Upgrading My PC To Edit HD Video

[GazElf]

Hi Folks,

I`m new round these here parts and have come here for some help in upgrading my current PC which I thought was reasonably high spec for its age. However I've recently purchased two new gopro 9's that use HEVC codec for most of their high end video files and have found my PC won`t play these files let alone edit them without being very slow and shuddery. I am only a casual editor and use cyberlink power director to tinker with my videos so any advice on what I should upgrade would be greatly appreciated or is my system beyond upgrading and should I start again? I'm essentially looking for a machine that will editor and play HD & HEVC files reasonably quickly and efficiently but not to the standard that a professional editor would require who has an endless budget!! My current machines spec is below:

Operating System

Windows 10 Home (x64) Version 2004 (build 19041.985) Install Language: English (United States) System Locale: English (United Kingdom) Installed: 11/11/2020 22:18:59 Servicing Branch: Current Branch (CB) Boot Mode: UEFI (Secure Boot likely not supported by this UEFI)

System Model

Enclosure Type: Desktop

Processor a

3.60 gigahertz Intel Core i7-4790 256 kilobyte primary memory cache 1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache 8192 kilobyte tertiary memory cache 64-bit ready Multi-core (4 total) Hyper-threaded (8 total)

Main Circuit Board b

Board: ASRock Z97M OC Formula Serial Number: M80-47012600223 Bus Clock: 100 megahertz UEFI: American Megatrends Inc. P1.60 07/14/2014

Drives

5000.20 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 1785.63 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space PIONEER BD-RW BDR-209D SCSI CdRom Device [Optical drive] Canon MG7700 series USB Device [Hard drive] -- drive 2 ST1000DX001-1NS162 [Hard drive] (1000.20 GB) -- drive 1, s/n Z4Y8SDNS, rev CC41, SMART Status: Healthy ST4000DM000-1F2168 [Hard drive] (4000.79 GB) -- drive 0, s/n S301KXA4, rev CC54, SMART Status: Healthy USB Disk USB Device (501 MB) -- drive 3, s/n 3727341D41108452

Memory Modules c,d

16336 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM0' has 8192 MB (serial number 991A2C3A) Slot 'ChannelA-DIMM1' is Empty Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM0' has 8192 MB (serial number 9B1A699B) Slot 'ChannelB-DIMM1' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes

c: (NTFS on drive 1) * 999.55 GB​ 56.16 GB free​ e: (NTFS on drive 0) 4000.65 GB​ 1729.47 GB free​

Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti

Hopefully that explain all you need to know

 

[MarkE19]

Welcome to the forum @GazElf

For best performance with HEVC editing Intel state

H.265/HEVC Hardware Encoding and Decoding Support

Intel® Core™ support for H.265/HEVC code

www.intel.com

Hardware accelerated support for the H.265/HEVC codec starts with 6th generation Intel® Core™ processors.

So you would need a new CPU, motherboard and RAM at the very least to get native support for HEVC editing on an Intel system.
Some more info on this here including AMD & GPU support for HEVC:

Intel & AMD CPUs and Nvidia GPUs That Support NATIVE HEVC Decoder

Got a 4K TV or monitor and looking for NATIVE HEVC Decoder Support? Check out our article before getting yourself an upgrade of your aging PC system.

www.faceofit.com

1. 4th Generation Intel Core processors (Haswell CPU 2- 3.5GHz, 4 Cores): Includes an HEVC Software Decoder capable of the real-time decode of HEVC 4K streams.
2. 5th Generation Intel Core processors (Broad well): Supports HEVC 8-bit software/hybrid encodes.
3. 6th Generation Intel Core processors (Skylake) Supports hardware accelerated HEVC 8-bit decode and encode.
4. AMD’s 6th-generation ‘Carizzo’ APUs onwards
5. AMD Radeon R9 Fury/Fury X ‘Fiji’ GPUs
6. Nvidia 900 Series GPUs (GeForce GTX 960 or 950)
7. Qualcomm Snapdragon 805, 810, 820, 835 for 4K HEVC decoding. Other SoC’s include 615,410, 208 or newer SoCs
8. Latest MediaTek SOC’s support 10-bit UltraHD video & High Dynamic Range (HDR) and wide color gamut coverage.
9. Apple A8, A10, A10x support native HEVC decoding. The A11 supports 10-Bit UHD + HDR.

Mark.

 

[GazElf]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply much appreciated. I was talking to a friend recently who knows much more about PC`s than I do and has a very similar spec machine to mine. He suggested that as Power Director supports hardware acceleration that I could get away with just upgrading my GPU to one of the latest Nvidia cards such as a 3060/3070 one as they would be more than capable of taking care of the work required. If thats the case that would certainly be easier and more affordable than essentially upgrading my whole system.

Whats your thoughts on this as a possible solution?

 

[JollyJamma]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply much appreciated. I was talking to a friend recently who knows much more about PC`s than I do and has a very similar spec machine to mine. He suggested that as Power Director supports hardware acceleration that I could get away with just upgrading my GPU to one of the latest Nvidia cards such as a 3060/3070 one as they would be more than capable of taking care of the work required. If thats the case that would certainly be easier and more affordable than essentially upgrading my whole system.

Whats your thoughts on this as a possible solution?

Your friend is not wrong, it's just that getting you hand on a 3060 is tough and expensive.

You could upgrade your PC for far less than spending scalper prices on a 3060.

This is a very good balanced build For Sale - amd ryzen 5 3600 gtx 1650 pc

 

[Terfyn]

I edit in HD. My solution was to print off the recommended computer spec from the software suppliers and pass it on to my Dealer. I received back a perfect machine that has operated perfectly for the software I bought.
To me, this seemed the easy solution to an ideal machine.

 

[MarkE19]

As @JollyJamma says the current cost of a graphics card can be eye watering due to a chip shortage. So look carefully at prices for either a large computer upgrade vs just a graphics card.
With Intel the onboard graphics can be adequate for editing, same for AMD CPUs but only IF you get one with onboard graphics as not all of them have it.
Or as also suggested looking at a not too old second hand PC could get you better bang for your money.

Mark.

 

[JollyJamma]

As @JollyJamma says the current cost of a graphics card can be eye watering due to a chip shortage. So look carefully at prices for either a large computer upgrade vs just a graphics card.
With Intel the onboard graphics can be adequate for editing, same for AMD CPUs but only IF you get one with onboard graphics as not all of them have it.
Or as also suggested looking at a not too old second hand PC could get you better bang for your money.

Mark.

Looks like it's a codec that's very strongly supported on Mac.

If this was me, I'd get a Mac M1 Mini 16gig RAM, given the massive GPU shortage.

 

[12harry]

Hi, Welcome.
FWIW most folks still use HD, even though Mfrs are phasing-out HD, in preference to 4K - which they hope will boost camcorder-Sales.
The greater issue is "How will your Movies be seen?" - since most folks don't have 4K TV's unless their viewing-room is enormous. The actual experience of "more definition" is not ( shall we say?), a good thing - better to improve the filming/Camerawork, Sound and the competence of the folks acting.
The major problem with 4K is the amount of data you need... so larger file-cards = more money.
You have bought a GoPro with an output I don't understand - is this another way of saying 4K, perhaps?
It may be possible to use 4K material on a "lesser PC" - by creating a lower-Res file to Edit. Then, when done this "Proxy" is Rendered using the 4K Original material.... Render-time depends on the PC Spec - clearly more RAM is good( like 16Gb), as is a 64-bit OS, provided the software is similarly spec'd. It is common practice to have a separate internal HDD ( or SSD / Combo ), to allow the program to run on the C-drive separately.... reducing head movements I guess. An External drive as back-up for Original clips and Renders..... 6Tb drives are modestly priced nowadays.

Hope that helps
Terfyn was right to suggest handing the PC over to a Dealer for upgrade - but ask the price and delivery-time before hand...

Cheers.

 

[chrishull3]

Global 4K UHD TV unit sales 2014-2019 | Statista

Global sales of 4k ultra-high-definition televisions are forecast to amount to over 100 million units for the first time in 2019.

www.statista.com

4K is becoming the standard for today’s TVs

GfK | Find press releases about GfK's offering, corporate news, financial results & latest news on data analytics, business intelligence. Subscribe for updates.

www.gfk.com

Almost all larger screen tvs are 4K now,my son works in the trade and has not sold a non large screen non 4K for ages.