>> it takes full advantage of on a system, which I think is correct too.
Probably depends on the codec. Don't know what the interface is like. No reason the codec could not start threads, but as I said, don't know the interface to a codec so I can't say for sure.
I am trying to determine if there is a significant benefit in using 2 quad-core processors versus 1 quad core, to reduce rendering times.
Vegas is limited to 4 threads (not cores), so it is not clear to me if you would need 8 threads to fully utilize the 8 cores.
So, would a dual quad core workstation reduce the render time when compared to a single quad core? Significantly ?
I was told a while back that the system overhead to manage the more than 4 cores/threads was so great (traffic jam) that there was no significant benefit to having more than 4 cores or threads, thus the maximum of 4 threads in Vegas.
there's 16 rendering threads in the 64 bit version - that's where you will most likely see help with a dual processor machine.
For video card - just make sure you get one that doesn't share the RAM with the motherboard - uses its own RAM only. I don't think the video card will have any effect on rendring othewise.