intel i7-980x 30-40% max load at compression

[thisizbrian]

dvdfab blu ray compression doesnt max out the cpu. is there some setting i can adjust so it fully utilizes my cpu?

[AGJ]

do you have a cuda enabled graphics card as that would take some of the work away from the CPU

[thisizbrian]

yes gtx296 with physx on the cpu. should i disable the cuda?

[thisizbrian]

ok put everything to software and it jumped up to 16.3mb/s!!!

i thought cuda would be additive to the cpu not take away from it?

can you enlighten me on how cuda helps high end cpus?

[signals]

Quit worrying about CPU utilization and experiment with the codec settings to maximize the conversion speed. You may find that all set to "Software" is fastest with that high end CPU, but I think you will find some combination of software and CUDA that will produce the fastest conversion rate. If it does not, your video card may not be pulling its weight and may need a driver update.

[thisizbrian]

what other combinations should i try?

am running the latest whql driver at the moment.

when i do run fab it says cuda accel for encoding but not the line for decoding.

how can i monitor my gpus cuda performance?

[IPopov50]

Well Brian, it seems my turn to chip in my 2 cents.
On A/V Codec page of Common Settings you will see variety of options for all supported codecs (including CoreAVC, which I believe you have on your machine).
Start with the basics (I'm pretty sure you know all of this, but there are others who reading this too). If you set all options to "Software", you will completely disable GPU Acceleration feature. As you know, DVDFab uses (or enabled for) two kinds of accelerations - CUDA for nVIDIA cards (which is works) and DXVA for other hardware (which is doesn't work). I'm not sure why DXVA doesn't work properly, but it seems not because of DVDFab internal DXVA codecs, but because DXVA script itself. Anyway, if you disable acceleration, all processing will be done by CPU using internal codecs. This is slowest, but cleanest way - sort of "square one" .
On same page you will find information about your graphic chipset and its capabilities (from GPU acceleration perspective). All machines with CUDA-enabled cards and DirectX 9 or higher installed will show all CUDA and DXVA codecs available for process (if you have CoreAVC installed, it will show too). CoreAVC is the only third-party codec DVDFab uses. Why? Because it's second best out there (first best being DVDFab internal CUDA codec - I'm not kidding, I've tried most of them if not all of them).
I don't want spend much of a time on DXVA acceleration. As most of Microsoft products it suck and it doesn't work. If you even briefly review GPU-acceleration related posts on this forum or other relevant forums you will see that use of DXVA acceleration produces more headache than actually acceleration. Using DXVA, at this point, is asking for trouble. So, I wouldn't recommend using DXVA in their A/V Codec settings at all. But that's my opinion.
Considering this, viable options are: "Software", CUDA and CoreAVC.
By the way, DVDFab's CUDA engine designed for maximum 2-GPU cards, where Decoder set for one GPU and Encoder for another. It's recommended for single-GPU cards only engage encoder in CUDA processing.
You and I, we both having 2-GPU GTX295 cards, so combination of all above options are available for us. Despite the similarity of hardware configuration, etc. each machine is unique like fingerprint. I would suggest to experiment with A/V Codec configuration for different content (AVC, VC-1, etc.), i.e. I figured that for AVC content my machine performed better with H264 codec set for CoreAVC, encoder set for "Software+CUDA", and my card set to work as single-GPU. For VC-1 content my best combination is: decoder set for VC-1-CUDA, encoder - "Software", card - single-GPU. I have tried to set encoder "Software+CUDA" and 2-GPU card; speed is about same, but picture is much cleaner with first combination.

So, the answer on your question: "what other combinations should i try?"
is above. Play among encoder, decoder and multi-GPU and you will figure it out. As I said, each machine is unique, and my combinations may or may not work for you.

"how can i monitor my gpus cuda performance?"
Every card manufacturer have its own utility to tweak their cards, and they all have monitoring tools in them. I have tried and found them very invasive, interrupting process. GPU monitoring utility that works for me you can get here (if you want to), from my share folder: http://www.4shared.com/file/hdKgT52w/GPUMonitor.html
This monitor coded as a W7 gadget and looks nice on my desktop. The only downside - it can only see one GPU at a time, and you have to switch between GPUs or, like I did, run two instances, each tuned for each GPU.

I hope I answered all your questions. Sorry, it took so long.

[thisizbrian]

ok i tried every combination and still get the best results when software+cuda.

i am going to try different vid card drivers next.

thanks ipopov!

[thisizbrian]

ipopov,

what drivers are you currently running for your gtx 295?

you can find out if you look in dxdiag

thanks

[signals]

Download and install GPU-Z, it is free and monitors all GPU parameters in realtime--clocks,memory usage, temperature etc.