Thanks johnebaker for that article. However, it had no pertinent info for me to utilize.  I've tried implementing the work-around that was used on Adobe's editing software, but it didn't do anything for Magix. I'm just going to have to get an AMD GPU, instead of NVidia. It appears that they pulled a fast one on everyone, and didn't bother telling anyone, including softwares that rely on Cuda technology, that they were no longer supporting Cuda, in order to go with a new technology, altogether. I've attempted to roll back to an older NVideia driver, and it did enable MEP2014+ to render my BDRs, but that one uses the older 32 bit architecture, and not the 64 bit that MEP2016+ employs. So, I just edit in MEP2016+ and render the BDRs in MEP2014+. Rendering DVDs is not affected by the lack of Cuda cores. That remains the same. Should anyone come up with a workable solution, please post it on this forum. I have 640 cuda cores sitting around doing nothing. I'm sure many of you out there do, too.   

Hi

I've attempted to roll back to an older NVideia driver, and it did enable MEP2014+ to render my BDRs

That surprises me as Magix maintain that the reason Cuda rendering does not work on newer Nvidia cards is because Nvidia changed the architecture of the graphics chips since part way through the GTX6xxx series, and Mainconcept who make the MPEG4 H264 encoder in Magix do not have an SDK to make Cuda work with the newer GK (Kepler) chips!

Are you sure the GTX750  is actually using Cuda and not just doing some parallel processing of the HW acelerated effects?

Actually there is a lot of confusion about the Hardware accelerated / HW rendering capabilities in Magix SW and they are not helping to clarify. There are a couple of posts in the French forum on this where a disgruntled member has approached support because he has not been able to activate HW acceleration since VDL/MEP2013 for MPEG4 export. I think Magix response was along the lines that HW Acc. is not possible with an onboard and discreet GPU on the system....??

I am having my own problems with my new PC build with Win10 that appears to be related to DX12 acceleration of the HDR effect. HDR does not work properly until you select "VFW Compatibility mode" or, "Always use DX9" with installations of MEP2016, VPX7 and even MEP2014. The Preview monitor goes instantly very dark and on subsequent playback a weird phsycodelic contour effect overlays the picture.

My take on the use of the Graphics card is that it is Threefold:-

1.For the HW acceleration of some of the more processor intensive effects during preview where it is using the parallel computing power of the GPU via "Direct Compute" or "Open CL".

2.For HW rendering during export through a Cuda or Open CL  dedicated "Engine".

3.GPU HW acceleration of simply the decoding and reencoding of compressed H264 frames, necessary during realtime playback of the timeline. This confuses me a little as to where things are at presently because this optimisation has always been there for some years in MEP but in 2016 it is being advertised as a new feature? Has anybody seen any improvement in MPEG4 preview or added GPU activity when the line " Hardware acceleration for H264 playback if possible" is ticked in the Import/Export Tab of Program settings in MEP2016?

Further:- Can anyone confirm that an AMD card of recent vintage actually significantly accelerates MPEG4 encoding during Export as in 2). -  as i may yet have to put a discreet card in my system if I can not get my Intel HD graphics to behave with HDR preview. Note that it may be difficult to tell which GPU is doing the HW accel. if you have 2 GPU's in your system....

Peter

Hi

@ Peter

. . . it may be difficult to tell which GPU is doing the HW accel. if you have 2 GPU's in your system . . . .

That is the purpose of the link I pointed in getting MEP to use the NVidia card instead of the Intel HD Graphics chip.

. . . . I am having my own problems with my new PC build with Win10 that appears to be related to DX12 acceleration of the HDR effect. HDR does not work properly until you select "VFW Compatibility mode" or, "Always use DX9" with installations of MEP2016, VPX7 and even MEP2014. The Preview monitor goes instantly very dark and on subsequent playback a weird phsycodelic contour effect overlays the picture. . . . .

@ mojoaudioguru

. . . . I've attempted to roll back to an older NVideia driver, and it did enable MEP2014+ to render my BDRs . . . .

The drivers for modern NVidia cards do not include the CUDA software, however this would indicate that the newer drivers have removed the CUDA software which is not what I would have expected to happen.

If you wish to try again with the latest drivers then you will also need to install the CUDA SDK following the instructions here and then follow up with making MEP use the NVidia card as I previously posted.

HTH

John EB

Hi John

That is the purpose of the link I pointed in getting MEP to use the NVidia card instead of the Intel HD Graphics chip.

I understood that but does it actually work? The comments in that thread seem to indicate it was not sure fire and besides, the article is relating to Optimus technology that is designed to save power on laptops. There have been discussions here some years ago about problems with Optimus where Magix reported that their software choked on it due to Nvidia not supplying them with the wherewithall to create a "profile".

Have you used that Nvidia Control panel switch  and can you say for sure that it switches all hardware tasks from one GPU to the other?  I can not test this yet as my system only has 1 GPU at present and I am trying to get some clarity before I splash on a discreet card.

The drivers for modern NVidia cards do not include the CUDA software, however this would indicate that the newer drivers have removed the CUDA software which is not what I would have expected to happen.

Me neither, but I do not understand the point of enabling Cuda if The Mainconcept encoder SDK is not available, for the later model cards and chips, to let Magix enable it in the MC encoder in MEP.

I understand John that you have a Radeon card as well as an Intel GPU in your desktop system. Is this allowing HW encoding with the MC encoder and significantly speeding up MPEG4 export? Does this also work with the default Intel encoder?

Appologies for all the questions but it may be a good time to get our ideas together so that we can run them past support, who could perhaps include their take on it in their MEP FAQ's.

Best

Peter

Hi Peter

. . . . I understood that but does it actually work? . . .

AFAIK it has been done successfully - JohnnyO may be able to answer this - it was his original post in a similar topic which put us on to this track with (IIRC) MEP not using the NVidia card in an Intel system.

. . . . . Have you used that Nvidia Control panel switch . . . .

No - from past experience I would not entertain using a NVidia card on my computer.  For me there are too many issues resulting from the different architectures - Fermi, Keplar and Maxwell.

. . . . a Radeon card . . .

I have, however it is on my old computer which I now use as a server.  I replaced a Radeon card with a NVidia GTX670 and then had lots of issues, so I dumped it and went back to the Radeon.

. . . . Is this allowing HW encoding with the MC encoder and significantly speeding up MPEG4 export? Does this also work with the default Intel encoder? . . . .

I cannot test the Radeon in my main computer because the card will not fit - different interface - which is not supported on my motherboard and the old computer is not a i series processor.

However both the MC and Intel encoders do use HWA and Quicksync when exporting and they make a considerable difference in the speed of rendering.

This I found out when I had a 'little' problem with updating the Intel HD drivers - 'little' as in a half installed update which was a PITA to fix, coupled with Windows 10 insisting there was an update when it was the same as what was installed.

HTH

John EB

So, this is what I've discovered. I did some homework online, and found other forums discussing NVidia's treachory, of no longer supporting CUDA, for non-Maxwell based GPUs. (Below the GTX 700 series cards) And not even telling anyone. Including software providers, such as MAGIX and MAIN CONCEPT. (The latter of which, has NO plans to add any future support to CUDA) And neither currently supporting the new NVENC architecture that replaces CUDA on every newer GPUs.  

I decided to upload the NVENC.dll file from someone posting a link to it, on one of the forums. (It is the new encoder acrhitecture in those cards) I then took that .dll and put it in all 3 of my MAGIX sofware's file locations. (MEP 2014+, 2015+, and 2016+) Now, prior to doing that, I had run controlled tests to prove that my new EVGA GTX750Ti, (Driver 359.06), was no longer utilizing any form of Blu-ray / AVCHD encoding from my GPU's 640 CUDA cores. Which I was getting crazy rendering times of up to 12-16 hours! AND, only after waiting for as much as 30-35 minutes of rendering time, before MAGIX would tell me how long it would actually take. (Normally took within 3-5 minutes of the start of the rendering process, when the CUDA cores were engaged) This occured in all three of the afore mentioned versions of MEP. With the worst times coming from MEP 2014+ (16-24 hours of rendering times!)

This is what GPU-Z looked like prior to my installing the NVENC.dll file.

Nothing was happening. My GPU was obviously not being utilized. My task manager during those encodings would have my Q9550, Core 2 Quad CPU, (Already overclocked at 3.5 GHz), reading 95% to 100% on all 4 cores, whilst utilizing 4.00 gig to 4.50 gig of my usable 10 gigs of DDR2 RAM.

However, after installing the nvenc.dll file into each MEP software, (And, for good measure, my OS Windows 7 Ultimate, files), I then retested all of the MEP softwares, and got these readings from 2015+ and 2016+,

My GPU core clock was now at 1019.6 MHz, not sitting idol at 135 MHz. My memory clock was now 1350.0 MHz, and not 202.5 MHz. GPU load was between 4-9.1%, instead of 0%. And the power consumption increased from 3.2% TDP to between 6.8% to 9.1% TDP. 

These readings did increase the encoding process slightly. (However, it did absolutely nothing for MEP 2014+) It took only 15 minute before I got an encoding estimate from MAGIX, to around 5.5 hours as opposed to 11.5 hours prior, for the very same project. Now, this isn't the end all be all, by any means. But I think it's a step in the right direction. There must be someone out there, more computer savvy than I, who can come up with a more effective work-around formula, I'm sure. I built this computer 7 years ago. Yes, it's old. But, it's been doing what I have needed for it to do, without any issues, up until NVidia decided to stop supporting CUDA. I have been a professional videographer for 27 years, (I used to actually edit film and videotape, with a splicer-by hand!!), so I know what it is to work at a snail's pace. I'll be damned if I'm going to go back to that pace again. Any additional help from out there, would be greatly appreciated. I hope this inspires one of you MAGIX loyalists, such as myself, to see what you can come up with.    

Hi

. . . . . It took only 15 minute before I got an encoding estimate from MAGIX, to around 5.5 hours as opposed to 11.5 hours prior, for the very same project. . . . .

How long and complex is the project on the timeline?

John EB

Hi Mojo

Not really sure what to make of your last experiments but as far as I know your card probably doesn't have the hardware to support NVENC (Edit - actually it does) and if it did then there would not be support for an interface via Magix or Mainconcept for HW encoding with it.

My older machine is almost identical to yours but 32bit so I can not run 2015 or 2016 on it but it is possible that the later versions of MEP no longer support CUDA rendering and I can not test this.

As for the drvers after 340.xxx not containing CUDA drivers as someone reported - I can say that my GTX460 does use CUDA for export with up to 60% GPU load showing in GPU-Z on some clips and effects, with 353.30 Forceware drivers. Device manager shows that this driver contains the CUDA.DLLs still so the problem is as I have stated before that your main problem is that the Kepler or Maxwell chip in your card is not supported by Mainconcept and subsequently MEP.

Your GPU-Z screenshot does not indicate there is much happening with only 8% GPU load except that the clocks are running at closer to their full speed. Were you exporting with HW encoding enabled in the export setting or is this just previewing the timeline? One thing I noticed is that your "Perf cap reason" sensor - 2nd from the bottom -is showing a cap on performance is still operating - a grey line. One thing you can do to ensure the Clocks maintain full speed is to go to the 3D settings in Nvidia Control Panel > Program settings tab > Add >select a program to customise > navigate to c\program files\magix\movie edit proxxxx\videodeluxe.exe, then scroll down to the Control panel Feature - Power managment and select "Maximum performance" instead of "Adaptive". While you are in this list make sure your Nvidia GPU is checked in CUDA - GPUS = All. Each time you start MEP this will kick the clocks up to full speed but will sve power when only other programs are running and not requiring the full potential of the GPU.

BTW - I used to maintain those Steenbeck flatbed film edit machines years ago!

Best

Peter

Johnebaker, the project is 121 minutes long. It is an edited three camera shoot. Shot in 1920x1080p resolution, at 30 frames. I was encoding it in the AVCHD mode, onto a BDR, on both MEP2015+ and MEP2016+. The estimate for MEP2014+ was 12 hours. I believe that is because MEP2014+ is not a 64bit version, like the other two. But that's just a layman's guess. I encoded another project overnight-lastnight, of a two part BDR, one clip being 70 mins long, and the other being 25 mins long, onto a BDR using the AVCHD mode, and the total complete process was 10.5 hours long. My original estimate readings prior to including the nvenc.dll file into my system for this project was 20+ hours of estimated encoding time. So, I believe something did happen. However, when my previous GPU, a GTX460, with 1 gig of DDR5 RAM, 332 CUDA cores, was operational-prior to roasting out, both of these projects would have taken anywhere from 1.5-3 hours with MEP2014+, when CUDA / Hardware Acceleration was enabled.

When I replaced the GPU with the GTX750Ti, and then updated to the 359.06 driver, I no longer got any CUDA actions to work on any of the three MEP softwares.   

Johnebaker, the project is 121 minutes long. It is an edited three camera shoot. Shot in 1920x1080p resolution, at 30 frames. I was encoding it in the AVCHD mode, onto a BDR, on both MEP2015+ and MEP2016+. The estimate for MEP2014+ was 12 hours. I believe that is because MEP2014+ is not a 64bit version, like the other two. But that's just a layman's guess. I encoded another project overnight-lastnight, of a two part BDR, one clip being 70 mins long, and the other being 25 mins long, onto a BDR using the AVCHD mode, and the total complete process was 10.5 hours long. My original estimate readings prior to including the nvenc.dll file into my system for this project was 20+ hours of estimated encoding time. So, I believe something did happen. However, when my previous GPU, a GTX460, with 1 gig of DDR5 RAM, 332 CUDA cores, was operational-prior to roasting out, both of these projects would have taken anywhere from 1.5-3 hours with MEP2014+, when CUDA / Hardware Acceleration was enabled.

When I replaced the GPU with the GTX750Ti, and then updated to the 359.06 driver, I no longer got any CUDA actions to work on any of the three MEP softwares.   

Peter,

I do have all those 3D settings ticked already, in the NVidia control panel. Thank you. I'm just trying to figure out if that, or something else I may have done, got the GPU to actually do something, and the GPU-Z to show it. I've been flying blindly, and doing what others have suggested on other forums, in regards to getting my 640 CUDA cores to encode in MEP. I've been toying with the idea of retiring this hand-built computer, and building a newer, more modern one. But I feel that this one still has some life in it. It's been working so well, (Except when I foolishly updated to Windows 10, and then realized what a mistake THAT was!), that I don't have the heart to put her down, just yet.

I'm still searching for a way to speed up the encoding process. To the point where I have uploaded Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 and 2015, in order to enable the CUDA cores. But I don't even understand those developer sofwares, and I am left dumbfounded by the process. (Although, I'm told that VS 2015 doesn't even support CUDA, and won't be, until sometime in late 2016) Does anyone know if MAGIX will eventually support NVENC or the new MAXWELL architecture?    

Hi, sorry to wake-up this post after 1.5 year.

I downloaded MEP 2017 (trial version) and I´m a little bit confuse.

My hardware is an ASUS Z97 Pro, Intel i7 4790S, GTX 970 graphic video card, Win10 64 bits.

MEP will not take advantage of CUDA Cores? So, my video rendering will take 3~4 times more time? :-(