Freezing. What do I need to play/edit 4k video?

[GoodEnough]

I'm running the same Win7 Desktop since 2009.
Need to edit 4k video. Current PC just freezes when playing it.

Prob. will just buy a new PC at some point, instead of trying up upgrade. (Can I?)
Just wondering, what is needed?
Faster CPU? VidCard? HD? All of the above?

 

[GoodEnough]

On Win7, what's the easiest way to determine which Graphics Card I am running?
I replaced it a few years ago, so I could have HDMI.

 

[VirtualLarry]

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...5-8400-8-gb-1-tb-win10-459-99-newegg.2551884/

Your welcome.

 

[Snarf Snarf]

Edit them in what software and what type of editing? If your software supports hardware acceleration through OpenGL or CUDA then getting yourself a GPU would help a good amount. Otherwise you want a modern CPU with a dedicated decode block for H.264 (GPU's can handle this as well) for smoother playback. Outputting and previewing your video while editing is also pretty tough, you'll want to be previewing and scrubbing in 1/2 or 1/4 resolution to save yourself a lot of slowdowns.

The kind of editing you'll be doing would be what dictates the kind of money to put into your rig. Is it for business, and are you getting paid for editing is it simply a hobby?

 

[GoodEnough]

Hobby.
Simply editing out extra footage.
Nothing fancy.

I can't really upgrade my existing CPU.
I would be willing to upgrade the video card (PCI)
GPU? Can you plug a GPU into an old PC ?

 

[GoodEnough]

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...5-8400-8-gb-1-tb-win10-459-99-newegg.2551884/
Your welcome.

Thanks. Just trying to learn here.
What does that PC have that mine does not? (that enables 4k view/edit)

 

[VirtualLarry]

What does that PC have that mine does not? (that enables 4k view/edit)

It has six Intel Cores, of the newest 8th-Gen architecture (same as Skylake / Kaby Lake, really). It has fast DDR4 RAM. And the CPU's iGPU has 4K encode/decode (actually 8K, for some formats).

It would blow away your existing PC for video-editing.

Might need to add the 8GB stick of DDR4 that I mentioned in the Hot Deals thread though.

 

[Guru]

Just get a new PC. The guy above posted a really nice and cheap prebuilt. I mean your's is 10 years old, even if it does work for video editing/encoding its slow as redacted. Any modern PC would do the same work in probably 1/16th of the time.

I'd imagine if you are encoding a 15 minute video in like good quality you'd need at least an hour with that machine, any modern PC would likely do it in like 10 minutes.

Profanity is not allowed in the tech areas.

AT Mod Usandthem

 

[GoodEnough]

I think the ratio is 3:1
15 mins video takes about 45 mins to render.
Not a big issue, since I do it every few weeks, and just go do something else while it's running.

 

[GoodEnough]

If I get a new PC, I am willing to splurge for something respectable.
Is the $500 Acer posted "real good" or merely "acceptable" ?

 

[Guru]

If I get a new PC, I am willing to splurge for something respectable.
Is the $500 Acer posted "real good" or merely "acceptable" ?

Neither real good, nor acceptable. Its a solid PC for cheap enough money. I'm sure if you build your own PC fully you can save up say $50 dollars, but there is quite a bit of work and troubleshooting, I don't recommend it for newbies. You need to be tech savvy to do it.

It has an integrated GPU which is decent, the CPU is a 6 core solid cpu suitable for any sort of work and it has 8GB of DDR4 2666mhz ram, which is just average. You can later on add another 8GB stick of ram to have it work in dual channel and that would essentially be much more performance.

You definitely can't play triple A games on it at least on decent setting, but its solid for video editing, encoding, content creation, 4k video watching, streaming, etc...

 

[GoodEnough]

I built my own PC's back in the mid 1990s
Not sure I would bother with that anymore.
I do want a clean install of Windows, however.
None of that preLoaded bloatware with AOL, etc.

 

[GoodEnough]

Larry,
What is 16GB Optane Memory cache drive ?
Is this some sort of extension of RAM, but inside the CPU ?

 

[Guru]

Larry,
What is 16GB Optane Memory cache drive ?
Is this some sort of extension of RAM, but inside the CPU ?

No, its Intel's new memory-storage hardware, its essentially a mix of dram and solid state storage. Its best feature(if you ask me) is that it can act as a HDD cache, speeding up your HDD.

Its its own hardware that you can buy.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It's a HDD cache memory chip, essentially. It's like an SSD, but made out of Phase Change Memory, so it's even faster and lower-latency than NAND used in SSDs. But it's very expensive. It's like $40-50 for a mere 16GB size.

Since the mobo in that PC has a PCI-E M.2 socket, you can also opt to buy the non-Optane model, with just the HDD, and then buy a separate Samsung 970 EVO M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD, I recommend 512GB or larger, and use that as your primary bootable drive, and your video-editing scratch disk. Should speed up operations nicely. Yes, add that additional 8GB stick of DDR4-2667 RAM too.

I mean, I added up the parts cost to build that PC, and you can come in around $50 difference building yourself, and you'll probably end up with a standard higher-wattage PSU, more expansion options, etc., but you probably won't get USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbit/sec ports on the front of your case. (Not aware of any cases sold at retail that have these, still pretty specialized.) Those are a pretty hot feature, IMHO.

I mean, that PC isn't ALL THAT, it's pretty average, but it's got the newer kit inside, Coffee Lake 6-core CPU, stock with 2667 RAM (rare to find above 2133 in pre-builts that aren't gaming rigs), and it's got the aforementioned USB 3.1 Gen2 ports on the front. Acer consumer laptops suck, but I've had good experiences with Acer and Gateway desktop PCs (same parent company these days). And it has a fair price.

(I was actually thinking about picking one up myself.)