Good GPU for photo and video editing

[FlawlessMind]

Hello guys,

I've been doing a lot of research for the last two weeks but I couldn't find any good information related to GPU benchmarks as it goes to photo and video editing with the latest nVidia and AMD GPUs.

I am doing landscape photography and I am shooting with DSLRs as well as medium format cameras and the files which I process are somewhere in the 50-80 Mpx range. Opened in Photoshop that could go all the way to 4GB file depending if I upsize them and on the number of layers used. I use the following products:

Photo Editing:
Adobe Lightroom CC
Adobe Photoshop CC
PhaseOne Capture One Pro 9

Video Editing:
Adobe Premiere Pro CC
SONY Vegas Pro
Final Cut Pro X

The only one here which has only OpenCL support is Capture One Pro, but since nVidia also have OpenCL implementation I believe that should not be a compatibility problem.

My budget on the GPU is around 500$. As far as I see my options I've came down to the following cards:

Asus STRIX GTX 980 or EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Superclocked ACX 2.0 for the GTX
Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X for the R9

I have read a lot of reviews and benchmarks and I can see that there are reviewers that are biased, some would favor the GTX 980 and results on these websites would show a slight edge for the GTX 980 over the R9 390X and vice versa. All of these benchmarks and reviews show only gaming tests and there is no even one that I can find with test for Photoshop or Primiere performance for example.

Also what do you think would be the benefit here of using such high end cards as compared to lower end ones or even the specialized nVidia Quadro (not inexpensive too)? Do I really need to spend that money if I am not gaming and only doing mostly photo editing and light video edits at the moment?


As far as it goes to the GTX vs R9 my concern with the R9 390x is that it consumes a lot of power and even though I would not be gaming for hours there are specific tasks that take considerable amount of time.

My other consideration when choosing would be the noise level.

I should note here that I am using two 4K screens in my workflow.

Any opinions are appreciated!

Thank you very much!


~Cheers~

 

[iiiankiii]

The 8GB is the key for video editing. Power consumption shouldn't matter much if your main focus is to get things done ASAP. The difference in power consumption is outweigh by actual productivity. Here's a video testing the 290X 8GB (basically the R9 390x). R9 290x 8GB review

 

[Seba]

The 8GB is the key for video editing. Power consumption shouldn't matter much if your main focus is to get things done ASAP. The difference in power consumption is outweigh by actual productivity. Here's a video testing the 290X 8GB (basically the R9 390x). R9 290x 8GB review

That video does not prove that R9 290X 8GB is better than R9 290X 4GB. In fact, it does not even show what is the graphics card contribution when editing videos. He does not show the same video editing with a R9 290X 4GB or with some basic (cheap) graphics card (or with integrated graphics, if available). 13:28 minutes wasted for what could have been written in one page.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I don't think GPUs do that much. I mean they help with the processing, but is isn't like games where the gap between a $150 card and a $300 card is massive.

I think a cheaper GPU plus more system RAM (at least 32GB, shoot for 64GB) would be a better use of money.

 

[tweakboy]

I would say 560 GTX up to 960 GTX ... Will do wonders for your video editing. Also SSD puts the icing on the cake.. thx gl