Hi Oak,

There have been several of us that have posted some results using different video cards....and CPU only rendering....Hardware Acceleration rendering.....SVRT....and the resulting times. I didn't search for the topics, but it was interesting to see the results. you might be able to find them, I have a feeling they might be buried in a topic that I wouldn't be able to find.

I have yet to see the results when using different amounts of RAM installed... Another interesting possibility...I might wait to see someone alses results....I am too lazy to try it myself!!hahaha!

One thing that might be of interest to you...is that having mutiple graphic cards is not beneficial when it comes to video rendering. Adding a second card has little impact for a number of reasons. I have two cards and tested it with only one...very little difference....but when playing a game then I see the benefit.

Regards,

KEvin
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Good point ... I actually have 2, 2GB sticks of RAM in my laptop ... I could pop one out and see what happens

I was just curious especially considering with PowerDirector 9, CyberLink advertizes to the effect ... "XP can only use 1 byte of RAM ... with our 64bit build, in Windows 7 you can now use 999 billion gazillion bytes of RAM and get screaming performance!"

Some graphs are shown ... but they do not show the system stats ...

Thanks ... Dell Studio 1558 (laptop) * I5-520 * AMD HD 5470 * 4GB RAM - 1066MHz DDR3 * 320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive * Windows 7 Pro 64 bit * BluRay Burner

Personally....and someone may correct me....but the amount of RAM won't really increase the speed of performance...but it will make it run smoother. I find it very easy to render a project and while it is rendering I can watch a movie or surf the web...the 64-bit operating system allows the available memory to be used for other things.

My understanding is that a 32-bit Operating sytem can use a maximum of 4 gigs of RAM....so a PC may choke if multiple applications are open and you are trying to edit and/or render a video. It just runs out of available memory.

With a 64-bit OS system you are only limited by the available memory slots on your motherboard and the size of the memory sticks you can get. Mine has 6 slots...so I could put in 6- 4gig sticks having a total of 24 Gigs of memory and it would all be utilized if needed. My checkbook can't afford that right now!! hahahaha!

Regards,

Kevin


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Yes ... I am in the same boat ... mind you 2, 4GB sticks current are $120+- so to get by system to 8GB is not that bad.

With that being said ... my system with PD9 ran REALLY good with 4GB too ... Dell Studio 1558 (laptop) * I5-520 * AMD HD 5470 * 4GB RAM - 1066MHz DDR3 * 320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive * Windows 7 Pro 64 bit * BluRay Burner

You'll have to take my word for it that I'm an expert in this area.

Of all of your system's resources, memory is the most sensitive. Here's how it works:

You don't have anywhere near enough memory: you get almost nothing done.

You have almost enough memory: things will sometimes be slow, sometimes okay, but sometimes you'll hit the wall -- hard.

You have just enough memory: things will work just fine, most of the time, but they'll get choppy under heavier loads.

You have more than enough memory: things will work just fine.

You have great whacking piles of memory: the extra buys you nothing.

This applies regardless of the operating system (assuming it uses virtual memory), and regardless of the application. Fundamentally, at any given moment you either have enough memory or you don't. Jerry Schwartz

Now, if I could just REMEMBER all that!!

Quote: Now, if I could just REMEMBER all that!!

Perhaps you need your memory refreshed.

Most people know that computer memory is all 1s and 0s, but they don't really know how it works. Those 1s and 0s are stored on chips. The 0s are represented by flat areas, and the 1s are little bumps. The computer reads these flats and bumps by running a little comb over the surface of the chip. This comb works just like the metal comb you see inside a music box, and the CPU can tell where the 1s are because the each bump will produce a distinctive note.

So how does memory get refreshed? As the comb moves, a nanobot that is modeled after a Zamboni machine follows it. If the CPU wants to get rid of a 1, this little scrubber shaves down the bump. A second nanobot works alongside the Zamboni, but its job is to suck on the surface of the chip to raise a bump, turning a 0 into a 1.

So now you know how memory works.

Tomorrow I'll explain what to do when your mouse runs out of clicks. Jerry Schwartz

Power Director 9 is highly touted in the Cyberlink ads as using something called "True Velocity 64" to speed up the rendering process, but my ACVHD to DVD-HQ conversions take the same amount of time with PD9 as they took with PD8. Perhaps I need to enable something in Windows 7, or Catalyst Control Center, or in PD9 to take advantage of this "True Velocity 64"?
And yes... I do have 64Bit Windows 7. (8gb Ram / Phenom II w/4cpu 2600mhz clock / ATI 4350HD Card)
-AC

On a 32bit system Windows will only allocate a max of 2gig of ram per program no matter how much ram you have in your computer. So extra ram on a 32 bit system will only help you do other things at the same time it will not make PD any faster.

On a 64 bit system Windows allows a program to use as much memory as it wants. More memory in your computer allows individual programs to access more than 2 gig. When editing and producing HD video more memory is good.

Cheers

Robert2 S My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Robert, Thanks for an explanation that even novices like me can understand. So if I'm understanding you correctly, PD9 will produce HD videos faster on a 64-bit system, but won't convert from one video format to another any faster than PD8 did? Okey-Dokey...I'm learning.
-AC

Hi Allen,

Almost there...

1. A 32 bit system and a 64 bit system is like a 4 cylinder car and a V8. They will both get to the end of the road but the V8 will get there faster.

Producing and converting both need horsepower to work. The 64 bit has more horsepower.

Regarding ram I explain to my non techie friends like this.

Your hard drive is like a filing cabinet in your office

Ram is like your desktop.

To work on something in your filing cabinet you have to take it out of the filing cabinet and put it on your desk.

If you have a lot of things to work on in your filing cabinet and a very small desk you can only work on one thing at a time.

If you have a huge desk you can take out and work on many things at once.

The more ram you have in your computer the larger the desktop you have, the more things you can work on, the faster you can work.

I won't go any further so I don't give you information overload but there is also the speed of your cpu the faster the cpu the faster your computer.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Just one more thing Allen,

A 64 bit program like PD9 on a 64 bit system will be faster than a 32 bit program like PD8 on a 64 bit system. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Thanks for the Desktop analogy Robert. I suppose my editing needs are so mundane that PD9 doesn't need to use any more Desktop than PD8 did.. which is why it doesn't perform tasks any faster. All I do is straight burning of AVCHD Camcorder files from the Timeline to High Quality DVD. Wish there was a way to force PD9 to use more of the 64-bit horsepower, but that ability will probably be available at a future date. Right now, it just coasts along using 40% to 50% of the 4 CPU's and about 26% of RAM. However, I did change the brightness of one video in the editing section of PD9. The CPU's pegged out at 100% during that burning session.
-AC

Hi Allen,

If you want your editing processes sped up more you could get a graphics card that supports video acceleration like Nvidia's Cuda or ATI's version. I know with the older ATI drivers you had to download a special driver to access the acceleration feature.

A graphics card is much more suited to processing video as they are built from the ground up to play games and deal with video.

Remember though it was not too many years ago that some of us had to leave our computers on overnight to let it process for 8-10 hours to render our videos.

Cheers

Robert My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hi, All
Yes and it wasn't that long ago where it took almost as long to boot up a computer LOL
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Perhaps a different point of view, I’ll summarize a few observations I did during beta evaluation, actual results might be different with released PD9. I ran back to back tests with a totally clean system, win7, 32 and 64 bit, with PD9 installed on the box and that’s it. No anti virus, no internet, nothing else. No discussion here on a comparison to PD8 at all, just PD9. I also ran in 2, 4 and 8GB RAM configurations. All evaluation was done with Canon 7Mbps, and 24Mbps, 1920x1080 full HD video streams.

1) 32 vs 64 bit shows no performance change when cpu rendering or gpu rendering as long as what you are doing fits inside the constraints of your PC. On screen editing and movie playback also performed the same.

2) As expected, if the timeline complexity fits within the hardware constraints of your box, increasing RAM did nothing to improve rendering performance or user editing performance.

3) I kept increasing the complexity of the timeline, say several HD video tracks to play simultaneously, or certain fix/enhance features applied to the whole footage, the ram requirements go up. You can easily exceed 2GB ram and trouble abounds (choppy playback, pauses, had several crashes…) on both 32 and 64 bit systems, the same system and timeline with 4GB worked fine. With 64 bit and 8GB of RAM I could add significantly more complexity to the timeline simultaneously without creating issues. This was not possible on the 32 bit system. However, all 99 video tracks in full HD simultaneously played pulled my 64bit, 8GB ram box to its knees in both movie play and produce whether gpu or cpu. A produce to H.264, 24Mbps did complete successfully with 64 bit, 8GB RAM and failed with 32bit and 64bit 4GB configuration.

So in my opinion, as expected, how much ram you need depends on the complexity of your timeline. If 32 or 64 bit is a benefit also depends on the complexity of the timeline. For a simple timeline of dropping in some footage and applying a few transtitions and title or two, both 32 and 64 bit systems with PD9 can perform just fine. To work with complex timelines, 64bit and increased RAM is probably the only option.

The PC at time of testing was:
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H, MB
AMD Phenom II X6, 1090T, 3.2Ghz, cpu
Nvidea GTX470, GPU
WD VelociRaptor 300GB, for OS
WD VelociRaptor 300GB, 4 drives, RAID(0) for storage
Corsair Dominator (4 x 2GB) DDR3 RAM
Corsair 850W, PS
win7 32 and 64 bit OS's