Experience in rendering:
I get artifacts from time to time when using the GPU as part of the render. If I only use the CPU, it takes a lot longer, but will never have artifacts.

@YodaVonBeck That's a Vegas fault, not related to AMD or this new generation of Silicon, it happens on all hardware encoders AFAIK.

Experience in rendering:
I get artifacts from time to time when using the GPU as part of the render. If I only use the CPU, it takes a lot longer, but will never have artifacts.

 

@YodaVonBeck That's a Vegas fault, not related to AMD or this new generation of Silicon, it happens on all hardware encoders AFAIK.

I kinda figured, but also just my observation :)

On SSDs, I now own quite a few. Stick with Samsung, Western Digital, Sabrent or SK Hynix M.2 NVMe's and you won't have any regrets. Typical going price on M.2 SSDs are $100/TB. Currently the Samsung options are the best deals out there on price. I just purchased a Gen4 M.2 NVMe 2TB 980 Pro for $140, where not too long ago it was in the $230 price range.

@Rednroll The Samsung 980's are failing prematurely which caused the firesales. It is hoped if you have an affected drive and flash the new firmware immediately before it's used, there won't be any damage. Any damage done already will remain.

https://nascompares.com/2023/02/15/failing-samsung-980-and-990-ssds-latest-update-offical-response-more/

 

Thanks for the heads up! The 1st things I do when installing new SSDs is check to see if it has the latest firmware and perform a scan of the cells and then run some speed tests to make sure nothing looks amiss out of the box. If so, I just send back to Amazon for a replacement. The recent purchase I made on the 980 Pro, all checked out ok and had the latest firmware.

I was able to do some speed test comparisons on my new system between the 980 Pro and the 970 Evo Plus which has the supposed Gen4 controller IC. Each plugged into Gen4 supported slots on the same system. Confirmed the 980 Pro is faster than the 970 Evo Plus, especially on the read side. So I took advantage of that current ongoing fire sale and was able to pick up another 2TB 980 Pro for $125. Figured since my new laptop has dual Gen 4 slots, might as well take full advantage of them with Gen 4 SSDs, was hard to pass up at their current prices. So now will have dual 2TB 980 Pros on the new system, and will put the 970 Evo Plus into an external USB case.

Samsung 970 Evo Plus

Samsung 980 Pro

I've neglected to benchmark my disks running in my new system. Thanks for reminding me. I usually snapshot the performance when I buy a new system or disk and then forget the whole thing until it's time for a new system.

Disk O/S & Programs: WD Black SN850 NVMe SSD WDS100T1X0E - SSD - 1 TB - PCIe 4.0 x4 (NVMe)

Disk Active Projects: 1TB & 2TB WD BLACK SN750 NVMe Internal PCI Express 3.0 x4 Solid State Drives

The 1st thing I do is benchmark and start tweaking/adjusting when I start setting up a new PC. I like using UserBenchmark.com since the results show how your system is performing compared to others with the same system components. This one I just finished getting Windows 10 Pro and the drivers installed and ran those tests. Still have to do some more setting/tweaking adjustments, something seems to be holding my entire system back according to comparative systems results on Userbenchmarks on my CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD speeds. My SSDs should be closer to what you have shown. May be because drivers were intended for Win11 and I decided to go with Win10 Pro.

But yeah, results like this show me while my SSD speeds are alright....they still aren't where they should be, where it points out I'm running way slower than others with those same components. Both drives performing the same amount of lack luster on performance, so must be something upstream with a driver or something else.

It seems you are going in a direction similar to mine, so I will share my experiences:

Notes :
- I went from a Ryzen 3600 XT and Radeon 5700XT, so have not tried the Nvidia / Intel combo.
- My requirements are similar to yours as I play games (also MSFS2020) and render vidoes.

1) GPU: I was considering the 4070ti and 7900XT as they are the same pricepoint where I live.
My choice ended up being the 7900XT due to 3 reasons. It did better in 1440p gaming overall. RT is not a key factor for me. It has 20Gb VRam compared to the 12Gb on the 4070ti. Some MSFS models are highly Vram hungry (guided by MSFS2020 users)
2) CPU : The value proposition of the 5800X3D was just really good as a last upgrade for my AM4 motherboard.
I chose it over a 5900X due to spending more hours playing games than rendering videos.
3) PSU : I had to upgrade to a 850watt and have observed powerspikes in the 480+ watt range from the GPU alone. What you see in the review videos on power consumption do not take this spikes into consideration and if you do not have enough power in your PSU, it will simply trip offline.

Experience in games:
With this setup I can play MSFS2020 in just under 1440p, locked at 60FPS and my util for GPU and CPU maxes out at 80% with global Ultra quality settings with no upscaling applied.

Experience in rendering:
I get artifacts from time to time when using the GPU as part of the render. If I only use the CPU, it takes a lot longer, but will never have artifacts.

Thanks for your input, mate. It is quite helpful. I just have some questions, though.

They are as follows:

• Given the driver issues reported by various YouTubers with the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX, like overheating and the higher than normal idle power tempts, some of which AMD seemed to have addressed in their latest driver updates for the RX 7000 series, have you noticed any of these problems yourself with your AMD RX 7900 XT?
• I did read about the transient (at least I believe that’s the word) power spikes and it appeared, from my understanding, that if you have a good 850W power supply unit (PSU) then that’d be enough to cope with the spikes; is my understanding correct (I actually never heard of this issue before watching that GN video)?

The only reason that I became against upgrading, again, to an all AMD system was because of driver issues, amongst other things. I have had some driver issues with my RX 580, even recently with my displays going black and to sleep from the driver crashing just from just opening, I think, the Microsoft Edge web browser. It then restored itself after not too long, like seconds, and my system was good again.

To be honest, upgrading my current AMD PC (see sig below) to newer AMD hardware has been tempting. But driver issues have made me avoid that temptation. I, myself, have found VEGAS Pro to work fine with my current AMD hardware and my friend @Reyfox upgraded his aging and overworked (and under paid 😁) RX 480 to a newer RX 6700 XT and has found it to be a very nice upgrade for him, with something like 3x performance gain.

As of right now, my upgrade is looking to be an Intel i5-13600K with an NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti (yes, I know it only has 8GB of vRAM like my RX 580, but I have not observed any problems with 8GB of vRAM for my video editing needs. Although, I did notice that in Task Manager, under the performance tab, that it’s telling that I have 24GB of vRAM when my RX 580 on has 8GB. My guess is that 16GB of system RAM (memory) is being reserved for graphics. This then made me wonder, if I were to buy the RX 7900 XTX with it’s 24GB of vRAM, would that mean that my system wouldn’t need to reserve any system RAM (memory) for my graphics card?

My guess is that 16GB of system RAM (memory) is being reserved for graphics. This then made me wonder, if I were to buy the RX 7900 XTX with it’s 24GB of vRAM, would that mean that my system wouldn’t need to reserve any system RAM (memory) for my graphics card?

Not reserved ram, but the maximum that may be used, which is half your system ram, That would mean you have 32GB ram, Your GPU is 8GB +16GB = 24GB. If you were to play Last of Us Part1 on Ultra Quality at 1440P or even 1080P your experience will be laggy because the textures can't fit in Vram and must swap out to system ram which is slow. That would be the same problem you'd experience with an NLE with a full Vram, but some software demand everything remains in Vram, or it won't work

Drivers have been a problem with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. I had a RX480 in my computer for a long time. Never an issue or problem. The only time I would update my graphics driver if I were having problems. Since I wasn't, I'd be on the same driver "forever".

Right now, I have zero issues with the RX 6700XT 12GB graphics card. I considered the the 7900 series, but just am not going to spend that type of money. I can wait for things to render.

There have been times (I can't remember if it was benchmarking or using a plugin), where 11.2GB of graphics RAM was used. Forgive my failing memory. And it has been recommended here by others, if you plan on editing 4K, 12GB or more should be on your list.

As for CPU's, choose your poison. I've stayed with and have been quite happy with the AMD platform allowing me to upgrade for several years with just a BIOS update to the motherboard, being overall, more cost effective for me. And yes, the battle between AMD and Intel is one of seconds. Not hours or days.

I can be a generation or two behind the current hardware. I've reached the limit of upgrading AMD X570, and it's quite a spiffy build that will be good for years to come.

My guess is that 16GB of system RAM (memory) is being reserved for graphics. This then made me wonder, if I were to buy the RX 7900 XTX with it’s 24GB of vRAM, would that mean that my system wouldn’t need to reserve any system RAM (memory) for my graphics card?

Not reserved ram, but the maximum that may be used, which is half your system ram.

Ah, okay. Noted. So, regardless of how much vRAM your GPU has the computer is still going to have a maximum for the amount of system RAM that can be used for graphics, correct?

That would mean you have 32GB RAM..

You’d be correct (my PC specs are in my sig).

Your GPU is 8GB +16GB = 24GB.

Ah okay. So, does that mean if my GPU had 24GB of vRAM with my 32GB of system RAM that this total would be 40GB (i.e. GPU 24GB + 16GB = 40GB)?

If you were to play Last of Us Part1 on Ultra Quality at 1440P or even 1080P your experience will be laggy because the textures can't fit in Vram and must swap out to system ram which is slow.

So, the more vRAM the better I take it?

That would be the same problem you'd experience with an NLE with a full vRAM, but some software demand everything remains in vRAM, or it won't work

My apologies, but what do you mean here?

Do you find you are running out of VRAM for VEGAS? My 4GB GPU system does hit limits with AI Fx and either it doesn't work or I have to turn down the settings to get it to work. My 8GB card has yet to hit such a limit. With AI Fx in Vegas it doesn't seem to roll over to system ram at present.

For everything else in VEGAS it's never been an issue for me but maybe there are use cases that are different (HDR, 8K, Braw?)

Right now, I have zero issues with the RX 6700XT 12GB graphics card. I considered the the 7900 series, but just am not going to spend that type of money. I can wait for things to render.

Yes, if I am honest, the amount of money that is asked for higher-end graphics these days is quite ridiculous. I have actually thought about half upgrading, initially, from my Ryzen 7 1700 to the Ryzen 7 7700 (65W) and then upgrading my RX 580 to the RX 7700 XT once it’s released. This is something I have seriously considered.

There have been times (I can't remember if it was benchmarking or using a plugin), where 11.2GB of graphics RAM was used. Forgive my failing memory. And it has been recommended here by others, if you plan on editing 4K, 12GB or more should be on your list.

Well, I know that the RTX 3060 has 12GB of vRAM (apparently now there’s also an 8GB version). It appears, at least here in Australia, that a lot of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards are starting to disappear from computer stores, at least online, with an “end of life” status shown of them, even if they’re available to purchase. I believe it’s because of the next series of graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA, that being the RX 7000 series and RTX 40 series respectively. There doesn’t seem to be many AMD RX 6000 series graphics available here, unfortunately.

As for CPU's, choose your poison. I've stayed with and have been quite happy with the AMD platform allowing me to upgrade for several years with just a BIOS update to the motherboard, being overall, more cost effective for me.

Yes, that has been good. Unfortunately for me, I tried updating my Gigabyte X370 motherboard to support the AMD Ryzen 5000 series, which the Gigabyte website saids my motherboard supports, and using Gigabytes own instructions to me (as I did contact them), and updating AMD drivers where needed (i.e. AMD chipset drivers) and installing utilities where needed, it sent the main BIOS of my Gigabyte motherboard (as it has a dual BIOS) into a perpetual boot loop.

Fortunately, from looking at my motherboard’s manual, the main BIOS isn’t broken. But I just don’t know how to fix it so I currently have it on the secondary backup BIOS and my computer is booting up alright, thankfully. I can still get into the UI of the main BIOS, which is good. Which, I can imagine if it were broken, I wouldn’t be able to.

And yes, the battle between AMD and Intel is one of seconds. Not hours or days.

So, there’s no real advantage, in your personal view, going with one of the other?

I can be a generation or two behind the current hardware.

Well, I’m more than a generation or two behind. I’m about 4-5 generations behind, if I’m correct.

I've reached the limit of upgrading AMD X570, and it's quite a spiffy build that will be good for years to come.

Ah, I just looked. You have the exact CPU that I bought but had to send back because of said issue above. I’m happy for you, mate. How much better is that Ryzen 9 5950X over your previous Ryzen 9 3950X?

It's doesn't seem to be mentioned as much these days as used to be a decade or so ago, but there is a "sweet spot" of getting the best performance/cost balance out of technology at any point in time (which is ever changing). Unless there is a specific reason to go beyond that sweet spot, going bigger usually introduces a reducing rate of return for the extra investment.

Do you find you are running out of VRAM for VEGAS?

Personally, I don’t think so. I mainly work with 576i - 4K25p video footage (will be 4K50/60p if you include videos recorded from me and my family’s iPhones) and I don’t believe I have seen my system run out of my RX 580’s 8GB of vRAM.

My 4GB GPU system does hit limits with AI Fx and either it doesn't work or I have to turn down the settings to get it to work.

Oh, that’s not good.

My 8GB card has yet to hit such a limit. It doesn't seem to roll over to system ram.

Well, that’s good, What sort of videos and codecs are you working with?

For everything else in VEGAS it's never been an issue for me but maybe there are use cases that are different (HDR, 8K, Braw?)

Yeah, perhaps. I don’t see myself ever going to 8K, at least for an extremely long time. I still find 1080p video still decent quality, if you have a good camera.

It's doesn't seem to be mentioned as much these days as used to be a decade or so ago, but there is a "sweet spot" of getting the best performance/cost balance out of technology at any point in time (which is ever changing). Unless there is a specific reason to go beyond that sweet spot, going bigger usually introduces a reducing rate of return for the extra investment.

Interesting food for thought. On that note, I have been greatly been considering going with the Intel i5-13600K and RTX 3060Ti and I know that I would be happy with this kind of upgrade. Apparently also, the current mentioned upgrade that I’m strongly considering, that I just mentioned, seems to be a popular one.

I generally work with X-AVC S (Sony) 8-bit UHD footage from cameras. Also Zoom recordings and sometimes AVC or HEVC from GoPros and phones that other people give me. I also have a big library of test footage to play with.

I bought for today and the system should be good for years to come. It performed admirably in the VEGAS benchmarks so I think I chose well for my needs. I do plan to replace the GPU during the system's life but am unwilling to spend more than I did (~$300) until I have a compelling reason to.

Full build is here: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/rZ9NnQ Actual total was ~$1700. It could have been cheaper if I went with DDR4 ram or less than 64GB. I also don't need two m.2 2TB SSDs.

@MH7 I previously had the Ryzen 9 3900X 12core/24thread CPU. I haven't benchmarked it yet, but with the a few of the projects I have, I tested the 3900X before upgrading, and with the 5950x, the rendering was 20% faster in one editor and in Vegas, 10-15% faster.

If I get a hardware "itch" that needs to be scratched, I'll see what is out there and decide what path to take.

As for your BIOS problem, good you had dual BIOS. I passed on my 1700x and Gigabyte B350 Gaming X to the wife. It's more than what she needs. But I never had any problems updating the BIOS in that board. I would ask if you tried again. With the X570, there is a USB on the backplane of my mobo that also is the Q-Flash spot for the USB drive. When I BIOS update, the only thing on the flash drive (usually an 8GB) is the BIOS file.

 

Full build is here: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/rZ9NnQ Actual total was ~$1700. It could have been cheaper if I went with DDR4 ram or less than 64GB. I also don't need two m.2 2TB SSDs.

It’s been awhile since I built a desktop. These GPU prices are through the roof now. Just to show how long it’s been. When I last built a desktop I recall thinking, $100-$200 just for a video card? Now they’re $1k-$2k+!

Even with my recent laptop purchase where I know the laptop versions aren’t nowhere as powerful as the desktop, it was a +$500 upgrade to go from an RTX-4070 to the 4080 and +$1k to the 4090. I hard swallowed the +$500 4080 pill, hope it was worth it.

Just an FYI for anyone who is in the market for a good deal on the Sk Hynix P41 Platinum Gen4 NVMe 2TB SSD. The price on Amazon has just dropped to $157 which is the best price I've seen on that SSD.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QVD9V7R/?coliid=I2RF5WF8RPZ1SG&colid=60DORVO8NS3V&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

Don't know how long that price will last or if it will continue to drop. It's price was $245 last week. I'm pretty tempted to purchase another one, but I currently have an over abundance of 2TB M.2 SSDs.

That's a great drive at a great price.

That's a great drive at a great price.

I know right!? I think I got pretty great deals on my recent purchases of (2) 980 Pro 2TB SSDs ($140 & $125). However, think I may have gone with a couple of those instead at that price. I'm actually still within the 30 day return window. <hmmmm?> Definitely nice seeing the prices on these things finally coming down.

@MH7 I previously had the Ryzen 9 3900X 12core/24thread CPU. I haven't benchmarked it yet, but with the a few of the projects I have, I tested the 3900X before upgrading, and with the 5950x, the rendering was 20% faster in one editor and in Vegas, 10-15% faster.

So, in your personal view, do you believe that the upgrade from the Ryzen 9 3900X to Ryzen 9 5950X, was a significant upgrade for you?

If I get a hardware "itch" that needs to be scratched, I'll see what is out there and decide what path to take.

Yes, that’s what I usually do as well. But I never want to just upgrade for the sake of upgrading (FYI — Of course, I’m not speaking against anyone who does or would). When I upgrade I really do try to consider all of my options.

As for your BIOS problem, good you had dual BIOS.

Yes, I am very thankful for that. That is one feature that newer motherboards don’t have. Although, it seems to me, from the little research I have done, that instead of a having a backup BIOS (AKA dual BIOS), most of them allow you to flashback the BIOS to the previous update, of which my current motherboard doesn’t have. I have thought about downgrading it back to the F8 BIOS that it was on but I don’t know if it’d fix it or make the problem worse.

As you might not know (I don’t know if I mention it), I did previously update my main BIOS from F5 to F8 without any problems. Although, the Gigabyte website did not say, and Gigabyte themselves did say that I could upgrade directly from F8 to F20. I have wondered if I should have update to the F10 BIOS update before it. But, as I mentioned, the Gigabyte website nor Gigabyte themselves, said it would be problem. And all of my AMD drivers were up-to-date prior to the update, along with any utilities required.

But I never had any problems updating the BIOS in that board.

I’m glad you had no problems. That’s great!

I would ask if you tried again.

I have not tried again. If I did, would you have any recommendations of how I should proceed?

With the X570, there is a USB on the backplane of my mobo that also is the Q-Flash spot for the USB drive.

Unfortunately my motherboard doesn’t have that Q-Flash option, as it’s a 1st generation AMD Ryzen motherboard.

When I BIOS update, the only thing on the flash drive (usually an 8GB) is the BIOS file.

This was the situation with my flash drive as well. It just had the one BIOS file and my plan was to boot back into Windows 10 after each update, remove the BIOS file that I had put on my flash drive, and then get the next one, etc.

Just on a slightly different subject, with any recommendations that you guys mention, especially if referring to me, you’ve got to consider Australian prices. My current budget to upgrade would be around and close to AU$3,000.

Back in 2017 of the 4th September, when I bought the main components of my current system, it cost me close to AU$2,600. But, because of price increases, I know that I have to increase my budget to accomodate them.