New Desktop For After Effects

[Omar Wanis]

Hey guys, thanks to you, i have assembled a fine build.

I just have 1 last question regarding the Processor, i was originally aiming for the i7-8700k as it has a good base frequency 3.7 GHz and turbo 4.7 GHz.
But i might not find it here, and i can’t wait to get it online, so as a replacement, i had 2 options, either i7-8700 (3.2 GHz up to 4.6 GHz) and i7-7700k (4.2 GHz up to 4.5 GHz)

I like the base frequency of the i7-7700k a lot, but it has only 4 cores, and other memory and cache limitations i think.
While the i7-8700 is at 3.2 GHz, the turbo will do just fine getting it up to 4.6 GHz.

My question is, when do i usually benefit from those turbo boosts? I know that the CPU takes away some power from other cores and powers 1 core to get enhanced single-threaded performance, but when does it happen? If I open After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere and C4D for example, does that mean the PC is obliged to use more cores to empower all of these and can’t sacrifice those powers and i’ll get down to 3.2 GHz performance for After Effects? Do i need to just open After Effects alone to gain that enhanced performance?

Basically i know that the microprocessors these days function in multi-core fashion by nature even in smaller scales like u guys explained, but where does it draw the line between the 3.2 GHz and the 4.6 GHz because the difference is huge.

Thank you guys!

[Andrew Somers]

Hey Omar,

The 8700 absolutely stomps on the 7700— get the 8700 it beats the 7700 in every area and benchmark.

While the 8700 has a base clock of 3.2 GHz it has an all core boost of 4.3 GHz and a single core boost of 4.6 GHz. The 7700 has a base of 3.6 GHz (not 4.2 — the 7700 in max turbo tops out at 4.2 Ghz, less than the all-core-max for the 8700).

Plus that 8700 has 50% bigger cache at 12 MB instead of 8Mb, and the 8700 uses much faster RAM (DDR4 2666) than the 7700.

Plus the 8700 has six cores instead of four — that’s huge. Seriously dude I don’t care what others might be telling you regarding multi-threading/multi-frame render, because YOU NEED CORES more than Mars Needs Women. And lots of them. It’s not just for After Effects, it’s your entire working environment. With more cores you can run more apps at the same time, which is important for workflow reasons.

I’ll typically have Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere/Avid/FCP, Mocha, a couple dozen browser windows, a hex editor, BB, Pandora, QT Player, Screen sharing of the servers, and a Filemaker database. When something is going to take a minute (like a save or export) in one workspace, I’ll Ctrl-Slide to another workspace and work on that bit rather than waiting.

Oh yea, on Mac OS we have “spaces” where you have multiple complete desktops. I set each major app in its own space so I can quickly toggle over. I think Windows 10 finally has something like that (I believe they call it Virtual Desktops).

What you need to have this kind of workflow/Env is a LOT of RAM and a LOT of CORES.

ALSO: Outside of After Effects, multi cores are important. Cinema 4D will fill your CPUs to the top. having 12 total vcores on the 8700 will make a big difference in apps like C4D instead of the 8 on the 7700.

As for your question of who/when will the app or system take advantage? I don’t know Windows as well as Linux/OSX so I can’t really say, but that kind of things is part of the Operating System Abstraction Layer, and the app may be optimized to take advantage of this. Regardless, the OS also spreads “single threads” across multiple processors. Windows 10 also allows you to assign cores to specific apps.

The one thing you want to do to make sure you can use and work in TURBO mode is to make sure you have EXCELLENT COOLING. If the CPUs overheat, they will drop down to base . The “standard cooling” is not enough. Liquid cooling is best. Also, properly applying a high quality silver heat sink grease to the CPU is critically important for stable operation.

In short: The 8700 at about the same price as the 7700, and the 8700 is a better chip in terms of performance, TDP per core, and usability in what you are going to find is a CPU intensive environment. I SWAMP my 24 cores on a regular basis to the point hte fans roar and I trip the breaker on the UPS…

EDIT TO ADD: Also, what brand mother board are you getting? On a Gigabit in particular, but others as well, you can run Mac OS X and dual boot, that’s something useful to think about as well.

Cheers!

Andrew Somers
VFX & Title Supervisor
https://www.GeneralTitles.com

[Omar Wanis]

Thanks!
About the 7700k, i stated that it has 4.2 GHz frequency because it says so on the Intel website.

My Complete Build goes like this:
– Motherboard: Z H370 Gaming 3 Wifi
– CPU: Intel Core i7-8700
– RAM: 16GB x 2 Crucial 2400
– GPU: GTX 1070 Ti 8GB
– Storage: AData Sii 480 GB M.2 SSD && 1 TB Seagate 7200 HDD
– Cooler: Hyper 212 Turbo
– Power Supply: BitFenix 650W Gold
– Case: Cooler HAF 912
– Screen: Asus 27” 1PS
– OS: Windows 10 64-bit

I know there might be better options, but i hit the top of my budget and i can’t go further so i need to compromise a bit, and again my main focus is mainly After Effects, a bit of C4D, a bit of Photoshop and Premiere Pro.

Note: I asked the shop if there are any drawbacks to this build, compatibility issues, stuff that won’t fit in or something like that, they told me it’s completely fine and the Motherboard is still usable if i need to add more RAM or upgrade CPU or GPU. Hope They are right and I’m not screwed ????

[Andrew Somers]

Hi Omar,

That looks like a solid machine for what you are doing. Glad to see you got the better graphics card and CPU, I think you’ll be pleased with performance.

As to the CPU – my bad, I thought you originally said 7700, not 7700k. Still, I still think the 8700 you are getting is a better chip. Among other things tghe TDP is 50% better than the 7700k, and that means it can run in turbo longer before a thermal issue causes it to slow down.

Best of luck!!

Andrew Somers
VFX & Title Supervisor
https://www.GeneralTitles.com