPUs and 1GB memory)

What I've found most annoying is the preview smoothness in MEP17, which is often poor, especially across dissolves. But then again, it's pretty amazing what you can get out of a PC these days. The reason I thought an improvement was possible, is that when I look at the task manager, which gives me information about CPU usage, MEP hardly uses the processors at all, even during preview or rendering. Typically only six of the eight cores are in use, and of these, at only thirty percent of capacity (more or less).

You say that later versions of MEP do better with utilizing the processors, either CPU or GPU? But I've not heard of later versions being used by people into 3d/stereoscopic video. Do you know anything about that?

I'm largely new to PCs, having been a Mac OS user since the late 1980s (!). But MEP is the best solution I've found to my video editing needs (stereoscopic video), and alas it only runs on PCs. Sorry therefore I'm a PC newbie.

I'll review the thread you indicated.

thanks again

Boris

Scenestealer wrote on 1/13/2013, 5:36 PM

Hi Boris

That Video card looks similar to mine in Memory and Cuda cores. Down load a free app called GPU-Z by TechPowerUP and check that all the Computing options are ticked at the bottom of the first Tab and monitor the sensors on the second tab to see that the GPU is active and running at its full clock speeds. With some AVCHD 50p footage at full res in 3D preview - I see about 20 - 25% GPU load and about 600MB of VRAM used in MEP17.

Yes, it is difficult to understand why so little of the CPU seems to be utilized during preview - for many of us. During rendering, depending on the format you are creating, you should see up to 80 or 90% of CPU usage of all cores (on a quad) when creating AVCHD / MPEG4 using CPU only, and somewhat less if using GPU acceleration.

You should try changing some of the settings in "Program Settings" to see if anything improves. Much has been written in the English and German sections if you search using words like Jerky playback, Performance, Ruckeln, etc. If you are working with HD material changing to 1/2 resolution in the Program settings > Audio/Video Tab helps a lot. Also you can change the File > Movie settings to a lower resolution than the original material and this will mean that the transitions or fades will display at lower res (using less resources) but the clips will still show at their native res. This will not affect output to file as long as you select the correct res. in the export window.

I have not worked with 3D material so can not comment further on that but I was not aware that the capabilities in MEP2013 were any less than in 17.

Best of luck

Peter