If your computer has the Nvidia GeForce 310M video card, you may be missing the required 'GTX' technology available in other more recent Nvidia cards as you say in your original post. Otherwise, I would say for the price, Version 12 Platinum is worth it. Although I've had some 'minor' technical problems Those problems I expect I can solve. There have been a few people posting concerns on this forum, but, I suspect they're not so much the application's problems for the most part.

With the 64 bit capacity alone, Move Studio 12 is a big improvement from the 32 bit editions for me. I haven't personally seen a huge impact on rendering times - but most of my video work is limited to five minute or less projects. But, when working on a my projects everything 'seems to be' responding better and somewhat faster on my system and I suspect you'll see even better performance on yours.

The ability to use 20 video tracks as opposed to 10 is for me well worth it based on my workflow. The extra music clips packaged with the application are also a nice selling point. There are eight genres ranging from Country to World with two or three melodies and four durations for those melodies - so a total of 34 clips.

I didn't download the NewBlueFX 3D Titling and Video effects, has I have had nothing but troubles with them from day one. I didn't download the included Magic Bullet Quick Looks either, but I don't really need them. The DVD Architect version (5.0) inlcuded is okay, but doesn't add a lot to previous versions if you already have one.

It's a little tricky to compare versions on the SONY comparison table as they list Version 11 regular and not the Version 11 Platinum...which is odd...but, whatever.

Overall, I think for the price - upgrade price or full package - Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 12 is a good buy. But for everyone, triple check you meet the video card requirements. That's just my advice to anyone thinking of purchasing it, as I think this has been a sticking point for lots of people with older or lesser systems. Some older cards can be made to work by updating their driver - as long as they meet the other requirements:

"Supported NVIDIA or AMD GPU:

Requires a CUDA-enabled GPU and driver 270.xx or later.

AMD / ATI:

Requires an OpenCL-enabled GPU and Catalyst driver 11.7 or later with a Radeon HD 57xx or higher GPU."

Seeing you have a win 7 64 bit and 8 GB of ram with 12 you can get the 64 bit version. That way it can make use of your 8 GB of ram.

eric,
does your Lenovo laptop accept nVidia drivers other than those from/through Lenovo and are they updated? I remember somebody complaining about that. I have a measly i3 laptop with an nVidia GT320M, which is about the same level as yours I think. With the drivers meeting the requirements listed, the GPU acc. shows in my Prefs. (VP11 and MSP12)

VKmast.....I checked the driver, and it's an older one (from 2010 I think). The Lenovo website says that's the latest driver, but I believe when I look in device manager Windows tells me there's a newer driver. I need to get a little courage up (I've had bad luck with these things in the past), then I'll attempt a driver update. Thanks!

I suggest you go right to the Nvidia site - it works great:

http://www.geforce.com/drivers

DocSatori-thanks for the link. General question...the Lenovo site says there's no new driver but the nVidia site has updated driver. Is it usually safe to install the driver from nVidia when the computer manufacturer doesn't list it as an available download?

eric,
my laptop manufacturer also lists only an about two-year old driver version on their site. I'm using the version 301.42 WHQL driver with no problems. A different brand though.

In reply to the original question - yes, for me the upgrade to 64bit version 12 on my W7 machine was definitely worth it. Rendering has become blisteringly fast in comparison to what it was like with the 32bit eleven version.

BoyAtlantis....that was my impression from using the trial version as well. Are you utilizing GPU acceleration also, or is the boost you're seeing just from the jump to 64 bit?

CUDA, yes. For some strange reason though, and I can't even begin to think why this should be, but I found that rendering a video using 2 pass to be far quicker (by approx 10 minutes or so) that leaving this box unchecked. I rendered the same video twice - an AVCHD file from my Panasonic DMC TZ31 - and discovered this more or less by accident.
I also found that rendering to an Internet HD 1080p file to be quicker by some 15 minutes or so than rendering the file as an Internet HD 720p file.
Original video properties: 1920 x 1080 50p. But like I said, this application now fly's along.

Just FYI....just paid $77.27 for Platinum Suite 12 on Amazon....

So thanks to all...just upgraded the driver via the nVidia website...went without a hitch, and voila, GPU acceleration shows as an option in my trial version of 12. Using this forum has always been a source of great information and help, and it's come through again....Thank You!

"Only upgrade if the new features make it worth the upgrade price."

But what are the new features? It seems pretty much the same.

The MSP 12 Release Notes list the new features.
Up to everybody to personally decide if the new features are worth the upgrade price as always of course. YMMV from mine.

As folks will know (although I didn't), it is MS Win7(32bit), that limits an application to 2Gb RAM . . . .and 64-bit to so much more your MBO will be the limit (and mem-cost).
therfore Vegas Studio 12 can use up much more of available memory, but not all of it, as other Applications may need a share.

Earlier Poster suggested the extra music tracks were worth the v12 upgrade - but I have to say for a World-class music compnay, I thought the Sony royalty-free music was pretty tame, - leave aside the wedding (organ?) stuff and most of the remainder is a small band with a very heavy-handed drummer. This is not what I want on my movies and I think Sony should give us a few "sampler" tracks as Royalty-frees - to encourage users to download (pay-for) more of the same. Try before you buy is a good Marketing tool.
32 tracks more? - does that includes all the shorter-versions?
+ how useful do others find the garage-band stuff?

Not too sure about the memory bit UKharrie although yes, a bit more helps. I had task manager running when rendering my last video and noticed that memory use peaked at 6Gb ( I have quod-core 4 x 4.0GB) whilst GPU acceleration (CUDA) was almost flat out at 98%.

Here are the specs for my video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102877

Running Win 7 64/Intel i7-930 quadcore/12GB ram. Will upgrading to MS 12 64-bit improve my render times? Is my video card sufficient? Currently, VMS 10 is working great, except renders are slowish. Thanks !!!

UKharrie, I never said 'the extra music tracks were worth the v12 upgrade ' - I said a lot of things together could maybe make it worthwhile. I just said the music was a 'nice selling point.' As in a bonus. As in one point of many to consider. You've distorted my words.

And I wrote out the math for those tracks...so your question about if it included the shorter versions is moot.

I'm not editing Hollywood blockbusters and don't expect SONY or their artists to handover top quality tunes for free in whole or in part. I'm willing and able to pay for those.

For people putting together short videos of family events and similar - those tunes make a fine background as far as I'm concerned. They're never going to be able to offer bonus tunes to suit every taste. I still hold to my opinion.

If you plan on quoting me - get it right.

Ericlast, I'm glad you got to the nVidia site and managed to upgrade the driver. I think some other users could resolve some of their video problems with Version 12 by trying the same thing.