2nd graphic card just for HEVC video decoding?


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I currently have a 1st gen GTX Titan that I still use for gaming.
Thing is, I'm starting to watch 4K HEVC videos and the playback sucks because my Titan doesn't have HEVC decoding built in, nor does my CPU.

So I was thinking of getting a cheap 1050ti or 1060 just for HEVC playback.

Would that interfere with gaming, such as, will the games know which card to use for gaming (the Titan)?
Same thing as to whether video players will know to use the HEVC capable card and not the Titan?
Or am I just screwed and have to replace my Titan?

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13 minutes ago, DevTech said:

What is your CPU and RAM?

 

What currently happens on playback?

 

I have an i7-4770K with 32GB of ram.

The playback is just choppy. I can play 4K H264 content no problem and 1080p HEVC as well.
My CPU can handle 1080p HEVC but at 4K it just can't.

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1 hour ago, essential+ said:

I have an i7-4770K with 32GB of ram.

The playback is just choppy. I can play 4K H264 content no problem and 1080p HEVC as well.
My CPU can handle 1080p HEVC but at 4K it just can't.

There a reason you "need" the 4K? 1080 is about good enough. (I'm no pro at color reception)

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9 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

There a reason you "need" the 4K? 1080 is about good enough. (I'm no pro at color reception)

It's not really a matter of "need". It's a matter of "want" like most people unless you're a professional in video or whatnot.

Having a 4K monitor and viewing content in HDR, there's very little reason for me to stick to 1080p.
I just want 4K HEVC smooth playback for as cheap as possible.

I know Nvidia cards 10series and 7th gen intel CPUs have HEVC decoding built-in.
But I figured getting a $100 1050 card is the cheapest option; cheaper than getting a new cpu/ram/mobo.

 

The question is: Would games use my Titan GPU even though my monitor would be connected to the 1050 card?
Or: Would HEVC videos be decoded by the 1050 if my monitor is connected to the Titan?

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I highly doubt that. But I am not well versed in that spectrum. There a reason you need the titan? Why not just swap the Titan with a 1050? Unless there is something I misread here. (I do that sometimes :p )

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1 minute ago, Mindovermaster said:

I highly doubt that. But I am not well versed in that spectrum. There a reason you need the titan? Why not just swap the Titan with a 1050? Unless there is something I misread here. (I do that sometimes :p )

Even though the 1050 is newer gen, I doubt it can beat the 1st gen Titan for gaming.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-TITAN-vs-GeForce-GTX-1050

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What kind of games are you playing that needs that juice?

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3 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

What kind of games are you playing that needs that juice?

Battlefield, Black Desert Online, Star Wars Battlefront, some steam games

 

Looking at GPU boss, looks like the 1060 6GB is what would match my Titan in terms of performance. That's a $220 card.
And what's the point to get a new graphic card with the same graphic performance? I'd need to at least get a 1070 to justify upgrading, but that's $300+.

I'm probably gonna wait for Nvidia's next gen cards to upgrade. But in the mean time, if I could get a 1030 or 1050 to fix my problem, that'd be swell.

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8 hours ago, essential+ said:

Battlefield, Black Desert Online, Star Wars Battlefront, some steam games

 

Looking at GPU boss, looks like the 1060 6GB is what would match my Titan in terms of performance. That's a $220 card.
And what's the point to get a new graphic card with the same graphic performance? I'd need to at least get a 1070 to justify upgrading, but that's $300+.

I'm probably gonna wait for Nvidia's next gen cards to upgrade. But in the mean time, if I could get a 1030 or 1050 to fix my problem, that'd be swell.

1. what program are you using for playback

 

2. what container format (mkv etc)

 

3. what is size of 4K video file on disk

 

4. what are the size and perf of the disk where vid is stored

 

5. what codecs are installed and have you checked that the codecs you think should be employed in playback are the ones actually being used

 

6. Me being skeptical: I am highly skeptical that a i7 4 core Haswell with 32 gigs of RAM does not have the horsepower for 4K x265 and that some hware acceleration in a low end video card beats out the enormous power of the i7

 

Usually these hware playback accelerators are designed for low spec systems or else to save battery life by being more efficient.

 

7. Me being open minded: I have the exact same CPU and RAM. Can you provide a link to a test video that lags/stutters on your computer that I can download and test?

 

8. Also provide details on your audio path since bad audio config can cause these issues as well since the audio and video need to be in sync.

 

 

 

 

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I don't know about 4k but MPC-BE has no trouble playing 1080p HEVC files on my 970 and Core i5 750 and without the use of any codec pack.

 

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I played HEVC 1080p on a dual core laptop from 2008. CPU usage would spike though to 90-100%. :p I'd buy a CPU than a 2nd GPU. Better go for an i7 7th gen.

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55 minutes ago, LaP said:

I don't know about 4k but MPC-BE has no trouble playing 1080p HEVC files on my 970 and Core i5 750 and without the use of any codec pack.

 

The codec pack I suggested as a test is a known standard which would give me a baseline idea.

 

I also have not tried 4K x265 but it is 3 times the pixel pushing so there is probably a mild exponential complexity increase. ATM I don't see how his i7 4770K with 32 gig RAM can't handle it without any GPU involved but we will learn...

 

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2 hours ago, DevTech said:

The codec pack I suggested as a test is a known standard which would give me a baseline idea.

 

I also have not tried 4K x265 but it is 3 times the pixel pushing so there is probably a mild exponential complexity increase. ATM I don't see how his i7 4770K with 32 gig RAM can't handle it without any GPU involved but we will learn...

 

Ok so I'm now using the MadVR renderer and it plays the videos fine, though my CPU is used at a 100%. The videos play fine in PotPlayer and MPC-HC, though a fraction smoother with MPC-HC, probably because the player is lighter in terms of CPU ressources. The renderer seems to offset some of the load to the GPU.
 

But just for comparison, here are some stats:

 

Movie 1 [HEVC H265] [4K] [HDR] 71GB file @ 64.6 MB/s bitrate -> Plays fine at 100% CPU & 50% GPU utilization

Movie 2 [HEVC H265] [4K] [SDR] 71GB file @ 67 MB/s bitrate -> Plays fine at 100% CPU & 10% GPU utilization

Movie 3 [AVC H264] [4K] 48GB file @ 48.7 MB/s -> Plays fine at 5% CPU & 10% GPU utilization

 

As you can see, having native hardware decoding dramatically decreases CPU utilization.

Having HEVC-ready hardware, be it CPU or GPU, would prolly results in performance on par with what I'm getting with "Movie 3" right now.

But hey, I'm actually not gonna complain anymore as the MadVR seems to (borderline) fix my problem, so no need to acquire/upgrade graphics =P

 

I'm a bit jealous because my Nvidia shield box plays all my 4K HEVC movies smoothly, no hiccups at all, but as you guessed it, it has HEVC hardware decoding xD

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I downloaded a 4K sample and played it on the standard default MPC 64 bit in the K-Lite Codec.

 

It played smoothly with about 70% CPU usage.

 

I am not sure that I am motivated to investigate this seemingly non-issue any further but perhaps I can test on my laptop which has a 4K monitor to see if anything is different.

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On my laptop, the playback is also smooth with about 65% CPU.

 

All cores are being used, 4 real ones and 4 Hyperthreads

 

Having a 4K monitor makes no difference.

 

CPU is 6700HQ and 16 gig RAM

 

It seems like this should be tweakable to lower CPU utilization but I can't think of a good reason to do that since that is what the darn CPU is there for and watching a 4K video is unlikely to be multitasked with other activities.

 

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Not sure many media players would support decoding on one card and rendering on another one (I implemented GPU decoding in a media player once and decided not to bother with that scenario, too unlikely). It's likely whatever GPU you have your monitor connected to is what the program will utilize, game or not. Ifyou want to have cheap GPU for HEVC decoding, you might have to switch the video cable everytime. Is that worth the price difference vs replacing the Titan?

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4 hours ago, DevTech said:

I downloaded a 4K sample and played it on the standard default MPC 64 bit in the K-Lite Codec.

 

It played smoothly with about 70% CPU usage.

 

I am not sure that I am motivated to investigate this seemingly non-issue any further but perhaps I can test on my laptop which has a 4K monitor to see if anything is different.

 

4 hours ago, DevTech said:

On my laptop, the playback is also smooth with about 65% CPU.

 

All cores are being used, 4 real ones and 4 Hyperthreads

 

Having a 4K monitor makes no difference.

 

CPU is 6700HQ and 16 gig RAM

 

It seems like this should be tweakable to lower CPU utilization but I can't think of a good reason to do that since that is what the darn CPU is there for and watching a 4K video is unlikely to be multitasked with other activities.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do some testing. I have a couple apps open during playback so I could probably be at 80-85% CPU if I had all of those closed before playback.
I also find out that it also depends on the movie. The movies I've tested above are the heavy ones (aka high bitrates). I have another movie for example at 27 MB/s bitrate, so less than half the bitrate of the other movies mentioned, and that one plays fine at 60% CPU.

 

4 hours ago, Andre S. said:

Not sure many media players would support decoding on one card and rendering on another one (I implemented GPU decoding in a media player once and decided not to bother with that scenario, too unlikely). It's likely whatever GPU you have your monitor connected to is what the program will utilize, game or not. Ifyou want to have cheap GPU for HEVC decoding, you might have to switch the video cable everytime. Is that worth the price difference vs replacing the Titan?

Yeah that's what I figured after looking at the settings from various media players. None has the option to let you choose which graphic card to choose for rendering.
My PC is in a rack cabinet, and even if it wasn't, I definitely wouldn't be willing to switch the cable every time I want to watch a video.
I'll wait for  the next gen nvidia cards (11 series?) to replace mine. With MPC-HC and the MadVR renderer I can still watch 4K HEVC fine for now anyways.

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