display performance question

[Maike]

Hello,

I have a computer with following specs as display machine:

 

PC E5-1630 Raid SSD AMD W8100

Mainboard ASRock X99 EXTREME11

CPU Intel Xeon E5-1630 V3 RAM DDR4

16GB System 1xSSD Samsung 850 Pro,

128GB Daten 8xSSD  Intel@ SSD DC S3500 Series 480GB

Grafikkarte AMD FirePro W8100,

8GB GDDR5, PCIe Synchronization Module ATI FirePro S400

Supermicro SuperChassis 743TG-1200B/743TQ-1200B-SQ

 

Windows 7 tweaked

watchout 6.02

 

Question is:

Should this computer be able to play back

4x 1920x1080 50fps in HAPQ quality 0 and crossfade to another 4x 1920x1080 50fps?

4x 1920x1080 50fps in H264.mp4 CBR15 and crossfade to another 4x 1920x1080 50fps?

4x 1920x1080 50fps in ProRes422 and crossfade to another 4x 1920x1080 50fps?

 

1x 6112x1200 50fps in ProRes422 and crossfade to another 1x6112x1200 50fps file?

1x 6112x1200 50fps in HAP quality 100 and crossfade to another 1x6112x1200 50fps file?

 

The only thing which worked so far without stuttering during crossfading is

4x 1920x1080 50fps in HAP quality 100.

 

Is everything else too much?

Or should this computer be able to do this job?

Any suggestions how to get 6112x1200 50fps running out of one display machine with four outputs.

Any advice what else to try or what computer settings might be wrong.

mpg2 I´m going to check, but quality was not good so far.

 

Thanks Maike

[Thomas Leong]

Well, your Xeon E5-1630 V3 seems almost equiv to the i7_5820K except for having 2 cores less. I have neither, nor do I have the HAPQ quality 0 files to test, so it is difficult to say the cpu is lacking in this case. However, in my opinion, for what you have invested in your Display PC, the more capable i7_5960X would have been "more fitting".

 

Here is a shot in the dark, if you have not already done so :

Ensure Watchout is installed on the RAID array, not on the single 1xSSD Samsung 850 Pro.

Either uninstall Watchout from the 850 Pro, and re-install on the RAID, or Refer: http://forum.dataton.com/topic/1986-show-storage-location/to direct shows to the RAID.

 

Additionally, you have 16GB RAM. Are these in 4GB modules such that you are using the quad channel specs for your motherboard? If in 8GB modules, you'd only be on dual-channel and this may affect your performance versus quad-channel RAM.

 

For the future, if is matters to you...there are 2 Ultra M.2 slots in that mobo, and I would have gone for 1 or 2 of the Samsung SM951 512GB, or the new Samsung 950 Pro M.2 instead of the SSD RAID. In my opinion, the PCIe Gen3 x4 interface is faster than the SATA 6GB/s interface even in RAID mode.

 

Thomas Leong

 

Addendum: upgrade to Watchout 6.1. It has solved some HAP problems, more blue-screen HAP than hiccups on cross-dissolve. But it may still help.

[Thomas Leong]

Duh!...missed the "Intel@ SSD DC S3500 Series 480GB" in your equip details. That's where Watchout should be installed, or 'Shows' folder directed to.

[Maike]

Thanks Thomas for your advices.

Watchout is installed on the SSD RAID.
I upgraded to Watchout 6.1 especially because of the HAP problems.
RAM modules I will check.

We have also i7 4960 computer and this one is not stuttering as much as the E5 but still no smooth crossfade.
Only four HD 50fps HAP quality100 run and crossfade smooth on both computers.

I thought it should not be a problem to play
4x HD 50fps ProRes422 files or
4x HD 50fps HAP Q files smooth or
one huge ProRes422 file or one huge HAP file,
but it is.

Are you able to do this with your computer?

I very often use H264 in mp4 container with CBR, but I don´t get a smooth crossfade from one 3840x2160@50fps to another or
from 4xHD H264 50fps to another four clips.

What clips are you playing? Presplitted, one file....codecs? What computer, graphic card...?
Or do you take two computers instead for those resolutions?

Thanks again for more information
Maike

[Thomas Leong]

Maike,

 

Please download CrystalDiskMark (Std Edition Portable w/o Ads), and run it through your machine(s) to get the Sequential Read speed of your RAID or wherever Watchout is installed on.

If your RAID comprises of all 8xSSD, your Seq READ speed should be plenty fast. BTW, what RAID are you using? RAID 0 or one of the others - 1, 10, 5? Are you able to re-configure 4-8 of the SSDs to a RAID 0 and test the Seq READ speed?

The other potentially contributing bottleneck is the speed of your Xeon cpu since you say you have an i7-4960X which does not stutter as much.

 

As a comparison, my system is:

- i7-4770K cpu in turbo mode at 4.2GHz

- ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard

- 32GB 1600MHz RAM

- Win7 Pro 64-bit OS on a Kingston SSD with Watchout 6.1 installed

- Watchout ShowsPath pointed to a Samsung SM951 M.2 PCie 3.0 x 4 with CrystalDiskMark seq. read speed of 2,252MB/s

- AMD Firepro W4100 with 2GB VRAM

 

and it will run smoothly:

1 x 7680x1080 HAPQ 0 @30fps over 4 1920x1080 outputs

1 x 4096x1080 H264 @30fps scaled to 4 1920x1080 outputs

 

(I have no ProRes large resolution file to test; I only have one 1920x1080 ProRes file for these tests)

 

Also running smoothly/without stutter are -

4 x 4 HAPQ 0 1920x1080 files @50fps ('4 x 4' means 4 files with 20-30sec cross-dissolve to another 4 files)

4 x 4 H264 1920x1080 files @50fps (If I have my SM951 M.2 on a PCIe 2.0 x 4 slot with Seq READ speed of 1,570MB/s, these H264 will stutter during the x-dissolve)

1 x 1 ProRes 422 1920x1080 files or 2 instances of one ProRes file with staggered start (eg 2 secs apart), or 4 x 4 instances of 1 ProRes file started simultaneously out to 4 displays.

 

Thomas

 

(BTW, these old eyes mis-read your Intel DC S3500 SSD as the P series of NVMe drives).