GPU: AfterFX, MagicB, Premiere, Cineform

rawfa

rawfa

Veteran
I've been doing some research before choosing a graphic card for the new system I'm starting to build and I'm torn between several models. Since I will be using the card with different applications (adobe premiere, adobe after fx, magic bullet, cineform aspect hd) I would like to know which would be the best option.

Before we start I would like to point out that I have been using an nvidia fx540 and I have problems previewing on premiere with cineform (the image is darker when I'm color correcting and it gets lighter when I play it), so I would like to scratch the fx540/550 (I have tried this one too and I had the same issues)/560 from the list.

Bellow you will find the information and suggestions I have gathered from different important sources.

Videoguys:
Magic Bullet--> nvidia quadro3450 or ATI 1800/1900 series
Premiere--> nvidia fx560/1500
After FX--> nvidia fx3450
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Adobe website:
Premiere--> nvidia fx1500/3500 (fx550 doesn't show up) or ATI 1800/1900 series
After FX--> nvidia fx3450 or ATI 1800/1900 series (artifacts may appear on 32bpc projects)
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Cineform website:
Nvidia FX540 or Matrox Parhelia APVe

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Magic bullet (red giant) website):
For real-time preview--> Nvidia 6600, 7800, 8800 or ATI 9600, 1800, 1900

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Prices. I know these cards can be found much cheaper, but for comparison sake I have used bhphotovideo
as the price reference:

- nvidia fx560 --> around 250$
- nvidia fx1500 --> around 500$
- nvidia fx3450 --> arounb 900$ (strangely enough I have seen this card on many website for 400$)

- ati 1900 --> around 300$
 
I used an 8800 GTS on my last project with HDV in Premiere and I could not get the GPU accelerated preview to work properly. Turning it on cause the quality of the preview footage to suffer noticeably, even with the quality turned to Highest. I was on an AMD X2 4200+ with 2 GB of RAM and still couldn't get Magic Bullet to preview in real time. It also seems to cause slow down with the Fast Color Corrector applied, which is not the case with my older 7600 GS. What it did seem to do though was allow me to preview the edit without the audio dropping out, which was not possible on the old card. My overall impression is that the 8800 is better for gaming than for graphic works.
 
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I'm wondering the same thing. Need to upgrade video card for Adobe workflow with Magic Bullet Looks. How can the older Nvidia 6600, 7800 give real time playback and an 8600 GT won't?
 
I think they made a mistake, because I own a Nvidia 6600 and no freaking way it gives you realtime playback.
 
Jade, I'm curious about your experience with the 8800gt... we're talking about the card that was just released within the past couple weeks with 512mb ram? Everything I've read makes it seem like a truly rockin card...
 
srfjm said:
Jade, I'm curious about your experience with the 8800gt... we're talking about the card that was just released within the past couple weeks with 512mb ram? Everything I've read makes it seem like a truly rockin card...
Click to expand...

Whoops, I mean the 8800 GTS, the 320 mb RAM version. I have corrected the original post.
 
You might have to update your directx drivers. I get realtime playback without rendering with my 6800
 
tcindie said:
You might have to update your directx drivers. I get realtime playback without rendering with my 6800
Click to expand...

I have all the latest drivers. Do you still get real time playback once the footage has been chopped up and transition added? Magic Bullet really chugs during this part.
 
TCINDIE - you get real time with premiere and magic bullet? With native p2 files 720 or 1080?

I have dual core 6000+ and four gigs of ddr4 and have raptor as my boot drive. Does anyone think I really need to go with a 8800 to get real time playback with bullet looks? If so they have 256 meg 8800 coming out soon for around $200.

I beta tested bullet looks since build 2 (an awesome couple of months getting to interact with Stu for the orphanage and really learning how to work Looks3) and I think it's the best color correction tool ever. It's so powerful and smart and really makes you do the correction in a way that you would if you were correcting film on a $100,000 machine.

I got 5 free copies of Looks 3 (and a t-shirt) for the beta testing I did. Only need one though.......
 
josh: I haven't tried with hd footage yet... but on my athlon 64 x2 4800 (I think..) I get real time with MB on standard def. Just got my HDV cam, and haven't played with any footage yet. Also I need to wipe my system clean and start fresh -- it's gotten full of junk over the last couple years and is running a bit slow.

I guess I missed the part of the discussion that said we were talking about HD footage. :( Incidentally, I feel like an idiot as I can't recall my machine's specs (it's been a while since I've used that machine, as stated above it's been running slow) But it occurred to me that I might have the 7800, not the 6800. Either way, if you're talking about HD then my input doesn't help anyway.. but for standard def, yeah even with transitions and MB applied (at least version 2 of mb) it'll playback in real time. It tends to have a slight hiccup at the very beginning of playback where it isn't quite realtime but within a second or two it catches up and plays back the whole timeline transitions, looks, and all in realtime without a render.

That new look suite looks pretty awesome. :)
 
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I'm trying to figure out if the quatro fx cards really make a difference for this type of stuff.....Adobe apps, magic bullet...in my case Cinema 4d. I know they are mad for cad and mayia machines but does that translate into more speed for us when you can get a 8600GT with 512 ram for the same price as a quatro 300- series with only 128 ram and a slower clock spped.
 
I got my new 8800gt installed this week, and so far I'm very happy with it. I upgraded from a 7900gs. I'll report back once I've had a chance to do more work with different apps. I had the same dilemna regarding the choice between that and the quatro... decided to take the gamble on the seemingly more robust 8800gt.
 
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