Hi all,
I've been out of the computing world for quite a few years. My Surface Pros have done the job - until now.
I want to get back into video and photo editing. I know my way around PS, Premiere etc but don't have a PC that can handle the load.
Should I just get a prebuilt gaming PC and go with that, or would there be components in a gaming PC that I wouldn't need (and would therefore be wasting $ on)?
Thanks!
Video and photo editing require a lot of the same stuff as gaming, namely a good GPU and a lot of RAM, so it's not a bad idea.
Building a desktop PC is usually cheaper than buying a premade but with GPUs these days, things are a bit weird. I'm honestly not sure now.
I think the most important thing for video editing is that you have enough RAM.
I'd want no less than 16GB. You could go 32GB for future proofing if it's a desktop since it'll last a long time, or buy 16 now upgrade later.
You'll also want good hard drives, e.g. an SSD for your programs and a big HDD to save your finished works to. Those files can get big fast!
I think the most important thing for video editing is that you have enough RAM.
I would say otherwise, I think CPU is more important. The CPU does all the heavy lifting, the GPU second for stuff like encoding. I upgraded my laptop from 8GB to 16GB RAM and I only noticed a very small difference in preview render times.
RAM matters when you hit the limit. If you never use the full 8GB then yeah, an upgrade won't do too much. With video editing I feel like there's a risk you may on very rare occasions need more than 8GB to do something. So I would want 16GB minimum just in case.
I agree that CPU is important. I feel like any PC with good GPU will be paired with a good CPU.
Graphic designer and video editor here
I hate Apple when it comes to video and graphic animations, the specs simply can't cut it. It's slow, clunky, and buggy. Used to always crash when I rendered videos.
Your main investment will be in
- CPU
- GPU
- RAM
- SSD
- Monitor
GPU: You want a GPU that can run nVidia CUDA, why? In laymen terms, CUDA is a program that accelerates rendering and previewing your animation or video editing damn fast! It won't rely on the CPU, but relies on the GPU. You can have an average CPU but if you have an amazing GPU (assuming it's not too powerful for the CPU), your renders will be quick AF.
SSD: This is a must, you install Adobe programs on it for fast loading. No brainer. Don't buy a hybrid.
RAM: Minimum 32gb
Monitor: I have a 144hz ULTRAWIDE monitor. Ultrawide lets you see your video editing timeline a lot easier, you see a lot of the interface easier too. Most of my edits are in 60FPS but you're a gamer too, so get 144hz or higher.
You're building a gaming PC anyways, so whatever you build, should be fine for photo/video editing as well.
I agree with hasher22.
Good PC build deals with video editing as well, since video editing is CPU intensive. The question is, how fast do you want to go? Your needs call for both decent CPU and GPU capabilities.
I would also wonder what OS you are planning to use with all this Win business coming.
Also, don't forget a good and reliable HDD to store all the archived videos - I prefer WDs or Samsung for that.
I can't comment on video editing. But I built a ryzen 7 8core gaming rig with a 1660 super and 32gb of ram. I was using it to edit real estate photos. It's fast, but I had issues with the latest PS and my graphics card acceleration - scrubby zoom in PS kept greying out. It was frustrating.. Now I'm editing on a MacBook Pro M1 8gb model. It feels just as fast for editing photos, maybe faster editing RAW files in Lightroom. And I can take it with me when I travel.