Owning an H61 miin-ITX build I was a little annoyed that Quick Sync would not work when discete graphics (GTX480) are installed.
My Build
ASUS P8H61-I mini-ITX
Intel I5-2500K
Sugo SG08 SFF case with 600W PSU
ASUS GTX 480
8GB Kingston Valueram
Dell U2410 24" IPS Monitor
Trawling the Net net provided the odd mis-information along with the odd suggestion. Examples follow.
*The most common piece of mis-information was that Quick Sync would not work if discrete graphics were used.
*One possibilty was to use Lucid Virtu software that enables both discreet and Sandy Bridge graphics to be used dynamically when needed. This would be nice if all mobo manufacturers had signed agreements with Lucid but unfornately most have not. The result is that the software works, but you are stuck with an annoying Lucid logo which randomly move from place to place during gaming (remind me never to use or purchase Luci crapware for being so damned annoying).
*Finally, someone suggested that I had to use dual monitors and connect them to both my GTX480 and the mobo output. Unfortunately I only had one monitor.
Solution / Setup Guide
To get things working is actually quite simple and I have tested this on my ASUS H61 and a friends H67 board.
*Firstly you need either an H61, H67 or Z68 motherbaod.
*You also need either one monitor with multiple inputs, or a multi-monitor setup.
*Next enable multiple monitor support within UEFI/BIOS.
*Then ensure that drivers are loaded for BOTH discreet and on-die graphics. In my case I downloaded the latest NVidia and Intel installers.
*Now connect an output from BOTH discreet graphics and onboard graphics to your two monitor inputs. On my single Dell LCD I use GTX480 to HDMI1 and Mobo to VGA. If you have two monitors, connect as you see fit. Once this is done and your PC is turned on, your discrete GPU will output to one monitor input and the SB graphics will output to the other. BOTH GPU's are now active and eneabled.
*Now all you need is software which supports quicksync. You can download free 30 day trial of MediaEspresso here or Media Convertor 7 here to start testing things out.
Results
I found Quick Sync 1080P 10Mbits encodes to be roughly twice as fast as Software / CPU (i5-2500K) only encodes. Unfortunately, Quick Sync quality is not quite as good, but it is certainly okay for most uses.
See clicky below showing GTX480, Sandy Bridge graphics and Quick Sync all active.
My Build
ASUS P8H61-I mini-ITX
Intel I5-2500K
Sugo SG08 SFF case with 600W PSU
ASUS GTX 480
8GB Kingston Valueram
Dell U2410 24" IPS Monitor
Trawling the Net net provided the odd mis-information along with the odd suggestion. Examples follow.
*The most common piece of mis-information was that Quick Sync would not work if discrete graphics were used.
*One possibilty was to use Lucid Virtu software that enables both discreet and Sandy Bridge graphics to be used dynamically when needed. This would be nice if all mobo manufacturers had signed agreements with Lucid but unfornately most have not. The result is that the software works, but you are stuck with an annoying Lucid logo which randomly move from place to place during gaming (remind me never to use or purchase Luci crapware for being so damned annoying).
*Finally, someone suggested that I had to use dual monitors and connect them to both my GTX480 and the mobo output. Unfortunately I only had one monitor.
Solution / Setup Guide
To get things working is actually quite simple and I have tested this on my ASUS H61 and a friends H67 board.
*Firstly you need either an H61, H67 or Z68 motherbaod.
*You also need either one monitor with multiple inputs, or a multi-monitor setup.
*Next enable multiple monitor support within UEFI/BIOS.
*Then ensure that drivers are loaded for BOTH discreet and on-die graphics. In my case I downloaded the latest NVidia and Intel installers.
*Now connect an output from BOTH discreet graphics and onboard graphics to your two monitor inputs. On my single Dell LCD I use GTX480 to HDMI1 and Mobo to VGA. If you have two monitors, connect as you see fit. Once this is done and your PC is turned on, your discrete GPU will output to one monitor input and the SB graphics will output to the other. BOTH GPU's are now active and eneabled.
*Now all you need is software which supports quicksync. You can download free 30 day trial of MediaEspresso here or Media Convertor 7 here to start testing things out.
Results
I found Quick Sync 1080P 10Mbits encodes to be roughly twice as fast as Software / CPU (i5-2500K) only encodes. Unfortunately, Quick Sync quality is not quite as good, but it is certainly okay for most uses.
See clicky below showing GTX480, Sandy Bridge graphics and Quick Sync all active.
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