CPU for Video Editing & Redering.

paulwho · Post by **paulwho** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:06 am

Hi > I'm finding my CPU is running at 100 percent most of the time when the RAM is using about 400 - 500megs tops. I find the rendering & burning is taking along time. As you can see I have plenty of HDD & 1gb of RaM. My system is running programs that include "Ghost Back up" ,Ulead Photo Express 6", McAfee Virus Scanner & WinFast PVR.
Do I need a faster CPU ? Please see my computer specs below.
Regards Paul

MY COMPUTER
Ulead Video Studio 9
WINDOWS XP Home SP2
MOTHERBOARD > ASUS K8V-MX VIA K8M800 Chipset Onboard vga Audio and LAN usb 2.0 ata
Specification
CPU AMD Sempron ™ 2600+ 64 kb Socket A 462 Retail Box BUNDLE with cooling fan AMD Cool 'n' Quiet
Chipset
VIA K8M800
VIA VT8237R
Front Side Bus
1600MT/s
Memory
2 x DIMM, max. 2GB, DDR400/ 333/ 266, ECC, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Expansion Slots
1 x AGP8X
3 x PCI
VGA
Integrated Graphics
Storage/RAID
2 x Serial ATA, RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD
2 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
Audio
ADI AD1988 SoundMAX 6-channel CODEC
S/PDIF out interface
LAN
Realtek RTL8201CL 10/100M LAN PHY
USB
Max 8 USB2.0 ports

FOXCONN IGPSK7MA-ERS nForce 2 Graphics On Board 6 Channel Audio Lan SATA Raid 1394

LEADTEK WinFast DV2000 Capture Card

FLOPPY DRIVE 1.44 Panasonic

CD ROM R/W Burner USB

CD ROM R

DVD Burner SAMSUNG 16x Model TS-H552, 16x DVD+R 12x DVD-R 4x DVD-RW

DVD Burner SAMSUNG 16x Model TS-H552, 16x DVD+R 12x DVD-R 4x DVD-RW

RAID CONTROLLER > Xsonic SATA Raid controller 2 Channel MODEL SB-SATA3112-150

HDD SEAGATE 1 x 40 gig 7200rpm Barracuda 7200.7 ATA-100 (USB External) Twin Fan Coolers

HDD SEAGATE 1 x 80 gig 7200rpm Barracuda 7200.7 ATA-100 (O/S Programs) Twin Fan Coolers

HDD SEAGATE 1 x 80 gig 7200rpm Barracuda 7200.7 ATA-100 (Photos & Files) Twin Fan Coolers

HDD SEAGATE 1 x 200 gig 7200rpm Barracuda Raid controller (Ghost Back Up) Twin Fan Coolers

HDD SEAGATE 1 x 320 gig 7200rpm Barracuda Raid controller (TV & Video Files) Twin Fan Coolers

RAM KINGSTON 2 x 512meg DDR400 (PC3200) with heat sink plates

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:45 am

Problem one; your anti-virus software is running during edits? Best to stay offline & turn it off while editing as virus programs can eat CPU cycles like candy.

Better yet; run a dualboot system...one stripped down Windows installation for EDITING ONLY (no toys, games etc) and one for general use. That way all the crud (resident software, plugins, toolbar programs etc.) you load into a normal system won't steal CPU cycles while you're editing.

Problem two; the VIA chipset on your mainboard. VIA's have rather poor bandwidth to/from the PCI cards, mainly because of how the interlink between the north and south bridges operates. Basically they pass a few packets, wait a while then start again while most other chipsets have a more continuous stream. Under most conditions this isn't a problem, but for video rigs it's not the best. NVIDIA, SIS, ATI and Intel chipsets aren't a problem.

Problem three; integrated graphics. I am correct in assuming this? It is a problem because IG is SLOW and gets most of its "graphics RAM" from the system memory. Oops.

The CPU & installed RAM seem adequate, though Athlon 64's are pretty cheap these days.

Just updated my wifes rig for ~$200 for an A64 3400+, an Asus A8N5X M/B (NVIDIA chipped; 4 PCIe & 3 PCI) and an Asus PCIe 16x graphics card at NewEgg.com. Runs REAL nice.

paulwho · Post by **paulwho** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:56 am

Thanks Terry for your advice. I was looking for an easy way out by fitting a faster CPU but before I do anything like that I'll put some of your suggestions into action,. Regards Paul.

Post by **jparnold** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:01 am

Your hardware seems to be fine for what you are doing.

As Terry has pointed out you should shut down any processes running in the background which are unnecessary to video editing.

Have a look at Create a Video Editing Profile

Also consider downloading ENDITALL which is free and downloadable from here. This software will allow you to shutdown unnecessary programs running.

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:11 pm

This is what Matrox says about VIA chipsets on their video product compatibility pages;

These chipsets have all demonstrated a PCI bandwidth limitation when reading from host memory (RAM). This is seen when heavy PCI bandwidth (such as for video, graphics, and effects) is required by several PCI devices at the same time.

So, when the system has to access multiple southbridge devices during playback or capture (ex: audio card & RAID or SATA; capture card & audio card etc.) they can step on each other. This can also affect captures, as in dropped frames and/or audio artifacts.

It may not happen in every setup, but it's much more likely on VIA chipped rigs than others.

Every now & then I'll run a new VIA chipped board through the paces and as yet they have all ended up as upgrades for our 8 year olds system or in my wifes craftshop rig doing scans & printing cross stitch patterns.

paulwho · Post by **paulwho** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:06 am

Thanks a heap Terry & John for your tips. I've put another XP O/S on one of the other hard drives. So now through the BIOS settings at start up I can choose which drive to boot from. This new drive is so much quicker without all that other junk to compete with. I'm sure my next capture, edit & render will come out just fine.
To follow your advice I'm getting rid of my VIA platform motherboard & replacing it with a ASUS K8N NVIDIA nForce 3 - 250 DDR400 AGP s750. I'm going to swap my AMD Sampron 2600 CPU over to the new board. I know you can get faster but I'll see how it runs with the new board. Also I'll be putting my same 1 Gig of DDR400 RAM into the new board.
I'll keep you up to date how it works out.
Cheers Paul

paulwho · Post by **paulwho** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:31 am

Hi Terry > I'm now up to your Problem three which is.
Problem three; integrated graphics. I am correct in assuming this? It is a problem because IG is SLOW and gets most of its "graphics RAM" from the system memory. Oops.

How do I get around this problem ? Cheers Paul

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:32 pm

Intergrated Graphics has nothing to do with rendering, video playback using WMP / PowerDvd or Windvd, games then yes .

Instead of upgrading my computer I simply render when the computer isn't being used. If you mark down the time that your computer isn't in use you will probably find countless hours that the machine could have been performing a render. Such as when your at work, sleeping or shopping (for your wife of course!)

I just thought it needless to watch it render from 9:00 to 10:30 at night, then turn the computer off or not use it for the next 8-10 hours while sleeping.
Upgrading computers is a never ending process.

daniel · Post by **daniel** » Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:06 am

etech6355 wrote:Upgrading computers is a never ending process.

Aaargh! Radio Shack didn't tell me that when I bought my TRS-80!
They said that the ultimate upgrade was to boost the RAM from 4K to 16K.