Confirmation of minimum GPU for MEP Premium 2021

Former user wrote on 1/4/2021, 3:49 PM

I see many people saying that the minimum GPU for MEP2021 Premium and Video X is the GTX1050

Yet, I only have a GTX960 with 2G VRAM . However, even with this, I am able to select (in program settings) it for preview and effect calculation on the GPU. I get no error messages saying “function not supported” or anything like that. I also have an I5 4670 (which has the HD4600 integrated graphics). I know the Nvidia is being utilised because, when using GPUZ, I can see some Nvidia GPU utilisation when playing back a project in MEP Premium 2021. Of course, when I export a project to MP4, only the Intel GPU hardware acceleration is being used and this is to be expected.

With Magix Video X11, when I esport to HEVC, it is definitely utilising the GTX960 for hardware acceleration. I know this because if I temporarily disable the intel HD4600 onboard Graphics (in the BIOS), open up Video X11 and do an HEVC export, I can still select (and it displays that it's using) hardware acceleration - this would be the GTX960 - and the export is definitely quicker when I enable hardware acceleration for the export compared to software acceleration.

The system specifications for MEP Premium 2021, does specifically mention the GTX1050. It's says “NVIDIA or AMD GPUs with 1GB VRAM or higher”. Then it says example .............NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1050.

My question is. Are Magix saying that the GPU used for MEP2021 only needs to have 1GB VRAM or higher or do they mean you actually need a GTX1050 or higher to use the acceleration features.

Based on my experience, I am thinking the former....

I am actually looking into getting a used GTX1060 (budgetary reasons - I would go for a RTX3060, if I could)

Comments

CubeAce wrote on 1/4/2021, 4:38 PM

@Former user

Hi.

If you look at the specs page for VPX it is much more informative as to what you need. The requirements are the same, just the implementation is different.

Lets be precise here. Yes you will see some some activity from a given graphics card. This is normally the system using some of the graphics cards vram and an amount of 3D rendering which takes some strain off of the CPU. The same goes for the Intel GPU. Only if you see activity of any worth while amount going on in the video rendering section is there more going on. Only HEVC encoded exports take full advantage of hardware acceleration of the video Encoding and then only in VPX. The main benefits of a better GPU is in the playback of higher resolution files and the encoding of HEVC in VPX.

The GT1050 has sufficient inboard vram and pixel shaders to cope with HD exports. If you want to work in 4K or higher I would suggest going for the 1060 or higher. It is not just about the amount of vram as far as I understand it but also the ability to cope with Direct X12 fully. At present this appears to be the 2080 or higher. Certainly my 1650 Super does not fully cope with the latest release of Direct X 12 Ultimate.

The differences becomes more apparent when effects or text is added to a project. The more 3D processing power needed the slower the export becomes with lesser GPU support. Also the resolution of the export as well as the resolution of the source files also play a part. With exporting a project at 1920 X 1080 at 50fps without effects and basic cross-fades or butt joins I would expect an export time to be shorter than the length of the file being exported. At 25fps it could halve that time. At 4K I would expect roughly just under twice that amount of time of the files being exported at 50fps and closer to real-time playback export times at 25fps. All this assuming you have a working Intel GPU as well and the frame rates of the source files are the same as that of the export settings.

At least that is how I find it.

[Edit] Actually read what Magix says about the Infusion Engine. The bit not boxed in by yellow.

That doesn't even mention exporting.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 1/5/2021, 10:33 AM

@Former user

. . . . GTX960 with 2G VRAM . However, even with this, I am able to select (in program settings) it for preview and effect calculation on the GPU. I get no error messages saying “function not supported” or anything like that . . . .

The GTX 960 has the necessary NVENC chip for encoding and decoding, however there are limitations on the video formats that can be accelerated as the GPU is the older Maxwell architecture.

This means the following formats cannot be HWA for :

Preview playback

HEVC (h.265) all variants
Export encoding

4K HEVC (h.265) YUV 4:4:4 or higher variants
HEVC 10 bit
HEVC B frame support

If you have any of the above formats or will in the future, eg working with GoPro video, exporting to 4K HEVC, then the GTX 960 is not up to it.

Currently MEP 2021 only uses a suitable Nvidia card for Preview playback acceleration of AVC (h.264) and HEVC video, it is not used when exporting (encoding) any video formats which can be accelerated eg h.264, HEVC, although it may be used for some effects both on preview and export.

To summarise - if you are not working with 4K or 2.7K (eg GoPro) video or HEVC encoded video, then there is little to be gained by upgrading.

. . . . I can still select (and it displays that it's using) hardware acceleration . . . . Video X11, when I esport to HEVC, it is definitely utilising the GTX960 for hardware acceleration . . .

Are you looking in Task Manager, Performance tab to see the load in the Video Encode chart as shown below ?

John EB