Video editing and computer specs

[Calhoun Ranger]

I am reaching a point where the complexity of my edited videos is taxing my computer in a pretty serious way. I would like to hear other experiences concerning laptop vs desktop, Windows vs Mac, processors and processor speeds, RAM, etc.

I usually take video in 4K (lets me zoom when necessary) and render in 1080p.

When my videos have a lot of "pieces", everything slows down significantly. Screen refresh is a particular problem, but occasionally the whole system has locked up.

Here's my specs:
Dell Inspiron laptop
Windows 10 64-bit
Intel Core i5 @ 2.30 GHz
8 GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 520
Running Adobe Premiere Elements 17

I want to upgrade, but not sure where the biggest bottleneck is. I likely will stick with Dell, Windows, and Adobe Premiere, but still interested in serious comparisons.

Thanks!
NW GA Drone Guy

 

[Prismatic]

I can't speak to laptops. I have an [email protected], 24GB RAM, and an NVIDIA Quadro K620, using Davinci Resolve over Win10x64. I'm happy with the i7 processor, but wish I had something even hotter. Memory is never a problem, but it sure was when I had only 8GB; going to 16GB was a huge step, much bigger than the step to 24GB. But what really made the biggest difference was switching the system lock, stock, and barrel onto a Samsung NVMe M.2 SSD (the 970 EVO). Holy smokes, the difference is ... blazing performance across the board. But they are spendy, so there's that.

Watch the graphs in the Performance tab of the Task Manager as you work; they'll probably show that you need more memory (I think you need double what you have, at least). Once you have that solved, you'll probably find either the CPU or the GPU is pegged a lot. You need some more horsepower in both, but at the moment, system memory is your biggest bottleneck (and the reason for hinky behavior). Put another 8GB in there and see if that gets you close to what you want. If not, I think you're in for a new machine. Push it all--CPU, RAM, GPU--to the limit of your budget, and make sure it has a slot for the NVMe M.2 drive that you'll be saving up for.

 

[Lake_Flyer]

I can't speak to laptops. I have an [email protected], 24GB RAM, and an NVIDIA Quadro K620, using Davinci Resolve over Win10x64. I'm happy with the i7 processor, but wish I had something even hotter. Memory is never a problem, but it sure was when I had only 8GB; going to 16GB was a huge step, much bigger than the step to 24GB. But what really made the biggest difference was switching the system lock, stock, and barrel onto a Samsung NVMe M.2 SSD (the 970 EVO). Holy smokes, the difference is ... blazing performance across the board. But they are spendy, so there's that.

Watch the graphs in the Performance tab of the Task Manager as you work; they'll probably show that you need more memory (I think you need double what you have, at least). Once you have that solved, you'll probably find either the CPU or the GPU is pegged a lot. You need some more horsepower in both, but at the moment, system memory is your biggest bottleneck (and the reason for hinky behavior). Put another 8GB in there and see if that gets you close to what you want. If not, I think you're in for a new machine. Push it all--CPU, RAM, GPU--to the limit of your budget, and make sure it has a slot for the NVMe M.2 drive that you'll be saving up for.

My experience as well.

My Dell XPS PC has an i7 with 16GB and a 4GB AMD Radeon RX550 graphics card. Runs Resolve 15 public Beta and Premiere Pro pretty smooth. I have a 30GB SSD (for OS and caching) next to a 2TB HD.
An i5 8GB laptop is usually not going to cut it with the on board graphics card. There is a Dell XPS laptop with a choice of high end graphics cards that will. But a PC is easier to adapt over time.

 

[ToddR]

I just bought a new laptop for the sole purpose of video and picture editing. I have owned a computer since the Atari days. Desktops, home built Towers, laptops.. you name it.. but the everyday personal laptop we owned could not even begin to handle video editing. I decided on the MSI Apache Pro. I could not be more impressed. It's not perfect... i wouldn't be far from AC when doing any editing for example. I love the two hard drives. The solid state is only for windows for me so when i press the power button the laptop is ready almost before i lift my finger off. I have never had any computer boot so fast.. i use DaVinci and can say this thing has not even blinked nevermind struggled. I know there are many with more options but this is a beast as far as i am concerned.

 

[ScottyV]

I have more or less the same specs on my laptop. I upgraded RAM from 8 to 24 GB and it helped a lot for video editing. though it still lags a bit, esp w 4k video. not sure if the upgrade is possible your laptop. It's not a perfect solution, but I think more memory will help in your situation.

 

[Macabre]

I have XPS 15 9560 with i5, 8gb ram and GTX 1050 4gb. Works fine with 4k video, but I did get "not enough memory" when running a bunch of images in Photoshop while at the same time rendering a video in Premiere. I'm going to purchase another 8gb stick.

 

[dvarapala]

FWIW I have an older i7 3770K (which I do not overclock) and 16GB of RAM. It was OK but took a long time to render, so I bought a GTX 1080 graphics card to speed things up a bit. While there are more powerful GPU cards on the market, according to the benchmarks I saw the increase in rendering performance didn't track well with the increase in price.