Adobe Premiere/Media Encoder Best Case Hardware

[Joscon5]

I have a question about what tech specs most benefit Premiere and Media Encoder.  Most of my exports are simple exports without a lot of elements, but I am converting from one format to another.  If I build out a new computer for the job, assuming that I have great disk speeds, what are the specs on the computer that will have the most impact on my render?  Is CPU speed more important, or are the number of cores more important?  How many cores is too many?  When does more RAM not add any benefit?  How important to a render is GPU, and can I use a high end gaming GPU, or do I need a workstation GPU for this sort of thing?

A lot of what I'm trying to find is what makes a dream machine, and what is just wasted money on specs that don't matter?

Thank you SO much for your help!  This will go a long way into how we build all of our edit stations going forward.

[Here is the list of all Adobe forums... https://forums.adobe.com/welcome]

[Moved from CS6 & earlier Creative Suites to Hardware forum... Mod]

[John T Smith]

Read the other questions/answers in the Hardware Forum

or

Buy a ready made Desktop Video Editing PC

-http://www.adkvideoediting.com/ or http://www.sharbor.com/ or https://www.pugetsystems.com/

[RjL190365]

Component balance is also very important. Between the CPU and the GPU, assuming that you have at least a sufficient amount of RAM for your rig to perform the tasks thrown at it comfortably, you want neither the CPU nor the GPU to be much more powerful than the other. All too often I see people trying to build an editing rig spend far too much money on a high-end CPU that there's very little room left in the total system budget for a sufficient amount of RAM and a decent GPU. Also, I've seen gamer systems that overspend on the GPU but skimp on the CPU and RAM. Both of those lopsided component balances can - and do - cause significant problems when running video editing software.

[Joscon5]

Thanks for a helpful response, RjL!

I certainly don't want to build a lopsided system, but I also don't know what composes a balanced system.  If I have a 1080ti and a 22 core 3ghz CPU, is that balanced?  Can Premiere or Media Encoder make use of that many cores, or would it benefit me to have more or less GPU?  I have a healthy budget to work with, so price (within reason) isn't a limiting factor, but I also don't want to overbuy a computer that doesn't add any real benefit to my use case.  I'm not a 3D artist, and I'm not compositing a lot of videos.  I just want to cross render content as quickly as possible when I make my minor edits. 

Thanks again for your help!

[Bill Gehrke]

22-core CPU means a $4000 Xeon and there is no logical reason to consider that series for your work that I can see.  I would second John Smith's suggestion that you contact one of the vendors listed and with a conservation where they can ask a series of questions and then come up with the ideal configuration for you to buy and then they fully support it.

I​ hope that your statement "assuming that I have great disk speeds" does not mean hard disk drives.  Today for your OS/Applications you should only be considering SSD's.  Another separate probably faster SSD should be used for your Project files and media. 

[Joscon5]

I appreciate all your responses, but I think I must not have been clear in my original question.  I'm very familiar with computer hardware, and how to put together any system that meets my needs.  The knowledge I don't have access to is how efficiently Adobe software is able to utilize the hardware.  If I build a fire breathing monster of a computer, can adobe utilize all the hardware, or can it really only utilize 8 cores and 16GB of RAM, so even if I have more than that, it makes no actual difference?  If I have a P6000, or I have a 1080ti, does it really matter much when it comes to video editing as opposed to 3D rendering?  These are the things I'm trying to get to the bottom of.

As far as hard drives, I'm working off of a Promise A-Class 8GB FC SAN with a JBOD and an E-Class attached.  I'm not hurting for speeds.

Thanks!

[Bill Gehrke · Accepted solution]

If you want to see test data on Premiere and AE performance Puget Systems has done immense amount of testing.  Also I have some Premiere Pro test data.

[CR3_]

did you find a solution for this im looking for similar info to build the best machine possible for outputting 4k RAW footage in AE using Media Encoder?

[ECBowen]

The formats and codecs have a decisive impact on which hardware is ideal for playback and rendering. Raw, R3D, and DNx for example would utilize different hardware specs than H64/H265 or Pro Res for example. The rendering as well uses different specs since Rendering is not realtime priority but playback is. I would suggest atleast the following below for Raw. Increasing the specs beyond those would depend on your workflow, FX used, budget, and desired focus to improve time efficiency.

i9 7900X or Higher

X299 board

64GB of ram DDR4 2800+

1080Ti

SSD or M.2 OS

NVMe or SSD raid Media drive

Eric

ADK

[CR3_]

We shoot on a C200 in 4k RAW then import to Divinci Resolve colour grade and Export to After Effects, we use Red Giant Keying suite, Neat Video and Reel Motion plugins then output to Media Encoder in H.264 for now but eventually will be H.265 in three formats Apple TV 4k, Apple iPhone 720p and Apple Watch 480p, iPhone and TV have white backgrounds and Watch Black.  There are a lot of masking but its basically all to remove the background and then export.  The solution im looking for is not editing the VFX artists have dedicated editing machines I need machines only to render, we looking into a HP Z840 44core unit but have been talked out of this as it can't utilise all the cores to possibly building a machine for each output using a watch folder.  So im looking for the fastest PC I can have built that will achieve this now.  This is a unique project and it has very little tolerance for error so the render farm we had built is on ice for now and this will be a 6-12 month solution while the app grows. 

If anyone has any recommendations im happy to build one and test and report back but I need the best starting point and would that be what you listed above? 

thanks again I really appreciate the help this is a unique problem and no one can give me a direct answer as I realise its a guess at this point but im now at the point of just getting something to test and go from there. 

[CR3_]

I should also mention this is all running of a enterprise synology 10Gbe server and all computers running 10Gbe back to it off a central file and the computers would be attached to this also.

[ECBowen]

For that workflow and demand 3 separate X299 Render node stations would be best since that workflow also gives fault tolerance if one of the nodes has hardware issues. The X299 stations also give significant upgrade options if workflow changes in the future to require some editing or other work and or rendering from applications such as Resolve. The Red Giant and primarily Neat plugins have had threading limitations in the past. I believe most of the Red Giant threading issues are resolved at this point but not sure about neat video. Would be surprised if they were. Those plugins may limit the render efficiency regardless of the hardware just so your aware.

Eric

ADK

[CR3_]

Thanks Eric, top you think its worth going all the way to the extreme 18cores or not worth it right about now?