Nvidia or AMD Video Editing on a Budget.

[rcanela1]

I know this has been mentioned several times but I have researched for hours and I am having a hard time choosing a graphics card for my setup. The purpose for this machine will be video editing mainly using Adobe products and a bit of Sony Vegas.

This is my setup let me know what you guys recommend. Also I am not an expert in choosing parts, if any of you see something that might not be necessary or I could save money that would be greatly appreciated.

I was trying to keep it under $700 with GPU, but doesn't look likely. I would like to spend no more than $150 on the GPU.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Kbtq7P
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Kbtq7P/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($249.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($90.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($123.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.50 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($32.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $654.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Thanks for any information given.

 

[j0ndafr3ak]

Sony Vegas works better with opencl than cuda. so i suggest you pick an amd card. i don't know how much graphics cards are where you live, but see if you can get either a r7 260x or r7 265... don't know if the r9 270 is off your budget..

EDIT: sorry, missed the Adobe products part.. opencl and cuda perform pretty much the same in premiere pro with same tier gpus from both nvidia and amd.. so you'll see the gain in performance when using Sony Vegas with an amd card

 

[j0ndafr3ak]

One more thing.. do you need an overclockable cpu? why not just get a non-k 4790 with a h97 motherboard? you may save a bit there..

 

[rcanela1]

One more thing.. do you need an overclockable cpu? why not just get a non-k 4790 with a h97 motherboard? you may save a bit there..

The main reason I am getting the 4790K over 4790 is because the 4790 and 4790K are both $250 in local tech store (Micro Center), so I figured why not get the better one for the same price.

 

[j0ndafr3ak]

The main reason I am getting the 4790K over 4790 is because the 4790 and 4790K are both $250 in local tech store (Micro Center), so I figured why not get the better one for the same price.

I see... then go with the k version then..

 

[synphul]

As far as graphics card, since you use both adobe (assuming premiere pro) and sony vegas I think you'd be better off with an ati card. Many tout nvidia, but when it comes to sony vegas even the hd 6970 and hd 7970 outperform the titan for a lot less money. A couple options, one is a 6970 at newegg for $110 with a $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202113&cm_re=hd_6970-_-14-202-113-_-Product

Another option might be the sapphire r9 270x 4gb (100364-4GL) if you can swing an outlay of $195 (has a $20 rebate right now at newegg) for a total of $175 - around $25 over budget for a card with a bit faster gpu and more stream processors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202049

I'm not a dedicated sapphire fan or anything, they're decent cards from what I've heard. The reason for specifying those models, not all cards are the same. Stream processors are what counts along with clock speed. Many r9 270x cards only have 1280 stream processors compared to 2048 on the sapphire r9 270x model I listed. Even the older hd 6970 has an 880mhz clock speed and 1536 stream processors.

The overall build looks good, but if you're going to be using this for serious work (daily workstation) I'd suggest spending a little more on the hard drive and going with a western digital black (or re4 if you plan to raid). Built more like an enterprise drive for 24/7/365 use with a 5yr warranty and doesn't cost a ton more than the barracuda. It might stretch your budget some, but I think you'll be happier with the performance for a small increase in initial budget (that will pretty much disappear with use. you won't remember the extra $25-50 a month or two down the road, but you'll appreciate the gains).

 

[rcanela1]

As far as graphics card, since you use both adobe (assuming premiere pro) and sony vegas I think you'd be better off with an ati card. Many tout nvidia, but when it comes to sony vegas even the hd 6970 and hd 7970 outperform the titan for a lot less money. A couple options, one is a 6970 at newegg for $110 with a $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202113&cm_re=hd_6970-_-14-202-113-_-Product

Another option might be the sapphire r9 270x 4gb (100364-4GL) if you can swing an outlay of $195 (has a $20 rebate right now at newegg) for a total of $175 - around $25 over budget for a card with a bit faster gpu and more stream processors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202049

I'm not a dedicated sapphire fan or anything, they're decent cards from what I've heard. The reason for specifying those models, not all cards are the same. Stream processors are what counts along with clock speed. Many r9 270x cards only have 1280 stream processors compared to 2048 on the sapphire r9 270x model I listed. Even the older hd 6970 has an 880mhz clock speed and 1536 stream processors.

The overall build looks good, but if you're going to be using this for serious work (daily workstation) I'd suggest spending a little more on the hard drive and going with a western digital black (or re4 if you plan to raid). Built more like an enterprise drive for 24/7/365 use with a 5yr warranty and doesn't cost a ton more than the barracuda. It might stretch your budget some, but I think you'll be happier with the performance for a small increase in initial budget (that will pretty much disappear with use. you won't remember the extra $25-50 a month or two down the road, but you'll appreciate the gains).

Thanks you for the awesome suggestions. I forgot to mention I do have a 3TB WD drive (can't remember the type), which I will be adding.

As far as the GPU since I mainly use Adobe Premiere Pro, I read in various places about Nvidia being the better choice because of CUDA. I am currently using Dual HD5770 which are old but I have always loved AMD for GPU. So I am leaning towards the R9 270x, looks like a great GPU for the price.

 

[synphul]

It will be a slight tradeoff since you use both programs. Many who use both (I'm taking their word for it because I use neither personally) suggest the amd/ati if using both and not one or the other exclusively. The r9 270x may work very well for you but I wouldn't just grab the least expensive 270x - they do vary as far as stream processor count and I could be mistaken but I believe a slightly lower gpu clock speed and more stream processors would give you more horsepower than the other way around. If you ended up with a card that only had 1280 stream processors you might not see the gains you'd hoped to even with a newer updated card.