The video card is a Geforce 210, I would think it is capable of HWA. I will go look it up.

@pcs800

The video card is a Geforce 210, I would think it is capable of HWA

To use HWA with MEP, as @johnebaker told you, you need to have an Intel processor with iGPU.

Jeff

So, MEP does not support hardware acceleration for Nvidia GeForce GPU's? That seems a little strange.
I checked the card and yes it does have 3d hardware accelartion.

@pcs800

. . . . MEP does not support hardware acceleration for Nvidia GeForce GPU's?. . . . .

Correct.

. . . . That seems a little strange . . . .

Consider:

• the number of Intel based PC's compared to AMD based.
• Intel generation 4 and later processors feature iGPU's which can be used for hardware acceleration
• NVidia dropping NVCUVENC - the CUDA api for encoding video, back in July 2014 , in favour of their new NVENC API and encoding chip in the GPU cards, thereby rendering any program which used NCUVENC obsolete.
• Older NVidia cards, including the GeForce 210, that do not have the required encoding chip within the GPU to use NVENC have in effect been rendered obsolete for video encoding

The change IMO makes a great deal of sense.

. . . . I checked the card and yes it does have 3d hardware accelartion . . . .

It may have, however it cannot be used.

John EB

Well what a load of crap. So I am going to have to suffer unless I buy a PC to the specs of the software even though my pc is plenty powerful enough for everything else.

The card is actually 512MB, not 1GB. Would a bigger card help or is this 100% software based and processed by the CPU?

I have a motherboard and processor that came out of a pc I no longer use. Would these specs work better for MEP?

Gateway DX4850-57 PT.GBL02.022 Desktop PC -
Intel 2nd Gen Core i7-2600 3.4GHz, 16GB DDR3,
1.5TB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce GT420

It has integrated graphics.

@pcs800

Hi

. . . . Would these specs work better for MEP?

Gateway DX4850-57 PT.GBL02.022 Desktop PC - Intel 2nd Gen Core i7-2600 3.4GHz, 16GB DDR3, . . . .

No - in my previous comment, item 2, I said - Intel generation 4 and later processors feature iGPU's which can be used for hardware acceleration.

The i7-2600 is a 2nd generation processor - the 1st digit of the xxxx number tells you the generation - and, although it has an iGPU, it does not support HWA - the minimum you may get away with is a processor i5 or i7 4xxx series with a HD4600 iGPU.

Is the AMD PC processor an FX-8xxx or FX-9xxx series processor is this correct?

John EB

@pcs800

So, MEP does not support hardware acceleration for Nvidia GeForce GPU's? That seems a little strange.
I checked the card and yes it does have 3d hardware accelartion.

The HWA on the card will be used for display during preview (ie playback) and acceleration of some effects during, but it is not capable of HW decoding, which accelerates the processing of the timeline during preview, which is probably why your playback is choppy. As John has advised it is not capable of HWA encoding for exporting either.

@yvon-robert

The hint is to works with less track and lock it. Naturally you can lock and unlock individual track to work on.

Can you explain a little more please. I wonder if you mean you can mute the other tracks as I would not think that locking them would have any effect?

Peter

johnebaker: It's an AMD FX 8350

So, if I buy a new pc with the right specs, editing and playback with effects, cross fades, etc will be smooth?

This is really disappointing, to say the least. I have been purchasing upgrades since y original purchase of movie edit 12 in 2007. I have always built my own AMD based pc's and never thought that magix simply didn't support hardware acceleration with them.

@pcs800

Hi

So, if I buy a new pc with the right specs, editing and playback with effects, cross fades, etc will be smooth?

Difficult to say without knowing a lot more detail about the files you are using and the make up of your project's timeline - a screen shot of a portion of the arrangers tracks at a point where the preview stutters would help, and a Media Info analysis posted here of the different types of clip files.

Then there are other things that might affect things like Windows build and driver updates, also MEP version number and program settings (Y key) and have you tried setting them to defaults.

Peter

Ok, I want to get some info out there before we continue. I am a 25 year I.T. professional, I have built thousands of computers and am very well aware of how to tweak an OS for performance, etc. Everything on this Windows 10 machine is up to date, including drivers.

Secondly, I have converted all videos used in the project, to mp4 using the same settings, etc. So there's only one file type being used in the project.

The point where stutters happen most is when two clips trigger a cross fade. But God forbid I put an effect on a clip, because it will then struggle all the way through.

@pcs800

That helps a bit. So what are the details of the converted clips - are you familiar with Media Info the free utility and if so can you post a text view of an analysis of the file attributes as reported by MI?

Why have you got all tracks solo'ed? You would not do this under any circumstances that I know. One S should be lit to play only one track.

You appear to have Preview rendered the timeline at some point but the line is red at the top - did this help when it was green?

@pcs800

Hi

. . . . I am a 25 year I.T. professional, I have built thousands of computers and am very well aware of how to tweak an OS for performance . . . .

The pace of development of software is such that the average lifespan of a PC is 3 to 5 years with respect to hardware/software compatibility/usability.

Expecting old hardware to run modern video editors is asking too much of the hardware, no matter how much you tweak the OS.

My computer spec is in my signature below.

Video editing is very processor / gpu intensive, and there is one particular effect I use which can reduce the performance to a crawl when exporting/rendering down to < 4 fps with FullHD (1920 x 1080) and higher resolution video.

I edit a mix of 4K and FullHD video without the use proxy files or reduce the Preview monitor settings (Lightning symbol bottom right is off) - and for the most part get good performance ie smooth preview playback - some very complex collages and one video effect I use do reduce timeline playback performance, however it is easily overcome by Preview rendering of that section.

John EB
 

@pcs800@pcs800 @Scenestealer @emmrecs @yvon-robert

Hi.

I completely agree with Johns' comments but would like to add it is not just the processors and graphics cards that have changed but memory speeds, hard drives, and most of all, the motherboards, who's architecture and the way it distributes data around has changed and increased in performance a great deal.

Like John, I am able to run fairly complex projects within MEP at 4K without having to reduce monitor settings and sometimes without proxy files, depending on the complexity. But, how all that data is processed within MEP and distributed to the various components is difficult to track or understand what is going on where or why it happens that way. It's reasonable to assume that each new version of MEP is designed to take advantage of each new increase of technology to keep up with newer recording methods, codecs, and export options.

That an older machine would need an older version of MEP to be able to run solidly on but it would still need the components required for that version. In other words an integrated Intel graphics chip of the correct type to work.

Editing video is the most intensive thing you can give any PC to do. It will always break down / slow down when the weakest part of the component chain is reached. Even with the specified components.

The problem when a system can't do any hardware encoding is that it gets pushed into software to do the job and that then taxes both the CPU and hard drives instead of being tackled by the GPUs. The job of video encoding goes to the Intel GPU within MEP and some if not all of the 3D rendering if there is no appropriate additional nvidia graphics card to share the 3D rendering load. Ram amounts and speed also play a part. What can't be directly loaded into ram gets put onto the C: hard drive to read which is also coping with running your operating system and MEP.

The Movie Edit Pro specifications page has a big header stating Minimum System Requirements.

https://www.magix.com/gb/video/movie-edit-pro/specifications/

I would like to point out the word Minimum.

That implies that Movie Edit Pro will run. Not even that it will run well, and that is if you have all the matching specs.

An easy way to see how much of your system is struggling is just to open the Windows Task Manager and have a look at the various components working while it's running.

We are not trying to dissolution or criticise you, just pointing out how very computer intensive video editing can be on a system.

Ray.

I have now put in an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB card, hoping it would make some sort of difference. I will let you know after I use it for a bit.

Here's media info on one of the clips.

Yes I saw the sys req. I pass everything with flying colors accept having an onboard intel gpu. In fact, my entire life, we avoided onboard graphics because it uses system ram unlike a dedicated card which carries it's own. It really feels like magix is shooting themselves in the foot with that requirement. I mean, i have bought loads of software from them over the years, but now that I know this, I have made my last magix purchase, unfortunately.

As for the soloing of tracks, yes I am aware that it's odd to see that. I use the solo function to flip between clips/tracks as I play the project. Hitting solo on each one as it progresses. They are not like that when I edit. In fact, I work for a software company that makes a popular daw and I am well aware of solo, mute, etc functionality.

As for the preview render. I wasn't sure what it's function was, so i tried it. Still not sure, and will need to read about it I guess.

Proxy files: I do not see an option for this in the program preferences.

@pcs800

Hi

. . . . Yes I saw the sys req. I pass everything with flying colors accept having an onboard intel gpu . . . .

On the contrary it fails to meet the requirements in the most essential item for better performance ie:

Graphics card: Onboard, min. resolution 1280 x 1024, 512 MB VRAM and DirectX 11 support (recommended: Intel Graphics HD 520 for MPEG2/AVC/HEVC)

. . . . I have now put in an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB card, hoping it would make some sort of difference . . . .

As you can see from the above there is no mention of AMD or Nvidia graphics cards for a very good reason - they can not be used by MEP.

. . . . the preview render. I wasn't sure what it's function was, so i tried it. Still not sure . . . .

What you see on the timeline are representations of the video, image and audio used in the project.

When you play the timeline (Preview) the program loads the relevant object(s) and renders it with any applied effects etc so it can be viewed, this takes place in real time and if the processor/GPU combination is not powerful enough to cope with the very high data rate and rendering process - this is where the iGPU comes in - the preview will stutter.

Preview rendering will do one of 2 things depending on whether you manually set a range or not:

1. no range set - it will search the timeline for sections where real time rendering would struggle and pre-render, ie make temporary video or videos - indicated by the green bar above the rendered section(s), of the sections with all effects etc applied.
   
   This method can be over optimistic on what it thinks does not need rendering
    
2. manual range set - render as as above - it does give you more control over which sections are done.

In either case - during playback of the timeline, instead of trying to render in real time, the video clip(s) of the pre-rendered section(s) is/are used where they occur on the timeline.

This makes for much smoother playback.

If you make an edit or change to the pre-rendered sections the will become 'un-rendered' - the green bar turns red to indicate this - and will have to be rendered again.

John EB

@pcs800

Hi.

An additional graphics card won't help with rendering the final file with hardware acceleration within MEP unfortunately. Magix is not the only video editor to use the Intel GPU for hardware acceleration though. Each editor has its strengths and weaknesses.

The proxy file setting is in the movie settings, not the project settings.

Ray.

The new card isn't additional, it is in place of, the old one. I realize it isn't going to completely fix the issue, but I thought it might help a little.

JohnBaker: As I said " I pass everything with flying colors accept having an onboard intel gpu". But you said "on the contrary"? I am already saying that my computer meets all requirements, ACCEPT that one.

@pcs800

Hi.

I think John is saying it's the one spec that really matters.

Ray.