Ivy Bridge, Quick Sync and Lucid Virtu

[Kalador]

I've spent a few days looking around for any sort of resources on forums or lucid's websites, or pretty much anywhere else to be honest, to try and solve this problem, but... not having much luck.

So either I'm the only one having this problem, in which case it's me being thick and the answer should be simple, or lots of people are having this problem and just haven't either realised it, or tried to sort it yet.

(I've done lots of testing myself, so this is going to be a bit of a long summary, apologies! I figure that if it helps others that might be having the same problem, it's all worthwhile! )

So... to sum up. The problem is getting both the Intel on-die HD2500 graphics working WITH the Graphics card, via the Lucid tech stuff, so that games are using what they should be using and quick sync is usable as well.
Both of them definitely work, but getting them both to work together is the problem...

My build (the relevant bits anyway)
CPU: i5-3450
Graphics card: AMD 7770 (XFX, for what it's worth)
Mobo: Asus P8Z77-V
Win7 64 Ultimate (if that matters?....)
Bios has been checked and double checked and is set to enable multi-screen/GPU support.
Latest Catalyst drivers are being used, as are the latest (only?...) 3rd Gen HD Graphics drivers. Latest version of Lucid Virtu is being used.

Initial setup was with the monitor plugged into the mobo's monitor port, the iGPU set as the default renderer in the Bios.
Installed windows, all the supplied motherboard utilities, intel HD graphics driver, Catalyst drivers. Lucid was setup, it detects both, it shows both as active.

Games tested:
Starcraft 2
Civ 5
The Witcher
Total War: Shogun 2
X3: Terran Conflict

Every one of these displayed the logo in the corner upon startup, which I would assume is meant to mean that Lucid is doing what it's supposed to do.
But every one of them was rendering with the HD2500, NOT the 7770.
X3 ran well (it's fairly old), so it's hard to be 100% sure on that one. Starcraft was 'okay' but not great. Civ 5 was okay. Shogun 2 and The Witcher ran like dogs, frankly.

The curious thing is, Shogun 2 shows the 7770 as it's renderer in it's graphics options, so it's being detected in some way, but it's most definitely not being USED.

After much fiddling to try and improve performance, I was beginning to wonder if maybe my graphics card was somehow defective, since the Lucid logo definitely seemed to imply it was switching renderer as it should be (and so did the 7770 being detected as renderer in Shogun 2)

So, to check, I switched things around. Bios now set to use the PCIe as it's default setting, monitor similarly connected to the graphics card.

All games now run like a dream. (and incidentally, Shogun 2 is gorgeous :wub

Now keeping the PCIe as the default, I've tried using Quick Sync to encode (using Media Coder) and am hitting the same brick wall. Error 14 (which, for what it's worth, means it's not detecting the selected encoder, which is set for Intel's Quick Sync)
I've added both the Media Coder exe's to Lucid's application list, but it still refuses to detect it and use it.

So... my question is, how exactly do you get Lucid's virtu software to work properly? It CLAIMS to be working (the logo appearing when games start up would suggest that at least!) but evidence clearly shows that it's not.
Given the number of reviews (Anand's for one!) that have been benchmarking Quick Sync performance using Lucid's software without problems, it obviously SHOULD work... but I must be doing something wrong.

If anyone has any suggestions or helpful advice, I'll gladly give it a try!

Thanks for reading.

 

[KAZANI]

E-mail ASUS and ask them how. I bet this feature is one of those sideprojects that never get the necessary funding to properly develop the good engineering ideas behind them. The end result is the end-user gets to pay a premium for being able to toy around with what is essentially a marketing gimmick.

If AMD couldn't properly implement assymetric Crossfire with their own APU hardware then I doubt m/b manufacturers will easily come up with a solution that will accommodate different architectures. Heck even Quick Sync and AMD's counterpart aren't mature enough technologies in themeselves, from what I've seen. Give it a couple of years and, maybe if more software will be supporting GPU transcoding, we'll see meaningfull on the fly GPU switching.

 

[cantholdanymore]

I haven't played with virtu but I would assume that the monitor needs to be plugged in the graphics card since the igpu is only used for QS.

 

[Ferzerp]

If you have a decent video card, Virtu is a pure gimmick, nothing more. Don't even bother with it. Trying to accelerate video being output from something like a 680 or a 7970 with an igpu is somewhat akin to trying to thicken ketchup with tomato sauce. Sure, the tomato sauce is made of a lot of the same stuff, but it isn't going to make thicker ketchup!

 

[sm625]

Given how fast quicksync is, it almost seems like something you'd want to put on your media server. I'm thinking of having a set of folders (network shares) where I just copy the video I want to convert into the appropriate folder on the server. (ie a folder named 480p-800kbps.)

Then the software automagically takes that file and converts it to 480p-800kbps and places it in an output folder where I retrieve it.

 

[Kalador]

Sure, the tomato sauce is made of a lot of the same stuff, but it isn't going to make thicker ketchup!

Nice analogy!

But I'm not trying to thicken the ketchup, trying to have both a separate sauce AND ketchup at the same time.

To clarify -
The Lucid MVP tech is what's meant to try and accelerate the GPU, ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/5728/intel-z77-panther-point-chipset-and-motherboard-preview-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi-ecs-and-biostar/3 )that is NOT what I'm trying to do.
Lucid virtu is merely meant to be the seamless switching from dGPU to iGPU, to use all the best features of both while saving power where possible. ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/4199/...egrateddiscrete-gpu-on-sandy-bridge-platforms )

That's the part that's totally not working for me.

Plugging into the proper graphics card is fine, BUT, I can't then get Quick Sync to work (which lucid virtu SHOULD be enabling)
Similarly, plugging into the iGPU works fine, but then all the games I try and run appear to be using the iGPU, rather than the dGPU, despite the lucid logo popping up to say it's doing it's thing.

Not being able to use Quick Sync isn't stopping me doing anything, but it's irritating that I KNOW the system should be capable of using it, but it doesn't seem to be working.
And really, for encoding, it can't be beat...

Given I've seen reviews and benchmarks that show this stuff DOES work, I know it can do... I just can't for the life of me figure out why it's not at the moment...

 

[GrumpyMan]

I just turn my Virtu off, useless.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Asus has a nice video for ya! on utube Oh! My! Explains everthing for the reading impaired.Uere is one that might lend you a hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3miDw2Iw1SI

 

[KAZANI]

The Lucid MVP tech is what's meant to try and accelerate the GPU, ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/5728/intel-z77-panther-point-chipset-and-motherboard-preview-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi-ecs-and-biostar/3 )that is NOT what I'm trying to do.

From the youtube video posted above I deduct that Virtu MVP is just the newest version of Virtu. The differentiation in usage you are refering to is a simple i- or -d- virtualization mode which the user can assign to each program through Virtu's control panel.

[Lucid virtu is merely meant to be the seamless switching from dGPU to iGPU, to use all the best features of both while saving power where possible. ( http://www.anandtech.com/show/4199/...egrateddiscrete-gpu-on-sandy-bridge-platforms )

I don't see how reading that report makes you arrive at the conclusion that it helps to achieve reductions in power consumption. On the contrary, it hints at increased consumption (although the relevant table there really makes no sense).



Lastly, a word of caution:
People have been getting extraordinary fps results with Virtu (up to 400% insrease Vs dGPU-only), leading them to ban it from benchmark rankings. IMO, before we see more comprehensive reports on Virtu's valid handling of images, it isn't worth geopardizing the integrity of your transcodes through its virtualization.