Video Cards for Adobe Premiere CS5
How to Unlock Adobe Premiere CS5 to use almost any NVIDIA graphics card with CUDA acceleration.
Updated on 09/02/10

Copyright 2010, Studio 1 Productions, Written by David Knarr
FAQ section at the bottom of this page.

NOTE:  On 09/02/10 Adobe released Premiere CS5 update version 5.02 to fix several bugs. 
I recommend downloading this latest version before unlocking the video card. 

If you already have your video card unlocked and you have downloaded the 5.02 update, you will have to go back and unlock the card again following steps 1 through 19.  This is because version 5.02 adds support for a few more video cards by replacing the cuda_supported_cards.txt file.   

Adobe Premiere CS5 was release with the new Mercury Playback Engine (MPE) that can use a video card’s GPU to accelerate playback, effects and rendering.  Adobe has only “certified” a few of the high end video cards from NVIDIA. (See Note 4 at the end of this article, About Adobe's Certified Video Cards)

When you install Premiere CS5 and it doesn‘t find one of the “certified“ video cards, the Mercury Playback Engine is set to run in “software mode”, using only the computer’s CPU and not the video card’s GPU.

However, there is a way to unlock Premiere CS5 so the Mercury Playback Engine can use the GPU on virtually any of the newer NVIDIA video card. This way you don’t have to spend $500 to $1500 on a “certified“ video card.

Whether you already have an NVIDIA video card or you are planning on buying one, there are a few important things you need to know about before you unlock the NVIDIA video card.

1) This unlock ONLY works with NVIDIA graphics cards. (aka. Video cards)
2) The video card must have 896 meg of ram or more. Most video cards come with 512K, 1GB or more. Go with a 1GB card or higher card.
3) Different NVIDIA video cards has different numbers of CUDA cores.
NOTE: Each NVIDIA GPU has a certain number of CUDA cores, which is the computing engine in the NVIDIA GPU.  Generally, the more CUDA cores the better the performance
4) Video cards have certain power requirement.
5) Depending on your CPU, you may not need or want a video card with a lot of CUDA cores.
6) You should use a video card with extra cooling features - This is VERY important since the GPU will run hot when used by the Mercury Playback Engine.  Most of this article is dedicated to this subject.  We will show you what to look for in a video card for cooling and if you already have a video card, what you can do to keep it cool.
7) FAQ section at the bottom of this page.

Now let's go over each one of these things in detail.

Number 1
If you want the Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere CS5 to use the video card's GPU for accelerated playback, effects and rendering, you will need an NVIDIA video card.  Preferably one of the newer NVIDIA cards.

The decoding of video footage is still handled by the CPU and not the GPU. So if you are using heavily compressed video, you will still need a fast processor, since the video card won’t help with the decoding of the video. Also, keep in mind, that if you use a non-Mercury Playback Engine enabled plug-in or effect the GPU on the video card won’t help you.

Number 2

The Mercury Playback Engine requires the NVIDIA video card to have at least 896 megs memory or more.  Anything less, the Mercury Playback Engine and the unlock will NOT work.  I recommend at least 1 gig or higher of video memory.

Video cards come with different types of memory, such as DDR2, DDR3, and DDR5 type of memory.  When you are selecting a video card, try to get one with DDR5 memory as it has 50% more bandwidth than DDR3 memory.  Since not all video cards come with the DDR5 memory then the next choice would be to get a video card with DDR3 memory.  However, I strongly recommend a video card with a minimum of 1 gig of DDR5 memory.

DO NOT get a video card with DDR2 memory.  It is not as fast as DDR3 and DDR5 memory and the DDR2 memory can cause performance problems with the Mercury Playback Engine.  When we tested various video cards here at Studio 1 Productions we did run into some performance problems with the Mercury Playback Engine with a couple of video cards that had DDR2 memory.

Number 3

Each NVIDIA GPU has a certain number of CUDA cores, which is the computing engine in the NVIDIA GPU.  Below is a list of NVIDIA video cards and the number of CUDA cores that each video card offers. (Note: the more CUDA cores the larger the power supply will have to be, we will cover that next)

(For an  idea on video card price, see note 2 at the bottom of this article)

 **NOTE:  The power supply requirements listed above are based on NVidia's web site recommendations.  PLEASE check with the manufacture of the video card you plan on purchasing to see what their power supply requirements are.

When you set out to buy a NVIDIA video card, I recommend that you buy one with at least 96 CUDA cores and again with DDR3 or DDR5 memory for performance reasons.  Although, you can use one with less CUDA cores, depending on the CPU in your computer, you may or may not see any performance gains over using the Mercury Playback Engine in the software mode.  We will cover more on this under Number 5 below.

Number 4

The Power Supply - Before you run out and buy a NVIDIA video card, you need to know how big your power supply is in watts. So open your computer, if you are comfortable doing that, otherwise, find someone who is.

Look on the label on the power supply for the number of watts it is rated. It may say something like 300 watts, 450 watts or higher.

Once you know the watts, then you can select a video card that will work with your power supply. Remember, different video cards will require that you have a minimum number of watts power supply.

For example, the NVIDIA GeForce GT240 will work fine with a 300 watt power supply. But, the GeForce GT285 will require a minimum of a 550 watt power supply.

This is why you need to know your computer’s power supply size before you run out and buy a video card. You don’t want to use a video card that your power supply can’t handle.  For example, if you decide you really want a GeForce GT285 video card and you only have a 300 watt power supply, then you will need to upgrade your computer’s power supply.

A lot of the computers you buy in a retail store (not custom built computers) will have a 300 watt power supply.  So if you don’t want to bother upgrading your power supply, then make sure you stick with the NVIDIA GeForce GT240 video card with 1 Gig of DDR5 video memory.  This video card works great in systems with 300 watt power supplies and work fine with the Mercury Playback Engine.

In the chart above, we list a minimum power supply size needed for the each video card.  This list above are based on NVidia's web site recommendations.  We had some one email us about the MSI N240GT (GT 240) video card with 1 GB of DDR5 memory and that the MSI box says it requires a 350 watt power supply.  So why does our chart list a 300 watt power supply?

Okay, if you look at the MSI box for the GT240 with DDR5 memory, it does say they recommend a minimum of 350 watt power supply.  But, when you open up the installation guide it says the minimum power supply is 500 watts based on a PC configured with an Intel Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor.   Wait a minute, the list above says 300 watts.  Okay so what is going on here?

According to MSI, the main group of people who buy higher performance video cards are people who use the computer to play games. The GT 240 card falls into this category and the GT 240 card with 1GB of DDR5 memory is capable of being overclocked.  So they recommend 350 watts if you are a gamer and are going to overclock the video card.  If you won't be overclocking the card and you really don't need to for video editing, MSI said you will be fine with a 300 watt power supply.

If you are running a quad core system, such as one with the Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor, you will have a larger power supply than 300 watts any way and most likely it will be 450 to 500 watts or larger.  This is why their installation guide recommends a 500 watt power supply.  The more powerful the CPU, the larger power supply your computer will have, since the CPU pulls quite a bit of power in watts.  For example, the quad core Qx9650 processor pulls around 65 watts and the I7-930 processor pulls 130 watts.

Also, I was informed by several video card manufacturers that they put a higher minimum power supply requirement on their video cards, since they don't know what other devices or the number of hard drives you have in your computer.  They way, they will be on the safe side.

Currently, two of our computes are HP a1630n stock systems, with AMD Athlon 64 5200+ processors.  These systems have stock 300 watt power supplies.  Each system has two hard drives, 6 gig of ram, a MSI GT 240 1GB DDR5 memory video card and each system has a AzenX Blitztorm cooler.  And, they run just fine with the GT 240 card with a 300 watt power supply.  Yes, we are running Premiere CS5 on these systems.  For more information about these two computers, see the FAQ section at the end of the article.

Number 5

Some of you may think, “I will go with the GTX285 since it has a lot of CUDA cores and I have a big enough power supply“. You want a very  powerful video card, rght?

Well not necessarily. What type of CPU do you have? Is it a dual core or quad core? What is the processor speed? These are things you should know before spending money on a video card.

You don’t want to buy a GTX285 or any of the GTX400 series video cards and put it in a dual core system. This will be overkill as the GPU on the video card will spend most of it’s time just waiting on the CPU. If you have a dual core system, one of the lower end cards, such as the GT240, GTS250 or GTX260 will be fine.

If you have a quad core system and your power supply can handle it, then your okay to go with one of the higher end cards, if it is in your budget.

Whether your running a dual core or quad core system, again I don’t recommend any video card with less than 96 CUDA cores. So don’t bother with the 9400GT, 9500GT, 9600GT or the GT220, they just don’t seem to have enough power to be useful to the Mercury Playback Engine on most systems.

One of the systems we tested here at Studio 1 Productions, had an AMD Quad Core processor running 2.9 Ghz.  We didn't get a whole lot of increased performance with the Mercury Playback Engine between the GT260 and a GT280, even though the GT280 had more CUDA cores.  The reason was, the GPU on the video card was out pacing the CPU.

However, when we tried these same two video cards on another system that was running an AMD X6 (6 core processor) at 3.2 Ghz, we saw a large increase in performance with the GT280 over the GT260.

NOTE:  Currently Adobe does not utilize all the CUDA cores on the GTX 400 series video cards.  However, this does NOT mean that you shouldn't buy a GTX 400 series video card.  Let me explain.   Right now, you will see little performance difference between the GTX460, GTX465, GTX470 and GTX480 even though they offer a different amount of CUDA cores.  Adobe will be releasing an update soon that will provide better support for the GTX400 series cards with the Mercury Playback Engine.

Right now, performance wise the GTX460, GTX465, GTX470 and the GTX480 is about equal to the GTX285, even thought the GTX400 series cards have more cores and a wider memory bus over the 285.

For the money, you can't go wrong with the GTX 460 if your power supply can support it.  The GTX460 with 1 Gb  of DDR5 memory is running around $230.  This is a great buy.

Number 6

Video cards generate a lot of heat, especially when the GPU is in high use, such as when you are editing with Adobe Premiere CS5 with the Mercury Playback engine set to Hardware.

In order to get the best performance from your video card, you need to make sure it is not over heating.  If over heating occurs, you will have playback problem and rendering performance problems with the Mercury Playback Engine.  This is a reason why Adobe only "certified" certain high end video cards.

If you don't have any way to monitor you CPU and GPU temperatures, click here for an article I wrote on monitoring your computer's temperatures and a source for free temperature monitoring software.

Even if you already have a video card, please keep reading, there are things you are going to want to know about your video card.  In addition, we will show you how to keep your existing video card cooler, thus performing better.

If you haven't bought a NVIDIA video card yet, we are going to show you what you should look for for the best cooling options for a video card.

Please note, there are several manufacturer's of video cards that use the NVIDIA chipset and these manufacturer's will make several models of the video card using the same chipset.  Below you will see photos of video cards from MSI, these are simply the video cards we use here at Studio 1 Productions.

As you can see we have two NVIDIA GT 240 video cards made by MSI.  Look at the difference.  The one on the left is a standard version of the GT 240 that uses DDR3 memory and it has a smaller fan.  The one on the right is a higher version of the card that offers a bigger fan for better cooling and DDR5 memory for better performance.

The one on the left will do an okay job for the average user.  However, as a video editor using Adobe Premiere CS5, you are NOT an average user, thus you will need the style on the right.  The larger fan will keep with video card cool during while you are editing, so the card won't over heat and cause playback and performance problems.

Let's say you already have a video card with a small fan, like the one on the left.  What can you do?  Just keep reading, we will cover that a little later.

Now lets look at a few more video cards.

Above is the NVIDIA GTS 250 video cards, both made by MSI.  Again, the one on the left has a standard fan for cooling.  But, look at the video card on the right.  This is a GTS 250 also made by MSI, but this card is a higher end version that features Dual Fans and Heat Pipes.  This card is also for over clocking, which means, with some software you can push the card to run faster.  I don't recommend over clocking the card as sometimes this will cause stability problems.

I do, however, highly recommend a video card with dual fans and heat pipes.  The heat pipes help to dissipate the heat from the card.

Above is a picture of the air flow on a dual fan card with heat pipes.  The air is sucked into the fan and then blown out the front, back and around all the edges of the video card.  This allows the heat to dissipate easily.

With this model video card, the one on the left again has only a single fan, while the one of the right has dual fans and the heat pipes.  Notice the one on the left the card is pretty much enclosed.  Which means the fan has to blow the hot air out front and back.  And some video card manufacturers will only have the air vented out the back, which may not give you the best cooling.

The one on the right is like the picture shown above, where the heat can be blown out in all directions.  This is a much better choice.

Lets look at one more video card.

Once again, even on a higher end video card such as the GTX 470, they come in a standard model as shown on the left and a better cooled card as shown on the right.   And again, the card on the left is enclosed with only one fan trying to keep it cool.  While the one on the right has two fans, with heat pipes and the air can be blown out all sides.  These better cooled cards are what most games buy since they can be overclocked and what video editors should buy.

Now I am NOT saying the standard video cards won't work for editing with Adobe Premiere CS5, they will.  Some of them will run on the hot side when using the Mercury Playback Engine and MAY cause the video to stutter during playback or it MAY cause the rendering to slow down. 

So if you haven't purchased a video card yet, make sure you purchase one that is like the ones on the right side, with two or more cooling fans and heat pipes.  This will give you a better editing performance because the video card will run cooler.

TECH NOTE: With ANY video card, it is best to leave 1 slot open between the video card fans and the next card below it.  This will allow for better air flow and better cooling.


Cooling your Existing Video Card

If you have an existing video card that is not enclosed, like the GT 240 and GTS 250 shown above on the LEFT side, you can add a slot fan to your computer to help keep the video card cooler.  Below is the one we use here at Studio 1 Productions.

This slot fan has a 70mm fan and a 70mm exhaust blower.  The way it works is, you blow air onto the video card and the exhaust blower will suck the warm air from the card out the back of the computer.  When I first saw this I was skeptical that it would really work.  So I bought one and ran some tests.

With the system sitting idle for about 2 hours the video card temps would be around 40c.  With the AzenX Blitztorm cooler (shown above) installed the temps dropped to 28c to 31c.

While editing with Premiere CS5 for about 2 hours, the temps would be around 48 to 54c.  Once we put in the AzenX Blitztorm cooler, after editing for about 2 hours, the temps were now around 36c to 40c.  So it really does work.

Here is a picture of this slot cooler in one of our systems here at Studio 1 Productions:

1.  The air blows up and on to the video card.  With the warm air being moved towards the exhaust blower.
2.  The warm air from the video card is then exhausted out the back of the computer via the blower.

There are other models of slot coolers, that have two fans that will blow air onto the video card, then the warm air will get pulled out by the computers case fan.  These do a good job also, but I didn't like the idea of the heated air from the video card staying in the computer case and having to be pulled out of the top of the case by the case fan.

Another type of slot cooler is the exhaust blowers.  We tried the exhaust blowers, like shown below:

They do move some air out of the computers case, but they didn't do much for cooling down the video card temps and they tend to be noisy.  So I can't recommend them.

I recommend the AzenX Blitztorm BT-SC70BBL PCI Slot Case Cooler since it has the fan and blower combination.  They are not expensive, the are in the $20 to $25 price range. One nice thing about the AzenX Blitztorm cooler is, you can also adjust the speeds of the fans.  We have ousr turned up about 1/2 way and this gives us good cooling while keeping the fan noise down to where you can't hear the fans.  The fan on the AzenX Blitztorm can be tilted so you can position the direction you want the air to blow.  When you first get one, the fan is set to blow away from the video card.  Simply swing the fan around until it is blowing towards the video card.  We have tried our where it is blowing straight up at the card and where it was blowing more towards the back of the computer where the exhaust blower is.  We didn't notice any difference in the temps of the video card with it blowing the air towards the exhaust blower.  So we left it just blowing straight up on to the video card.

If you choose the AzenX Blitztorm or a slot cooler with 2 fans, when you put it the computer, keep at least 1 slot open between the video card and the slot cooler.  This will allow for better air flow and better cooling.

What if you have a video card that is enclosed like the GTX 260 and the GTX 470 videos that were shown above, on the Left Side?

As I stated earlier, they MAY work just fine as they are.  However, you MAY have some performance problems such as the video stuttering during playback if the video card is having a hard time keeping cool.  If you already have a standard type video card and you are not having any problems, that's great.

However, if you do experience any performance problems, then you can replace the stock fan and cooling system with an after market cooling system, like shown below:

These do a fantastic job at keeping the video card cool.  However, I must say if you are not a computer techie, DO NOT try installing it yourself.  Call a computer store or find a computer tech who has installed an aftermarket cooler before and let them do it so you don't screw up anything.

Also, once you install an aftermarket cooler on the video card, it will void your video card's warranty since you have "modified" the video card.  But, this may not really matter to some people.

Video Card Drivers.

Before you install your new NVIDIA video card, you should remove the old video drivers that you were using.  On Windows 7 go into the Control Panel and select Programs and Features.  Scroll down the list of programs and remove the video driver that you are currently running.

Then power down the computer and install the new NVIDIA video card.  Once that is done, power up the computer.

DO NOT use the video card drivers that come with your video card. Instead go to the NVIDIA website and down load the latest drivers for your video card.

At the time of this writing the latest drivers are 258.96 WHQL

DO NOT use any driver below the 197.45 WHQL.  NVIDIA had some problems with earlier drivers regulating the fan speed on the video card, thus causing it to overheat.  The 197.45 WHQL and higher are okay.

NOTE:  Most people are using the 258.96 WHQL drivers with no problem.

DO NOT down load any Beta drivers.  They may not be stable.  Only download the WHQL drivers.

(We had some problems at first with the new 257.21 WHQL driver on a couple of our systems here at Studio 1 Productions, while other systems worked just fine.  After uninstalling and reinstalling the 257.21 WHQL drivers on the systems we had problems with, everything is now working fine with Premiere CS5.)

We are now running the 258.96 WHQL drivers without any problems.

Once you install the drivers you must Reboot your computer.

If you lose the on board sound in your computer, then scroll down to the bottom of this article for the FAQ section on how to fix it.

Now how to Unlock your NVIDIA Card for Premiere CS5

NOTE:  On 09/02/10 Adobe released Premiere CS5 version 5.02.  I recommend downloading this latest version before unlocking the video card.  If you choose to download 5.02 later, you will have to go back and unlock the card again following steps 1 through 19.  This is because version 5.02 adds support for a few more video cards by replacing the cuda_supported_cards.txt file.  

Here are the steps:

1. Go to All Programs, then Accessories.

2. RIGHT click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator

3. Type cd \ it will give you a C:\> Prompt.

4. Type in cd \Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
    It will give you a C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro> Prompt

5. Type in  GPUSniffer.exe  Press enter and wait a few seconds

You should see something like this: (Note the lines I have highlighted in red)

Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896
Device: 00000000001D4208 has video RAM(MB): 896
Vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
Renderer string: GeForce GTX 295/PCI/SSE2 < --------- Look for the card type
Version string: 3.0.0

OpenGL version as determined by Extensionator...
OpenGL Version 2.0
Supports shaders!
Supports BGRA -> BGRA Shader
Supports VUYA Shader -> BGRA
Supports UYVY/YUYV ->BGRA Shader
Supports YUV 4:2:0 -> BGRA Shader
Testing for CUDA support...
Found 2 devices supporting CUDA.
CUDA Device # 0 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3
Total Video Memory: 877MB
CUDA Device # 1 properties -
CUDA device details:
Name: GeForce GTX 295 Compute capability: 1.3
Total Video Memory: 877MB < ---- Look for the total video memory
CUDA Device # 0 not chosen because it did not match the named list of cards  <---See Below
Completed shader test!
Internal return value: 7

If you look at the 3 rd from the bottom it says the CUDA device is not chosen because it's not in the named list of card. That's fine. Let's add it.

6. Next, click on the Start icon in the bottom left corner of Windows 7.

7. Then click on All Programs and then click on the Accessories folder.

8. Look in the Accessories folder for Notepad and RIGHT click Notepad

9. The left click on Run as Administrator

10. Once Notepad opens up, click on File and then Open

11. Navigate to the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 folder

12. Find the file: cuda_supported_cards.txt then click on it to select the file, then click Open

13. You will see a list of cards

14. Go to the end of the list and add your video card.   For Example, above it listed the video card as:

     Renderer string: GeForce GTX 295/PCI/SSE2

15. Now just add the name of the card between the “Renderer string:” and the forward slash “/” to the cuda_supported_cards.txt file.

     Using the example above, you would add GeForce GTX 295 to the file.  Make sure you enter your video card correctly.  It IS case
     sensitive.

16. Click on File and click Save.  Then exit Notepad.

17. In the window that has the GPUSniffer program, type in GPUSniffer.exe again and press enter and wait a few seconds.

18. Look to see your video card is listed and how much memory it is showing.

19. If everything is correct, type in Exit at the command prompt. Otherwise, go back to step 6 and make sure you have the name of the card entered correctly.

20. Now RIGHT click your mouse on the Desktop.

21. Select the Nvidia Control Panel

22. On the top left side, click on Manage 3D Settings

23. Then click on Program Settings

24. There is a drop down box next to the “Add” button. Click on the drop down box and look for Adobe Premiere CS5 (adobe premiere pro.exe) and select that.

NOTE: On some systems it might say Adobe Premiere CS4 (adobe premiere pro.exe) that is fine you can select that to.

NOTE: You can also click the “Add” button and go to the Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 folder and select the
executable file: "Adobe Premiere Pro.exe"

25. Next, you will see a list of Feature and Settings.

26. Go to the "Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration" option and under settings switch it from "Multiple display performance mode" to "Compatibility performance mode"

27. Then Click Apply and Exit.

28. Startup Premiere CS5 and open or create a Project.

29. Then a the top of the screen select Project, then select Project Setting and select General

30. Look under Rendering and Playback at the bottom of the window, it will say:

Renderer: Mercury Playback Engine Software Only.

Simply change it for Mercury Playback Engine GPU Hardware and you are done.

Remember, if you are not running Premiere CS5 version 5.02 when you unlock the video card, you will need to go back and unlock your video card again once you update to 5.02.

FAQ section at the bottom of this page.

Note 1

At Studio 1 Productions have tested unlocking the following cards, so far:

GT 220, GT 240, GTX 250, GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 285, GTX295, 9400GT, 9500 GT, 9600 GT, 9800 GT, GTX460, GTX470 and GTX480

We tried the 9400 GT, while it worked, we saw no difference between running the Mercury Playback Engine in software or hardware mode.  It simply doesn't have enough CUDA cores to be helpful on our test systems.

Note 2

Below is a list of NVIDIA cards and their average price range depending on the brand of card and the features they offer.  All cards are have
1 GB of memory unless otherwise noted.  This is just to give the readers an idea of the prices of the various NVIDIA card on 8/17/10.

Note 3

The tip or trick or hack, what ever you want to call it, on modifying Adobe Premiere CS5 is know around the web. Studio 1 Productions, Inc will not be responsible for any damage you may cause your computer or software.

Studio 1 Productions has tried this modification on 8 of our in house systems and it is working with no problems.  We have tested several NVIDIA video cards using this unlock procedure and it has worked fine on all of them.

Please understand, do to all of the various computer configurations (ie. amount of RAM, hard drive speeds, type of video card, the type of RAM on the video card, the CPU type, the speed of the CPU, etc. ) your performance results will naturally vary from others.  This is not due to Premiere CS5, but do to the way your computer is configured.

Note 4

Unlocking the NVIDIA video card will not make it "certified" in the eyes of Adobe.  Adobe would like you to use a "certified" NVIDIA video card, because these are the ones they have put through rigorous testing with Premiere CS5.

Adobe recommends the GeForce GTX 285, Quadro 3800, Quadro 4800, Quadro 5800 and the Quadro CX for Premiere CS5 versions 5.0 and 5.01

On 09/02/10 Adobe released an update to Premiere CS5.  This now makes the latest version 5.02  This update correct various bugs and added the GTX 470, Quadro 4000, and Quadro 5000 video cards to the supported list.  They simply updated the cuda_supported_cards.txt file by adding these new cards.

There are a countless number of users out there that are using this unlock technique on their NVIDIA cards with no problems at all. 

Mercury Playback Hack Premiere CS5

Frequently Asked Questions

I updated to Premiere CS5 version 5.02 and now it is running the Mercury Playback Engine in software mode.
Simply go back to the unlock produre above and redo step 1 to 19.  Now your video card will be unlocked again.  When you updated to 5.02 the update installed a new cuda_supported_cards.txt file.  So all you have to do is add your video card back into the list.

After I installed a GT240 Video Card and the latest drivers I lost the sound from my computer.
We had the same thing happen here with a couple of our computers.  All you need to do in boot you computer up and enter the Setup program for the BIOS.  Look for an entry for the On Board Sound.  Ours was set to Auto. You need to change it to Enable.  Save and exit out of the BIOS setup.  Let your computer boot up and your sound will now be back.


I found GPUsniffer in some other Adobe folders.  Does this mean that other Adobe programs are using the CUDA cores?
No, at least not at this time.  GPUsniffer is used in certain other Adobe programs to check the OpenGL version and the total video memory.


I am having a hard time finding a GTX 285 video card.
This video card is End of Life.  If you are looking at the GTX 285, you should look at one of the GTX400 series video cards.


What is a Fermi video card and are they supported by Premiere CS5?
The Fermi video cards are the GTX 460, GTX465, GTX470 and GTX480.  They are more powerful, they offer many more cores, they have a larger memory bus and higher clock speeds.  As the Mercury Playback Engine matures with updates from Adobe, you will be able to use all of the power of these video cards.  Right now, they all perform similar to the GTX285 video card.


With the GTX 460, GTX465, GTX470 and GTX480 do I need to use the above unlock procedure (or hack) to make them work with Adobe Premiere CS5?
Yes, at this time you will need to follow the instructions above to unlock the cards. And, yes, they work great with the modification.


Can I run Adobe Premiere CS5 on a Dual Core computer?
Yes, but....  We have Premiere CS5 running on a couple of AMD Athlon 64 5200+ systems.  Both of these systems have a clock speed of 2.7Ghz and have 6 gigs of memory.  These are both HP a1630n stock computers.  Now HP specs say you can only run 4 gigs of memory, but we have 2 slots with 1 gig each and 2 slots with 2 gigs each for a total of 6 gigs.  The computer BIOS recognizes the 6 gigs and so does all of our other programs.

Both of these systems are running a standard 300 watt power supply, so we are running GT 240 video cards with 1 gig of DDR5 video memory in each of these systems with the unlock procedure.  We are able to run a two 17mb AVCHD video tracks and a 3rd track with titles with no real problems with the time line at about 60 minutes in length. .  If we run more than two 17 mb AVCHD tracks or if we run two 24mb AVCHD video tracks with the 3rd title track, we do start to bog down.  These two systems are running Windows 7 Home Edition and Adobe Premiere CS5.  That's it.  There is NO other programs running in background such a Anti-Virus, CD/DVD creation software or other utilities.

Here is the but...  On these two systems we are generally working with one or two tracks of AVCHD at 17 mbs or HD Quicktime Photo JPG video or DV AVI and we are not having any problems.  Now, since everyone uses different codecs with different bit rates, performance will vary greatly from user to user.

I have read on the Internet different peoples opinions and/or experiences on running Premiere CS5 on a Dual Core system.  As you can guess the comments range from "it can't be done" to "it works great".  A lot depends on your expectations of speed and performance, along with the video format your are working with.

With that said, I really do recommend using a quad core for better performance if you can afford to upgrade.


We had some one email us about the MSI N240GT (GT 240) video card with 1 GB of DDR5 memory and that the MSI box says it requires a 350 watt power supply.  So why does our chart list a 300 watt power supply?
Okay, if you look at the MSI box for the GT240 with DDR5 memory, it does say they recommend a minimum of 350 watt power supply.  But, when you open up the installation guide it says the minimum power supply is 500 watts based on a PC configured with an Intel Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor.   Wait a minute, the list above says 300 watts.  Okay so what is going on here?

According to MSI, the main group of people who buy higher performance video cards are people who use the computer to play games. The GT 240 card falls into this category and the GT 240 card with 1GB of DDR5 memory is capable of being overclocked.  So they recommend 350 watts if you are a gamer and are going to overclock the video card.  If you won't be overclocking the card and you really don't need to for video editing, MSI said you will be fine with a 300 watt power supply.

If you are running a quad core system, such as one with the Core2Extreme Qx9650 processor, you will have a larger power supply than 300 watts any way and most likely it will be 450 to 500 watts or larger.  This is why their installation guide recommends a 500 watt power supply.  The more powerful the CPU, the larger power supply your computer will have, since the CPU pulls quite a bit of power in watts.  For example, the quad core Qx9650 processor pulls around 65 watts and the I7-930 processor pulls 130 watts.

Also, I was informed by several video card manufacturers that they put a higher minimum power supply requirement on their video cards, since they don't know what other devices or the number of hard drives you have in your computer.  They way, they will be on the safe side.

Currently, two of our computes are HP a1630n stock systems, with AMD Athlon 64 5200+ processors.  These systems have stock 300 watt power supplies.  Each system has two hard drives, 6 gig of ram, a MSI GT 240 1GB DDR5 memory video card and each system has a AzenX Blitztorm cooler.  And, they run just fine with the GT 240 card with a 300 watt power supply.  Yes, we are running Premiere CS5 on these systems.

Will Adobe block this unlock procedure in the future?
Adobe engineers have said publicly on the Adobe forums, that they will not block the hack. The reason is, this is how THEY need to additional support for new cards and according to them, they will be in the future. They didn't hard code the video card list into Premiere CS5, the simply have it in a text file. This allows Adobe to add new supported cards easily, without having to rewrite and recompile the code for Premiere CS5.