Recommended video card for PE2021

[sagetone]

Hi,

I've been diving into PE2018 and now PE2021 this year like I didn't expect. But alas, in this weird year of 2020, what else is there to do but learn cool new skills. 🙂 I'm a singer and a musician and this year have been learning how to produce virtual choir videos. We're currently on our 9th project. I posted a few days ago some questions about the new Draw tool in PE2021. In this current project, I have 30 tracks for choir singers, 1 for a soloist, and a few more for music, static background image, titles and credits. I have used the Draw tool on 30 of the choir tracks. This is bogging down my PC much more than in previous projects. So, I've a few questions about PCs and video cards. Please let me know if this is not the right forum to post these questions.

As a musician, I build my PCs, optimized for audio work. Here are the specs of my current machine, roughly 5 yrs old: i7 5820K (Haswell E), ASRock X99 Extreme 4 sys board, 32GB DDR4-2132, OS = Win 10, Samsung EVO SSD drives, video card = AMD Radeon HD 5450 (1GB).

I chose the AMD card because it is fanless and thus completely quiet. Great for an audio workstation, but now I'm finding not so great for a video editor. With the AMD card in PE2021, for example, "Use GPU accelerated effects..." in Preferences/General is grayed out, not even selectable.

I plan to build a new PC next year, and would like to know about any special requirements for a video editing machine. Prior to this complete system rebuild, I plan to get a new video card. I know that I won't be able to stay fanless. What are recommendations for video cards for PE2021 and Premiere Pro if I decide to upgrade? What about requirements for the PC itself? Again, if this is not the right forum for these questions, can you suggest another forum? I can also ask in audio/DAW forums (like kvraudio.com).

Thank you, Todd

[John T Smith]

For PrE 2021 check the list here https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/using/gpu-acceleration.html

For video editing in general, this link has lots of information... aimed a Premiere Pro, but still good ideas

https://community.adobe.com/t5/video-hardware/premiere-pro-hardware-articles-to-read-before-you-buy-...

What I built in 2014 is no longer leading edge, but it works well for me

Windows 10, currently at version 20H2 - Premiere Elements 2021
i7-4930k 3.4Ghz 6 Core CPU on Asus Sabertooth X79 Motherboard with Corsair 2x16Gig Ram
Raidmax Gold Power http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152044
Samsung 256Gig SSD Boot Win10 64bit Pro and ALL program installs, about 80Gig is used
Crucial M550 512G SSD for all input... video files and pictures from camera
Crucial M550 256G SSD for temporary and video project files
Crucial M550 128G SSD for all exported output video files
MSI 2Gig GTX760 video adapter, nvidia driver 432.00

[sagetone · Accepted solution]

Thank you John, those articles are really helpful! I've got some studying to do!!

[HOTELECHOMIKE]

Put your money intro the CPU & don't concentrate too much on the video card.

I have a new PC for PE 2021 (not because of PE2021; rather that my old one was expiring): AMD Ryzen 5 3400G CPU with onboard graphics to which I have 2 DELL monitors attached. 

Works great for HD videos & would probably be OK for 4K (have 32 GB RAM & 1TB SSD).

[sagetone]

Hi HOTELECHOMIKE, thanks, that's an interesting approach. For my rebuild next year, I have been looking at the Ryzen 9 3900K.

You say concentrate on the CPU (with integrated gfx) and not a discrete video card. One question I have about PE2021 is multi-core support. My current i7 is 6-core. Moving Draw tool points around yesterday in my 30+ track project pegged ALL cores at 100%. The system was so slow to respond that I opened Window's Resource Monitor. I know my current CPU is pretty good (though 5 yrs old) but my video card is really struggling to keep up. As I mentioned in the original post, I bought it because it is fanless and thus silent in my audio workstation PC.

[sagetone]

Do you know or does anyone know if PE2021 supports multi-core CPUs?

[HOTELECHOMIKE]

My AMD Ryzen 5 CPU has 4 cores/8 threads & when rendering (either via the Render button or when exporting) I see all 8 close to 100%.  So Yes.

[sagetone]

Thanks HOTELECHOMIKE

[John T Smith]

If I was building today I would pick one of these and a compatible Z490 motheboard and memory
-I prefer Intel processors, although I did build my wife a computer with an AMD which is ok

Both have Intel UHD Graphics 630 CPU graphics so a separate video card MAY not be needed
-I don't know anything about the graphics processor on the CPU, would need to read and
-test to decide if I wanted to buy the nvidia RTX2060 and turn off onboard graphics

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i7-processors/i7-10700k.html
i7-10700K 8 cores 16 threads 16Meg processor cache 14nm 10th generation 3.80GHz
Max 128Gig DDR4-2933 Ram Intel UHD Graphics 630 processor graphics
Socket FCLGA1200 Motherboard

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i9-processors/i9-10850k.html
i9-10850k 10 cores 20 threads 16Meg processor cache 14nm 10th generation 3.60GHz
Max 128Gig DDR4-2933 Ram Intel UHD Graphics 630 processor graphics
Socket FCLGA1200 Motherboard

To go with a less expensive socket 1151 motherboard I would consider this Intel CPU

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i9-processors/i9-9900.html
i9-9900 8 cores 16 threads 16Meg processor cache 14nm 9th generation 3.10GHz
Max 128Gig DDR4-2666 Ram Intel UHD Graphics 630 processor graphics
Socket FCLGA1151 Motherboard

[sagetone]

Thanks John. Won't be til next summer that I do the rebuild, but research tonight points me to either Ryzen 9 3950X or i9 10900. Haven't decided on the video card yet.

[John T Smith]

My current computer works well with the 720p video from my Canon SX510, but IF I ever decide to buy a 4k camera below is what I would build... adding shipping, just about $2,000

530 10 Core 3.7GHz https://www.newegg.com/intel-core-i9-10900k-core-i9-10th-gen/p/N82E16819118122
--- 64 Gig Ram - CHANGED - must use non-ECC ram

213 https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232939
120 FCLGA1200 Motherboard https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813119303?Item=N82E16813119303

Intel H470 controller has more PCIe lanes and USB 3.2 compared to B460 controller

--- 500Gig boot SSD CHANGED to M.2 SSD for 4 times the program speed

100 500Gig boot https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FireCuda-Performance-Internal-ZP1000GM30001/dp/B07ZPRRSPX
55 500Gig temp/output SSD https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-blue-500gb/p/N82E16820250087
90 1T Input/backup SSD https://www.newegg.com/western-digital-blue-1tb/p/N82E16820250088
103 Full Tower Case https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811147053?Item=N82E16811147053
198 Power 1000watt https://www.newegg.com/evga-supernova-1000-g5-220-g5-1000-x1-1000w/p/N82E16817438160
35 CPU cooler https://www.newegg.com/cooler-master-hyper-212-black-edition-rr-212s-20pk-r1/p/N82E16835103278
5 Thermal Paste https://www.newegg.com/arctic-silver-as5-3-5g/p/N82E16835100007
23 DVD Writer https://www.newegg.com/asus-model-drw-24f1st-d-blk-b-as-dvd-burner/p/N82E16827135305
56 Keyboard + Mouse https://www.newegg.com/microsoft-comfort-desktop-5050-pp4-00001-usb-rf-wireless/p/N82E16823109382
145 Win10 Pro OEM https://www.newegg.com/microsoft-windows-10-pro-64-bit/p/N82E16832588491
360 RTX2060 https://www.newegg.com/zotac-geforce-rtx-2060-zt-t20600k-10m/p/N82E16814500495
1955

[sagetone]

Thanks John! That's a helpful list. I ended up buying an EVGA GTX1060 6GB. Should be able to handle 4K just fine, but does lack ray tracing and DLSS in the RTX series. In order of priority, I'm a (1) musician, (2) video editor, (3) not a gamer. 🙂

Yours is a good note on the system board and PCIe lanes. I'm not decided yet on Ryzen 9 vs i9 10900; checking with an audio forum on that. And of course, will emphasize a "silent" case. Good discussion, thank you again!

[John T Smith]

1000watt may be more than I need, 850watt 'gold' may be enough, especially with all SSD
$120 https://www.newegg.com/cooler-master-mwe-gold-850-v2-mpe-8501-afaag-us-850w/p/N82E16817171180

[John T Smith]

I built my current computer with a 1000w power supply, because when I started I had intended on regular hard drives and switched to all SSD at the last minute... and the GTX760 video card requires two direct power feeds

What I've specc'd out as a possible replacement is all SSD from the start, and the RTX2060 only requires one direct power feed due to the new design using less power

https://www.newegg.com/tools/power-supply-calculator/
-not counting case fans I need 500 watt

Since a power supply should never be run at capacity, I've decided on the 850w unit I mentioned

Drops the total to $1,867 for a final price, with shipping and tax, of 'about' $2,000

[sagetone]

Thanks John.  That Newegg PSU calculator is helpful, too.  Numbers were a little lower than what I have been calculating in my own spreadsheet.  I add up the components and then divide by an assumed PSU efficiency to get the total.  And then bump from there, as you mentioned, don't want to run at capacity.

[John T Smith]

An added thought...

For about twice the price to get about 4 times the speed, use an M.2 SSD for boot

Motherboard has M.2_1 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280/22110 (supports PCIe 3.0 x4 mode)

$115 500Gig https://www.newegg.com/wd-500gb-sn750/p/0D9-00MG-00002

or $115 500Gig https://www.newegg.com/seagate-500gb-firecuda-510/p/N82E16820248132

Mounting to the motherboard is easy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pijxdu7BKF8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb7G2g9Jy6U&vl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UeWMgjwogU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8V5VVDW2-Y

[sagetone]

It's going to be closer to summer '21 before I start my rebuild, and I haven't started pricing yet in detail.  Definitely planning on m.2 for the boot drive, was thinking about that for the 2nd drive, too, but if too costly, I'll just stay with SSD.  I have a 3rd drive for audio samples and audio library, that's probably going to 2TB or 4TB, so will probably stay HDD.

[John T Smith]

I went back and looked at the specifications for the motherboard I listed with the H470 controller... it has one M.2 slot at the fastest x4 mode, and one at a slower x2 mode... to get two M.2 slots in the x4 mode for full speed requires a Z490 controller... in my preferred ASUS motherboard brand that is $212 or more... so, since a single super fast boot/program drive is (more than) I need I'm not going to consider two M.2 drives

[sagetone]

Thanks John!  Your posts are helpful as I start putting together my spec.  I've built 5 or so systems over the years (all DAW focused), but there's always new learning, like x2 or x4 mode for m.2.  Wasn't aware of that, and very good to know!!

[John T Smith]

We all learn from sharing information

I learned from @RjL190365 about needing to use UDIMM ram instead of the RDIMM I had first found

[John T Smith]

Memory CHANGE due to needing non-ECC ram

213 https://www.newegg.com/g-skill-64gb-288-pin-ddr4-sdram/p/N82E16820232939

[John T Smith]

To get the ASUS motherboard to boot from the M.2 drive I had to go into BIOS and change...
Change CSM from disabled to enabled
Change Boot from Storage from Legacy to UEFI
Change Boot from PCI-E from Legacy to UEFI

[John T Smith]

I am now working on getting everything off my old computer that has my ID, and will go back to working in PrE-2021 when that is done... until then, some information I found before I bought the components to build

My new M.2 is 6+ times as fast as SSD 3450/550=6.27

A speed ranking site shows 1st for i9-10900k vs 136th for i7-4930k

-none of the Intel 'extreme' CPU models were shown

3 CPU benchmark sites 17325vs6569=2.64 2677vs1064=2.52 11344vs4953=2.29 Avg=2.48 times faster

-the different scores 'seem' to be related to exactly what was being done during testing

[John T Smith]

Finally have old computer cleaned and ready to go away, so was able to go back to my video project

NOTE that this is all 'subjective' since I don't have a stopwatch, and I didn't think to search for a computer timer until afterwards

When I share to a DVD ISO it now takes 'less than' 1/4 the time it took on my old computer... so I am very happy with my new build

This new computer is even quieter than my old computer (and it wasn't very loud) since the case fans are 'large and slow spinning' to cool without making a lot of noise

If you don't already have a system monitor, go to https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html to be able to see what your hardware is doing

[sagetone]

Hi John, thanks! I appreciate all of your updates! I do use CPU-Z, have used it for years. I'm still several months away from my system re-build. Currently have requests into BHPhoto for availability on two video cards and an AMD processor. (MSI GTX1660Super and RTX2060Ventus, and Ryzen 5900X). Those are in short supply right now, so I'll likely start buying the components as I can get them with the full re-build planned for Spring-ish.