4K Video Editing (Upgrade or New Machine)

Splats

Splats

Splats

Associate
Joined
8 Feb 2018
Posts
12
Hi all, I've recently upgraded to a 4K drone (DJI Mavic Air) and want to edit and view my 4K footage in Premier Pro CC. My current rig is as follows and is approximately 8 years old:

Processor: Intel i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz 4-core
Motherboard: EX58-UD3R
RAM: 6GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
O/S Drive: 150GB SSD Drive
Other Drives: 2x 1TB Hard Drives

Following advice here, I bought it on Overclockers in 2009: here is the link. My computer has always been acceptably fast for pretty much everything I do (spreadsheets, office stuff, browsing, etc) and it does OK at editing 1080p footage. Once you apply a few corrections/changes it falls apart if you try to preview the video with the changes applied.

My first question is: can I/should I upgrade this rig (if so, with what) to allow for decent 4K editing capability?

I'm 90% sure the answer to the above is "dream on" and that I'll need to go with a clean slate approach. That being the case, what sort of rig would provide the best bang for the buck? I've not set a budget yet because I honestly don't know what's realistic. I'd prefer not to climb onto the first rung of the 4K ladder only to find a new machine is hopeless in 12 months time. Equally, I'm not interested in bragging rights on the most insanely fast machine either. Middle of the road I guess. I've done a little bit of reading and seen a few articles that seem to corroborate that AMD Ryzen is the way to go in terms of power per £££. I have no beef with that, I've got no strong affiliation to any one manufacturer.

I'll also need a half-decent 4K "middle of the road" monitor as well if anyone feels like taking a stab at the whole package. If not, I'll wander over to the monitors section :D

Thanks guys, you see me good about once a decade on this stuff and I do appreciate it.
 
Whilst premiere does an excellent job of video playback at downscaled resolutions, you'll be getting frustrated with how long it takes to copy large files, render, do any sort of CC etc with your current rig.

Intel is still recommend over Ryzen for the Adobe products. 7820X, 32GB Ram and a 1080 will do you very well. Personally I use an SSD for OS and apps, another for cache and a third large Ion for project files and footage.
 
Just been off reading elsewhere on the forum and note that GPU's and RAM are exceptionally pricey at the moment. Is this something I should consider waiting on (I could hold to the summer I guess)?
 
The more I read the more I think I should wait on upgrading to an all singing all dancing machine. However, I note someone else asking about budget graphics cards and it got me to thinking if I could improve things and possibly scrape into 4K by swapping out the GPU for a cheap 2nd hand unit in my current rig. The problem is, I don't know what to get and what's compatible but I'm thinking along the lines of £40-60 on eBay. Is there a good GPU in that range I should look out for that is compatible with my machine and will run my 2x LG L226WTQ monitors. On that note, those monitors appear to only have DVI and VGA input so I think I'd need a card with dual DVI outputs to run them? If someone can suggest a 4k card that would fit that budget and run in my machine I'd consider ditching the LG's and pulling the trigger on a 4K monitor now. My god, this is all so complicated when you don't know what works with what, etc.
 
You could pick up a 2nd hand 970 and try that out. I use one and it's not bad.

I think mine had dual DVI, or maybe a dvi and an HDMI (you can get adapters/cables that go from hdmi to DVI).
 
Splats said:
Hi all, I've recently upgraded to a 4K drone (DJI Mavic Air) and want to edit and view my 4K footage in Premier Pro CC. My current rig is as follows and is approximately 8 years old:

Processor: Intel i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz 4-core
Motherboard: EX58-UD3R
RAM: 6GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB
O/S Drive: 150GB SSD Drive
Other Drives: 2x 1TB Hard Drives

Following advice here, I bought it on Overclockers in 2009: here is the link. My computer has always been acceptably fast for pretty much everything I do (spreadsheets, office stuff, browsing, etc) and it does OK at editing 1080p footage. Once you apply a few corrections/changes it falls apart if you try to preview the video with the changes applied.

My first question is: can I/should I upgrade this rig (if so, with what) to allow for decent 4K editing capability?

I'm 90% sure the answer to the above is "dream on" and that I'll need to go with a clean slate approach. That being the case, what sort of rig would provide the best bang for the buck? I've not set a budget yet because I honestly don't know what's realistic. I'd prefer not to climb onto the first rung of the 4K ladder only to find a new machine is hopeless in 12 months time. Equally, I'm not interested in bragging rights on the most insanely fast machine either. Middle of the road I guess. I've done a little bit of reading and seen a few articles that seem to corroborate that AMD Ryzen is the way to go in terms of power per £££. I have no beef with that, I've got no strong affiliation to any one manufacturer.

I'll also need a half-decent 4K "middle of the road" monitor as well if anyone feels like taking a stab at the whole package. If not, I'll wander over to the monitors section :D

Thanks guys, you see me good about once a decade on this stuff and I do appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Hi,

How much is your budget?
The answer to your first question is No, you can't upgrade that platform to decent 4K editing capability.

About a 4K monitor, the BenQ BL2711U is the way to go. This monitor is a true piece of art when it comes to professional usage.

There is a neighbour thread with similar title and discussion, please take a look there.



edit: you can try upgrading the processor to i7-990X 6-core/12-thread @3.47 GHz, overclock it as much as you can, and the graphics card to something like GTX 1070 / 1070 Ti / 1080 and see what happens then.
 
Last edited:
CPU wouldn't be well optimised for 4k video editing , as 4k wasn't even out by then and second gen is capable of doing HD rendering but both would be crippled when it comes to Time to Render .....

Even middle ground Ryzen 1600/ B350 board and 8 GB 3000hz ram would out perform your current editing platform.
 
If you are not too bothered about playing games something like a 1050/1050ti would suffice as Adobe was traditionally kind with Nvidia due to CUDA processing speeding up video editing (not sure if it is now) keep your drives then you have got the rest to look at. Problem might be with RAM as rule of video editing is more the better. ie 32gb to aim for 16gb minimum. As said above need a budget.
 
Not fussed at all about playing games, don't have the time. From what I've read, it seems that the limiting factor for editing 4K footage will more likely be the CPU and by the time I change that, the RAM, the GPU, etc I might as well get a whole new machine.

I didn't set a budget as I don't have a feel for what is realistic or not. For example, if I said £1,500 and you all laughed, that would be a pretty clear indication that I need to spend more to get something half decent and, accordingly, I would. However, as previously stated, I do wonder if I'd be better to hold off on this for 6-12 months to see how pricing goes. GPU/RAM feels quick peaky just now based on what some people are saying and while we might not be at the top yet, I wonder if it's worth holding out to see if things correct to a more normal level.

Would I be right in saying that a GPU is pretty irrelevant for video editing on PPCC? When I do come to spec a computer, would I be better to invest more into CPU/RAM/HD and to specify a mid-line GPU?
 
You can wait till April to see Ryzen 2*00 and GeForce 20*0.

If not, now:
Monitor: BenQ BL2711U

And the rest:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,456.39 (includes shipping: £12.60)

​
 
4K8KW10 said:
You can wait till April to see Ryzen 2*00 and GeForce 20*0.

If not, now:
Monitor: BenQ BL2711U

And the rest:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £1,456.39 (includes shipping: £12.60)

​
Click to expand...

I'm impressed, I honestly plucked that figure out the sky but with my (very) limited knowledge that looks like a pretty solid set up. Would you expect that computer to cut through amateur (i.e. have dinner while it renders out) 4K editing with relative ease?

Also, I've no idea how overclockers works....is that a built system or just the individual components? Is there an option/cost to have OC build it? Done some reading re: Ryzen 2 and will probably wait as I'm not in a rush.
 
Splats said:
I'm impressed, I honestly plucked that figure out the sky but with my (very) limited knowledge that looks like a pretty solid set up. Would you expect that computer to cut through amateur (i.e. have dinner while it renders out) 4K editing with relative ease?

Also, I've no idea how overclockers works....is that a built system or just the individual components? Is there an option/cost to have OC build it? Done some reading re: Ryzen 2 and will probably wait as I'm not in a rush.
Click to expand...

Yes, I do expect this build to be pretty solid.
There are reviews that you can find, for example this one to get the best idea http://www.4kshooters.net/2017/03/21/building-an-insanely-powerful-4k-video-editing-pc-for-just-998/

These are just the individual components. You order this list and can ask OcUK to assemble the configuration.

Yes, you can wait for Ryzen 2. Just 2 months and you will have the most up-to-date hardware at that time.
If you can't wait, then go for the above.
 
4K8KW10 said:
That's impossible. How would a 4-core processor with dead on arrival platform be better?
Intel sucks, dude.
Click to expand...

"If you are on a tight budget, the Intel Core i7 7700K is likely a better choice for most users. While the 7700K is a little slower than Ryzen for some tasks in Premiere Pro, but it is much faster for other tasks (like warp stabilize) and in applications like Photoshop. The i7 7700K is a bit cheaper as well which frees up some of your budget for more RAM, larger storage, etc." - Ok that was a year ago, but shouldn't be discounted, especially on the second hand market. The faster clock speed helps some processes.

More up to date test across more processors: https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...aby-Lake-X-Broadwell-E-Kaby-Lake-Ryzen-7-969/

"If you examine the individual results from each section, you will find that the Intel Core i7 7800X is a hair cheaper than the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X while being slightly faster for exporting/rendering previews and about 24% faster for warp stabilize. Averaged out, this makes the i7 7800X about 10% faster overall for $10 less. One step up from that, the Intel Core i7 7820X is a bit more expensive than the Ryzen 7 1800X, but in exchange it is a solid 17% faster at exporting, 15% faster at rendering previews, 32% faster at warp stabilize, and better at live playback. On average, this makes the i7 7820X about 18% faster than the AMD 7 1800X for $100 more."

It looks like their pricing is off though, as the 1800X is £300, and the 7820X is £500. That's considerably more than $100...

On second though, the drone footage won't need much if any stabilization, so a Ryzen build would probably be a good call.
 
Last edited:
I said it and you force me to repeat it. Intel sucks because their platforms are dead on arrival. In 6 months they will release new CPUs which don't have backwards compatibility with anything that has already been released.
Owning a computer is not about pure performance at the time of the purchase. But pure performance 5 years after the purchase as well.
In 5 years, you will have new AMD processors which will make anything Intel obsolete.

Do you understand or again no?
 
4K8KW10 said:
I said it and you force me to repeat it. Intel sucks because their platforms are dead on arrival. In 6 months they will release new CPUs which don't have backwards compatibility with anything that has already been released.
Owning a computer is not about pure performance at the time of the purchase. But pure performance 5 years after the purchase as well.
In 5 years, you will have new AMD processors which will make anything Intel obsolete.

Do you understand or again no?
Click to expand...

I don't really care for your opinion, no need to repeat yourself.
 
4K8KW10 said:
I said it and you force me to repeat it. Intel sucks because their platforms are dead on arrival. In 6 months they will release new CPUs which don't have backwards compatibility with anything that has already been released.
Owning a computer is not about pure performance at the time of the purchase. But pure performance 5 years after the purchase as well.
In 5 years, you will have new AMD processors which will make anything Intel obsolete.

Do you understand or again no?
Click to expand...

If I follow you, you mean that something built on AMD will be easier to upgrade in the future. In other words, in 5 years I could probably just swap out the processor for an new model, make some BIOS changes and viola?

I watched this video last night with interest. The conclusion seems to be that the AMD cores were seldom being fully utilised but the sheer clock speed of the overclocked Intel won through in most situations.

What are we expecting from the next batch of Ryzen CPU's. I'll likely wait, as previously discussed, but I do suspect that in terms of bang-for-buck investing in anything that's split new and popular won't make much sense (i.e. 10% performance increase for 40% price increase sort of scenario).
 
Splats said:
If I follow you, you mean that something built on AMD will be easier to upgrade in the future. In other words, in 5 years I could probably just swap out the processor for an new model, make some BIOS changes and viola?
Click to expand...

Exactly. It is super cool and convenient. Buy a CPU, GPU, motherboard and memory now and when the system becomes slow for your daily tasks, simply upgrade with another, newer CPU, and GPU. Much easier. You will keep your Windows, your applications, everything with less efforts.

Splats said:
What are we expecting from the next batch of Ryzen CPU's. I'll likely wait, as previously discussed, but I do suspect that in terms of bang-for-buck investing in anything that's split new and popular won't make much sense (i.e. 10% performance increase for 40% price increase sort of scenario).
Click to expand...

From the next batch of Ryzens, we do expect higher frequencies, and perhaps improved performance/frequency.
From the next-next batch of Ryzens, we do expect even more cores, higher frequencies and perhaps improved performance/frequency.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom