See this thread for the updated graphics card chart
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/10186.page


As far as ATI cards go, the 2nd digit of the model number is usually the best indicator of the card's graphic performance. But, the chart from above is a good reference to check out where your card is at.

There are two aspects to graphics cards and how they affect PD:

First, most modern cards in the $100 and up range do a decent job of handling graphics and displaying because they natively accelerate MPeg2 and h.264 for general display purposes. This applies when you are in the PD editor, splitting, combining, previewing, watching DVD's. You won't notice much performance difference between $100 card and a $300 card for this part. In your case, the 4350 handles this aspect of displaying just fine.

The 2nd part is if you are leveraging PD's hardware acceleration rendering options using AVIVO with ATI cards, or CUDA with Nvidia cards. Here is where a more powerful card will shine. Note that not all cards support acceleration.

Here's a demo video of hardware acceleration in action using some 720P footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn2e-t6Q5_s Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

Thanks O.T.W. for the links and your insight into this issue. As you stated,
my ATI 4350HD card does a fine job of displaying video. I'm more con-
cerned with getting clips burned to DVD quickly, with a minimum of editing.

When I use the "Hardware" acceleration feature of PD-8 Ultra with the
ATI 4350HD, the rendered video quality is reduced considerably.

I've narrowed down my choice to either the ATI 4890 or the ATI 5770.
However, I see on the Cyberlink website that Power Director only supports
a very few ATI (XFX?) cards when it comes to Stream Acceleration.
Unfortunately, the 4890 and 5770 are two that are NOT on the Cyberlink
"supported" list. See the bottom of this page:
http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/faster-performance_en_US.html

I checked tonight at Best Buy. The 4890 is $199.00 and the 5770 is
$165.00. Why the 5770 cost less is beyond me. It uses less energy
and is Direct-x 11 ready, like my P.C..

Oh well, I'll just decide on one by the end of the week and hope that
the reason they're not on the Cyberlink list is because the list hasn't
been updated in a few months. Thanks again for your help and advice,
OnTheWeb!

-Allen

BTW..When I go to the "Produce" section, I can't check the acceleration
boxes like you did in your demo YouTube video. They are grayed-out
and non-clickable. I would assume that this is the best indication that
ATI 4350 Graphics Card is not supported...along with it not being on the
aforementioned list?
.
.

The ATI 5xxx series supports audio bitstreaming through HDMI which is the big feature with that line. If you were to build a HTPC then a a 5xxx series card would be the way to go. The high end 4xxx series cards are excelent for both gaming and video editing applications since they have more stream processors. I would opt for a 5770. As for Cyberlink's chart you have to remember that it does not get updated evertime a new video card gets released from NVIDIA or ATI. I would look to see what others are using on this forum. Both would probably work fine.
-------

Allen, you turned those options off in preferences last week. That's what you posted earlier when you were testing for problems with your video card. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Allen,

Do not forget to download and run BD advisor. It will tell you right away your strengths and weakness of your hardware. I'd wanted an upgrade myself until I learned I had more than enough juice.

Visit this link:
http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/index.jsp
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

Very interesting reading BUT...
I have installed a Radeon 4600 but still can't get to check the hardware rendering button when using H.264.
Anyone any ideas? Do I need to upgrade the graphics card further?
I have run BD advisor and apart from telling me I need a BluRay player everything seems OK

Help please MB: Asus M5A99X Evo
CPU: AMD FX8150 Eight Core
Ram: 16GB Corsair 1666mhz
HDD: Various. All SATA 7200 RPM
Enermax Water Cooling
Asus Geforce GTX 650
Window 8.1 (64 Bit)
Power Director 13 Ultra

Hi Again James,
In concurrence with your recommendation, I've decided on the ATI 5770.
I understand that Cyberlink isn't keeping the supported video card list
updated. It's kind of surprising since that info is posted in the sales
pages for promoting PD8. There are only 6 ATI card models listed,
which isn't good for promoting to potential buyers who have an ATI
card, but not one of those 6 cards inside their P.C..

Yes James, I did turn off the "Enable Hardware Decoding" feature in the
PD-8 preferences. It was the cause of the sharp reduction of output
quality. The "ATI Stream" feature has no effect on quality or speed
one way or the other, so I just leave that box unchecked as well.
Perhaps after I install the ATI 5770, that PD8 feature begin working,
even though the 5770 is not listed as being supported. We shall see.
At any rate just having the extra overhead afforded by the 5770 should
be a big bonus.

A BIG thanks for pointing out the importance of "Stream Processors"
to the video editing function. I would assume the more the better.
This comparison page says that both the 5770 and 4890 have 800
stream processors. A good thing. One less factor to be concerned about.
Ref: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-5770-overclocking,2473-2.html

Next, I'll do a bit of reading to find out what Stream Processors actually
do and is there a limit that a 2.6ghz CPU can handle. The ATI 4350 that
came with this HP Pavilion only has 80 stream processing units, which is
PUNY by comparison. Probably why the PD8 Hardware Encoding feature
overloaded the card. Thanks again for your insight James!

-Allen

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Andy,
Thanks for that link to the Blue-Ray adviser. It's amazing how many
useful tools and guides are tucked away in various parts of the
Cyberlink website. Cyberlink also designed the overall MediaSmart
package that's shipping with the newest Hewlett Packard (and probably
other) P.C.'s and Laptops. Seeing the Cyberlink copyright on so many,
varied applications is very reassuring to video newbies like myself.

The built-in Adviser that comes with Windows-7 says that my video
card is the weak-link of this system. PowerDirector 8 Ultra just served
to verify this. I'll run the Blue-Ray adviser as well. Thankyou Andy.

-Allen

The ATI 4350 that
came with this HP Pavilion only has 80 stream processing units, which is
PUNY by comparison. Probably why the PD8 Hardware Encoding feature
overloaded the card.

I doubt the 4350 supports hardware encoding. Were you able to check the box to use hardware acceleration at time of rendering?

Its does look at though they added "HD5000" series cards to the supported list, though.

Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

Hi,

I agree with OTW, I'm almost certain that the 4350 does not support hardware encoding.

In the past, I used to convert 1920x1080 AVCHD to mpeg2 using hardware acceleration and my ATi 4830.

It was far quicker using hardware acceleration - I'm sure the 5770 will make a huge difference to you.

Enjoy - let us know how you get on!

Cheers,

Andrew Alienware Aurora ALX R4 - Intel i7-4820 4.2 GHz - 32GB DDR3 RAM - Crucial 512GB SSD - 1TB Seagate HDD - 3TB WD Green HDD - 4TB WD Green HDD - MSI NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB

Sony HDR-PJ810 and HDR-PJ530

I checked the Hardware Encoding box on day-one of purchasing
PD-8 Ultra a couple weeks ago. In fact, I became over zealous
due to having a new computer, and turned on everything.

My first attempt video quality was so poor that I posted an S.O.S.
to this forum. James responded and gave advice to help
isolate the problem...which turned out to be the Hardware Encoding
feature. Surprisingly, the "Utilize ATI Streaming Technology"
feature had no effect pro or con.

I'll post my impressions of the 5770 after installing it this weekend.
First I'll need to ensure that the correct version is purchased and
that my P.C. Voltage, PCI Slot configuration, etc.. is adequate.
The learning curve continues, but this forum and its helpful members
make it a fun process.

-Allen

Allen,

Make sure you get ATI's latest drivers for your video card. The 5xxx series cards have an issue with grey screens or lines appearing. I don't know much about the specific issue, but I've read about it. About two weeks ago ATI released updated drivers (if I remember correctly), but you should defidently check on this. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Hi Allen,

My spec:

Intel Core2 Quad Q6600@2.4Ghz
4GB DDR2 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 4670 1GB RAM on IIyama 24" E2407HDS display.

Windows XP64 Pro
PD 8 Ultra - Applied PD patch build 2508
CCC Ver 9.1 from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp64/radeonx-xp64
Complete Avivo™ Package Ver 9.10 from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Video Recorder: Samsung HD HMX20C-PAL : H.264 output

I am editing H.264 HD content (1080p@25fps) content as well as SD 720x576.


I have been playing around with the ATI steam for some time; just one point worth mentioning is that during producing a video with hardware acceleration turned on and the ATI CCC open and monitoring the GPU load I only noticed around 10-12% load on the GPU and that was every 10-20 seconds for around 5 seconds or so. It did render the video quicker (of which I'm happy) but if the load is anything to go by rendering H.264, I'm doubtful of purchasing anything bigger. I did notice that there is _no_ difference in editing H.264 1080/25fps video with or without hardware acceleration; the only point you get this (during editing) is the icons in the "effect room" when editing video - some of them get an ATI icon that does pull the power of the graphics card. However if you get your bigger card, your overall editing experience may be better (keep me posted).

I was considering your graphics card but during editing, watching the GPU load on my card barley hits my GPU, and playback certainly hits the CPU rather than GPU.

Hope this helps

Best regards

Clark

Quote: Very interesting reading BUT...
I have installed a Radeon 4600 but still can't get to check the hardware rendering button when using H.264.
Anyone any ideas? Do I need to upgrade the graphics card further?
I have run BD advisor and apart from telling me I need a BluRay player everything seems OK

Help please

You need to install the Avivio as well:

CCC Ver 9.1 from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp64/radeonx-xp64
Complete Avivo™ Package Ver 9.10 from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

My drivers for win7/64 are version 10.2 and were releases on 2/17/2010 Win8 64-bit Pro Retail
Intel i7-4770
16GB DDR3 1600 8-8-8-24
MSI Z87-G45 Motherboard
ASUS GTX 660 Direct CU II OC 2GB GPU
1 TB RAID 1 (mirrored) Drive Array
Several scratch drives for video, TMP, pagefile.

You need to install the Avivio as well:

CCC Ver 9.1 from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp64/radeonx-xp64
Complete Avivo™ Package Ver 9.10 from http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

Hi Clark,
Thanks for the info, but I have all the latest drivers and Avivo..
However, since my original post for help, I have ordered a HD5770 which should arrive today and hopefully do the job.
Thanks again for your post.

Al MB: Asus M5A99X Evo
CPU: AMD FX8150 Eight Core
Ram: 16GB Corsair 1666mhz
HDD: Various. All SATA 7200 RPM
Enermax Water Cooling
Asus Geforce GTX 650
Window 8.1 (64 Bit)
Power Director 13 Ultra

Ok, got the new HD5770 today, installed and can now do hardware rendering.
Excellent, but....
Tried a test with 2 small clips of about 30secs each and apllied slow motion to the second clip, tested all HD resolutions and worked fine. I then applied a X-fade in between the clips and the first clip and the X-fade rendered OK but the second clip was just a black screen. This also showed in the preview screen. EXCEPT at 1440x1080 and 720x576 which both worked fine.

Is this a bug??

OS XP SP3
Ram 5GB
CPU Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
GPU ATI HD8770 MB: Asus M5A99X Evo
CPU: AMD FX8150 Eight Core
Ram: 16GB Corsair 1666mhz
HDD: Various. All SATA 7200 RPM
Enermax Water Cooling
Asus Geforce GTX 650
Window 8.1 (64 Bit)
Power Director 13 Ultra

Hi,

I've seen this before when converting AVCHD to MPEG2, after a transition. The workaround that worked for me was to insert a clip split at the exact point the transition finished.

The forward and backward frame buttons will prove very useful here!

Cheers,

Andrew Alienware Aurora ALX R4 - Intel i7-4820 4.2 GHz - 32GB DDR3 RAM - Crucial 512GB SSD - 1TB Seagate HDD - 3TB WD Green HDD - 4TB WD Green HDD - MSI NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB

Sony HDR-PJ810 and HDR-PJ530

Andrew,
Thanks for the tip, I'll try that and bear it in mind for the future (until the bug is fixed that is).

Thanks again

Al MB: Asus M5A99X Evo
CPU: AMD FX8150 Eight Core
Ram: 16GB Corsair 1666mhz
HDD: Various. All SATA 7200 RPM
Enermax Water Cooling
Asus Geforce GTX 650
Window 8.1 (64 Bit)
Power Director 13 Ultra