11700K & ASRock W480 (low budget) Upgrade for Vegas Renders

TheRhino wrote on 4/17/2021, 12:11 PM

I'm upgrading a 2nd Xeon workstation to approx. match the performance of my 9900K / VEGA 64 LQ so I can render longer jobs on one while starting the next job on the other... Most of my work involves importing lengthy historical archive footage from films, tapes, etc. cutting-out the non-essential footage, applying some basic color correction, etc. and delivering it to the client in the intermediate of their choice plus AVC MP4 & HEVC MP4 for easy previewing... After some research, here is my plan:

$200 ASRock W480 CREATOR LGA 1200 Intel W48 (Just got from Newegg sale)
workstation class motherboard with built-in 10G LAN & TB3 vs. paying extra to add those...
(3) x16 PCIe & (8) SATA ports vs. paying extra for RAID controller.
$370 Intel 11700K (4/23 update - from Microcenter sale)
(was considering $550 Intel 11900K from Best Buy...)
$ 8 Noctua LGA1200 mounting kit /reuse Noctua NH-D14 currently on Xeon
$ 0 Reuse VEGA 56 from Xeon, got for $200 on eBay, now they go for $500+
$ 0 Reuse same case, 850W PS, OS SSD, SATAs, etc.
$ 0 Borrow 32GB from the 9900K's 64GB until DDR4 prices drop some more...

About $600 USD after tax

I was just gonna get a 10850K when Microcenter had them for $320, but then I read a post by one of the Vegas team members, VEGASDerek in the OFFTopic forum https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/intel-hardware-claim-from-intel-for-vegas-pro--127933/

A little inside detail for you here...

We work very closely with Intel and they have been very helpful in improving both encoding and decoding support with their integrated GPUs (and the dedicated GPUs) as well has helping us improve general video engine performance on the CPU side of things.

The above post was referring to some comments made by Intel posted on the Slashgear website https://www.slashgear.com/intel-details-11th-gen-rocket-lake-desktop-cpus-led-by-core-i9-11900k-16663930/

when it came to a video editing workload in Magix Vegas Pro, Intel says that the 11900K offers up to 88% better performance gen-over-gen.

This all sound promising for how V19 will utilize the new iGPU in the 11xxxK series CPUs... However, by keeping this upgrade VERY affordable, I still have room to upgrade my 3rd Xeon workstation if something better comes along... Previously, 2 years ago, I had upgraded the 1st Xeon to a 9900K & VEGA 64 LQ for $1350, so I will have about $2,000 USD invested in both upgrades, which does NOT account for storage...

Comments

TheRhino wrote on 4/25/2021, 2:16 PM

4-25-2021 Update - I spent about 3 hours replacing the old Xeon CPU, motherboard & ram with new Intel 11700K, AsRock W48 & 32 GB of DDR4 using existing case, 850W PSU, OS SSD, VEGA 56 GPU, LSI PCIe RAID, etc. Much of that time was dusting-out the old case, neatly running cabling, and reinstalling Windows 10 & apps, etc. Windows 10 automatically detected the new hardware & activated once I told it I had installed new hardware... However, afterward I reinstalled Windows & all apps just to be safe... Since my source & target drives were attached to the LSI RAID controller, I didn't lose any of my work, although I had it backed-up elsewhere...

At stock/default BIOS settings with just the 10 year-old Noctua NH-D14 fan/heatpipe cooler that was on the Xeon..., it performs nearly the same as my 9900K w/Corsair H150i liquid/radiator cooler & VEGA 64 LQ using Vegas 18.482 & AMD VEGA 21.Q1.1 enterprise driver. Don't have time to mess with overclocking yet, but it runs about 10 C cooler than my 9900K, so I've got some wiggle room...

Red Car Sample Project to 1080p MP4
11700K (stock 5 ghz) & VEGA 56 (fan) VCE = 0:13, QSV = 0:19
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & VEGA 64 LQ VCE = 0:14, QSV = 0:14
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & RTX 3060 Ti NVENC = 0:19

Sample Project 4K to 1080p FHD 25 fps MP4
11700K (stock 5 ghz) & VEGA 56 (fan) VCE = 0:50, QSV = 0:52
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & VEGA 64 LQ VCE = 0:46, QSV = 0:47
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & RTX 3060 Ti NVENC = 0:47

Sample Project 4K to 2160p UHD 25 fps MP4
11700K (stock 5 ghz) & VEGA 56 (fan) VCE = 1:45, QSV = 1:47
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & VEGA 64 LQ VCE = 1:38, QSV = 1:38
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & RTX 3060 Ti NVENC = 1:20

Sample Project 4K to 2160p UHD 25 fps HEVC
11700K (stock 5 ghz) & VEGA 56 (fan) VCE = 1:38, QSV = 1:50
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & VEGA 64 LQ VCE = 1:36, QSV = 1:42
9900K (OC to 4.8 ghz) & RTX 3060 Ti NVENC = 1:28

Preview FPS between markers in 4K Sample Project:
11700K (stock 5 ghz) & VEGA 56 (fan) VCE = 11 fps average
(a few drops to 8-9 fps)
9900K (4.8 ghz) & VEGA 64 LQ VCE = VEGA = 13 fps average
(never dropped below 12 fps)
9900K (4.8 ghz) & RTX 3060 Ti NVENC = 12.5 fps average

1 Minute Sample from a Client's Project to 4K HEVC & 4K AVC
11700K (stock 5 ghz) & VEGA 56 (fan) VCE = 1:25 & 1:21
9900K (4.8 ghz) & VEGA 64 LQ VCE = 1:19 & 1:20
9900K (4.8 ghz) & RTX 3060 Ti NVENC = 1:35 (AVC not tested)

11700K & 9900K systems were within 3% on other codecs tested…
(i.e., both rendered 1 min. 4K intermediate to ProRes422 in exactly 1:21)

Overall a pretty good upgrade for $600 USD... Most of my paid work involves transferring hours of historical film & tape media to 4K intermediates for future editing (historical documentaries, etc.) and 4K HEVC & AVC for easy previewing. I cut-out non-essential stuff & do some basic color & exposure editing, so it will be great to use my 2nd workstation to render-out long projects to various codecs while I start the next job on the 1st workstation. Should Vegas 19, etc. take advantage of CPUs with more cores and/or modern GPUs, I still have a 3rd workstation that is ready to be updated. Then, I'll just use the 11700K & 9900K for importing & background renders. It's all good!

JN- wrote on 4/25/2021, 3:01 PM

@TheRhino Great stuff, well done. We already have a benchmarking result in from JaredF on this next generation Intel iGpu. Your QSV results are also excellent. I think whats going to be of great use, for those that have a need, is the extra decoding capability of the UHD 750 for 10 bit 422. No other gpu's can do that.

TheRhino wrote on 4/25/2021, 3:15 PM

@JN- Ya, I wouldn't bother posting my results on your benchmarking spreadsheet since I'm using the older VEGA 56 & most people buying new will & should go for the 3060 Ti that @JaredF has in his system. As noted, I tested a 3060 Ti and it had better 4K results than my VEGAs, but I decided to sell it and use the cash to buy the 11700K & motherboard...

JN- wrote on 4/25/2021, 3:39 PM

@TheRhino Probably the way I worded it, but I wasn’t attempting to put you off posting your results, merely noting that you are the 2nd. user with the UHD 750. Things can get lost in translation sometimes, even english to english 😂. Best of luck with the new machine.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 4/25/2021, 11:18 PM

@TheRhino I was just going to suggest it might have been more economical to upgrade your graphics card to a 5700xt... till I spot checked current prices. I threw a 5700xt into my Xeon system last May for $488 and run the Sample Project in 34sec on either my xeon or 9900k systems. But good grief, lowest price on Amazon right now for it is almost $1,400. You did good. I would only question 16gb ram; 4k performance may suffer.

TheRhino wrote on 4/27/2021, 9:56 AM

@TheRhino I was just going to suggest... 5700xt... lowest price on Amazon right now for it is almost $1,400.

My kids have a 5700XT in one of my retired 6-core Xeon workstations + the Xeon is too slow for rendering intermediates that are not GPU assisted.... With current versions of Vegas, core speed is more important than core count, but my old overclocked Xeons only have (6) cores at 4 ghz. vs. the 9900K & 11700K's (8) cores at 5 ghz...

You did good. I would only question 16gb ram; 4k performance may suffer.

Oops, meant to say I borrowed (2) sticks of 16 for 32gb per system now... I got my last 32GB of DDR4 3200 for $100, which now goes for $170, so I'm holding out for a better deal...