garageCube

[jm302]

Lets say I have a G5 with two video cards. If I have my monitor hooked up to the main video card and my projector hooked up to the second video card, will Modul8 use the GPU/VRAM on the main video card or the secondary video card?

Here's why I ask: I have a G4 Titanium that has the ATI graphics card with 64MB VRAM. When I plug in my projector or second monitor, the VRAM is split between the two devices. I discovered this because I noticed my projects would play a bit jerky when the second video device was being used. I should say, before I'm told how to set up my system to run more efficiently, I have over a Gb of RAM, keep my clips on external Firewire drives (of the FW800/7200 rpm variety) and have my system optimized for peak performance. The majority of clips I use are between 10 and 60 seconds, with a growing handful over 2 mins. I know I'm pushing things, hence why the G5 needs to happen. I ask about how Modul8 handles two video cards because your answer will determine which one I get (there's a $250 US difference between the two cards and I'd rather put the money towards more RAM). Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Justin

[boris]

The two video cards will be used, one for the preview and the other for the render, it is as simple as that.

Now, it is not a good idea to use Modul8 with two different cards because one will be PCI based (instead of AGP) and PCI does not have enough bandwidth to work properly with Modul8 unless you use it only to display the user-interface (without a preview).

Anyway, it is always better to render everything with a two outputs AGP card today (at least until PCI-Express arrives to the Mac).

Here is a thread about the same subject:
http://www.garagecube.com/forum/viewtop ... hlight=pci

The fact that you see a difference when you use two outputs with your powerbook does not come necessary from a lack of memory on your video card. You also have to check the configured resolution and especially the used frequency. A vertical-blanking frequency higher than 60HZ can cause the animation to be a bit jerky if your machine is no fast enough. Using a preview can also lower the performance.

Boris

[yves@garagecube]

Multiple PCI-Express ports is really what we need on the Mac now. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long before Apple decides to support it. It would allow us to do multiple accelerated outputs with much better performances.

In the meantime, an AGP card with dual-output is the best solution. Forget old PCI cards, it is really too slow for Modul8.

Yves.