[Clive Mclaughlin]

So, aside from transitions and effects, general playback is dictated solely by the processor?

I’ve built a few PC’s over the years and generally have no problems upgrading components on my own, but CPU upgrade seems like a trickier more complex task? Is it?

I know with motherboards, a clean install of OS is generally required – does the same apply for CPU upgrade??

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Surely somebody knows the correct information?

I was going to upgrade my GTX to a newer model, but has read that some newer GTX’s are unable to use OpenCL with Vegas.

With my GTX 570 on a test render I got 22seconds on CPU and on CUDA, but 14 seconds on OpenCL.

With my new RT 390 , I get 22 seconds on all. Therefore, no GPU acceleration is being applied in the render process.

This is annoying, but I could live with it.

My main issue is the preview in multicam mode with a 4k track.

What kind of spec would be required for smooth playback? Is my CPU the weak point?

I almost bought the GTX 970, would it have been better?
If somebody tells me exactly what will make my Vegas run without hiccup, I will go out and buy it!!

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Thanks Scott,
I’ve always disabled resample – but more just to reduce the motion blur type look i get sometimes. On this occassion I hadn’t and so I gave it a try. Unfortunately I saw no improvement in preview. Going from 2 up to 15 occasionally and back to 2/3/4.

[Clive Mclaughlin]

That wouldn’t favour either the old GPU nor the new. It just improves general render times. What I’m wanting to know is why what seems like an upgrade (as in newer and more expensive) is in fact yielding sometimes poorer results when dealing with Vegas.

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Cheers John, I’m certainly considering it. Tell me though, Would Vegas run ok with the source files on an external drive via USB 3.0??

I’m thinking the 64GB SSD might hold OS, Vegas and Photoshop? And that would be all I would need. I could then buy an external drive firstly and an HDD at a later date.

An eSata drive requires a power source doesn’t it? So it doesn’t really work with the idea of the laptop being portable.

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Good points John. And I’m only just realising this is a quad core i7, because I’m finding it difficult finding an Ideapad with the full i7 as opposed to the lightweight mobile versions.

Plenty to think about…

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Need a HDD for it, and would want to upgrade ram, but someone said because its only 32bit windows, 4GB is the max?

Or was I told wrong? Buying 64bit OS on top of teh other upgrades would make it too pricey I think.

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Thanks for the heads up John!

[Clive Mclaughlin]

I think this is the best option I can find within my budget. Looks like i7 is just not an option for less than £550…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-K55VD-SX494H-Notebook-Graphics-Metallic/dp/B009YUF56Q/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1359068401&sr=1-3

Anyone mind advising me on the spec?

Close second is this one. Love the ideapad – not sure about the red though!

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_Z58_1292737.html?utm_medium=google_shopping&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=google_shopping

[Clive Mclaughlin]

Thanks John,

Just to clarify. Obviously I know you would recommend a top notch GPU, but since money is tight, would you say I’d be as well saving money and dropping the GPU from my search, rather than getting a below par one that will hardly benefit me?

I’d hate to even spend £50 more thinking it was for an improvement if you are telling me, it may not be!