Advice on upgrading CPU for 1440p video editing.

[VentusInfinitas]

Looking to get better playback and scrubbing on game footage inside Vegas Pro. I don't use an abundance of visual effects on my clips but playback is still generally terrible and slow.

Currently using a i7-6700k at stock speeds with an Asus Prime Z270-A Mobo. CPU is currently air-cooled by a Phanteks cooler.

Using 1080ti GPU and 32 GB of RAM. 650W PSU.

In a perfect world I'm looking for smooth playback on the timeline even as visual effects and transitions get added to the footage.

 

Any advice for a modern CPU and Mobo as well as cooling options would be much appreciated. Open to both Intel or AMD.

Budget (including currency): 1200ish CAD give or take 100 bucks. Something like the Ryzen 5900x looks like a healthy option but is it excessive? I'm the kind of guy who loves future proofing so I'm not opposed to even the 5950x.

Country: Canada

 

Thanks in advance for anything you can give me!

[Electronics Wizardy]

What type of footage? Codec? Bitrate? Chroma subsampling? Bit depth? 

 

Is the footage being hardware decoder being used? Check the task manager gpu decode graph when playing footage back.

 

What does task manager look like during playback? Check task manager during playback and post a screen shot.

 

The 12900k and other 12th gen parts are the best parts you can get for editing in most uses now.

 

Try using proxies, they should let you edit fine on that system. Game recording footage is normally pretty tough to edit as its h.264/h.265 and often things like vfr which most editors don't like

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Try overclocking the cpu first and see if anything improves, it only boosts to a measly 4.2ghz and skylake has alot of oc headroom so try aim for 4.8+

 

Intel 14nm specs says upto 1.52v is fine so volt isnt a worry, now its just a matter of the cooler being capable of handling the 6700k at higher volts like 1.4v+, delid would also help immensely with temps and those cheapo chinese delid tools are like 10$ anyways

[VentusInfinitas]

10 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What type of footage? Codec? Bitrate? Chroma subsampling? Bit depth? 

 

Is the footage being hardware decoder being used? Check the task manager gpu decode graph when playing footage back.

 

What does task manager look like during playback? Check task manager during playback and post a screen shot.

 

The 12900k and other 12th gen parts are the best parts you can get for editing in most uses now.

 

Try using proxies, they should let you edit fine on that system. Game recording footage is normally pretty tough to edit as its h.264/h.265 and often things like vfr which most editors don't like

I record in .mp4 using NVIDIA NVENC H.264. Video bitrate is generally 101mb/s. Bit depth is 8 bits. Not sure about Chroma Subsampling.

Not sure what you mean by "Is the footage being hardware decoder being used?" but I am using GPU acceleration for video processing.

The GPU decode graph stays at a steady 5% during playback. My CPU is spiking whenever I hit transitions and during busy scenes in the video. Average 80% CPU usage but hits up to 95% during busy scenes. (Picture attached)

Tried using proxies to great effect but still getting considerable lag during transition scenes. 

Appreciate the CPU recommendation. Any other advice after all this info?

 

 

[VentusInfinitas]

49 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Try overclocking the cpu first and see if anything improves, it only boosts to a measly 4.2ghz and skylake has alot of oc headroom so try aim for 4.8+

 

Intel 14nm specs says upto 1.52v is fine so volt isnt a worry, now its just a matter of the cooler being capable of handling the 6700k at higher volts like 1.4v+, delid would also help immensely with temps and those cheapo chinese delid tools are like 10$ anyways

Appreciate the overclock advice, I never dared to try because I'm scared of blowing up my system XD.

Any recommendations on a water cooler? AIO?

[MACster]

As for right now, I would suggest going Intel 12th gen. Depending on the price you can get them, the 12900k would of course be the best, with the 12700k falling behind not much. To cut the price down a bit, you can always go with the "f" series CPU (12900kf or 12700kf) which come without the iGPU. Then I recommend looking for a Z690 chipset motherboard that has DDR4 compatibility, so you don't have to spend very overpriced money for DDR5 memory. For a cooler, I suggest any high tier cooler from Noctua like their NH-D15, watercooling if you want it, lower tier Noctua if you want a cheaper alternative. 

 

If you aren't in a hurry, I would wait for the next generation AMD-processors, to compare them against Intel again, or even getting the 5000-series CPUs for cheaper (because AM4 would be a dead platform then). 

 

I'm not that into motherboards, but I would generally go either for a B-series mobo if you aren't doing any overclocking, or a Z-series mobo at around 300.- because I feel like at that price point, you still get fairly nice VRMs but you don't spend 500 bucks or even more. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

11 minutes ago, VentusInfinitas said:

Appreciate the overclock advice, I never dared to try because I'm scared of blowing up my system XD.

Any recommendations on a water cooler? AIO?

Lmao you dont need a watercooler unless you got a garbage cooler, just oc it as high as possible keeping cpu temps under 80c to make sure its stable

[VentusInfinitas]

Just now, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Lmao you dont need a watercooler unless you got a garbage cooler, just oc it as high as possible keeping cpu temps under 80c to make sure its stable

I'll give it a try! 

[Jurrunio]

12900k and 5950X are really close in video editing because 12900k gets QSV (using the iGPU for hardware acceleration) and can both use DDR4. That would be my second pick, whichever ends up cheaper gets my vote. That said, what model of DDR4 do you have? If it's slow (say below 3200MHz, since those above are kinda expensive at 6700k's launch)

 

I made a list earlier about AMD boards to go with different CPUs. As for Intel, currently all the Z690 ATX boards except Asrock's have overkill power delivery for the 12900k so you can focus on things the board makers made public (i.e. connectivity, price, slots, ports etc).

 

1 hour ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Intel 14nm specs says upto 1.52v is fine so volt isnt a worry

[Profanity], just because it's in the VID table doesn't mean it's safe to do so and it isn't. @VentusInfinitasDon't go beyond 1.4V if you still want to keep your CPU for some time. Loadline calibration shouldn't go beyond the top 20% levels either (say you have level 1 to 9, then don't go beyond lvl 7)

[Somerandomtechyboi]

32 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

just because it's in the VID table doesn't mean it's safe to do so and it isn't. @VentusInfinitasDon't go beyond 1.4V

Bruh its intel spec, would intel knowingly make a spec that would degrade the crap out of your hardware? Problably not cause that would ruin their reputation, and 1.52v is 0.4v under deathzone anyways (~1.95v) so id consider it sufficiently safe as long as you keep temps under control

 

Though if you go over 1.45v then maybe not let the cpu run above 75c for stability reasons cause too hot = instability, lower temp does help slow degradation abit but then again this cpu is already at the end of its lifecycle so id reccomend all the way upto 1.65v according to my rule of thumb (0.3v under deathzone = borderline max "safe", 0.4v under deathzone = reccomended safe) assuming you have adequate cooling thatll keep the cpu under 70c with that volt, though you can just -0.05v offset just to be safe

 

Though yea newer architectures are less volt resistant than older ones with 32 or 45nm cause these tolerate upto ~2.05v as deathzone, personally i have a crap ton of 45nm wolfdales so maybe once i get a better board and cooling ill start aiming for 5ghz upto 1.7v

[Jurrunio]

3 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Bruh its intel spec, would intel knowingly make a spec that would degrade the crap out of your hardware? Problably not cause that would ruin their reputation,

If there's an empty wall outlet, would you poke it with a screwdriver? Just because it's there doesn't mean it's safe to use. Plus VID table is never a spec meant to be a guide for reasonable voltages to run in real life, Intel never made one and it's always figured out based on overclocking enthusiasts' experience.

 

3 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

deathzone

Then keep your advices to those who won't care about CPU lifespan and degradation

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 hours ago, VentusInfinitas said:

Not sure what you mean by "Is the footage being hardware decoder being used?" but I am using GPU acceleration for video processing.

Looks like its not using hardware decoding for the video from your screenshot.

 

4 hours ago, VentusInfinitas said:

Appreciate the CPU recommendation. Any other advice after all this info?

 

Yea a cpu upgrade is your best option. If you got the money Id go 12th gen intel.

 

How were you making proxies? Id try transcoding everything to prores and editing that, that system should be able to easily do that on this system.

 

Also editors like resolve and premiere can use your gpu for decoding, and may work better for playback here.