OpenCL Vs Cuda Vs. CPU Only - Sony VegasPro 13 and Premiere Pro CS6

# The Gaming GPU vs Professional Video Rendering: A Comprehensive Test

This article is based entirely on the provided transcription of the video. It will not summarize or condense any content but instead present the full text in a structured, readable format. Each part of the transcription has been fully developed into paragraphs or sections.

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## Introduction

Ever since I started creating videos for my audience, I have primarily used Adobe Premiere Pro—a professional rendering application that supports CUDA acceleration. However, I never took the time to test whether using a gaming GPU could improve rendering performance. I always assumed that having a gaming GPU would provide a significant advantage over relying solely on the CPU.

Recently, with the arrival of the AMD Radeon R9 290 from Gigabyte and my existing NVIDIA GTX 970, I decided to conduct some apples-to-apples tests to see how these gaming GPUs perform in real-world scenarios. My test setup includes an Intel i7-5820K processor clocked at 4.2 GHz, which is more than capable of handling demanding tasks on its own.

The purpose of this article is to share the results of my benchmarks and provide insights into whether gaming GPUs can make a noticeable difference in video rendering times.

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## Benchmarks: Vegas Pro 13

For the first test, I used Vegas Pro 13 (a trial edition), which supports OpenCL acceleration for AMD graphics cards. The task was to render a 4-minute and 38-second video at 1080p best quality.

- **CPU-only rendering:** This took 4 minutes and 38 seconds.

- **GTX 970 with CUDA support:** This took 5 minutes and 6 seconds.

- **Radeon R9 290 with OpenCL support (overclocked):** This took 4 minutes and 50 seconds.

Interestingly, the CPU-only rendering outperformed both gaming GPUs. The GPU acceleration in Vegas Pro 13 did not result in any significant time reduction compared to relying solely on the CPU.

This outcome was surprising, as I expected at least some improvement from using a high-end gaming GPU. It appears that in this specific application, the gaming GPU provided no tangible benefits.

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## Benchmarks: Adobe Premiere Pro CS6

Next, I tested Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, which uses the Mercury engine and supports CUDA acceleration. The test involved rendering the same 4-minute-and-38-second video at 1080p best quality.

- **CPU-only rendering:** This took 4 minutes and 57 seconds.

- **GTX 970 with CUDA support:** This improved rendering time by just 12 seconds, completing in 4 minutes and 45 seconds.

This result was consistent with the Vegas Pro test—using a gaming GPU provided minimal benefits for rendering times. Even though Premiere Pro supports CUDA acceleration, the impact of using a gaming GPU was negligible.

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## Dual-Core Experiment

Curiosity led me to explore further: what if I reduced the number of CPU cores available? I disabled four cores on my Intel i7-5820K, leaving only two active cores running at 4.2 GHz, and tested rendering with the GTX 970 again in Premiere Pro CS6.

The result was staggering: it took a full 10 minutes and 22 seconds to render the same video. This experiment reinforced the importance of having a powerful CPU for rendering tasks. Even with GPU acceleration, the CPU remains the bottleneck if it is underpowered or constrained.

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## Conclusion

From these tests, it is evident that gaming GPUs like the GTX 970 and R9 290 did not significantly improve rendering times in either Vegas Pro 13 or Adobe Premiere Pro CS6. In some cases, such as with Vegas Pro, using a GPU actually worsened performance compared to CPU-only rendering.

If you are serious about professional video editing or rendering, investing in a high-end CPU or a professional-grade GPU is far more beneficial than relying on gaming GPUs for acceleration. While gaming GPUs may offer advantages in other areas—such as display output or preview work—they fall short when it comes to reducing render times.

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## Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this detailed benchmarking video and article. If you have any questions or want to share your experiences, feel free to leave a comment below. Don’t forget to give the video a thumbs-up if you found it helpful! Stay tuned for more tech videos in the future—peace out, and catch you guys soon!

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This concludes the full transcription-based article based on the provided video content.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis gaming gravis card it can do it all or can it so ever since I've started making videos for you guys I've been using a professional rendering application namely uh Adobe premere Pro and that's had support for Cuda and I've never gotten around to testing it I've just never bothered I always thought it made or gave a significant an advantage over not having it on however recently with the r9290 coming in from AMD or gigabyte I recently I decided to test that in Vegas Pro because Vegas Pro uses open CL and that's known to support AMD graphics cards so essentially you can use your graphics card to help uh render a video and so basically I decided to get the GTX 970 that I have here and then get the r9290 and then use it on my test bed which is a 5820k from Intel an i7 582k that's clocked at 4.2 gigs and I decided to run some apples to apples tests to see how these graphics cards or these gaming graphics cards did in the real world so let's move on now to the benchmarks so first up here we have Vegas Pro 13 now this is just a trial Edition I downloaded so I got to use this program for 30 days but that's all I needed to run the test I did I decided to render a 4 minute and 38 second video the output was 1080p best quality and as we can see see here the CPU only so when I set the CPU to only that scored 4 minutes and 38 seconds so that won that beat both the gtx970 and the r9290 and that the r9290 was overclocked as well so this was open CL and I believe the gtx970 uses Cuda in this application so when I use the gtx970 that scored 5 minutes and 6 seconds and the r9290 scored uh 4 minutes and 50 seconds so the CPU only was the best way to go uh if I used my gaming graphics card to help render it made no difference at all so I don't know what's going on here in Vegas Pro maybe there's some setting extra settings I need to do but essentially a gaming graphics card like a high-end gaming graphic card was useless in this application so Vegas Pro 13 did not make a difference uh how about Premier Pro CS6 which uses the Mercury engine now this engine supports Cuda and so when I did these test I was surprised as well uh my gaming graphics card the GTX 970 only uh sped up times by 12 seconds that's right so it scored 4 minutes and 45 seconds versus the CPU only which scored 4 minutes and 57 seconds and so this surprised me because like again just like Vegas Pro the gaming graphics card practically made no difference at all when it came to making the render times faster uh I decided just for curiosity as you guys know what about what about if we disabled some cores what about if I had a gtx970 on a dual core how would that go and so this is the test I did I decided to disable four cores on my 5820k and just have two cores running at 4.2 gigs with the GDX 970 again Cuda support enabled and what I found here is is we got 622 seconds or 10 minutes and 22 seconds so again the CPU was the most important part in this equation uh and so it's surprised me actually so essentially if you guys want to drop your render times then you might want to think about getting a better CPU or getting a professional grade GPU um I mean the gaming graphics cards they just didn't make a difference when it came to dropping render times and I looked around the internet I tried to find as much information as I could but I just couldn't find any uh real solid videos that have compared especially 2014 graphics cards gaming graphics cards uh to each other to see which gives the best or best results anyway so hopefully you guys enjoyed this video but in a nutshell yeah you want to be getting a good CPU if you are doing professional productivity work or you want to get a professional graphics card because the gaming graphics cards didn't do a great job of reducing the times but they might do a better job of of course maybe giving you more display outs uh maybe helping with previews whatnot so there's other advantages to having a gaming graphics card but I just wanted to more specific test the benchmarks and the render times and it didn't make a difference well practically made no difference at all and in some cases in Vegas the Pro 13 it actually was detrimental to the rendering times so anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this Benchmark if you did please give it a thumbs up if you have any questions leave a comment in the comment section below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can and I'll catch you guys with another tech video very soon peace out for now byethis gaming gravis card it can do it all or can it so ever since I've started making videos for you guys I've been using a professional rendering application namely uh Adobe premere Pro and that's had support for Cuda and I've never gotten around to testing it I've just never bothered I always thought it made or gave a significant an advantage over not having it on however recently with the r9290 coming in from AMD or gigabyte I recently I decided to test that in Vegas Pro because Vegas Pro uses open CL and that's known to support AMD graphics cards so essentially you can use your graphics card to help uh render a video and so basically I decided to get the GTX 970 that I have here and then get the r9290 and then use it on my test bed which is a 5820k from Intel an i7 582k that's clocked at 4.2 gigs and I decided to run some apples to apples tests to see how these graphics cards or these gaming graphics cards did in the real world so let's move on now to the benchmarks so first up here we have Vegas Pro 13 now this is just a trial Edition I downloaded so I got to use this program for 30 days but that's all I needed to run the test I did I decided to render a 4 minute and 38 second video the output was 1080p best quality and as we can see see here the CPU only so when I set the CPU to only that scored 4 minutes and 38 seconds so that won that beat both the gtx970 and the r9290 and that the r9290 was overclocked as well so this was open CL and I believe the gtx970 uses Cuda in this application so when I use the gtx970 that scored 5 minutes and 6 seconds and the r9290 scored uh 4 minutes and 50 seconds so the CPU only was the best way to go uh if I used my gaming graphics card to help render it made no difference at all so I don't know what's going on here in Vegas Pro maybe there's some setting extra settings I need to do but essentially a gaming graphics card like a high-end gaming graphic card was useless in this application so Vegas Pro 13 did not make a difference uh how about Premier Pro CS6 which uses the Mercury engine now this engine supports Cuda and so when I did these test I was surprised as well uh my gaming graphics card the GTX 970 only uh sped up times by 12 seconds that's right so it scored 4 minutes and 45 seconds versus the CPU only which scored 4 minutes and 57 seconds and so this surprised me because like again just like Vegas Pro the gaming graphics card practically made no difference at all when it came to making the render times faster uh I decided just for curiosity as you guys know what about what about if we disabled some cores what about if I had a gtx970 on a dual core how would that go and so this is the test I did I decided to disable four cores on my 5820k and just have two cores running at 4.2 gigs with the GDX 970 again Cuda support enabled and what I found here is is we got 622 seconds or 10 minutes and 22 seconds so again the CPU was the most important part in this equation uh and so it's surprised me actually so essentially if you guys want to drop your render times then you might want to think about getting a better CPU or getting a professional grade GPU um I mean the gaming graphics cards they just didn't make a difference when it came to dropping render times and I looked around the internet I tried to find as much information as I could but I just couldn't find any uh real solid videos that have compared especially 2014 graphics cards gaming graphics cards uh to each other to see which gives the best or best results anyway so hopefully you guys enjoyed this video but in a nutshell yeah you want to be getting a good CPU if you are doing professional productivity work or you want to get a professional graphics card because the gaming graphics cards didn't do a great job of reducing the times but they might do a better job of of course maybe giving you more display outs uh maybe helping with previews whatnot so there's other advantages to having a gaming graphics card but I just wanted to more specific test the benchmarks and the render times and it didn't make a difference well practically made no difference at all and in some cases in Vegas the Pro 13 it actually was detrimental to the rendering times so anyway guys I hope you enjoyed this Benchmark if you did please give it a thumbs up if you have any questions leave a comment in the comment section below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can and I'll catch you guys with another tech video very soon peace out for now bye\n"