What CPU for editing i7-9900K or i7-6950X?

miroslav-h wrote on 10/15/2019, 3:48 AM

Hi guys,

as far as I know VP16 needs more capable CPU than GPU for editing (in terms of lags in preview). I mostly edit 4K 10bit mp4 files 150MBps + massive color grading and I do not use proxy as it takes long time to open large project.

My current CPU is not bad it is i7-6800K overclocked to 4,1GHz (+32GB RAM, system and video files are devided on 2SSDs the video files are on fast Samsung SSD 960 pro) but the editing is not smooth as I would like and there are a lot of lags even in FHD prewiew.

Now I start to edit a large project so I am thinking about changing the CPU what do you think is better choice i7-9900K or i7-6950X to work with VP16? Somewhere I read that VP needs as high GHz CPU as possible but i7-6950X is only 4GHz in Turbo speed while 9900K is 5GHz. Do you think that changing CPU will really help?

Thank you lot for your advice

Comments

TheRhino wrote on 10/15/2019, 4:48 PM

I have a 9900K overclocked to 4.9 ghz paired with a VEGA 64. I place the source video on fast M.2 drives setup as RAID0 to provide more drive space. The target drives are some older SATA drives on a hardware RAID0 controller. This combo allows me to edit 4K files in the 150+ MBps range. Most of my edits are basic cuts with color editing. The workflow is about a smooth as 1080p was on my old 4.0ghz Xeons so I am happy for now.

IMO the 9900K is about the best bang/buck for now but the Ryzen 3950X will be faster when it finally arrives sometime in November. Intel plans on deep discounting its CPUs to compete against AMD, so IMO Black Friday might be a good time to shop for a CPU/motherboard/RAM combo....

Workstation C with $600 USD of upgrades in April, 2021
--$360 11700K @ 5.0ghz
--$200 ASRock W480 Creator (onboard 10G net, TB3, etc.)
Borrowed from my 9900K until prices drop:
--32GB of G.Skill DDR4 3200 ($100 on Black Friday...)
Reused from same Tower Case that housed the Xeon:
--Used VEGA 56 GPU ($200 on eBay before mining craze...)
--Noctua Cooler, 750W PSU, OS SSD, LSI RAID Controller, SATAs, etc.

Performs VERY close to my overclocked 9900K (below), but at stock settings with no tweaking...

Workstation D with $1,350 USD of upgrades in April, 2019
--$500 9900K @ 5.0ghz
--$140 Corsair H150i liquid cooling with 360mm radiator (3 fans)
--$200 open box Asus Z390 WS (PLX chip manages 4/5 PCIe slots)
--$160 32GB of G.Skill DDR4 3000 (added another 32GB later...)
--$350 refurbished, but like-new Radeon Vega 64 LQ (liquid cooled)

Renders Vegas11 "Red Car Test" (AMD VCE) in 13s when clocked at 4.9 ghz
(note: BOTH onboard Intel & Vega64 show utilization during QSV & VCE renders...)

Source Video1 = 4TB RAID0--(2) 2TB M.2 on motherboard in RAID0
Source Video2 = 4TB RAID0--(2) 2TB M.2 (1) via U.2 adapter & (1) on separate PCIe card
Target Video1 = 32TB RAID0--(4) 8TB SATA hot-swap drives on PCIe RAID card with backups elsewhere

10G Network using used $30 Mellanox2 Adapters & Qnap QSW-M408-2C 10G Switch
Copy of Work Files, Source & Output Video, OS Images on QNAP 653b NAS with (6) 14TB WD RED
Blackmagic Decklink PCie card for capturing from tape, etc.
(2) internal BR Burners connected via USB 3.0 to SATA adapters
Old Cooler Master CM Stacker ATX case with (13) 5.25" front drive-bays holds & cools everything.

Workstations A & B are the 2 remaining 6-core 4.0ghz Xeon 5660 or I7 980x on Asus P6T6 motherboards.

$999 Walmart Evoo 17 Laptop with I7-9750H 6-core CPU, RTX 2060, (2) M.2 bays & (1) SSD bay...

hth wrote on 10/16/2019, 12:29 PM

I have used a 9900K (no overclocking) since last November, but mainly with full HD projects. And I noticed the following: Whereas the full CPU power is used for rendering (speeding it up a lot), Vegas 16 is never using more than about 25 % of the processor power for preview (where it is much more needed).

miroslav-h wrote on 10/17/2019, 1:05 AM

I have used a 9900K (no overclocking) since last November, but mainly with full HD projects. And I noticed the following: Whereas the full CPU power is used for rendering (speeding it up a lot), Vegas 16 is never using more than about 25 % of the processor power for preview (where it is much more needed).

Hi hth,

please can you recomend some solution that makes VP use more than 25% CPU? To me the most important is smooth editing and it is nonsense that VP do not use CPUs properly.