newbie video editing question

[ricklaw]

i'm a completely newbie when it comes to video editing. but i'd like to edit some 4k videos for youtube. i'm a windows user with a fairly old desktop and a surface pro 3 with an i5 processor. i have a decent video card in the desktop. not great but i can run a 4k monitor at 30hz. with video editing, is it based around my video card or processor? or both? i'm looking for a cheap way to upgrade if needed. i don't mind spending $150-200 on a slightly better video card to be able to edit 4k videos with ease.

 

[MadValley]

Do you want to publish 4K videos? The video card really doesn't help that much in editing. Rendering yes, editing not as much. So you'll notice the video card when you preview and write your final output. 4K requires massive amounts of resources (it's about 4x as much data as 1080p) so your biggest bang for editing will be RAM and CPU. Then when you want to write your final you can just go have lunch or take a nap or something. Plus, think about 4K more as data than your final product needs. With 4x the data it gives you amazing opportunities to pan, crop, zoom, or animate and still come out with a 1080p final product. If you need true 4K output you're gonna need a new computer. I'm using a Lenovo laptop with a Core i7 and 16GB of RAM but only Iris graphics. 4K editing is fine on that but rendering is still pretty slow.

 

[Plawa]

i don't mind spending $150-200 on a slightly better video card to be able to edit 4k videos with ease.

My 4k video editing build budget is about 10x that... and that's without storage and monitors.. .. just sayin

 

[ricklaw]

I don’t mind letting videos render overnight. I just want to be able to preview and edit them fairly effeciently.

 

[4wd]

My main PC was pretty good when new in 2012.
I speced it for editing RAW digital photos and HD (1080p) video.
Does that well enough and can get by with 4K but rendering is slow and ram preview as you make any changes is pretty awful even viewing at 1/4 resolution.

So I have been looking at updating sooner or later.
You are not going to get anything that can edit 4K easily much under $2000 even if you can build it yourself.
You also need to consider future proofing so don't get something that just copes.
We are alredy seeing higher bitrates from cameras like Yi4K+ and Hero6. This will require even more grunt - or time.

You want a good sized SSD 500GB or more for main drive, at least 16GB RAM and above all fast procesor.
That's the bottleneck on my 2012 machine and not really economic to update that, only to find more things need changing to get the best from that upgrade.

There's no need to jump in big time immediately if you can edit 1080p you can probably edit at least 2.7K but slower.
If you are spending a lot of time editing longer term then consider some spending to make your time more productive.
There are other tricks included with some software e.g Adobe premiere can work with proxy files making edits to a lower res copy then applying the changes like a template onto the original.
This is only workaround though and the rendering will still be tedioius.

 

[ricklaw]

My desktop has a 500gb ssd and 32gb of ram already. So it sounds like it’s time for a new pc...but for $2k. I would be in the MacBook Pro range. Would a mid spec’d MacBook Pro work?

 

[Blacksails]

Work with proxy files and you can get away editing 4K on a very mediocre machine. I could edit 4K on my old laptop utilising a proxy workflow in davinci resolve (free), and that really wasn't a powerful machine.

 

[MadValley]

My desktop has a 500gb ssd and 32gb of ram already.

What software are you using or planning to use? Do you have multiple drives available to spread the read/write load when rendering? Have you done any 4K benchmark rendering/editing to get a feel for what your current performance might be? You could get away short term with slapping in a new processor/main board, graphics card (make sure it's one your software supports) and a second SSD.

 

[4wd]

My desktop has a 500gb ssd and 32gb of ram already. So it sounds like it’s time for a new pc...but for $2k. I would be in the MacBook Pro range. Would a mid spec’d MacBook Pro work?

My current desktop can manage with 16gb RAM and a 128Gb SSD
With task manager open you can see what's maxxed out and it's the CPU for me.
It rarely uses more than 12gb of the RAM.

 

[ricklaw]

well i tested it out last night. a simple edit with a PIP of one video (my iphone screen recording) in the corner of the main DJI footage. it was 19 min long (range test) and it took about 1:20 to render in 4k. i'm using power director as it seemed like the best bet for older windows machines. editing the timeline was a little choppy but manageable. now i'm just waiting for youtube to process it so i can share the link.

 

[CZ-SP01]

All you tech guru's. I'm getting a new laptop for xmas and was wondering if this laptop would work for video editing? Thanks. HP ENVY Laptop - 17" Touch Screen (2RX66AV_1) | HP® ENVY

 

[4wd]

All you tech guru's. I'm getting a new laptop for xmas and was wondering if this laptop would work for video editing? Thanks. HP ENVY Laptop - 17" Touch Screen (2RX66AV_1) | HP® ENVY

It's more than capable, good sized SSD, plenty of RAM and a decent video card.
You'll probably need a beefy external drive 2TB or more for storage/back up.

 

[CZ-SP01]

It's more than capable, good sized SSD, plenty of RAM and a decent video card.
You'll probably need a beefy external drive 2TB or more for storage/back up.

I just bought a 4TB WD last week. Thanks for the advice.

 

[FirstFlight]

I know its not possible on a laptop, but a desktop, mount the storage drive in the machine, transfers will be much faster.