AMD or Intel for video editing/rendering?

[nycdude]

Originally posted by: Tabb
Oh god.........flame war........

Me think so too.

 

[gsellis]

Real editing machines are either G4/G5 Apples or Intel at the moment. Not knowing what you plan on using as software, I cannot say what is best for you. But know that in the x86 space, the Prescott chip has advantages that already show for some editors (the only application advantage for Prescott clock for clock with Northwood.) BUT an AMD solution is not going to be some anchor. The Intel just has AMD marginally beat in this space (note - NLEs are 2D, not 3D, so that is why the advantages of 3D for AMD do not seem to help.)

Many editing software vendors recommend that the editor should be a stand-alone, single purpose machine. That tends to fly in the face of using it for other tasks. Personally, I got a dually so that I could work on other things while logging (capturing from media) or encoding. Not enough bucks to afford a single purpose machine (this stuff costs $$ when you start getting into real cameras, real audio, real support equipment.)

All said and done, I am considering a purpose built machine, but the hardware is not yet available. My editor of choice is the Pinnacle Liquid series. Soon, they will release a PCIe card, in conjunction with ATI, that is also a HD capture, encoder, and effects renderer along with new software. The best platform looks to be a 3.xE GHz on a 925x board. I am even thinking SFF for the unit so I can port it into the field for event work. Just need more time and money.

BTW, more important than Intel vs AMD is HDD space. Here is your real gain vs which processor to buy. I recommend a 60-120GB C: and then 200+GB as E: I have 400 and had to delete projects to work on my current project (13 tapes, over 125GB so far).

 

[arod]

I would think all the gains by the p4 in the encoder/video benchmarks would be negated by the fact that hes comparing a 3500+ AMD64 to a 3.2 P4.

I would think you wont go wrong with either system though... both will be plenty fast for you.

 

[alexruiz]

I will follow the trend of what others have pointed in a very accurate way:

What software are you going to use? What codecs / containers? The P4 wins only if the applications, codecs and containers are very well optimized for HT / SSE2. Otherwise it will lose.

Most of the consumer grade software runs better on AMD hardware (Roxio, Ulead, Sonic) with the exception of Pinnacle 9. Ulead video studio 8 is by far the fastest, and runs even faster on AMD

Most of the midrange software run better on AMD hardware (Ulead Media Studio Pro, Vegas) with the exception of Adobe premiere 7.0 and pro. Older versions of premiere run better on AMD hardware.

MPEG-2 encoders is closer, some run better on AMD hardware (Canopus, ligos, CCE) while others run better on the P4 (mainconcept, tmpgenc) . CCE is by far the fastest and highest quality, but it is expensive.

For AVI encoding to DivX, some run better on AMD (DVD2AVI, virtualdub) while others prefer the P4 (XMPEG, flaskmpeg). DVD2AVI is the fastest for DVD -> DivX while virtualdub is the king for basic edition.

I don't know about DVD transcoding (DVDshrink, Nero recode) but I assume the bottleneck will be the hard drive

As far as codec / containers DivX runs generally better for the P4, XVid runs generally better on AMD. Quicktime prefers the Athlon, while WM9 in general prefers the P4, but on ASF container it is more evident than using AVI (WMV) container. I don't know about real video, but I suspect it prefers the P4 given the close relationship between real and intel.

By the way, DV edition and rendering runs faster on AMD hardware , but the hard drive is vital. Keep in mind also that developers have to meet deadlines to bring a new product into market, so if resources are tight, in many cases they will have to choose between features. "Picture in picture" will be a much better selling feature than "P4 and HT optimized", so don't lose this fact from sight. More likely that not the application won't be extremely tuned for the P4.

Comments welcome



Alex

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
I will follow the trend of what others have pointed in a very accurate way:

What software are you going to use? What codecs / containers? The P4 wins only if the applications, codecs and containers are very well optimized for HT / SSE2. Otherwise it will lose.

Most of the consumer grade software runs better on AMD hardware (Roxio, Ulead, Sonic) with the exception of Pinnacle 9. Ulead video studio 8 is by far the fastest, and runs even faster on AMD

Most of the midrange software run better on AMD hardware (Ulead Media Studio Pro, Vegas) with the exception of Adobe premiere 7.0 and pro. Older versions of premiere run better on AMD hardware.

MPEG-2 encoders is closer, some run better on AMD hardware (Canopus, ligos, CCE) while others run better on the P4 (mainconcept, tmpgenc) . CCE is by far the fastest and highest quality, but it is expensive.

For AVI encoding to DivX, some run better on AMD (DVD2AVI, virtualdub) while others prefer the P4 (XMPEG, flaskmpeg). DVD2AVI is the fastest for DVD -> DivX while virtualdub is the king for basic edition.

I don't know about DVD transcoding (DVDshrink, Nero recode) but I assume the bottleneck will be the hard drive

As far as codec / containers DivX runs generally better for the P4, XVid runs generally better on AMD. Quicktime prefers the Athlon, while WM9 in general prefers the P4, but on ASF container it is more evident than using AVI (WMV) container. I don't know about real video, but I suspect it prefers the P4 given the close relationship between real and intel.

By the way, DV edition and rendering runs faster on AMD hardware , but the hard drive is vital. Keep in mind also that developers have to meet deadlines to bring a new product into market, so if resources are tight, in many cases they will have to choose between features. "Picture in picture" will be a much better selling feature than "P4 and HT optimized", so don't lose this fact from sight. More likely that not the application won't be extremely tuned for the P4.

Comments welcome



Alex

Great post :beer: this would make a good FAQs addition.