Upgrades for 1080p / 4k video editing

Mark101 · 2 Jun 2020 at 14:12

Hi guys, got a quick question about upgrading my PC for 1080p video editing. Premiere Pro can be slow both to preview and to render. Specs are:

i5 6500 @ 3.20GHz
16GB RAM
no videocard currently
OS on an SSD, rest on HDD

I'm buying an SSD to store my footage but wondering what the bottleneck will then be. RAM, GPU, CPU? It seems my current motherboard is only compatible with Intel chips up to 7th gen.

My video editing always involves multiple videos from different sources at once (putting together music videos) so a decent amount of colour grading which I believe can be GPU accelerated. But I'm not sure it's worth getting a GPU if my CPU will still bottleneck.

doopydug · 2 Jun 2020 at 14:40

Depends how much you want to spend - a good GPU will transform your rendering speed

bloodiedathame · 2 Jun 2020 at 14:45

SSD for footage is a great idea. And a second for Cache. You'll definitely want a videocard, I'd go with an Nvidia. The i5 isn't ideal tbh, any i7 options for your board?

What's your budget?

Mark101 · 2 Jun 2020 at 14:45

doopydug said:
Depends how much you want to spend - a good GPU will transform your rendering speed

I'm going to spend ~£100 on a 1TB SSD for footage. If it made a noticeable difference I'd be up for spending another £300/400 on parts. I've looked at an RX570 8Gb for about £140; a further 16GB RAM; or a CPU upgrade (but to be compatible with my mobo -- MSI H110M Gaming -- it'd have to be a 7th gen or earlier chip, so an i5-7600(/K) or an i7-7700(/K))

bloodiedathame · 2 Jun 2020 at 14:55

I use an external USB3 SSD, read and write at nearly 1Gbps, really handy out on shoots for copying footage, and you can edit directly off it. We've got about 10 Samsung T5's.

7700k is a good idea. More RAM always good too.

My home setup is 5820k, 32GB RAM and a GTX970 and I've no reason to upgrade it yet.

Mark101 · 2 Jun 2020 at 17:17

It seems the i7-7700K is still about £340, £60 more than the i5-10600K which seems to be way faster but would require a new mobo https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compar...l-i5-6500-vs-Intel-i5-10600K/2874vs2599vs3735. Does it make sense to sink more money into an outdated board - am I paying a premium due to the fact that the i7-7700 is older?

bloodiedathame · 2 Jun 2020 at 17:55

That all depends on your budget really, if it were me I'd be looking for second hand parts, a 7700k is around £150 S/H. Or save up and waiting until the next Ryzen offering. Depends how desperate you are!