Computer upgrade for 4k work?

[Scott Francis]

I have a 4790 Devil’s Canyon CPU and an AMD R9 290 and can edit and preview 4K video pretty easily (I use a Panasonic GH4).
Depending on your needs, I would suggest just upgrading to an AMD GPU and see how that works for you. If you are only doing short videos, that may be all you need. If you find it isn’t cutting it, you can then look to upgrade your CPU and so forth and still use the AMD GPU you already bought.

Xavier (Scott) Francis
Mind\’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Tamas Tamas]

Thanks, I’ll try that first.

[Steve Rhoden]

I also recommend an AMD GPU as Scott advised, not everything revolves around Intel.
And also get Mercalli as you mentioned earlier in your post, it’s better and
cuts out the round-tripping from Virtualdub + deshaker routine.

Steve Rhoden (Cow Leader)
Film Maker & VFX Artist.
Owner of Filmex Creative Media.
Samples of my Work and Company can be seen here:
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia

[Wayne Waag]

[Tamas Tamas}

Before embarking on a massive upgrade project, you need to find out why you are getting such long render times. Something is definitely NOT set up correctly. As a test, I took a 1 min clip of 4K footage. I added a crop, a white balance FX, a color curve FX and an Unsharp Mask FX. I then rendered these to XAVC S (a digital intermediate using avc/264). For a UHD (3840 x 2160) render, the time was only 5:18 minutes. For a render to HD (1920 x 1080), the time was 2:04. I’m running an i7-3770K processor with an inexpensive Nvidia 650 card. With your specs, you should have even quicker render times. Again, something is definitely not set up correctly.

Question, have you enabled GPU processing in your preferences? Under the video tab, there is a drop-down menu for “GPU acceleration of video processing”. Make sure that your GTX 970 is selected.

wwaag

[Tamas Tamas]

Thanks Wayne, so far I mostly stayed away from GPU rendering, because I’ve read that it delivers lesser quality as CPU. True, I haven’t done a real comparison myself…

[Wayne Waag]

so far I mostly stayed away from GPU rendering, because I’ve read that it delivers lesser quality as CPU

Then you have a basic misunderstanding. What I suggested is to enable GPU support for video FX processing, not rendering. In other words, it processes your effects such as color curves, sharpening, etc. which is much faster than simply having the CPU doing all of the processing. For certain render templates, there are options for GPU support, including Sony AVC and Mainconcept AVC, but I never use these. Again, your rendering times are improved, often dramatically, as a result of FX processing, not the actual render process itself. Regarding render quality, IMHO there are better encoders outside of Vegas including Handbrake (my current choice) and TMPGEnc’s Mastering Works. These also support true GPU rendering using QuickSync which you could also use since you have an Intel processor. For high bit rate renders, I can’t tell the difference between a QuickSync and CPU renders, except that QuickSync is much faster. The bottom line is that you already have a pretty powerful system and you will not see dramatic improvements with new hardware. The recommendation for an AMD card is probably good one, but you will see improved timeline and render performance only because of a better GPU implementation for faster FX processing.

wwaag

[Russ Froze]

Hi Tamas, I would concur with Wayne, there is something amiss in the render system setup. Perchance is the render source on the same drive as the render destination? If so this needs correcting. Also do not place source and render files on the OS drive.According to specs, this is a powerful system and should do much better.
As to GPU rendering, don’t be afraid of it, it works wonders and will serve well for the most part. In 3D apps there may be visual differences in shadow areas but for final render these calculations have already been done so the GPU is not requested for that function.
I use an AMD Phenom hex core with a Quadro 4000 to edit 4K out of a GH4 via an Atomos Shogun (10 bit 4:2:2) and my old system does surprisingly well.
Question how much ran is vegas allowed to use. Do not give Vegas too much Ram for Vegas seems to get drunk on excessive Ram. Stick with the default setting for Ram.
Russ Froze