Does GPU Matter?

[twitewhite]

I'm looking to buy a new computer for making music and possibly video, and I'm wondering if GPU would be beneficial for these uses. I know a lot of software can use the GPU for more heavy processing, but I'm not sure if DAWs/VSTs would be able to do so.

Would having a decent GPU benefit me, or should I just put all my money into having a more powerful CPU? Thanks.

[PeterP_swe]

An integrated GPU will steal some or your RAM, so make sure you take that in consideration. Probably only 2-4gb unless you run multiple 4k screens.

Some VSTs and DAWs do benefit from a GPU when drawing the UI and it will free up your CPU for more audio processing.

You don't need a beefy gamer GPU, but a nice medium price/performance one is worth it in my opinion.

[BertKoor]

In my experience no DAW and not a lot of plugins use the GPU for audio processing. So any decent simple GPU (even integrated in the CPU) will fit the bill.

Try to select one that has passive cooling, the PC will be more silent with a fan less spinning,.

[Reefius]

On my old DAW PC I used the onboard graphics (Intel 2500) for a long time and often had problems with FabFilter Pro. I could only use the smallest window size or the audio would start to stutter.
I then bought a cheap nVidia GT710 card and the problems were gone.

Bottom line: GPU does matter a bit but you definitely don't need an expensive gaming card.

[pekbro]

They don't use the gpu to process audio, but most of the modern DAWs, can use them to
help draw the UI, many plugins too, anything using opengl I believe.

[Kaine]

Old onboard GPU's were pretty poor, but the current generation is fine for a couple of screens running up to about 6K between them. Yes, it'll eat some memory, although adding in more memory these days is probably still cheaper than picking up a basic GPU.

[Skupje]

Think a lot of plugins use direct draw, so it gets handeled by the processor. For some it definitely makes a difference using Open GL or DirectX. Direct draw is sloow if you let it.

[Forgotten]

Think a lot of plugins use direct draw, so it gets handeled by the processor. For some it definitely makes a difference using Open GL or DirectX. Direct draw is sloow if you let it.

That's only true for Windows though, as OpenGL has been deprecated for newer Macs in favor of Metal.

[fmr]

Think a lot of plugins use direct draw, so it gets handeled by the processor. For some it definitely makes a difference using Open GL or DirectX. Direct draw is sloow if you let it.

That's only true for Windows though, as OpenGL has been deprecated for newer Macs in favor of Metal.

The fact that OpenGL has been deprecated, doesn't mean it isn't being used yet. AFAIK, the vast majority of developers still use OpenGL, because it is cross-platform.

Anyway, this discussion only makes sens for Windows, since most of the time you don't really have a choice about which graphics card should you use in Mac computers.

[Forgotten]

The fact that OpenGL has been deprecated, doesn't mean it isn't being used yet. AFAIK, the vast majority of developers still use OpenGL, because it is cross-platform.

Anyway, this discussion only makes sens for Windows, since most of the time you don't really have a choice about which graphics card should you use in Mac computers.

Right, but I think after Mojave it's not supported. Not sure if Vulkan is supported on Macs though to be honest.

You can upgrade the GPU on Macs, but most people opt for an external GPU if they upgrade.

[lnikj]

If you have any interest in running VCV Rack you will need a discrete GPU.

[Skupje]

Think a lot of plugins use direct draw, so it gets handeled by the processor. For some it definitely makes a difference using Open GL or DirectX. Direct draw is sloow if you let it.

That's only true for Windows though, as OpenGL has been deprecated for newer Macs in favor of Metal.

Probably.. I rather just avoid UI programming, and focus on the DSP instead. It would be cool using .obj. Maybe Python / VST.

[Dasheesh]

in today's world almost all software dumps some processing off to the gpu. for 2 reasons. 1: they are making the cpus quicker, but less and less powerful 2: gpu's handle these floating point (powerful) processes better. gpu matters, it's not everything and you have to way the ram costs, but usually 8 gigs is enough for everything. a lot of gpu has onboard memory to.

[metamorphosis]

An integrated GPU will steal some or your RAM, so make sure you take that in consideration. Probably only 2-4gb unless you run multiple 4k screens.

The most an integrated GPU tends to steal is about 32mb, but they do ram sharing up to 256MB when needed.
There is no integrated GPU on the planet that uses GBs of ram.
A single 4k 32-bit frame uses 32mb of ram, so at most your setup would use 96MB if you were playing videos and triple-buffering was enabled somehow.
But your DAW won't use that.

Integrated GPUs used to be shite, but they're actually far beyond the needs of the average consumer nowadays, and certainly good enough for any DAW or non-game product. I wouldn't bother.

in today's world almost all software dumps some processing off to the gpu. for 2 reasons. 1: they are making the cpus quicker, but less and less powerful 2: gpu's handle these floating point (powerful) processes better. gpu matters, it's not everything and you have to way the ram costs, but usually 8 gigs is enough for everything. a lot of gpu has onboard memory to.

Virtually no software offloads processing to GPUs for the simple fact that they're not that good for processing most types of data due to the latency of transferring data from memory to VRAM and back again. A lot of software will use the hardware acceleration of the graphics card for blitting the buffers to screen, but that's standard, and nothing to do with GPUs.

[metamorphosis]

If you have any interest in running VCV Rack you will need a discrete GPU.

Also not true. It requires OpenGL 2 capability, which almost all integrated GPUs support nowadays. You have to go back about 10 years to find one which doesn't - or to a very obscure one.