Question Poor video rendering (3D) performance on Dell Workstation ?

[jluyt]

I am using Luminar Neo software for video AI editing and rendering. I build a Dell Precision T7600 Workstation with a GTX 1660 Super GPU, 128GB RAM and 2x Intel Xeon E5-2665 2.4Ghz CPU's. I was expecting this config to process the AI much more rapidly than my MSI Leopard notebook.

The MSI notebook has a GTX 1060 GPU, Intel core i7 8750H 2.2Ghz, with 32GB of RAM. I built a new box because I was running out of RAM on the notebook and some AI took a long time.

Now my T7600 is rendering 3D slower than the notebook and I do not understand why. Doing the same task on both, on the T7600, memory stays nice and low and s does CPU. GPU goes up to around 80% and the task takes about 6 minutes.

Same task on the notebook takes half that time.

I know the CPU in the T7600 is older, but I have a solid 16 cores in the T7600, compared to 6 in the MSI.

Can the T7600 perform better? What changes do you recommend (BIOS, hardware or other).

 

[Lutfij]

2x Intel Xeon E5-2665
That's SandyBridge

Intel core i7 8750H
That's Coffelake

Both are worlds apart in terms of architecture.

 

[Ralston18]

Take a close look at what each system is doing or trying to do during the editing and rendering process.

Use Task Manager, Resource Monitor, and even Process Explorer (Microsoft, free) to get get a sense of what resources are being used, to what extent (%), and what is using any given resource.

Use all three tools but only one tool at a time.

My thought would be to open the same tool window on both the workstation and the notebook.

Then execute, as you have been doing, the same task on both systems. Watch for any differences - especially those that are significantly different between the slower system and the faster system.

Make some notes and repeat the comparison process via the other two tools as well.

Very likely that you will be able to narrow down whay T7600 is requires more time.

FYI - Process Explorer:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Do not jump to any immediate conclusions. Just do some discovery and gather data.

Figuring out/discovering why the T7600 GPU goes to 80% would be a good clue.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I'm sure that the CPU is the issue because gaming at the low resolutions that laptops tend to game at are very CPU-dependent. It's easy to hide a slow CPU by upping the resolution to 1440p or 2160p on a desktop but laptops aren't usually able to do this, especially not with mobile versions of the GTX 1060 or GTX 1660 Super. Also, game engines don't tend to do so well with more than one CCX (as we've seen with Threadripper and Ryzen 9 CPUs) and I'm sure that using two Sandy Bridge Xeons is causing the same scheduling headaches in Windows.