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os/video card choice
Costco has a Dell xps 8700 offered for sale. The 2 configurations are offered with Intel i7-4770 processors.Both are similar.The higher priced model comes with more ram,ssd,2 gb AMD Radeon HD R9 270 video card,& Windows 8.The other with Windows 7, 1gb Nvidia Ge Force GTX 650 Ti. My concern is with the difference in os/graphics card for use with Vegas. Both are within my budget. Any suggestions about which to choose? They don’t offer changes. Would appreciate any help. Thanks
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15 Replies
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Personally, I’ve never had good luck with AMD graphics cards. And it will be a very long time, if ever, before I install Windows 8 on my editing PC. You can always add SSD and more RAM, but you should probably buy a higher-capacity power supply if you do add hardware.
Or you could just build your own PC and get more RAM, larger HDD and SSD for the same money.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
I’d get the system that has Windows 7. Both cards are going to perform pretty close- there isn’t one that is drastically better than the other. The new AMD cards are getting very good reviews. However, that is the system that has Windows 8.
If I were you i’d check the specs on the manufacturers website. If you want to add additional hard drives at a later date, does either of these systems have multiple SATAIII (6gb/s) ports? This is the downside of buying a pre-built system because you’re stuck with what they give you, in terms of upgradeability down the road.
If you can, or if you know somebody that can help you, BUILD YOUR OWN SYSTEM.
Dave
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(Dave Osbun)If you can, or if you know somebody that can help you, BUILD YOUR OWN SYSTEM.
Thats right Mr.Dave Osbun,so we can learn more.All my w.station built my self.(3 AMD W.Station)
Now i am planing to make one more W.Station in intel so i can do some research…..
System Details:
Custom Built
Motherboard – Asus M5A99X-EVO,HardDrive1 boot C:SSD Kingston,Processor – Amd FX 8350 4.0/4.2 GHZ,Ram – 16 GB,Graphic Card – Asus Gtx 650 1GB DDR 5,Blu Ray Writer – Plextor PX-B950SA,Operating System – Window 7 Pro 64 Bit and Editing Programe – Sony Vegas Pro 12 -
I’ve actually had better results with AMD than nVidia over the years. I switched to AMD from Matrox ages ago, because nVidia had crappy analog video. Used nVidia for a few years while AMD struggled with driver issues, but back with AMD since Vegas went to OpenCL, and I found I got more performance for the same money with AMD. The Radeon will certainly deliver higher performance in Vegas itself. Some plug-ins are an issue, though.
For example, the Main Concept AVC CODEC. On the positive side, this CODEC is highly optimized for GPU use; it does nearly everything with the GPU. Using Vegas 12 and my Radeon HD6970 GPU, I see about a 6:1 improvement with everything GPU-accelerated. However, it’s been pretty well confirmed that they’ve coded both OpenCL and CUDA modes to match specific GPU chips. If you’re using anything new, you won’t get the GPU acceleration. Hopefully Sony will address in the next Vegas… even better, hold MainConcept to the same standards as the rest of Vegas.
I don’t know that additional GPU RAM is much of an advantage for GPGPU or video purposes. I chose Windows 7 over Windows 8 last summer, when building my system.
-Dave
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[Dave Osbun] “If you can, or if you know somebody that can help you, BUILD YOUR OWN SYSTEM.”
I do conditionally recommend that as well. I have never bought a pre-configured PC for myself. But then again, I’ve done this kind of thing professionally. It’s not for everyone. You will invest some time doing this. And it’s not really for money-saving, but to ensure you’re spending your money where it’ll do you the most good, as well as leaving some room for the future.
If you’re looking for guidance on this, as well as asking around here, you can check out Videoguys DIY systems. They’re definitely building for video users, which isn’t true of many DIY system guides online. The system I built for myself last year isn’t far from their DIY9.5 system (I have more RAM, a larger main SSD, internal RAID10, and the AMD Radeon HD6970 left over from my previous system, which was a 6-core AMD).
-Dave
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I’ll chime in with the rest and say building your own is worth doing.
I built my current system two or three years ago with parts bought online, and by following some of the online “do this … then this … then this” guides, it was easier than I’d imagined. Honestly, the two hardest parts were 1) not letting sweat drip onto the motherboard as I put the CPU in, and 2) tidying up all the cables in the case when I was all done.
The only downside I found is the analysis paralysis that comes with planning and buying. Following someone’s tried and tested recommendations and just buying the parts and building it would overcome that. Otherwise you can get stuck in a loop of research, pricing, pondering and wishing. Eventually, as with any creative and expensive endeavour, you just have to say ENOUGH and pull the trigger, and live with the fact that if you can afford to buy it, it’s probably obsolete by now.
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Radio guy in a TV world. Bigasssuperstar.com -
(Dave Haynie)Radeon HD6970
Its no more in market especially in Malaysia.
So,What card can use Radeon HD????Thayalan Paramasawam
System Details:
Custom Built
Motherboard – Asus M5A99X-EVO,HardDrive1 boot C:SSD Kingston,Processor – Amd FX 8350 4.0/4.2 GHZ,Ram – 16 GB,Graphic Card – Asus Gtx 650 1GB DDR 5,Blu Ray Writer – Plextor PX-B950SA,Operating System – Window 7 Pro 64 Bit and Editing Programe – Sony Vegas Pro 12 -
I agree with building your own but it’s not for everybody and certainly not for the faint of heart when you put the parts together and it doesn’t post. (been there… down that… know the sinking feeing) 🙁
My advice is to not buy a Dell. They will sell you a power supply (PSU) that is barely adequate for the parts in the box. Once you start adding hard drives, you’ll start having stability problems as the PSU is overtaxed. They are also famous for using proprietary connectors on their motherboards so if you want to buy a bigger PSU, you need to buy it from them at twice the price of everyone else. Don’t go down that road.
If you don’t want to build your own system (it’s not for everybody), buy a system from boutique builder like iBuyPower.com. I have no connection with these guys so feel free to find any other builder but the reason is… these boutique builders use industry standard parts just like you would buy if you were building it yourself. In essence, you are having them build and test your PC for you and they you can swap out any parts you like later when it’s time to upgrade and everything is going to continue to be compatible.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
…thanks for the all the input everyone. Haven’t been very satisfied with my past Dell configurations so have decided to build my own based on Videoguys build 9.5 or 10 mid-level pc build.
Looked at an interesting comparable build on a CPCR website recently. Am not too familiar with who CPCR is but it seems they might be connected with Cyberpower PC.Haven’t read much favorable about their pre-configured boxes,however am not sure if that applies to their build recommendations.
It’ll be my first build. Wish me luck and thanks again for all the help..i think…lol
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[Mel Perez] “It’ll be my first build. Wish me luck and thanks again for all the help..i think…lol”
Good luck. Let us know how you make out or if you have any problems. Many of us build our own and can probably help with questions.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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