Best processors and graphics cards for After Effects?

Report · Jun 09, 2018

As of now, what are the best processors for After Effects (CC 2017 especially and also CC 2018) that also support 128 GB RAM?

What about the i9-7900X vs the older i7-6850K? Though intel says the base frequency of the i9-7900X is 3.3 Ghz compared to the 3.6 Ghz of the 6850K,

userbenchmark.com says it should be faster including a slightly faster single core speed.

Should the 7900X be better with standard 2D compositions? With 3D (eg. standard 3D & Cinema 4D)?

What about rendering with and without something like RenderGarden (which I don't use yet. I've tried RenderBoss but had some issue with it when I tried it like "file already in use" or something)?

What about better chips than this that are still reasonably affordable and that also support 128 GB RAM?

Also, what about good graphics cards for AE (but not just for AE) that aren't way too expensive. What about the Geforce GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB) - vs eg. the Geforce GTX 1080?

Report · Jun 09, 2018

Why do you want 128 GB RAM? That's a lot. Wouldn't 64 be more than enough?

Report · Jun 10, 2018

I already have that much RAM. I don't want to downgrade to half the amount of RAM. After Effects etc. likes RAM (RAM previews especially, especially with higher-res comps (4K etc.), rendering, caching etc.), plus running multiple programs at the same time. It's better to have enough RAM than too little (where it would start thrashing the hard disk or SSD where it would go a lot slower, plus likely reduce the life of the SSD. I'd rather not be constantly writing to an SSD either as that would make the SSD more likely to fail). I want to upgrade not downgrade and keep the system relevant for current and future projects (where it will work as well as possible no matter how complex, how many layers, no matter what resolution (eg. >=4K)/frame rate etc.).

Report · Jun 10, 2018

If I needed to work primarily on AE I would buy the cpu with the highest speed on the market.

i7-8086K goes up to 5 Ghz. AE would ran faster and it's way cheaper.

Make a search in the Forum there are a few discussions there.

Report · Jun 10, 2018

Thanks, but that processor only supports up to 64 GB RAM (and surely depending on the project, it wouldn't be as fast in operation as one that could support 128 GB, for previewing (wouldn't be able to RAM preview as much - may only be able to RAM preview half as much - everything else being equal), caching - may only be able to cache about half as much in RAM (probably less than half) so big/high-res projects/projects that included high res footage may be slower on that processor to work on), rendering etc.).

Yes the turbo mode is 5 Ghz but the base freq is 4 Ghz (it may only go up to 5 Ghz briefly under certain conditions like if the temp is okay, etc.). So yes I want a high processor speed, but also one that supports 128 GB RAM, and will be as fast as possible in AE (though I suppose if I rendered with RenderGarden/RenderFarm, they'd make use of multi-threading and so maybe having more cores/threads would be an advantage there).

See first post. Which are the best processors that also support 128 GB RAM? Any better and faster than i9-7900X (including in "standard" AE operations (the pugetsystems site hardware recommendations said there were better ones from its 6 tested processors for Cinema 4D rendering but they were less good for "standard" Ae projects. That page also lists the 8700K which is the best of its 6 tested for standard but doesn't support 128 GB RAM)? And am I correct that the i9-7900X should be faster than the i7-6850K, including in AE (even though the base freq is a bit slower - the userbenchmark site seems to say so but that wasn't in an AE test)?