Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums VEGAS Pro “Render As” Speed – CPU vs GPU

  • “Render As” Speed – CPU vs GPU

    Posted by Simon Graham on July 4, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    Hello, I’m looking to build my first dedicated video editing pc for use with Sony Vegas. My budget is £1200 ($2000). The goal is to render 1080p video clips for upload to YouTube as fast as possible.

    Render As Template: MainConcept Internet HD 1080P, 20 Mbps

    My Question: How should I spend my budget in terms of CPU vs GPU.

    Note: I have based my choices on the threads posted here and this rather helpful table: https://www.hyperactivemusic.com/vegaspro/vegaspro.html

    Option 1 (Total – £445)

    • i7 4790k Quad Core @ 4GHz (4.5GHz OC) – £245
    • 2 GTX 580 (SLI) or 2 HD6970 (Crossfire) ~ £200 (used)

    Option 2 (Total – £515)

    • i7 4930k Hex Core @ 3.4GHz (4.5GHz OC) – £415
    • 1 GTX 580 or HD6970 ~ £100 (used)

    Option 3 (Total – £545)
    Use Render As Template: XDCAM EX HQ 1920×1080, 35 Mbps

    • i7 4790k Quad Core @ 4GHz (4.5GHz OC) – £245
    • R9 290 – £300 (new)

    For Option 3 is there any negatives to using XDCAM EX for upload to YouTube instead of MainConcept as both are .mp4 – is it just the higher bitrate?

    What do you guys think, would you suggest something different? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    David Norman replied 11 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • John Rofrano

    July 4, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    I would definitely go with Option 2 for the Core i7 4930k Hex Core @ 3.4GHz with an ATI Radeon HD 6970. You want as many cores as possible. Quad Cores are ancient history for video editors. I would never consider one. Testing has shown the AMD Radeon’s to be better performing cards for Vegas Pro’s OpenCL based acceleration.

    ~jr

    http://www.johnrofrano.com
    http://www.vasst.com

  • Simon Graham

    July 4, 2014 at 3:50 pm

    Thanks for the reply John,

    I always though CPU power was most important for video editing, however going by this table: https://www.hyperactivemusic.com/vegaspro/vegaspro.html

    Only CPU = 10-15fps render
    CPU + GPU = 45+fps render

    Also any suggestions for MainConcept vs XDCAM EX for YouTube?

  • John Rofrano

    July 4, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    I’m not saying that having a good GPU isn’t important, it is, but overall the more cores will give you better CPU performance for everything else. Sony is recommending a minimum of 8 cores to work with 4K. Buying a 4 core computer today is short sighted. At least with 6 cores you are getting closer to future-proofing your investment. My current Mac Pro has 8 cores and I’m currently looking for one with 12 cores to replace it.

    ~jr

    http://www.johnrofrano.com
    http://www.vasst.com

  • Simon Graham

    July 4, 2014 at 9:06 pm

    Okay 6 cores it is then, thanks for the advice.

    Any opinion on XDCAM EX + R9 290?

    Going by that table I linked to earlier it supports GPU acceleration with the advantage of being a much newer card. Though I have never used XDCAM EX, is it comparable to MainConcept apart from higher/fixed bitrate? Video is for YouTube only.

  • John Rofrano

    July 4, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    [Simon Graham] “Any opinion on XDCAM EX + R9 290?”

    I’ve never tried to use XDCAM EX to upload to YouTube but as long as YouTube accepts it. the quality should be great because XDCAM EX is 35Mbps MPEG-2. I find that my ATI Radeon HD 5870 renders to MainConcept AVC slightly faster than to XDCAM EX but that might be different with a newer card like the R9 290. I don’t know.

    ~jr

    http://www.johnrofrano.com
    http://www.vasst.com

  • Dave Osbun

    July 5, 2014 at 2:17 am

    Have you tried pricing an Intel Xeon processor (and associated motherboard)? Might be able to fit in your budget if you do choose the Radeon card that John recommended.

    Dave

  • Simon Graham

    July 7, 2014 at 10:50 am

    Thanks Dave,

    I’ve had a look into the xeon processors and for my budget it looks like the i7 is the way to go.

    Ive ordered all my parts apart from the graphics card: HD 6970 vs R9 290

    Does anyone have any experience with XDCAM EX vs MainConcept for upload to YouTube?

    Thanks again everyone.

  • David Norman

    July 16, 2014 at 5:39 am

    for the price the 3930k or the 4930k are the best bang for buck 6 core CPUs …. for video editing we dont need ECC ram and such you get with Xeon line…

    $500 for a CPU is nice with 6 cores and if you dare to overclock and test for stability you can get great performance out of the 3930/4930k cores.

    I recently made the same choice

    Dell XPS 15″ 9350 i7, 512gb SSD, Nvidia 750m
    Intel i7 4770, R9 290, 32gb, 2xRAID0 Intel 240gb SSD, 2x2TB WD Green, 3×23″ Samsung LCDs
    https://youtube.com/adidas4275

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy