Desktop struggling with video editing, upgrade or replace?

[singlecoil]

I have a computer built by PCS about 3.5 years ago.

It has Intel Core i7-4820K @3.70GHz. 16 GB ram, a 256GB SSD amd a 1TB HDD.

This is the GPU info




It's in a large case with a decent spec power supply, I don't have the details of those to hand at the moment. Anyway, it's struggling with video editing and I know the software I use is able to utilise the graphics card and the RAM, so I'm thinking a decent GPU and 64GB RAM, but it's not a subject I know very much about so would appreciate suggestions.

Alternatively, am I better off to get a new PC?

[GrumpyTwig]

You COULD upgrade the whole thing and be better off but that's still a decent enough processor. You could upgrade the graphics and see how you fare then, upgrade the rest when a d if you feel the need.

[FurtiveFreddy]

What software are you using and how is it 'struggling'?

What video is it struggling with (resolution, codec)? How many channels are you trying to edit at one time?

Is it a dedicated editing machine or do you have loads of other stuff on it?

Edited by FurtiveFreddy on Sunday 13th January 19:14

[singlecoil]

I'm using DaVinci Resolve 15 and it's struggling with the video previews especially when I'm editing a multicam video. It's not doing too badly considering but I would like it to do better.

It's a general purpose PC running Windows 10 Pro

[Derek Smith]

I've got 32gb RAM. I have a slightly more powerful CPU.

The most demanding video software I use is Power Director 15. I've tried Resolve, one from a year or so ago, and it was somewhat less demanding.

My set-up has no problems. When I edit video I ensure I've got nothing else running, not even Word. I started doing this for years and have no idea if it is still of use.

I used an SSD for a while, until it went bang, and this appeared to make things a bit faster, but I didn't take any measurements.

[Phunk]

singlecoil said:

I'm using DaVinci Resolve 15 and it's struggling with the video previews especially when I'm editing a multicam video. It's not doing too badly considering but I would like it to do better.

It's a general purpose PC running Windows 10 Pro

If you are editing multicam, I'd recommend converting the footage to proxy and if possible edit off a fast SSD (internal or external)

[h0b0]

Do some benchmarking to see if the gpu is throttling performance. Cinebench will probably give you an idea. Userbenchmark will let you know how your components are performing to similar benchmarks. I’m having an issue with ram that was identified this way. Could be sorted by changin* the bios. I also took the chance to overclock the cpu as it was benchmarking low. Now it is way higher.

If it it the gpu then you can switch it out. Check motherboard compatibility. I don’t think it will be a problem but I wouldn’t want to be forced to buy an older gpu that I couldn’t use in future builds.

[FurtiveFreddy]

You've still not said what resolution and number of channels you're editing. There's a world of difference between 2 channels of 720 and 6 channels of 4K, but ho hum.

If you double the RAM you currently have and make sure the system is optimized and free of any unnecessary background processes, you shouldn't have much of a problem editing multi-channel 4k on that spec PC, unless there's something else wrong with it.

[krunchkin]

As someone said above - the issue you probably have here is that you’re making resolve work with the raw footage rather than proxy files. It’s very easy in resolve to get it to convert to proxies and you should find it speeds things up considerably.