Install and configure your Astro Photography PC for PixInsight GPU acceleration

In this video I will show you how to install and configure PixInsight for maximum performance in Astro Photography image processing using the CPU and GPU. I will include step by step instructions for how to enable GPU acceleration in PixInsight and I will run a series of tests to compare image processing speeds between my 12-year-old laptop and my newly built Astro Photography PC. I will also compare processing speeds between using the CPU only and the GPU only.
As promised in the video, I have included the PixInsight repositories that I use:
www.rc-astro.com/BlurXTermina...
www.rc-astro.com/NoiseXTermin...
www.rc-astro.com/StarXTermina...
www.skypixels.at/HVB_Repository/
foraxxpaletteutility.com/FPU/
www.ghsastro.co.uk/updates/
www.cosmicphotons.com/pi-modu...
www.cosmicphotons.com/pi-scri...
www.ideviceapps.de/PixInsight...
www.rc-astro.com/TensorFlow/P...
This video is part 2 of a 2-part video series of building, installing and configuring your own Astro Photography PC for image processing. If you missed part 1, don’t forget to check that out.
If you would like to support me on my journey into photographing the stars and deep sky objects, you can donate using: www.buymeacoffee.com/FrosthAstro
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[@francisgeorge5409]

Many thanks for this excellent tutorial. I like your delivery and methodical approach! Two questions : 1. Does this CUDA set of software allow Pixinsight to run StarNet2 ? I currently use Starnet2 instead of StarExterminator. 2. My PC build currently already runs GPU acceleration with similar file additions and CUDA install etc. But the CUDA install is 2 years old and now does not work with PI 1.8.9-2 latest release. So....do I need to uninstall my current legacy GPU acceleration changes before I try your PI GPU acceleration install? Or can I just install your process over the top (hopefully 😊)? Thanks for your opinion. Much appreciated.

[@frosthastrophotography]

Thank you so much for watching! I don't think it works with anything else than Russel Croman apps. You can just install over, and try the repository first, that might fix everything now.

[@francisgeorge5409]

@@frosthastrophotography Many thanks. I will try that. Go well in the lighter nights.

[@xnistx4002]

WOW! Incredible speeds! But I didn't understand what you meant by 8189 by 5527 images, and from what I saw, I think you have stacked images, because I would really know how many images you have stacked with this new PC build, in order for me to get a decent spec for my new PC build that I have been trying to do

[@frosthastrophotography]

The nummers is the resolution of the image. I can run image registration and integration if you want, and report processing times for you.

[@frosthastrophotography]

I just stacked 89 light frames and that took 1 minute and 11 seconds, so blazing fast.

[@frosthastrophotography]

I also tried star alignment on 196 light frames including drizzle file generation and that took 6 minutes and 11 seconds.

[@xnistx4002]

WHAAATT That is the resolution of the image, what camera did you use??@@frosthastrophotography

[@xnistx4002]

Finally, That's what I want, the number of light frames used to stack using star alignment, but I don't use drizzle file generation because I don't have Pixinsght, and instead I use Deep Sky Stacker, so maybe if you could take a couple frames like around 600 frames of the andromeda galaxy and then stacked them together with star alignment using Deep Sky Stacker (if you would like to use Deep Sky Stacker), and then use a stopwatch to mesure the time it takes to stack these light frames, It would help me a lot if you do it :)@@frosthastrophotography

[@the.Potocky]

these are my data from a year ago. Regards StarXTerminator: Processing view: masterLight_BIN_1_9576x6388_EXPOSURE_300_00s_FILTER_O_mono_drizzle_1x_integration Initializing... RC-Astro StarXTerminator version 2.2.0, AI version 11 Processing: done Generating unscreened stars image Copying astrometric solution to stars image 16.864 s

[@frosthastrophotography]

Nice! What graphics card do you use for that?

[@the.Potocky]

@@frosthastrophotography RTX4080