nVidia driver ver. 445.87 dated 4/15/2020

SoNic67

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 27, 2014 14:14 Messages: 1308 Offline

Solved by

Apr 16, 2020 09:38

I have updated my nVidia driver today and I saw in the notes displayed on my GeForce that now laptops using Optimus will be able to stream game videos too. I didn't think to take a screen shoot.
How is that applicable to Power Director you ask?

Well, IMO, it has to do with the previous impossibility to access nVidia NVENC hardware on laptops with Optimus.
Even when the nVidia GPU was assigned to Power Director, the actual ASIC block that does NVDEC/NVENC was not passed-trough (visible) trough the intel GPU. So no nVidia encoding hardware acceleration in Power Director for those laptops, and no hardware encoding during games either.

The only way to go "around" this issue was to buy a laptop that was equipped with a dedicated MUX. That MUX could actually by-pass (and switch off) completelly the Intel GPU.

I don't have a laptop with nVidia NVENC to test it, but it would be interesting if finally nVidia/intel fixed this issue in Optimus.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 16. 2020 09:44

pmikep

Senior Member Joined: Nov 26, 2016 22:51 Messages: 285 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 14:36

I just now installed this latest Studio driver. I started PD 18. It asked me if I wanted to (re)run the GPU Utility. (Yes.)

I set Graphics Settings to point PD 18 to my Nvida. Restart PD 18.

No joy. PD 18 still erroneously offers me "Quick Sync" Hardware Acceleration when my Nvidia is selected in Graphics Settings. (Erroneous because PD 18 will not let me select QS in this mode.)

Update: I just noticed that the Studio driver is not as far along, version-wise, than the Game driver. For completeness, am trying Game driver now.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 16. 2020 14:57

pmikep

Senior Member Joined: Nov 26, 2016 22:51 Messages: 285 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 15:05

Okay, I installed the Game driver. Still no change. (I don't have Optimus, whatever that is.)

SoNic67

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 27, 2014 14:14 Messages: 1308 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 15:40

Thank you, so it might be something else what I saw.

PS: "Optimus" is included in the drivers, that how you are supposed to switch from internal Intel to nVidia in games. And it does work... only for 3D cores. Since the internal laptop display is physically connected to the intel driver, the nvidia card renders to the intel display memory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 16. 2020 15:53

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 16:17

Quote I have updated my nVidia driver today and I saw in the notes displayed on my GeForce that now laptops using Optimus will be able to stream game videos too. I didn't think to take a screen shoot.
How is that applicable to Power Director you ask?

Well, IMO, it has to do with the previous impossibility to access nVidia NVENC hardware on laptops with Optimus.
Even when the nVidia GPU was assigned to Power Director, the actual ASIC block that does NVDEC/NVENC was not passed-trough (visible) trough the intel GPU. So no nVidia encoding hardware acceleration in Power Director for those laptops, and no hardware encoding during games either.

The only way to go "around" this issue was to buy a laptop that was equipped with a dedicated MUX. That MUX could actually by-pass (and switch off) completelly the Intel GPU.

I don't have a laptop with nVidia NVENC to test it, but it would be interesting if finally nVidia/intel fixed this issue in Optimus.

You are probably referring to Advanced Optimus that was released recently. I still don't see that applicable to PD's laptop encode functionality. Basically it's an Optimus improvement for gaming, it allows Nvidia G-Sync to function to eliminate screen tearing. Tearing is typically the result of the game framerate not matching the monitor refresh rate and G-Sync displays have a variable refresh rate to minimize the issue which the old Optimus didn't take advantage of. In the oldimplementation all frames were funneled back through iGPU (except when BIOS disabled) which does not support a dynamic refresh rate like G-Sync, now it's become a smarter muxing implementation to take advantage.

pmikep has a desktop so everything about Optimus obviously doesn't apply and testing there is futile.

Jeff

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 20:37

Downloaded and installed the Nvidia 445.87 mentioned here. Decided to try it on my Desktop since there was a PDU tutorial on it this week. Changed the classic app/pdr.exe/Add/options/system default change to high performance. With the monitor connected to the MB(intel), got production unsuccessful. Check your graphics driver informational message. Changed the settings back to system default and all is well. Removed it and back to my Nvidia card connection.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 21:09

Quote Downloaded and installed the Nvidia 445.87 mentioned here. Decided to try it on my Desktop since there was a PDU tutorial on it this week. Changed the classic app/pdr.exe/Add/options/system default change to high performance. With the monitor connected to the MB(intel), got production unsuccessful. Check your graphics driver informational message. Changed the settings back to system default and all is well. Removed it and back to my Nvidia card connection.

Wanted to have a look at this PDU tutorial, just one major issue. The tutorial is trying to define the difference between GPU's on a single performance GPU system, nothing there but pure fluff.

Jeff


Filename	PDU_GPUBS.PNG	Download
Description
Filesize	225 Kbytes
Downloaded:	6 time(s)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 16. 2020 21:11

pmikep

Senior Member Joined: Nov 26, 2016 22:51 Messages: 285 Offline

Apr 16, 2020 21:23

As a "Head's Up," after I installed the Gaming driver, my CPU "idle" process jumped to 20% continuously. I restored to the latest Studio driver and all is back to normal.