Computer specs for Videostudio

[dans]

ADMIN NOTE - these posts have been split from the 'wishlist' topic as it is a more detailed discussion than just a wish)

A lot of people on this forum ask the same question "what hardware do I need to get the most out of VS" Corel needs to get much better at communicating this to it's customers.

The already supply a spec for your PC on their web site.

[dans]

The already supply a spec for your PC on their web site.

I would not call this a good spec, not to mention it doesn't say anything about the gpu.

Corel recommends an Intel Core i7 or AMD Phenom II X8 processor with Windows 7 or Windows 8 64-bit operating system and minimum 4 GB of RAM. For editing of 4K video, a 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor is highly recommended.

check out the list of gpus adobe lists for Premiere.
https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/sy ... 20versions

they also have this.

For multicore systems, Adobe recommends 4GB or more of RAM per core. On any system, you will see substantial performance gains as you add more RAM.

and to be fair all the manufactures are falling a little short right now. Computers are going through a small revolution right now as the ddr3 ram spec is on the way out, and the ddr4 is on the way in. depending on how the application interacts with the ram, ddr3 might be better than the ddr4. ddr4 is faster, but it has more latency.

Basically, buying a more expensive machine right now, doesn't necessarily mean more performance.

[TonyP]

I think it's only fair to be able to answer the hardware questions people ask. What will give them maximum performance in editing SD, 1080, and now 4K. Yes, there are proxy files one can use. But what if I had the money to build a killer editing computer and really don't want to bother waiting for proxies to be made? What would be the recommended hardware? Would Intel's Quicksync help? How about CUDA or OpenCL/GL? Multi-core processors, which ones work best? And there are no video cards listed. A mistake? Is there an advantage to have one? Listing 1gig of video ram is highly ambiguous. Would you get better results with DDR3 or GDDR5 in a 1gig of ram video card.

I believe Corel knows, but marketing tries to keep things in "general". BTW, this is a typo "AMD Phenom II X8". There is no Phenom II X8. Phenom II were 6 core processors. The FX series has 8 core processors.

I'm planning on building a new computer at the end of the year if there is something out there that I like. Mine works fine and has worked fine for the last 3 years.

[dans]

I'm planning on building a new computer at the end of the year if there is something out there that I like. Mine works fine and has worked fine for the last 3 years.

I'm in the same boat as you, my machine is approaching 6 years old, and its due for retirement. The only thing that really makes it work is video editing, or if i'm doing something really intensive to a raw image.

My machine is still pretty decent considering it's age, but i ran a quick test earlier in the week to see how it would handle the 4K footage out of my new camera.

I did a strait transcode of a single clip, with the following specs.

source:
H.264 High Profile
24 bit 3840x2160
29.970 frames/sec
105600 Kbps
MPEG AAC
48KHz 16 Bit, Stereo
128 Kbps

render:
H.264 High Profile
24 bit 1920x1080
29.970 frames/sec
8000 Kbps
MPEG AAC
48KHz 16 Bit, Stereo
128 Kbps

The 2 minute clip took 5 minutes and 2 seconds to transcode, or 2.5 times the length of the clip.

[asik1]

Here on my humble ~5 years old gear I converted
THIS
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 224 MiB
Duration : 43s 467ms
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 43.2 Mbps
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L5.1
Duration : 43s 453ms
Bit rate : 43.0 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 79.7 Mbps
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.841 fps
Minimum frame rate : 23.833 fps
Maximum frame rate : 28.600 fps

TO
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 8 271 Kbps
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 43s 451ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 8 000 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps

In ~2min. CPU peaked at 60% but mostly was at 45% load.

[SoNic67]

Use the GPU for more than just preview. Modern GPU's have hardware encoding engines that can do h264, h265 very fast, use them. Use OpenGL (or just CUDA for nvidia, it's more performant than OpenGL) for effects.

[TonyP]

I think if we are going to be doing similar testing, the export parameters should be the same.
I placed a UHD 3840x2160 PAL 25fps on the timeline and edited back to 2 minutes.
Export AVC/H.264
MPEG Transport-Stream Files
24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Upper Field First
(HDMV-NTSC), 16:9
H.264 Video
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 18000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 384 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

Time to render 3:34.

[dans]

If we want to be consistent, we should probably all convert the same video file.

This file is a 4k same from a professional review site. It's 21 seconds in length, and only 237mb, so it won't take forever to trancode if you are on an older machine.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/p ... 739-4k.MP4

when i trans-coded it using the following settings, it took 58 seconds.

Export AVC/H.264
MPEG Transport-Stream Files
24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Upper Field First
(HDMV-NTSC), 16:9
H.264 Video
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 18000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 384 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

[TonyP]

How long did it take you to upload? Downloading file now and download speed is like 45kb/s. Ok... speed picked up and done.

Exporting to the same settings as you, 45 seconds on my machine. All cores used, but only about 60-70% usage of the cores.

[dans]

How long did it take you to upload? Downloading file now and download speed is like 45kb/s. Ok... speed picked up and done.

Exporting to the same settings as you, 45 seconds on my machine. All cores used, but only about 60-70% usage of the cores.

My machine has the same issue, and this is why.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/06/amd_sued_cores/

[TonyP]

Ahh... but in Pinnacle Studio, exporting MPG4, I will see all 8 cores at over 90% usage, sometimes all 8 cores at 100% usage.
The Phenom series CPU that you have (I have an overclocked 1090T running at the same speed as a base 1100T) are different than the CPU that I have. There are a lot of reasons why all cores are not maximized in rendering/export. That, I think is a function of the programming of the software. As I said, all 8 cores at over 90% in export using Pinnacle.

[dans]

That, I think is a function of the programming of the software. As I said, all 8 cores at over 90% in export using Pinnacle.

For sure, it comes down to the ratio of floating point math to integer math being done. floating point math puts all the load on the fpu, integer math puts it all on the cpu. I used to run Roxio video wave, and it wold literally peg the cpu at 100%, but the video quality was poor compared to VS at the same bitrate.

[asik1]

If we want to be consistent, we should probably all convert the same video file.

This file is a 4k same from a professional review site. It's 21 seconds in length, and only 237mb, so it won't take forever to trancode if you are on an older machine.
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/p ... 739-4k.MP4

when i trans-coded it using the following settings, it took 58 seconds.

Export AVC/H.264
MPEG Transport-Stream Files
24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
Upper Field First
(HDMV-NTSC), 16:9
H.264 Video
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 18000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 384 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

On my system with X7 it took 67sec. Cpu ~75% per core.

[TonyP]

...forgot to add, using X9U

[bitman]

just installed x9ultimate 64, the file you mentioned took me just below 24 seconds to render (I tried 2x) same result.
the PC I build myself is almost 3 years old, but a good gaming machine with i7-4770K @ 3.5 GHz 16 GB memory, no overclocks, I do have a new powerful NVIDEA Titan-X videocard installed.
OS was migrated to win 10.
(note to match the comparison I specially changed to NTSC as I live in PAL country...)