GFX cards and tearing

[delray]

hi,
Ive been playing around with touch for a little while now, and will build up a machine to do some actual work.

I experience tearing issues on my current setup (MBP w/330M) connected to an old Dell 17" 1280x768 monitor (go easy on me, its just what I have laying around!) Its easy to ignore for testing, but I want to be sure to avoid this issue in the future, so from what I can tell these are my options:

1. always run identical monitors and identical resolutions from a single card (not always possible - e.g. control monitor + performance projector would likely be different)
2. get a quadro card and turn off Aero

are these the only options? and the cost of quadros are pretty high, are there any other significant reasons to get one of these cards vs a snazzy 6xx card, which seem even faster on paper...any advice is appreciated...
-matthew

[elburz]

Hey there,

I'm running the same setup and thinking about a few of the same questions.

1. Try to setup a UI and work in performance mode, then your machine doesn't have to render everything in the project (this gives me a pretty considerable performance boost)

2. From what I've read here, the Quadro cards all come from one company, so they can be a bit more reliable, but something to keep in mind we're in-between upgrade cycles right now on the two lines (Geforce & Quadro). The Geforce GTX680m is about to released with the new Kepler architecture, while the Quadro line is still using the Fermi architecture and won't be upgraded till early next year. On paper this means that the soon to be released (like it should start rolling out now) Kepler based 680m has more power than the current Fermi based Quadro 5000m (don't quote me 100%, but that's what I've read in benchmarks).

With that in mind I guess it depends on when you plan on upgrading your machine. I know I'll be upgrading shortly, so I will most likely grab a machine with a 680m in it (probably a Sager). If you were ok waiting till Spring 2013, then you'd be able to see benchmarks on the Kepler based Quadro cards. Just something to keep in mind.

In regards to aero:

The link below is an extremely helpful link for setting up your computer for audio production, but a lot of it is applicable for Touch, as its just ways to get the most out of your machine (big thanks to PreSonus for this!)

http://www.presonus.com/community/learn ... for-vista/

The link says Vista, but everything is applicable to Windows 7.

[malcolm]

Yes, you need to make sure you have identical monitors if you don't want tears anywhere. If you need to have different monitors connected then make sure your tear-free content is on the Primary monitor (although I'm not sure Nvidia guarantees this will be tear free).
When using multiple monitors be sure to use Mosiac mode.
You can get tear free if you have Aero ON, but you will drop frames. With Aero off you won't drop frames needlessly, but you may tear. Whether or not you tear can depend on how your window is opened, if anything is in front of the window (such as any part taskbar) and if your file is running at 60hz.

Buying a Quadro and using the Video Editing preset reduces the unknowns, since you can drop frames, use any window config etc and will stay tear free.

[elburz]

Malcolm, is there better configuration settings with the Quadro card drivers? Or are they about the same as the Geforce? I always assumed the main difference was hardware based.

[teflonjf]

Hi Malcolm,

So regarding the last sentence, if I have Quadros in Mosiac mode, I'm using the video preset and Aero is off I won't get tearing but I will get dropped frames ? I am looking to find the best set up for playing back video glitch and tear free on multiple monitors.

Thanks,
Jeff

[malcolm]

Elburz: The Quadro cards have more options and information in the Driver Setting dialog. In particular the Video Editing preset is only available on Quadros.

Jeff: You should get no tearing in that case. You may drop frames if your file is heavy, but they won't be unaccounted drops the way you would get with Aero On (where TD would report running at a perfect 60fps but frames would still not make it to the monitor)

[elburz]

Malcolm: Thanks for the info!

[teflonjf]

Hi Malcolm,

OK, that makes sense . . . from what I can tell the GeForce cards will never actually deliver glitch free video playback. Even with just one movie playing, nothing else happening in the scene, I will get random frame drops with Aero running. Off to Quadro land for me . . .

Thanks,
Jeff

[malcolm]

From what I'm learning it probably is possible to get glitch free display with a Geforce, but I'm unable to get actual guidelines on how to do this.
The best I can discover so far is that you need to:
1. Turn aero off (which introduces tearing but avoids unaccounted frame drops)
2. make your single window fullscreen and borderless
3. make sure your window not covered by any other windows or the taskbar
4. make sure you are running at the Hz of the connected monitor (if the monitor is running at 60hz, your file needs to be outputting 60hz without dropping frames, otherwise expect tears when you drop frames).
5. I don't think mosiac is supported on Geforces which means you need to only use 1 output from the card.

This isn't 100% guaranteed to work though, just thoughts for now.

[teflonjf]

Hmmm, well I need 3-6 monitors/projectors, so sounds like still GeForce's won't work. I've actually gotten surprisingly good results with 3 GeForce cards and up to 6 displays . . . most shorter videos are OK, most scenes are OK, but just when viewed super critical on larger jobs they don't hold up.