8GB vs 16GB for Video Editing?

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Ownaholic

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Hey everybody!

I've recently came across some Amazon credit and looking to upgrade my newly-custom built PC a bit more.

I have been doing a lot of video editing lately for a gaming walkthrough website that I have been working on, and would like to increase the rendering speed.

My average video is about 9-12 minutes long, rendered in 1080p, 1920x1080 resolution, etc. Basically the highest settings possible on Sony Vegas Pro 10.

Now, my current rendering speeds are pretty high with my current 8GB of RAM, (roughly between 20-40 minutes of rendering time depending on video length) but I'd love to be able to cut those times in half if at all possible.

My question to you is this: Would upgrading to 16GB of RAM do that? I checked the Resource Monitor while I was rendering, and it came up with this (rounded estimates here):
3200 MB in use.
4400 MB in standby.
471 MB free.

I don't regularly use Resource Monitor, but I'm pretty sure that is telling me that Vega Pro isn't utilizing all of the RAM that it could utilize, given the fact that there is still 4GB of RAM in standby.

Alternatively, I could blow the cash on a second graphics card, SSD, or a second hard-drive (video editing takes up a LOT of space, and I've only got a 500GB HD). Your thoughts?


Current Overall Specs:
Win 7 Ultimate (64bit)
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz (Not overclocked)
8GB RAM
Asus-brand GeForce GTX 560
500GB HDD


Thanks!

*edit*
Now overclocked to 4.0ghz. Haven't seen that much of an improvement.
 
You have a very nice build there, although since you're into media and want fast rendering times, etc, I'm kind of surprised you didn't go with a 2600k. What mobo do you have? And what CPU cooling? One thing you could do is overclock your CPU. As for the RAM, I would say if any upgrade, go to 12gb. 16 is a tad bit overkill, IMHO. But, that's just my opinion. Another guy may have a different opinion. Like you said, it takes up a lot of space, especially if your final files aren't insanely compressed (like, .mkv compressed) and another HDD would be a great addition. Maybe a Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive or two :) An SSD would boot you're system faster (Assuming you installed Windows on it, that is) and you could also put Vegas on it. Do you do any gaming? All of those questions would help us determine you're best choice. Welcome to TF, btw. :)
 
You have a very nice build there, although since you're into media and want fast rendering times, etc, I'm kind of surprised you didn't go with a 2600k. What mobo do you have? And what CPU cooling? One thing you could do is overclock your CPU. As for the RAM, I would say if any upgrade, go to 12gb. 16 is a tad bit overkill, IMHO. But, that's just my opinion. Another guy may have a different opinion. Like you said, it takes up a lot of space, especially if your final files aren't insanely compressed (like, .mkv compressed) and another HDD would be a great addition. Maybe a Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive or two :) An SSD would boot you're system faster (Assuming you installed Windows on it, that is) and you could also put Vegas on it. Do you do any gaming? All of those questions would help us determine you're best choice. Welcome to TF, btw. :)

Thanks! (And thanks for the welcome!)
When I built the computer, I didn't think I would be editing as much as I am now since I had just ended a previous video game review company, and I was slightly frustrated with the entire "scene" at the time. Plus cash was an issue at the time as well. (That build was expensive enough, haha)

I figured the i5 2500k would have been plenty for me. And to be honest, it is still doing amazingly well in my opinion; I used to video edit/render on an old M1530 XPS Laptop, so rendering would literally take all night for one video, whereas now it only takes half an hour. The problem is, now I am doing video walkthroughs, which usually end up being like...50+ videos per walkthrough, so that 30-40 minutes of rendering time really begins to add up after awhile.
I could be utilizing the time in other ways, but since I don't like doing anything else on the computer while my video renders, (just to be safe) I usually just sit and wait for it to finish, rather than recording or editing a second video. I feel like doing so would screw up the rendering process.

I actually just overclocked the CPU last night to 4.0ghz, despite the fact that I am using the stock cooler. My temps are still very nice though: At idle I haven't seen them go over 40 (usually around 35) degrees, and the temps while rendering a video (the hardest my comp gets pushed) peaked at about 67-72. Not bad for a stock cooler, I think at least.
I am considering OC'ing it just a hair more (4.1-4.2 maybe?), but I doubt I would see much improvement.

Theoretically, I should have about a 20% increase in performance, but I'm not so sure I'm seeing it. A 20% increase in a 40 minute video is 8 minutes shaved off, but I'm definitely not seeing that. It took maybe 2-4 minutes off of the whole process; which is good, but I have to render more videos to know for sure how much it has helped.

I do a lot of gaming, but I have never had any problems with program loading times or anything like that. (Loading screens within the game, yes, but to load the game itself, is usually instantaneous) The computer takes maybe 5-10 seconds to boot, and even After Effects/Photoshop/Vegas Pro take only a moment to load. I've thought about getting an SSD, but those are just too expensive for me for the time being. I'd rather just get 1TB of HDD space, and then some extra RAM while I'm at it.

Someone I know suggested to me that I use RAMDisk; but I've never heard of it before, and I don't understand how using RAM as hard drive space could possibly make video editing faster. Any comments on that?

Thanks again for your help!
 
Upgrading to more RAM does not improve rendering times. It depends more on your CPU. So overclocking is suggested like tj said. For now you'll have to deal with the time it takes to render until you can get your CPU overclocked as fast and stable as possible. Although you would definitely benefit by upgrading your CPU to an i7 and overclock too.

As a video editor myself there is no need for 16GB. You would need that much if you're doing some kind of 3D animating or design with applications such as AutoCAD.

As with video editing I'd much rather spend the extra cash on more hard drive space.
 
Upgrading to more RAM does not improve rendering times. It depends more on your CPU. So overclocking is suggested like tj said. For now you'll have to deal with the time it takes to render until you can get your CPU overclocked as fast and stable as possible. Although you would definitely benefit by upgrading your CPU to an i7 and overclock too.

As a video editor myself there is no need for 16GB. You would need that much if you're doing some kind of 3D animating or design with applications such as AutoCAD.

As with video editing I'd much rather spend the extra cash on more hard drive space.

Ooh thanks for the input there.
I'm slightly irritated at myself for going with the i5 now instead of the i7; I suppose I could always upgrade but...I probably wouldn't get half of what I paid for my CPU used at the moment.

I suppose I could always get an after market cooler, and OC to 4.8-4.9. Any cooling recommendations? (I have a decent amount of space in my case, but my PSU is not modular so my poor cable management = cables being in the way everywhere).
What temps do you guys think are the "limit"?
 
Your CPU's safe max is 72.6 C according to:
Intel® Core i5 2500k

Try to keep it below 70C.

For the cooler, if you have the money I would suggest the Noctua NH-D14:
Newegg.com - Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler
That's probably the best air cooler on the market right now.

Or the Thermalright Silver Arrow:
Thermalright Silver Arrow Pass Tower Heat Sink for Intel 775/1156/1366/AM2 Products Model: SILVER-ARROW [SILVER-ARROW] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come
Cheaper alternative.

Or a Prolimatech Megahalems:
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev C CPU Heatsink for Intel & AMD Products Model: PRTCH-MEGA-REV-C [PRTCH-MEGA-REV-C] : Performance-PCs.com, ... sleeve it and they will come
Fan not included.
 
Nifty link, thanks! That's very good to know; I'm about maxed out on my stock cooler ATM then.

I'm actually looking at this cooler:
Newegg.com - ZALMAN CNPS5X SZ 92mm Hydraulic CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge

The biggest appeal in my opinion, is the ease of installation on my socket/board. I don't need to take the mobo out, which was a huuuuuge problem the first time I installed it. I had to have someone help me out, and it took us a good hour. Things got very complicated. Anything that requires a bracket and doesn't install by clicking into the mobo like the stock fan, is just difficult and risky for me.

But I would imagine that the cooler I'm looking at has relatively decent cooling capabilities...Probably not as good as the bigger ones, but nonetheless still enough to let me OC to 4.7+, I hope.
 
Ah I see. It's up to you. Whatever you're comfortable with, go for it. Any aftermarket cooler is better than stock. Good luck!

I know how you feel with HSF with brackets and stuff. I had all those coolers that give all techies the hardest time, but in the end it was worth it. Well for me at least.
 
Ah I see. It's up to you. Whatever you're comfortable with, go for it. Any aftermarket cooler is better than stock. Good luck!

I know how you feel with HSF with brackets and stuff. I had all those coolers that give all techies the hardest time, but in the end it was worth it. Well for me at least.

Haha yeah, it probably is well worth the pain when looking for maximum output. For me, I'll settle for near-max output. =]
After all, my rendering times are already pretty fast, and I would imagine that after I OC to 4.7 or more, get another 8GB of RAM, another TB of HDD to record directly to, and make a RAMDisk with the newly-purchased RAM to render my videos to, that I should see some significant improvements in rendering speeds overall.

Thanks so much for your help! It really was very...well, helpful, haha.

Cheers!


edit:
I don't mean to double-post, but I did actually just come up with another question.

Do you think my bitrate has anything to do with it? I have it set to 20,000,000 at the moment simply for quality. Is that even really worth it for Youtube viewing? Granted, I'm aiming for the absolute highest quality possible, but if it isn't going to be a significant decrease in quality by reducing it to, say, 10,000,000 or lower instead, then I'm game if it will reduce rendering times.

Your thoughts?
 
Next time just use the "edit post" button on the post you want to add to.

I use Vegas Pro as well. But I don't remember seeing an option to have a bit rate of 20 million. Try 10 million out and see if you like the quality and if it's not a significant difference, I say change it to 10 mil', because after all you are trying to reduce rendering times.

I think Youtube compresses videos regardless (in my opinion), so there would have to be data or quality lost.

edit:
Oh and Welcome to Tech-Forums!!!
 
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