Z68 chipset and Virtu

Abz Hussain · 9 Feb 2012 at 05:19

Is anyone using the onboard Virtu technology on the Z68 chipset on their current setup?
If so i would like to know your thoughts, opinions or experiences.
The idea of switching to low power on board graphics whilst doing non gaming activities and the power saving features appeal to me quite a bit. The other aspect is the intel quick sync with its fast speeds on video. However i have read that the technology is a bit buggy and does not work too well hence my reason for asking peoples experiences.
Thanks

todosmentira · 9 Feb 2012 at 10:23

When I installed it all my programs started a second or two slower so I uninstalled.
Had a fail with SRT as well - Win 7 wouldn't boot with it installed.

Abz Hussain · 9 Feb 2012 at 11:02

todosmentira said:
When I installed it all my programs started a second or two slower so I uninstalled.
Had a fail with SRT as well - Win 7 wouldn't boot with it installed.

So can i assume your no longer using it?

varkanoid · 9 Feb 2012 at 12:57

Dont you have to use two cables as well, one for the graphics card and one for onboard and the switch between the two can sometimes cause the display to flicker ?

todosmentira · 9 Feb 2012 at 17:15

that's right - no longer using

Davefran · 9 Feb 2012 at 17:57

varkanoid said:
Dont you have to use two cables as well, one for the graphics card and one for onboard and the switch between the two can sometimes cause the display to flicker ?

Nope, if you want to use the power saving features connect the monitor to the Motherboard. But you'll lose around 10% performance in games. If you want to have the best performance for gaming, connect the monitor to the Graphics card, the igpu will still be used for quicksync encoding when using supported software.

Abz Hussain · 9 Feb 2012 at 18:14

Davefran said:
Nope, if you want to use the power saving features connect the monitor to the Motherboard. But you'll lose around 10% performance in games. If you want to have the best performance for gaming, connect the monitor to the Graphics card, the igpu will still be used for quicksync encoding when using supported software.

Am i right in saying that the software on the discrete gfx cards can encode just as well as the onboard hd 3000 graphics. Its just very little slower.

Kipper67 · 10 Feb 2012 at 14:49

Google "quicksync quality comparison" and you'll find articles on both anandtech and Tom's hardware answering that exact question

KelDG · 10 Feb 2012 at 14:56

I use it to encode stuff to my PSP, I have the monitor attached to my 5850 so it will not slow down games. Then I can activate quicksync from the lucid virtu program (default is off) when I need it.

I am pretty sure I loose the power saving advantage (it is not much different anyway as the 5850 idles low regardless of virtus presence), but it speeds up my encodes (vs the 5850) by about 33%

You never used to be able to do it that way round, but they made an option so you can.

Abz Hussain · 10 Feb 2012 at 22:01

KelDG said:
I use it to encode stuff to my PSP, I have the monitor attached to my 5850 so it will not slow down games. Then I can activate quicksync from the lucid virtu program (default is off) when I need it.

I am pretty sure I loose the power saving advantage (it is not much different anyway as the 5850 idles low regardless of virtus presence), but it speeds up my encodes (vs the 5850) by about 33%

You never used to be able to do it that way round, but they made an option so you can.

Thanks for your input, its appreciated.

Orcvader · 10 Feb 2012 at 22:41

I found Virtu too buggy last year, it messed up my OS when I tried updating GPU drivers and was forced to reinstall the whole thing. Gave up with it after that and stuck with software encoding as the 2600K was fast enough. Could be fine with newer Virtu drivers though.

Abz Hussain · 10 Feb 2012 at 22:48

Orcvader said:
I found Virtu too buggy last year, it messed up my OS when I tried updating GPU drivers and was forced to reinstall the whole thing. Gave up with it after that and stuck with software encoding as the 2600K was fast enough. Could be fine with newer Virtu drivers though.

Hmm, a few people i know have said the same thing tbh. I wont be encoding that many videos anyway, maybe best to leave it to CUDA.

KelDG · 13 Feb 2012 at 16:29

Just remembered that the option I used is called "D-mode" have a quick Google search on it. Basically it only allows virtue to kick in on programs you specify (your enconding programs for example) and even this can be activated/deactivated on the fly.

Abz Hussain · 13 Feb 2012 at 16:56

KelDG said:
Just remembered that the option I used is called "D-mode" have a quick Google search on it. Basically it only allows virtue to kick in on programs you specify (your enconding programs for example) and even this can be activated/deactivated on the fly.

cheers for that, will give it a google.

Davefran · 13 Feb 2012 at 22:12

Orcvader said:
I found Virtu too buggy last year, it messed up my OS when I tried updating GPU drivers and was forced to reinstall the whole thing. Gave up with it after that and stuck with software encoding as the 2600K was fast enough. Could be fine with newer Virtu drivers though.

That's because you installed it wrongly

You have to install the igpu drivers first, then the discreet gpu drivers then lucid virtue.
If you update the gpu drivers you have to uninstall virtue and the old drivers before installing the new drivers, then install virtue last

Abz Hussain · 13 Feb 2012 at 22:24

Davefran said:
That's because you installed it wrongly
You have to install the igpu drivers first, then the discreet gpu drivers then lucid virtue.
If you update the gpu drivers you have to uninstall virtue and the old drivers before installing the new drivers, then install virtue last

and you have to do this each time you need/want to update the discrete gfx card drivers?

KelDG · 14 Feb 2012 at 00:16

I never had any problems with virtu after updating my discrete gfx, I have updated the last 4 big driver updates (ATI) with no side effect.

Orcvader · 14 Feb 2012 at 00:24

Davefran said:
That's because you installed it wrongly
You have to install the igpu drivers first, then the discreet gpu drivers then lucid virtue.
If you update the gpu drivers you have to uninstall virtue and the old drivers before installing the new drivers, then install virtue last

I know, that's how I installed them in the first place! However I never knew you had to uninstall Virtu drivers before updating GPU drivers until it was already too late...

Too much of a hassle to do anyway, and as I said, the 2600K is fast enough for encoding for me, and honestly, software encoding gives the best quality.

KelDG said:
I never had any problems with virtu after updating my discrete gfx, I have updated the last 4 big driver updates (ATI) with no side effect.

So it's fine to update GPU drivers now with Virtu still installed?

Davefran · 14 Feb 2012 at 08:01

All I'm saying is that's the correct way of doing it, to ensure you have no problems.
It is possible to update the GPU drivers and not have problems, but doing it that way "may" cause a problem in some cases

KelDG · 14 Feb 2012 at 11:25

There will always be a "risk" on updating discrete GFX drivers, I have never ever had a problem updating them apart from one instance of installing a beta driver, but I was asking for trouble doing that.

Stick to official releases and you should be fine.

Edit : Here you go, I just updated from catalyst 11.12 to 12.11 no problem about 5 mins ago, turned virtu on no problem and quicksync was detected by my encoding program right away, no problems.