New system - PP CS4 - slow frame rate

PaPa

PaPa

Major Contributor
Hey all,

just upgraded my system today to the following:

Windows 7 64bit
Intel Core i7 930 @2.80GHz
6 gigs of ram
ATI EAH 5450 1G DDR3
1 TB hard drive mirrored

Running Premiere Pro CS4



Compared to my old Core 2 duo, with 2 gigs of RAM, and running PP CS3, this machine is a dream, with 6 more gigs on the way (2x2x2) for a grand total of 12.

But im having a major problem with CS4

Anytime i open the editor, and go to:

playback settings -> external device To setup my second monitor the same way i had it on my old system, so that i have one screen with the editor, and one screen with a fullscreen view of the video, i get literally 6FPS playback.

If i remove the external device playback, then its fine, i get real time playback again.

I even tried grabbing the video monitor and dragging it into my second screen to see if that would solve the problem. No, it didn't

I am quite certain i have the most up to date drivers, if not then maybe thats the problem, but i downloaded what i saw on the ATI website and the problem persists.

Secondly, in the playback monitor, if the quality is set to draft, i get proper fullscreen viewing (choppy) and the aspect ratio is good. The second i click on high quality, it completely squishes the image horizontally ---><---- and cramps it on the left side of the screen.

Its a big bummer to have just purchased a lot of cash on a sweet system to not having it work to your full expectations.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? If so, please chyme in.

Cheers.

-J
 
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I should also add that i just tried maximizing the preview monitor on just one monitor and the same things happens, the bigger the image gets, the slower the playback framerate... This is very odd.

Is this a video card issue? Are there certain video card that are not optimized to be working alongside programs like premiere pro cs4? I have a few days to maybe return this card and try another one but I don't know if this is the issue.
 
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I think that's a video card issue. I know my laptop with an Nvidia 8600m did that when I made things like half size, but my desktop (8x faster) with an Nvidia 8400 GS had an even worse problem, I had to keep the preview window pretty small to stop it from stuttering. When I changed it to a 9600 I could make it about 3/4 the size of the screen.

Sounds like you have an epic video card though so I'm surprised. Perhaps it's just because it's ATI? Premiere theoretically works much better with Nvidia cards, since Adobe and Nvidia have an official partnership.
 
I have been reading quite a bit online and it seems i am far from the only person with this problem. Seems like the majority of this issue, if not ALL come from using an ATI graphix card.

My old card on my core 2 duo was an nvidia 512 ddr3, and it played back my 7D footage full screen on both at the same time without any issues. I suspect this to be the problem, but will first try downloading the beta stream to see if accelerated performance from the GPU might resolve the problem.

Here's hoping!

Now i gotta find an Nvidia card that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, gives me hdmi out, and has enough juice to enable GPU processing for the mercury engine if i ever upgrade to CS5.
 
Why not put your old graphics card into your new system.

You know it works so why spend money on stuff that may work?
 
because i need PCI express, which my old card is not.

I guess the question now is, if this issue can't be resolved with my current card, which card would you guys recommend from NVIDIA that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, thats comparable to what i have now and that will get the job done ( that you know works without issues for CS4)
 
For some reason i instantly associated Core2Duo with pci-express.

Well i have a nVidia GeForce 9500GT card and i can say it works fine with dual screen and it's quite cheep too.
 
perfect, will take a look.

I don't mind spending up to 250 on a graphix card that will bump my performance when i go to CS5 and use the new Mercury engine.

Just not too inforned in the graphix card department so would need some recommendations.
 
Card support for murcury is VERY limited at the moment.

Personally, I'd suggest getting something cheap like the 9500GT's and once more affordable cards supported, then upgrade.

Although I'm not sure how much the supported cards cost in the states, they may be in your price range and might be worth checking out.
 
Stick with Nvidia. I've got a 9500 GT and it works great. Cost around $100 but won't take full advantage of the Mercury Playback Engine, so I'm getting one of the quadra cards, probably the cheap one at $250.
 
Probabely Nvidia will be a good choice. But by the way, I had similar problems with an ATI Radeon when I switched to Win 7 64 bit. It turned out the problems occurs with the latest drivers. Even the one that comes with Win 7 does not work. i downgraded the driver to Catalyst 9.8 (the driver being installed must be dated from July 14, 2009, and everything worked fine.
 
just downloaded the old driver, going to scan it before installing and then give it a shot. Will report back.
 
Did your check in your system control that the driver is dated from July 14, 2009? Otherwise make sure that windows auto update is turned off because it will automatically reinstall the newer driver that comes with win 7 when rebooting the system. But probabely it is an other issue with your card. Good luck
 
installed an nvidia card. Seems to be doing the trick rather nicely. Thanks for the help guys.
 
ATI is notorious for driver conflicts, they make good hardware, miserable software. Any adobe product is also optimized for NVIDIA cards, should think about maybe a gtx 285 for an eventual cs5 upgrade some day. CUDA!!! CUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok i'm done.
 
Anyway, this should serve as a good thread for people looking for video card compatibility. So it served its purpose.
 
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