Abnormal Rendering Times

[snapware]

every time i render with Vegas 6D, it just feels like it takes so long, a 6 minute file (3 layers) takes me 31 minutes to render into mpg2 with Vegas (1 pass)

does that sound long to anyone else?

I have a AMD Athlon 64 processor, 3200+, 1 gb of ram,

[guns1inger]

A number of factors can affect rendering time. Transitions and filters can dramatically slow down processing, as can other processes running on the machine at the same time.

If your source is DV, try rendering using the DV template for your format (I assume NTSC). Vegas will only render things that have changed, and will write the unchanged video directly. If you don't have any filters or transitions, this should render is almost realtime. If you do have filters, the time should be close to your mpeg2 render.

[snapware]

Do u think a dual core processor will cut my rendering time in half?

[guns1inger]

Vegas will use both cores of a dual core CPU, however a dual core, with both CPUs running at the same speed as a given single core CPU will not necessarily run twice as fast. There are overhead associated with running dual cores/CPUs that reduce the actual output, as well as the dependency on the application itself. e.g. while the core of Vegas will run across a dual core cpu, not all filters are dual aware, so some will bottleneck to one core/cpu while in use.

I would expect to see, on a dual core aware application, a 40 - 60% improvement in speed under normal circumstances (assuming that each core is running at the same clock speed as your original CPU). However this is not a hard and fast rule. There are also basic architectural differences in the dual core CPUs which may get you improvements, but again, results will vary from app to app, and use to use.

The other thing to take into account is that no matter how much you spend, how much you upgrade, how much you optimise or great that first rush is when you start up a new system and it boots in 20% of the time of the old system, within a couple of weeks it wont be fast enough.

[snapware]

i think the reason why our current machine never feels fast enough is because we get used to the speed

[guns1inger]

Bingo !

[happydog500]

I found when I turned my antivirus, firewall and spyware programs off my times got noticeably faster. If you have any on, turn them off (I turn off my Internet connection when I turn off my stuff).
Chris.

[guns1inger]

Certainly realtime monitoring from anti-virus or anti-spyware software can slow down disc I/O and lead to drag on the rest of the processing. Only trun these off once you are disconnected from the internet though.

[snapware]

I tihnk my slow rendering might be due to the fact that i have a graphic logo that i stamp in the corner of the video, i am thinking the graphic takes more rendering time than plain text?

[guns1inger]

Overlaying anything will slow processing down because every frame will have to be re-encoded. How much of a difference there is between a graphic and text is something you would have to test yourself, however any overlay will mean a complete re-encode of every frame, and therefore a long wait.