I7 2600k slow Sony Vegas rendering

[theyellowblob]

Hi I'm a newcomer here - so before I start I'd like to list my specs.

Intel i7 2600k 3.8ghz (turbo enabled)
G.Skill 8GB DDR3 1333
Gigabyte Z68AP-D3
BFG nVidia GeForce GTX 275
Western Digital Black Caviar 500GB *
Windows 7 64-bit

I am a video editor and spend lots of time in Sony Vegas Pro 11 rendering and editing footage. Previously, I had the same exact build except with the i5 2500k. In hopes of rendering at a faster rate - I thought I'd try and pick up the i7 2600k and see if it made a difference. Unfortunately with the same exact settings, footage, duration (45 mins), down the bottom no editing what so ever (no extra data), the speed/duration rendering the video was the same (approximately 3.5hrs).

A question that came to mind would be, is my build possibly being bottlenecked? Perhaps picking up an SSD would do some justice and cut down some rendering time? I know for a fact that a project with 45min worth of data paired with a i7 2600k should not take as long as 3hrs.

Any other advice or thoughts I should look into? I've already checked that Hyperthreading/Multi-Threading is enabled in BIOS as well as Turbo Boost, perhaps there's something else I'm missing? Any thoughts/comments or suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Proximon]

That does seem like a long time, but I have no direct knowledge of rendering times.

It's certainly possible that your time would not improve going from one CPU to another. Just because a particular software title claims to be multi-threaded does not mean it can actually utilize 8 threads. Your main change in the CPUs was a change from 4 cores/4 threads to 4 cores/8 threads.

When a system under-performs in CPU intensive tasks, we first look at temperatures.

Download CPU-Z and Real Temp. Run Real temp while rendering and report the core temps, please.

 

[daship]

I wouldn't expect 4 more threads to make a night and day difference. Id say your app isn't handleing 8 threads that great.

I know just opening about 20 raw photos from my canon 7D will max my memory of 8G out so I would also say your maxing out your memory, and or the bandwidth on the standard hard drive.

 

[theyellowblob]

These are the temps recorded using Real Temp under the same render, under stress.


http://i.imgur.com/xB0TT.png

 

[Proximon]

Just a bit on the high side. This could be a factor if your CPU is throttling back due to heat.

Could you supply screenshots of the various tabs in CPU-Z? While under load, at least for the main tab.

And see if pointing a household fan into the open case has any effect.

 

[theyellowblob]

Here are the screenshots in CPU-Z while under load.


(album)
http://imgur.com/a/670Iz#0

 

[Proximon]

Your CPU seems healthy enough. The board and RAM seem to be doing their jobs also.

You do need to control the heat though. That was NOT working the CPU very hard, and if that's the type of load you had when the temps hit 70+, you do have a heat issue.

Just get a decent cooler, and put on a conservative overclock.

How is your memory usage under load? You can monitor it by hitting ctrl-alt-del: select task manager then the performance tab.

If your memory usage is not high, consider eliminating or reducing the page file. Less HDD access may help your job times.

You might try a BIOS update also
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3897#bios
read the warnings. Sometimes you will get performance improvements from this.

An SSD certainly would not hurt. I can't say how much it would improve your job times, but monitoring HDD load while working would give you a good measure.

 

[theyellowblob]

My memory usage under load is about 3-4gbs, no more than 5gb if it even reaches that high up..

I will consider updating my BIOS and see if that's any help as well as the page file.

How exactly do I monitor my HDD load?

 

[majorgibly]

Do you have the 64bit Sony Vegas. Getting an SSD may I have 1055t and a 15 minute video at 1080p takes about 50 minutes. It's mainly because of the HDD. You need to remember the HDD is reading and writing most of the time. And it's not just vegas. Even a second HDD to write to would help.

 

[theyellowblob]

Yep, I do in fact have Sony Vegas 64-bit.


I'm pretty certain it could be the HDD as well, WD Black Caviars have fast(er) writing speeds as far as I know. I would think an SSD would definitely help out a lot more in my case.

 

[majorgibly]

Yep, I do in fact have Sony Vegas 64-bit.


I'm pretty certain it could be the HDD as well, WD Black Caviars have fast(er) writing speeds as far as I know. I would think an SSD would definitely help out a lot more in my case.

I suggest getting a second WD Black Caviar. SSDs can only do some many reads/writes before they start to fail. Admittedly it would be a long time nevertheless for a cheaper option I would go for another mechanical HDD.

 

[Proximon]

Don't neglect those temps though.

 

[theyellowblob]

Yea, I'll definitely probably get an aftermarket cooler and overclock my CPU moderately.


Any other suggestions, anyone? i7 2600k paired with a WD Caviar Black can't be this bad! haha.

 

[Akayds]

all i know is that programs like these tend to have complications with windows, maybe disabling useless services will prevent interfering. I use Pro tools on windows and when i load up alot of plug-ins files sometimes corrupt and it takes so much more CPU to run commands than it should.

 

[Proximon]

Yea, I'll definitely probably get an aftermarket cooler and overclock my CPU moderately.

I don't think you get this yet. If you bought a new car and the temperature gauge was always just under the red line, but no steam was pouring out, would you just ignore it, or would you stop driving it until it was fixed?

I your ambient temp was 28C or higher and you were running 8 threads of Prime95 with a stock cooler while hitting a core temp max of 72C, I would say OK. But you aren't. You are stressing your CPU significantly less than Prime95 would.

In a normal room temperature, I would expect a stock cooled i7 2600K to operate around 60C per core under high loads.

 

[majorgibly]

I don't think you get this yet. If you bought a new car and the temperature gauge was always just under the red line, but no steam was pouring out, would you just ignore it, or would you stop driving it until it was fixed?

I your ambient temp was 28C or higher and you were running 8 threads of Prime95 with a stock cooler while hitting a core temp max of 72C, I would say OK. But you aren't. You are stressing your CPU significantly less than Prime95 would.

In a normal room temperature, I would expect a stock cooled i7 2600K to operate around 60C per core under high loads.

At the temps he is at it's fine. It's just a little warm. I still think that a second hard drive to render to would fix the problem.

 

[theyellowblob]

I'll definitely take everything into consideration guys, thanks for all the help so far and maybe everything will turn out great - I'll try and report back here to see what fixed the problem after I try everything.


Thanks again