Does Pro Tools Use OpenCL?

[darbyclash34]

Hey devs and everyone,

I was wondering if Pro Tools 10 uses OpenCL and if not will Pro Tools 11? I'm trying to figure out if you get more processing power with a higher end graphics card or if this has no real impact if you're not working with video.

Thanks,

Shawn

[JFreak]

I do not know, but I also do not think so. PT already uses CPU and DSP so adding GPU would make things rather complicated.

[darbyclash34]

I suppose it would, but on the native side there is only CPU usage if that's true, and that's a huge amount of untapped compute power sitting there. Maybe that's part of the stated "multiple times the performance of Pro Tools 10" they're claiming that the Avid Audio Engine delivers with 11. I'd love for a developer to poke their head in.

[sunburst79]

To the best of my knowledge they are not using OpenCL or GPUCPU computing power to to enhance PTs performance. Its all old school floating point math.

[RyanC]

I seriously doubt it;

One thing many have not considered with gpu processing is it does AFAIK (certainly in nebula) add a native > pci > native loop, like a UAD card etc, so it would have the added latency and CPU overhead at low buffers that come with that.

Also people shouldn't get too googly eyed about the TFLOPs numbers from those cards. Remember we are talking RISC vs (massively) CISC here. Any audio dev (except maybe logic X team) would do better to invest their time into AVX, IMO.

[25ghosts]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

To the best of my knowledge they are not using OpenCL or GPUCPU computing power to to enhance PTs performance. Its all old school floating point math.

Floating Point Math has nothing to do with old or new school...

Floating Point just means that the comma or point can float freely.
You use floating point math all the time in GPU Programming...

i.e.

float sunburst = 12.78 (Float Variable)
int sunburst = -12 (Integer Variable can be pos or neg)
uint sunburst = 12 (Unsigned Integer Variable can be neg only)

Then you have 32 and 64 bits of both...

But has nothing to do with CPU or GPU !

[25ghosts]

Originally Posted by darbyclash34

hey devs and everyone,

i was wondering if pro tools 10 uses opencl and if not will pro tools 11? I'm trying to figure out if you get more processing power with a higher end graphics card or if this has no real impact if you're not working with video.

Thanks,

shawn

no !

[darbyclash34]

Cool. That answers the question. And yeah, I suppose the latency issue would present a problem. Thanks.

[25ghosts]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I do not know, but I also do not think so. PT already uses CPU and DSP so adding GPU would make things rather complicated.

AFAIK PT uses the GPU a lot. For drawing and moving stuff. Meters etc.. That I think is OpenGL... Which is a LOT faster than doing it on the CPU.

If AVID were to utilize OpenCL it would immediately void any need of purchasing an HDx card. So I can fully understand why they dont ;-)

Aside from that - the HDx cards guarantees DSP Power - with OpenCL you;ll have to fight for it, if lots are using !

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by 25ghosts

AFAIK PT uses the GPU a lot. For drawing and moving stuff. Meters etc.. That I think is OpenGL...

Yep, but OpenCL is different. It means you could drop normal calculations for GPU to process