Graphics cards DO matter for music production... A LOT.

Discussion in 'Computer Hardware' started by Torrao, Nov 1, 2017.

  1. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    Do something good: East African Children's Fund :wink: Cheers!
     
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  2. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    Do I understand correctly that you're lazy to disable the Nvidia card in the device manager and restart the computer? Install the Intel VGA driver if you haven't got one installed already? I have to change my whole concept of being lazy, with you as a reference. Let's call it MBL. :rofl:

    We are doomed. I'm going to apply for a mission to Mars with my wife and die there in peace away from all the world's stupidity.
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  3. Von_Steyr

    Von_Steyr Guest

    Interesting topic.
    The latest cubase upgrade 9.5.30 , one of the fixes;
    "An issue has been resolved where it was impossible to start Cubase on systems with certain Nvidia graphic cards or driver versions."

    It seems we have a partial, official acknowledgment of the topic in question.
     
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  4. midi-man

    midi-man Audiosexual

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    I guess the Areo and Cubase integration might be the issue with certain graphic cards.
     
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  5. Von_Steyr

    Von_Steyr Guest

    Could be, one more reason i`m getting an ATI card with the next build.
     
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  6. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    I'd probably go for an All-in-one (API?) AMD/ATI for my next one.
     
  7. spacetime

    spacetime Platinum Record

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    got myself a used workstation card, it does all the work without complaining. Smoother

    Nothing like those lazy Nvidia gamer cards
     
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  8. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    I had to try a few searches to locate this thread. Perhaps this has been commented before here.

    One specially bleeding case are the Waves plugins (not all of them but many). I decided to give them a try recently. The last version before the v10 new one (v9.92 I think).

    I load one abbey road plugin and my CPU skyrockets to 25%. That's 100% one-core CPU usage of my old Intel Quad Core. So it could be more with a faster one. But the DAW (Reaper) number is showing 3-5% (also happens in S1 v4)

    I freak out, I check nothing illegal was in my last meal and drinks. Then I see the GPU Windows meter also going crazy.

    After digging the net I find the problem is old and "popular". Something about Waves plugins completely abusing OpenGL calls. It's a common problem specially with old graphic cards, like my Nvidia 550 Ti. After tweaking to 3D maximum performance (minimum quality) the nvidia software the CPU consumption lowers to about 10%.

    Later I find a gamer thread and I install jurassic nvidia drivers (312, for windows 8 and 7, but you can "push" them to install in Win10). The CPU usage decreases consistently about 2%.

    In this case Waves developers are the ones to blame in the first place, but of course nvidia goes in a close second position. I'm not sure if this happens with ATI/AMD GPUs. Or happened back in the day.

    I've tried plugins with extremely fancy GUIs and it only happens with Waves. Incredible.

    Edited: After tweaking the nvidia settings to improve multi-threading usage: 50% CPU usage.
    :woot: :dunno: :deep_facepalm: :crazy: :suicide:
     
    Last edited: Jun 16, 2018
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  9. dtmd

    dtmd Platinum Record

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    [​IMG]

    Second hand can be relatively cheap.
    Farewell to kernel mode drivers latency issues, graph. (& audio) lags and glitches, noisy fan(s)....
     
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  10. Kirby

    Kirby Member

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    If doing this is so easy, why not do it yourself and actually answer the question instead of spending as much time composing a smart-ass and below-average answer?
     
  11. Kirby

    Kirby Member

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  12. Jeen

    Jeen Producer

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    interesting topic :wink:, and for Macs ?
     
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  13. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    Good question. Mac plugins use OpenGL like Windows PCs, but unlike Windows that leaves OpenGl like the poor brother of DirectX in Mac OS X there is good support for OpenGL.
    Just guessing, I could be wrong and nowadays the graphic cards (not high end for gamers) are similar. But the drivers...
     
  14. spacetime

    spacetime Platinum Record

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    tbh i paid like 30€ for an old ati workstation card, it just works with win7

    for about a hundred used they can also record without using much cpu
     
  15. tzzsmk

    tzzsmk Audiosexual

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    in fact Apple doesn't give a fck about OpenGL, so latest GL stuff isn't even Mac-compatible,
    Metal 2 API is used instead in recent MacOS versions anyway,
    OpenCL is another thing (it's an alternative to nVidia-only CUDA) and is used for various processing tasks,

    problem with graphics cards in general is limitation of graphics processing units/cores to only specific tasks, obviously optimized for graphics-related tasks (unlike regular processor, general PC CPU which can handle literally anything, but often very slow and ineffective for graphics or audio processing, compared to let's say SHARC processors)
     
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  16. Xupito

    Xupito Audiosexual

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    I see that I was outdated in this topic. So basically Macs they have now a kind of Direct3D/2D of its own.
    It seems this Metal API also includes GPU processing Cuda/OpenCL style. So it would be and all-in-one GPU API. On paper sounds very nice.

    I did not mention OpenCL, but while we are at it how it works these days? It had many problems with first versions.
     
  17. Andsoitseems

    Andsoitseems Ultrasonic

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  18. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    In the not so older days we used to cherry pick certain Nvidia models because of the fact that you could hack/re-flash the bios of a GTX (usually top models) to a Quadro bios. Somewhere along the way Nvidia prohibited this from happening. But even now, Quadros and GTX are virtually identical cards with the difference being first and foremost the driver and secondly the onboard ram and perhaps Cuda cores count in some models. Needless to say unless you are doing something specific with the Quadro, you 'd be better off with a GTX and saving a lot of money.
    For example a Quadro P4000 has 8gb ram, 1792 Cuda cores and goes for 800 dlrs. A GTX 1070 TI has 8gb ram and 2432 Cuda cores and goes for 470 dlrs. You pay much more for a lesser card and a driver that no doubt is well written for specific computing tasks but for audio work makes absolutely no sense at all. Unless of course there is something i am missing, i am all ears :)
     
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  19. dtmd

    dtmd Platinum Record

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    Take a look at picture, again, and then (maybe) correct your hastiness. P4000 looks fairly different, doesent it? "More new-i$h, more vibrant green, more....". I agree, completely. In only-audio-tasks rig, there is no point of stacking a power hungry (larger psu), giant fan/s.... gaming gtx. Paying for enjoyment of unutilised noise/heat, would be beyond of no point. As for price, the same goes for video/3d work$tation "counterpart".

    You (or your hastiness) missed (2gb ram, 256 cc..) low/er power consumption, low/er noise, low/er profile form factor (airflow), possibility for passive cooling mod... and of course, (second hand, cheap bargain) price tag. The only issue with €55 gamble were nvidiass famous drivers. But luckily, that somehow - mystically - turned to be "set it and forget it" no-brainer. The card is cool, almost silent, stable.. and (open gl (ogl vst-i/s) optimization vs dx) "non gaming driver", wo hiccups, burps, pukes, farts, stutters.. overall manages graphics as any low/mid/high budget, non/integrated.. in some theoretical, logical existence, should.

    "..unfortunately in the end we have to rely on good graphics drivers.."
     
  20. muffball

    muffball Kapellmeister

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    It's not that it's not easy. It is. I didn't notice that reply to my post about being lazy until now. :facepalm:

    It's not just that I'm incredibly lazy. With my set up it is a bit of a pain to try. The physical setup is very fix-in-place. So I need to get down and dirty underneath and behind to change the cables to displays. Also I'd need to install the extra intel display drivers (which do come with baggage of their own) and if it doesn't work I'd need to completely clean and uninstall Nvidia drivers rather than just disable the card to be sure. If I was going to do it I'd be thorough and there's a potential for it to take 30mins to an hour to really test and try as well as the possibility of a quicker check. Either way it'd take me a lot longer than a forum post (including this one).

    Clearly I don't care enough.
     
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