Revisiting the Video Card question

[Ed012]

Sorry about revisiting the topic but I browsed the NVidia website and read the article "What is CUDA" which provides the background to GPU.

Given that Premiere Elements doesn't support graphics acceleration do I really need an NVidia graphics card. Which other brands of card do Premiere users install.

Does this also apply to Photoshop?

[Bill Sprague]

I've not been able to figure this out.  Intel has been integrating graphics into their chipsets and making them better.  For video editing of typical 10 minute "home movies" with Premiere Elements you may not need a graphics card at all!

Here is one article for reference:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/3021496/hardware/intel-integrated-chip-graphics-catching-up-with-grap...

Further, Adobe's list of minimum requirements does not list a need for a nVidia type graphics card: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/system-requirements.html

[Steve Grisetti]

I agree with Bill. If you're going to be editing with Premiere Elements, your money is better spent on a fast processor and a good RAM load.

[Bill Sprague]

And my favorite extra, if the budget allows, an SSD!

[Ed012]

I visited the NVidia Geforce Forum (PC Components discussions) and they offerd advice and also a link to Studio 1 Productions.

I emailed them as the benchmarks in the link referred to the GTX 1060 when used with Premiere CC. I said that I would be using Elements and posed the question about integrated graphics within the i7-7700K processor. I also contacted Intel Customer Support with the same question.

I have had feedback from both Dave at studio1@studio1productions.com and Intel Technical Support.

Dave's reply was as follows:

"Correct, Premiere Elements does not support GPU acceleration.  If the motherboard has an Intel graphics chip, then that is all you will need for Premiere Elements.  So you can save some money by not installing a graphics card and just using the onboard graphics.

Make sure you have at least 16 GB of system RAM and also, don't install Hard Drives, but use SSD drives.  You should have two SSD drives installed.  One for you system and all of the programs and the other drive you will want to put your photos and video clips on for editing".

Daniel at Intel replied:

Thank you for contacting Intel® Customer Support.

We can confirm that the Intel® Core™ i7-7700K Processor has integrated graphics.

Please see the below link with full specifications and Graphics description further down the page:

http://ark.intel.com/products/97129/Intel-Core-i7-7700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_50-GHz

Support links for Intel HD Graphics 630:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/graphics-drivers/graphics-for-7th-generation-intel-p...

Intel will not be able to judge performance expectations or guarantee that all user requirements, such as gaming or rendering, will be met however.

Here is a 3rd party link to compare user benchmarks; these again differ per user:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-Intel-HD-630-Desktop-Kaby-Lake/3646vsm17...

I will now contact the two online companies who provided the specs and quotes and see what they think about not including the video card. I have also thought about buying the components independently online or from a store, Maplin for example, and asking a technician to build the PC. Is there money to be saved again? I found out that The Seagate Firecuda 2TB SSHD is part solid state (the cache) and the majority is a conventional hard drive 7500rpm. I am now looking at prices of a large capacity SSD for use as the D;drive and use the that I would have spent on the video card.

[Bill Sprague · Accepted solution]

Ed012  wrote

"..................  Make sure you have at least 16 GB of system RAM and also, don't install Hard Drives, but use SSD drives.  You should have two SSD drives installed.  One for you system and all of the programs and the other drive you will want to put your photos and video clips on for editing".

There will never (in my lifetime) be SSDs as larger as I need for long term storage. 

I have one SSD and a much larger HDD.  More HDDs are for backup.  I reserve about a 50GB space on the single SSD C: for video projects.  There are preferences within Premier Elements to cause all scratch files, source files and project files to be within the single project folder.  So, a folder named, for example, "Hawaii Trip" can be on the SSD during work.  The entire folder can be moved to the HDD for storage or archiving with operating system commands to make room for a new project.  For additional work, "Hawaii Trip" can be moved back to the SSD. 

That said, if it were possible, all drives would be SSDs!

[seagates70524447]

Hi, this is the Seagate Forums Team. Thank you for considering Seagate drives. You're correct that the Seagate FireCuda is a hybrid drive. It has an 8GB solid-state cache and comes with a larger, traditional spinning-disk storage capacity. The FireCuda places most frequently used files on the SSD cache for faster loading times, then utilizes the larger spinning disk storage for main storage purposes.  SSD performance is incredibly fast, but SSD is also still fairly new to the market and costs can be extremely expensive.  The idea behind the FireCuda is to try an approach to bring the best of both worlds: Get some of that increased performance and load-time benefit, and also to stay cost-effective for our customers.

Another approach you might consider is one we have seen on this and many forums, of utilizing a small capacity SSD, a lot of people seem to consider around 250GB-500GB to be the sweet spot for their needs, along with a larger capacity spinning disk drive for more the terabyte(s) storage range. This way you can put your OS, anything that you'd like to prioritize for fast loading times, and such on this smaller SSD fast for performance, and then using the main traditional spinning drive for your main storage needs.

In the end, only you will be able to make the determination about what price point and performance level best suits your needs, and we just want to say thank you for considering us! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Seagate Technology | Official Forums Team

IronWolf Drives for NAS Applications

SkyHawk Drives for Surveillance Applications

BarraCuda Drives for PC and Gaming

[Steve Grisetti]

Seagate, why are you responding to a 3 month old question on Adobe's forum?

[seagates70524447]

Thank you for asking! We noticed that one of the recent remarks from the OP had to do with a discovery they made that the Seagate FireCuda drive is a SSHD with a small SSD cache and the rest of the drive being traditional spinning-platter, and stating that they were doing further research into their buying options, so we wanted to explain a little further about the FireCuda product, and offer solutions so that they can make informed decisions for their purchase. We are currently establishing and expanding our online presence in order to be closer to customers and deliver an even better customer service experience.

Seagate Technology | Official Forums Team

IronWolf Drives for NAS Applications

SkyHawk Drives for Surveillance Applications

BarraCuda Drives for PC and Gaming

[Steve Grisetti]

We'd really prefer you not promote your products on our forums, Seagate.

[nikS]

Old thread, I know. Having said we do not want advertising I would love to ask Adobe how they feel the hybrid is helping with CC or is it not utiliseable (is that a word)?