Better cpu or video if i want to do light video editing?

[JEDI]

AMD X2 6000 (2gig ram), Radeon 4850.

i'm usually a gamer thus better video card.

but lately i've been taking video w/my camera and want to do some video editing.

Whats more important: cpu or video?

 

[PhoenixEnigma]

Video editing and video cards have very little to do with one another, despite the names. For video editing, fast CPUs with as many threads as you can get and RAM by the truckload are the order of the day.

As a bonus, that side of your rig is pretty outdated, so you'd probably see gains in games too if you were to upgrade.

 

[LR6]

It really depends on the software that you are using. Some programs make little use of video cards and some more. Some programs use the GPU for the final encoding phase and not the actual editing.

So determine what software that you will be using and go from there. I currently use Vegas Movie Studio which only uses the GPU when encoding to certain formats.

 

[mnewsham]

It really depends on the software that you are using. Some programs make little use of video cards and some more. Some programs use the GPU for the final encoding phase and not the actual editing.

So determine what software that you will be using and go from there. I currently use Vegas Movie Studio which only uses the GPU when encoding to certain formats.

He would also have to take into account some software only works with some video cards (never GPU's)

Overall I would get a CPU upgrade as you are pretty long overdue. If you got sandybridge you could use the IGP with quicksync to speed up your video encoding.

 

[Blain]

...CPU

 

[mfenn]

4th the CPU recommendation. A Sandy Bridge i5 will more than double (probably close to triple) your editing and encoding speed.