Question Video card & memory upgrade for video editing.

[videobruce]

Present system;
Gigabyte 970A-D3P
AMD FX-8350
Nvida Ge-Force GTX-1060 3GB
G-Skill DDR3-1867 4GB x2 memory sticks
Win 7 Pro x64
Video files up to 1080p. NO 2160p (4k) editing. This is for faster video editing, not gaming, thou I realize many factors are similar.

Questions;
For memory I read 16 GB is a minimum amount for memory. If I just double from 8 to 16, is that worth the trouble or should I go 32GB? If so, should I add 2 more sticks or sell the existing sticks and replace with two 16GB strips? I know the CPU would be the bottleneck, but I don't want to do a full upgrade.

For the video card, just how much memory will make a noticeable difference?

 

[solidsnake1298]

Really, everything needs to be upgraded. But if we are min/maxing here, just a memory upgrade would be huge. I do BASIC 1080p video editing in Vegas Pro. And Vegas gobbles up just about every free byte of my 16GB of memory.

If you can find DDR3 for cheap, 32GB of RAM would be the most cost effective upgrade. Preferably with 2x16GB sticks or 4x8GB. Heck, even 16GB would probably be a very significant upgrade. GPUs don't make that much of a difference until you start applying LUTs and using VFXs. Even while you are encoding the final video via NVENC, you are almost always CPU bound since the CPU has to compose the video and feed the GPU. You don't specify what your storage setup is, but loading the videos you are actively working on from a SSD will result in a noticeable improvement in the scrubbing performance.

 

[videobruce]

I ordered 2 8GB DDR3 strips for what I paid for the original 2x 4GB ones ($45). I was planning on removing the existing strips, but can I just add those 2 new strips to the existing ones? IIRC, the lower speed governors the speed of the higher speed strips.

I do realize everything needs to be upgraded starting with the processor, but that isn't the cards yet.

 

[solidsnake1298]

Correct. As long as you don't apply any XMP profiles, your CPU/motherboard should figure out the "lowest common denominator" for memory speed/timings on its own.

Your RAM slot arrangement should look like this:
4-8-4-8
or
8-4-8-4

so that there is 12GB per channel.

 

[mindless1]

Heck, even 16GB would probably be a very significant upgrade. GPUs don't make that much of a difference until you start applying LUTs and using VFXs. Even while you are encoding the final video via NVENC, you are almost always CPU bound since the CPU has to compose the video and feed the GPU. You don't specify what your storage setup is, but loading the videos you are actively working on from a SSD will result in a noticeable improvement in the scrubbing performance.

Depends on exactly what operations are being done. I often do basic cut/paste and re-encoding, where CPU matters almost nothing compared to NVENC performance. System memory matters little for this too, typically under half a GB for a 1080p clip, though throw in a basic sharpening filter or whatever, then CPU performance dominates.