Read this article at https://www.pugetsystems.com/guides/1116 Premiere Pro CC 2018 Workstation GPU Performance Written on February 16, 2018 by Matt Bach

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Introduction While most Premiere Pro workstations end up using either an NVIDIA's GeForce or NVIDIA Titan GPU, there are times when using a more expensive workstation GPU is necessary. Workstation cards don't usually give you any higher performance, but the most common reason for using them is due to the fact that they can output 10-bit color. To be clear, if you simply need 10-bit support on a secondary monitor for full resolution preview or color grading, using something like a Blackmagic Decklink card (paired with a GeForce/Titan GPU) is often the recommended route to take. But if you only have a single display, or for whatever reason need 10-bit support on your primary display, using a workstation graphics card is the only way to do so since most consumer cards do not support displaying 10-bit color. For those that need a workstation card for Premiere Pro, we wanted to determine how various cards from NVIDIA's Quadro and AMD's Radeon Pro lines perform. Information on our testing process can be found in the Test Hardware & Methodology section or you can skip right to the Conclusion. If you are more interested in the performance of NVIDIA's GeForce and Titan line, we also have a similar article available that covers various consumer oriented cards: Premiere Pro CC 2018 GPU Performance: NVIDIA Titan V 12GB.

Live Playback Live playback performance is a challenge to accurately test since performance depends not only on the codec and resolution of your media, but also the playback resolution (full, half, quarter, etc.) and the effects you have applied. Since this is the first full round of testing with our new benchmark process, we decided to go all out and benchmark all our test media with not only three different timelines, but also at full, half, and quarter playback resolution. For more information on each test media and timeline, check out the Test Hardware & Methodology section. Individual Avg. FPS Results [-] Hide Raw Dropped Frame Results # of Dropped Frames Quadro P4000 8GB Quadro P5000 16GB Quadro P6000 24GB Quadro GP100 16GB WX 9100 16GB Titan V 12GB 4K H.264

(59.94 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 169 282 147 124 144 137 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 8 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 6 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 179 154 167 127 216 155 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 11 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 4 Full Res Heavy Effects 513 420 344 225 571 284 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 7 3 3 2 145 11 Full Res No Effects 0 0 1 0 0 3 4K DNxHR HQ

(29.97 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 1 0 2 1 5 2 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 Full Res Heavy Effects 26 13 12 5 67 4 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 Full Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 4K ProRes 422 HQ

(24 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 1 0 0 31 4 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 3 2 0 1 38 9 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 Full Res Heavy Effects 11 5 4 3 66 12 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 Full Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 2 4K ProRes 4444

(60 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 264 263 309 270 528 404 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 27 25 25 18 147 54 1/4 Res No Effects 2 0 3 0 88 59 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 762 731 731 664 1157 645 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 50 36 43 24 159 57 1/2 Res No Effects 8 2 0 0 71 48 Full Res Heavy Effects 1178 1113 1128 1041 1486 1083 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 277 169 145 112 461 123 Full Res No Effects 15 9 12 12 79 77 4K RED 11:1

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 0 0 0 4 0 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 2 3 3 3 80 6 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 40 2 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 17 5 Full Res Heavy Effects 35 19 15 6 256 16 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 70 12 Full Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 52 8 4K RED 7:1

(29.97 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 0 0 0 6 0 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 4 4 5 5 47 11 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 2 0 3 2 12 2 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 1 8 5 Full Res Heavy Effects 262 191 180 121 611 188 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 17 4 4 1 107 41 Full Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 88 23 4K CinemaDNG

(24 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 516 500 493 488 510 462 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 343 341 360 369 487 340 1/4 Res No Effects 342 342 351 341 332 355 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 521 509 498 489 529 485 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 346 380 347 370 351 341 1/2 Res No Effects 333 334 333 340 342 339 Full Res Heavy Effects 536 502 508 488 562 479 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 353 344 357 348 337 343 Full Res No Effects 339 338 339 332 333 344 6K DNxHR HQ

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 1 2 1 2 3 1 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 Full Res Heavy Effects 135 106 74 18 169 19 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 2 2 1 0 2 3 Full Res No Effects 1 0 0 0 0 2 6K RED 12:1

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 0 0 0 54 9 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 32 7 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 14 5 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 57 33 48 30 398 102 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 2 2 3 2 139 12 1/2 Res No Effects 1 0 0 0 83 14 Full Res Heavy Effects 384 338 337 248 656 386 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 58 9 11 2 129 27 Full Res No Effects 0 1 1 0 82 8 6K RED 7:1

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 0 2 0 103 2 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 66 9 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 37 5 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 94 74 122 86 636 141 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 1 2 1 2 283 111 1/2 Res No Effects 0 6 0 0 188 14 Full Res Heavy Effects 468 421 382 373 616 397 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 134 33 23 1 446 44 Full Res No Effects 0 7 1 0 349 8 6K ARRIRAW

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 157 154 85 77 108 208 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 35 4 10 11 11 68 1/4 Res No Effects 2 4 3 5 2 6 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 96 88 149 134 130 171 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 33 9 8 11 7 73 1/2 Res No Effects 2 3 5 3 2 10 Full Res Heavy Effects 706 704 705 709 703 705 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 562 554 561 559 563 560 Full Res No Effects 551 549 550 542 552 544 8K DNxHR HQ

(25 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 0 2 2 0 3 9 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 0 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 28 20 22 25 34 50 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 1 1 1 2 5 1/2 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 0 1 Full Res Heavy Effects 433 433 354 305 470 304 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 145 50 7 5 207 5 Full Res No Effects 3 4 4 3 4 6 8K RED 12:1

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 15 11 17 15 115 18 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 47 1 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 5 1 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 237 196 230 187 549 258 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 5 4 5 4 297 23 1/2 Res No Effects 3 3 3 3 202 8 Full Res Heavy Effects 571 550 540 494 665 499 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 325 242 211 108 485 145 Full Res No Effects 65 62 65 63 379 83 8K RED 9:1

(25 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 44 33 46 37 179 31 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 0 0 0 90 16 1/4 Res No Effects 0 0 0 0 41 8 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 278 254 251 241 633 280 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 7 9 5 5 343 22 1/2 Res No Effects 2 9 2 2 241 15 Full Res Heavy Effects 553 564 558 497 704 518 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 315 261 215 142 511 230 Full Res No Effects 101 110 121 110 390 137 8K RED 7:1

(23.976 FPS) 1/4 Res Heavy Effects 91 83 81 89 310 99 1/4 Res Lumetri Color Only 0 3 0 0 226 18 1/4 Res No Effects 2 2 0 1 132 14 1/2 Res Heavy Effects 451 437 407 421 662 460 1/2 Res Lumetri Color Only 158 157 159 160 466 177 1/2 Res No Effects 157 168 155 151 336 173 Full Res Heavy Effects 644 633 622 567 684 581 Full Res Lumetri Color Only 439 392 366 328 532 345 Full Res No Effects 311 334 309 309 490 322 [+] Show Raw Dropped Frame Results Due to the huge amount of data gathered in our testing (over 800 different data points in total!), we are not going to go through everything point by point. If we tested a codec you typically work with, we highly recommend looking at the "Individual Avg. FPS Results" charts or the raw Dropped Frame results by clicking on the "Show Raw Dropped Frames Results" link. However, for a general overview of how each GPU performed we decided to average the results relative to the Quadro P5000 video card. Likely, the first thing you may notice is that the Radeon Pro WX 9100 did not do particularly well in this test. The overall average chart is a bit shewed since the largest area it struggled was with RED footage, but even in general the performance was fairly lackluster once effects like cross dissolves and Lumetri Color was applied to the timeline. One thing we do want to point out is that our testing is done with the cache and system RAM completely cleared in order to replicate what the performance would be like if you were working on a fresh timeline. What was interesting was that while the Radeon Pro WX 9100 gave overall poor performance in this "first run" situation, if you played the same clip multiple times the performance was much higher. For example, in the RED 8K 9:1 testing at full res with no effects, we only received about 9 FPS in our test. However, if we played the clips a second or third time, it jumped right up to around 25 FPS. The NVIDIA cards do exhibit similar behavior, but it was never as dramatic as what we saw with the Radeon Pro WX 9100. Something else that we fist discussed in our Premiere Pro CC 2018 Titan V article (which included various Titan and GeForce cards) is that the lower the playback resolution, the less the GPU model impacts performance. Of course, at a certain point the GPU doesn't matter since you can't get any better than 0 dropped frames, but even when we were dropping a decent number of frames the difference between the Quadro P4000 and the Quadro GP100 at half or quarter resolution was often less than 1-2 FPS. This suggests that at lower playback resolutions, the GPU takes a back seat to the CPU in terms of importance. This is a very significant finding since with 6K and 8K footage you will likely be dropping to half or quarter playback resolution if you add a decent number of effects in order to maintain near real-time playback. If this is something you will be doing regularly, then you are likely better off with a slightly lower end GPU and spending the cost savings on a more powerful CPU if possible. At full res playback, however, there is definitely a very distinct difference in performance between each GPU. With 4K footage it may not be terribly noticeable unless you use a lot of accelerated effects, but with 6K and especially 8K footage the difference can be pretty dramatic. At those resolutions we would highly recommend the Quadro P5000 as a starting point and upgrading to the P6000 or even the GP100 depending on the kind of performance you need.

Exporting Exporting is one of the biggest single time sinks for a Premiere Pro user and is often the go-to metric for measuring performance. For this test, we will be examining 4K, 6K, and 8K projects using all the different codecs listed in the Test Hardware & Methodology section. Added up, this works out to just over 40 different individual tests for each GPU resulting in just under 250 total data points. Individual Export Time Results Due to the amount of data we collected during our testing, we once again decided to compile the results into a single overall average relative to the Quadro P5000 video card. If you are primarily concerned about just one of the codecs or resolutions we tested, we highly recommend checking out the individual results - just click on any of the thumbnails to view the full-sized chart. With that said, from an overall perspective we saw a small but noticeable performance improvement as we used more and more powerful (and expensive) GPUs. However, keep in mind that this is just an overall average. In some cases - like when using ARRIRAW footage or when exporting 8K projects to 8K H.265 - all the GPUs performed roughly the same. Other times, there is a decent (but not vast) difference in performance between the lower and higher-end cards.

Conclusion Looking at just Live Playback at full resolution with the "Heavy Effects" timeline and overall Exporting performance, we get a pretty good idea about how the various workstation cards stack up. Really, the only surprise was the poor performance of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100. Otherwise, there is a small - but noticeable - increase in performance as you use higher and higher end cards. If your workflow requires the use of a workstation GPU, the card you should get really depends on your workflow. If you work with 4K footage and don't use many effects, the Quadro P4000 should be more than adequate. If you tend to use Lumetri Color, Cross Dissolve, or other GPU accelerated effects, however, we would highly recommend starting with the Quadro P5000. Similarly, if you work with 6K or 8K footage then the Quadro P5000 is really the entry card you should aim for. The more effects you utilize, however, the more benefit you will see from upgrading to a Quadro P6000 or even a Quadro GP100. Keep in mind, however, that even though the Quadro GP100 gives terrific performance in Premiere Pro, it is actually about on par with the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti. So while it is a great card, unless you really need the 10-bit display support you can save somewhere around $6,000 by using the GTX 1080 Ti instead.

Tags: Premiere Pro, NVIDIA, Titan V, P4000, P5000, P6000, GP100, WX9100