Best Performance Hardware for Videostudio 2018

[ispyisail]

Hi all

What is the best hardware to get he best performance from videostudio?

CPU vs GPU?

Does the GPU do any video processing or is it just raw CPU power.


I have a work PC for Solidworks, Window 10 64bit Intel Xeon E5-2650 v4 with a Quadro P4000 and Videostudio runs like a Dog.

My home PC running a good i7 (12 months old) with a very average graphics card runs rings around my work PC?

So what is the perfect (ideal) hardware for video studio?

Thanks

[ispyisail]

Answer my own question

System requirements Videostudio 2018

For optimal performance of Corel VideoStudio, make sure that your system meets the recommended specifications. Note that some formats and features require specific hardware or software (as indicated).
• Internet connection required for installation, registration and updates. Registration required for product use.
• Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, 64-bit OS highly recommended
• Intel Core i3 or AMD A4 3.0 GHz or higher
• Intel Core i5 or i7 1.06 GHz or higher required for AVCHD & Intel Quick Sync Video support
• Intel Core i7 or AMD Athlon A10 or higher for UHD, Multi-Camera or 360° video
• 4 GB of RAM or higher, 8+GB highly recommended for UHD, Multi-Camera, or 360° video
• Minimum 256 MB VRAM, 512 MB or higher recommended for hardware decoding acceleration
• HEVC (H.265) support requires Windows 10, supporting PC hardware or graphics card and Microsoft HEVC video extension installed
• Program available for installation in 32 or 64-bit. Some features only available in 64-bit (3D Title Editor, NewBlue Titler Pro, Boris Title Studio)
• Minimum display resolution: 1024 x 768
• Windows-compatible sound card
• Minimum 8 GB HDD space for full installation
• Digital download option available if DVD-ROM drive not available for installation

[ispyisail]

No idea what these mean?

• Minimum 256 MB VRAM, 512 MB or higher recommended for hardware decoding acceleration
• HEVC (H.265) support requires Windows 10, supporting PC hardware or graphics card and Microsoft HEVC video extension installed

Still doesn't say what the ideal graphs card is?

[iNate]

VideoStudio uses Intel QuickSync Video to accelerate video decode. Therefore, you want an Intel CPU with an iGPU and QSV - that's usually Core i5 and i7. If you can get Iris Pro, even better. That's all you need for VideoStudio.

Quadro is overkill and probably only works for NVENC encode. VideoStudio does not compute with CUDA. The CUDA advertisement is false. It doesn't use CUDA at all - just NVENC.

The part about HEVC/Windows 10 and VRAM is ignorable as any relatively recent iGPU or dGPU will have more than enough VRAM, you can Decode/Encode HEVC on Windows 10 (including in VideoStudio) without Hardware Support - though you should never edit HEVC directly (or even H.264, if you can help it), as this is like turning your video editing session into a CPU benchmark.

On your Xeon machine, you are much better off getting the Free version of DaVinci Resolve 15.2 and using that. It scales much better with that hardware, and actually uses CUDA for Processing and will love your 8GB VRAM. There is no point in using VideoStudio with that kind of machine laying around (even if the CPU is getting old, it should still perform well as Resolve will use all of those cores/threads very well), except for really quick and dirty stuff for Social Media/YouTube.

[ispyisail]

Thank you for your excellent answer.

Lines up with my personal experience.

Thanks

[Bill Aggie]

So I have started making baking videos and my system was a FX processor, 8 meg ram and a run of the mill AMD video card. The choking in Video Studio was so sever I could not finish my first video and neither did I want to finish it. Although I was operating on SSD drives for my edits, sometimes VS would pause up to 2-or 3 minutes and I could never get a smooth playback on my editor view screen.

So I gamble and spent $450.00. I bought a Ryzen 5, 3600 CPU, an ASRock B450 Pro4 motherboard and 32gig of PNY DDR 4 memory rated at 3200 speed. I also bought a used nvidia GTX-980TI video card (another $200) and then set up the system to run at the exact spec of the Ryzen and Memory rated speed. I configured VS to use the Nvidia CUDA optioni.

The results were vast! VideoStudio is glitch free, no pauses, full 4k playback and I'm importing directly from my cameras in H264 format. So a lot of work is taking place in my system but it's keeping up and the CPU hardly takes a moment for a deep breath. Even under aggressive editing, the processor stays cool, the computer dead silent, and the cpu utilization rarely hits 25%. Best cheap PC configuration I've ever owned. The Ryzen is a beast for video editing. I say this because I bought the video card first and tried it on my system and I still had pauses and sketchy editor playback runs. The CPU and motherboard is obviously a key element with Video Editing.

[tletter]

Even under aggressive editing, the processor stays cool, the computer dead silent, and the cpu utilization rarely hits 25%.

That's not a good thing as it'd be much better if VS could peg the processor at 100% rather than being unable to fully utilize the hardware.

Best cheap PC configuration I've ever owned. The Ryzen is a beast for video editing.

In my experience, I noticed no difference in VS performance between an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, and an Intel Core i7-8086K with an NVIDIA GTX 1070 . Undoubtedly because VS is unable to fully utilize the hardware.

The CPU and motherboard is obviously a key element with Video Editing.

Yes for VS, the CPU is key, but unfortunately unlike many other NLEs, VS doesn't fully utilize the GPU. How do you measure the affect of the motherboard?

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[excalibur1814]

Well...

You can throw 16Gb, 32Gb, or even more ram at VS and it'll ignore it.
You can create a Raid 0 M.2 array and 4K media will still stutter EVEN after enabling proxy.
You can use it on a Surface Pro 7, or a 9700k, with the same results. (Although neither are that annoying)

Basically, it's a bit of a dog of a program. I like it, as it's easy to use, but the company is more focused with selling you the same software year in, year out. It features the same silly things that crash the program and you have to save every other action. Just in case. Buy whatever you think is sensible. Buy with other aspects in mind. 8Gb is an absolute minimum, so obviously look towards 16Gb. Don't waste time on anything crazy, as VS simply won't use it. Single core mas turbo is something to look at.

Basically, buy something sensible but nice. There's little need for an i9, or possibly i7, as quad will do. Obviously, looking forward, six core would generally be better if building a desktop. Little tricks such as changing VS's priority do help. I've edited a LOT of videos using this software and spent a lot of time trying to make it smooth as butter. Don't do it. Accept the limitations and one day, hopefully, Corel will invest time in making the application 100% stable and use the raw power available. Don't hold your breath.

Fast M.2. PCIe drives are a given. Will be interesting to see if PCIe 4 drives make any difference at all. (I'm on the 10th gen platform but can opt for an 11th gen cpu, which will enable the third M.2 slot on my motherboard. As soon as I can buy a Samsung 980 as well as an 11th gen cpu, I'll see if it makes any difference at all. It won't. I already know. But I like pain and disappointment from VS.


P.s. The only time I used nVidia to create a video it crashed at 99%. That fancy graphics card... more or less pointless. That made me laugh. Clicked Intel and, of course, it completed. Oh VS, I hate and love you.

[Bill Aggie]

tletter, yeah, it is noticable that vs doesn't pound the power out of the cpu. not sure why. The system is not even slightly straining. This Ryzen CPU however is a bit of a marvel if you ask me. for $200.00 it is cranking. VS did go from unusable to no glitches.

Excalibur, VS has never been bug free. I started with Pinnacle VS and frankly that would make you blow your stack. Corel does seem to be at some distance from the others when it comes to debugged software. I just like the platform so as long as I can get my stuff done... I am having things happen that i don't understand. The system often loses files and won't load the timeline. I also hate editing the front of a project because if timing is critical it all gets messed up after the edit. I wish there were a LOCK EVERYTHING BUT THIS CLIP feature and if I wanted to edit I could make sure the replacement clip is a perfect fit and fill the edit hole rather than VS moving things on the timeline.

[Davidk]

Bill,
You should look up how to use ripple editing. RE is a means of maintaining time sync of the overlay/voice/music tracks with the timeline, when you edit something - trim or delete a clip etc, or insert additional clips or images into the TL and want to keep sync with content in the other tracks. you can enable RE on all tracks, or just specific ones at your choice.