Build Advice Advice on build for rendering in ffmpeg

[Fullest]

Hi there.

I am building a new PC specifically for rendering 1-2 hours videos through software made on ffmpeg. I'll be rendering 24/7 and I need a PC build which can withstand this and make rendering as fast as possible. Therefore in this sense I was wondering if you could give me few tips like for example:

1) Is CPU more important than GPU?
2) Is Intel better than AMD?
3) Would it be better prioritizing CPU over GPU?
4) How important is Ram
5) How important is SSD

Budget: $2k

Any other tips or advices are most welcome.

Thank you

 

[Bob.B]

Hi there.

I am building a new PC specifically for rendering 1-2 hours videos through software made on ffmpeg. I'll be rendering 24/7 and I need a PC build which can withstand this and make rendering as fast as possible. Therefore in this sense I was wondering if you could give me few tips like for example:

1) Is CPU more important than GPU?
2) Is Intel better than AMD?
3) Would it be better prioritizing CPU over GPU?
4) How important is Ram
5) How important is SSD

Budget: $2k

Any other tips or advices are most welcome.

Thank you

Some reading

 

[TerryLaze]

If you want to do GPU conversions then the CPU doesn't play any role, you could go with a 10 year old CPU and it wouldn't matter since the GPU would do all of the work.
But for GPU conversions you can't go very low on bandwidth/ final size because then you would lose some quality but the speed of the encoding is unrivalled by even the fastest CPUs.

If you go with CPU encoding get the biggest and newest ryzen CPU that you can afford, for encoding they do offer more performance.

RAM and SSD aren't important for the conversion itself but if you want to scan through the material before and/or after the conversion, especially in video editing software, then ram and ssd are going to help you with that.

 

[Fullest]

If you want to do GPU conversions then the CPU doesn't play any role, you could go with a 10 year old CPU and it wouldn't matter since the GPU would do all of the work.
But for GPU conversions you can't go very low on bandwidth/ final size because then you would lose some quality but the speed of the encoding is unrivalled by even the fastest CPUs.

If you go with CPU encoding get the biggest and newest ryzen CPU that you can afford, for encoding they do offer more performance.

RAM and SSD aren't important for the conversion itself but if you want to scan through the material before and/or after the conversion, especially in video editing software, then ram and ssd are going to help you with that.

Thanks for reply bro!

Yea. Thats what some other people told me is that GPU is way faster but can't provide the same quality. How much of the quality is lost tho? Like lets say 2 of the same videos are being rendered by CPU and GPU. Full HD 1080 would be final result. Would the regular person be able to see the difference?

What Ryzen CPUs would you recommend specifically for this job?

Is ryzen better than Intel in this matter?

 

[TerryLaze]

Thanks for reply bro!

Yea. Thats what some other people told me is that GPU is way faster but can't provide the same quality. How much of the quality is lost tho? Like lets say 2 of the same videos are being rendered by CPU and GPU. Full HD 1080 would be final result. Would the regular person be able to see the difference?

If you use a big enough bitrate the quality will be perfect.
The thing is if you need to make the files small for some reason.

What Ryzen CPUs would you recommend specifically for this job?

Is ryzen better than Intel in this matter?

You can look up reviews, they all have h265 and or handbrake numbers, ryzen is about 13% more efficient overall.
This site is in german but it has handbrake results and shows difference in % and the 7950x is about 13% faster in handbrake than the 13900k at similar power draw.
So if this system is truly for 24/7 video conversion ryzen is the better way to go.

Core i9-13900K, i7-13700K & i5-13600K: Gaming-Könige im Test: Leistungsaufnahme und Effizienz

Intel Raptor Lake im Test: Leistungsaufnahme und Effizienz / Leistungsaufnahme in Anwendungen ab Werk / Der Verbrauch steigt

www.computerbase.de

 

[Fullest]

If you use a big enough bitrate the quality will be perfect.
The thing is if you need to make the files small for some reason.

You can look up reviews, they all have h265 and or handbrake numbers, ryzen is about 13% more efficient overall.
This site is in german but it has handbrake results and shows difference in % and the 7950x is about 13% faster in handbrake than the 13900k at similar power draw.
So if this system is truly for 24/7 video conversion ryzen is the better way to go.

Core i9-13900K, i7-13700K & i5-13600K: Gaming-Könige im Test: Leistungsaufnahme und Effizienz

Intel Raptor Lake im Test: Leistungsaufnahme und Effizienz / Leistungsaufnahme in Anwendungen ab Werk / Der Verbrauch steigt

www.computerbase.de

Thanks for this.
I am really surprised 7950x made such a big difference. I mean 13% for large number of files is massive difference.

Just wow. I also read some reviews on 7950x and it seems many people have issues with temps. Do you think lowering temps by undervolting would still provide good render speeds?

 

[g-unit1111]

Hi there.

I am building a new PC specifically for rendering 1-2 hours videos through software made on ffmpeg. I'll be rendering 24/7 and I need a PC build which can withstand this and make rendering as fast as possible. Therefore in this sense I was wondering if you could give me few tips like for example:

1) Is CPU more important than GPU?
2) Is Intel better than AMD?
3) Would it be better prioritizing CPU over GPU?
4) How important is Ram
5) How important is SSD

Budget: $2k

Any other tips or advices are most welcome.

Thank you

Here's what I would suggest:

1. For what you're doing, yes. But you do need a GPU for video output.

2. I've been a Ryzen supporter since day 1 and have had several Ryzen-based builds including my current one which uses a 3900X. But after what JayZTwoCents has been saying about the 7900X3D, I wouldn't touch the current gen Ryzens with a 10 foot pole. I'm actually building a new PC with my first Intel CPU (i7-13700K) in like over 8 years.

3. For rendering videos, I'd say yes.

4. For dealing with large files, you want minimum 32GB and up to 64GB. The more RAM you have, the smoother the process will be.

5. I wouldn't use a mechanical hard drive on any modern build (at least not as the primary drive, for mass storage it's fine). Most 4th gen M2 drives have very similar load times, and there's some brands that are better than others. Do not buy the Samsung 990 Pro. The firmware issues that drive has had, has made me not want to recommend it, and I've been using Samsung drives for years. The WD SN850X and the SK Hynix P41 Platinum are the two best Gen 4 drives on the market currently. There should be some Gen 5 drives starting to trickle out right now.

 

[TerryLaze]

I also read some reviews on 7950x and it seems many people have issues with temps. Do you think lowering temps by undervolting would still provide good render speeds?

You would have to lower volts anyway due to the current issues.
That could also increase performance since the CPU will boost higher if it has higher thermal overhead, depending on mobo settings, but it could be unstable and you don't want to find out after converting a video for hours.
There is a reason that server CPUs run at lower clocks and don't have any overclocking features at all. Stability is the biggest concern when you have to deal with hours long projects.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Regarding SSDs, that is the easiest bottleneck to solve if the workload is light.

I would suggest having 2 SSDs to work with.

1st SSD to read the raw files and the 2nd SSD to save the converted files.

The 7000mbps speeds that SSD manufacturers advertise is ideal case scenario. But in reality you would not be working at those speeds or the converting process itself would be much slower.

 

[Fullest]

Here's what I would suggest:

1. For what you're doing, yes. But you do need a GPU for video output.

2. I've been a Ryzen supporter since day 1 and have had several Ryzen-based builds including my current one which uses a 3900X. But after what JayZTwoCents has been saying about the 7900X3D, I wouldn't touch the current gen Ryzens with a 10 foot pole. I'm actually building a new PC with my first Intel CPU (i7-13700K) in like over 8 years.

3. For rendering videos, I'd say yes.

4. For dealing with large files, you want minimum 32GB and up to 64GB. The more RAM you have, the smoother the process will be.

5. I wouldn't use a mechanical hard drive on any modern build (at least not as the primary drive, for mass storage it's fine). Most 4th gen M2 drives have very similar load times, and there's some brands that are better than others. Do not buy the Samsung 990 Pro. The firmware issues that drive has had, has made me not want to recommend it, and I've been using Samsung drives for years. The WD SN850X and the SK Hynix P41 Platinum are the two best Gen 4 drives on the market currently. There should be some Gen 5 drives starting to trickle out right now.

Watched couple of his vids on Ryzens few days ago. I mean he didn't say anything bad for his 7950x that he is rolling with atm.

And my main options now are Ryzen 7950x, 7950x3D or I9 13900k.

Since ill be doing rendering almost 24/7 my temps and power consumption needs to be as low as possible, and the issue is there isn't many tests done on these CPUs in Eco modes or the available data is misleading.
For example, I've found one one place that 125W on 13900k does around 32k on Cinebench R23, while on some other places it was lower, and somewhere higher.
It's hard to find the right CPU to run it on ECO mode while still doing good performance for multicore.

As I said - I just need temps and power consumption to be as low as possible while keeping good performance.

Will go with 128GB ram most likely.

Thanks for the tips on SSDs. Ill check that out!

 

[Fullest]

You would have to lower volts anyway due to the current issues.
That could also increase performance since the CPU will boost higher if it has higher thermal overhead, depending on mobo settings, but it could be unstable and you don't want to find out after converting a video for hours.
There is a reason that server CPUs run at lower clocks and don't have any overclocking features at all. Stability is the biggest concern when you have to deal with hours long projects.

Yes. Especially since i'll be doing these renders pretty much whole day. Gotta get really strong cooling system as well. I've read that the best for 7950x is 105W, but again the temps go 80+ and pretty sure that is not healthy for the CPU on the long run, eventho in AMD they say 90+ degrees is fine lol.
It comes down to 7950x, 7950x3D or 13900k. One of these 3 in ECO mode. Now the question is which of these can give the most performance for the least amount of power usage and temps.

 

[Fullest]

Regarding SSDs, that is the easiest bottleneck to solve if the workload is light.

I would suggest having 2 SSDs to work with.

1st SSD to read the raw files and the 2nd SSD to save the converted files.

The 7000mbps speeds that SSD manufacturers advertise is ideal case scenario. But in reality you would not be working at those speeds or the converting process itself would be much slower.

Thanks for the tip! I was thinking something like that as well.

Would you recommend any particular brand or a model?

thanks

 

[TerryLaze]

Yes. Especially since i'll be doing these renders pretty much whole day. Gotta get really strong cooling system as well. I've read that the best for 7950x is 105W, but again the temps go 80+ and pretty sure that is not healthy for the CPU on the long run, eventho in AMD they say 90+ degrees is fine lol.
It comes down to 7950x, 7950x3D or 13900k. One of these 3 in ECO mode. Now the question is which of these can give the most performance for the least amount of power usage and temps.

More performance for less power will still be ryzen.
But the 7950x is basically uncoolable.
Here you can see the 7950x running 215W at 94 degrees while the 13900k runs 330W but at "only" 86 degrees for the same cooling, and that's a $200 cooling system.
You can see that you have to go with 125W (166W real) max for the 7950x if you want to stay below 90 degrees, again with a super high end cooling.

A Lighter Touch: Exploring CPU Power Scaling On Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X

www.anandtech.com

Here you can see the 13900k being cooled by, between others, a ssf cooler and a $20 tower cooler, at a locked 200W it reaches 74 and 58 respectively.
It also has results for 125W.

Core i9-13900K Cooling Guide: Testing Intel's Flagship With Budget Air and Big AIOs

The Core i9-13900K can push even the most capable liquid coolers to their limits, but you don’t lose that much performance if you go with budget-priced air cooling.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Fullest]

More performance for less power will still be ryzen.
But the 7950x is basically uncoolable.
Here you can see the 7950x running 215W at 94 degrees while the 13900k runs 330W but at "only" 86 degrees for the same cooling, and that's a $200 cooling system.
You can see that you have to go with 125W (166W real) max for the 7950x if you want to stay below 90 degrees, again with a super high end cooling.

A Lighter Touch: Exploring CPU Power Scaling On Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X

www.anandtech.com

Here you can see the 13900k being cooled by, between others, a ssf cooler and a $20 tower cooler, at a locked 200W it reaches 74 and 58 respectively.
It also has results for 125W.

Core i9-13900K Cooling Guide: Testing Intel's Flagship With Budget Air and Big AIOs

The Core i9-13900K can push even the most capable liquid coolers to their limits, but you don’t lose that much performance if you go with budget-priced air cooling.

www.tomshardware.com

Good point about 7950x, but if we compare temps on the link you posted and benchmarks here https://www.anandtech.com/show/17641/lighter-touch-cpu-power-scaling-13900k-7950x/2
you can see that that 125W for 13900k has 31.615 for multithread and temps are around 53 on aida, but the performance of 7950x on 105W is like 4.3k higher, but again the temps are 78 lol.

So, basically 125W 13900k = 65W 7950x by performance and temps, which would mean that I can save more $ by getting 7950x and run it on 65W. Thoughts?

 

[TerryLaze]

So, basically 125W 13900k = 65W 7950x by performance and temps, which would mean that I can save more $ by getting 7950x and run it on 65W. Thoughts?

If these numbers are true then 7950x at 65w is 90W real, 13900 at 105 is 118W real.
And the score is 31 to 29 k it's not half, or double depending on how you look at it..
If both are at 105W the 7950x uses ~30W more for that ~4k higher score.

 

[Fullest]

If these numbers are true then 7950x at 65w is 90W real, 13900 at 105 is 118W real.
And the score is 31 to 29 k it's not half, or double depending on how you look at it..
If both are at 105W the 7950x uses ~30W more for that ~4k higher score.

Yea.
Its so hard to choose but I am leaning towards 7950x on 65W...its crazy efficient on that level, even if its 90W in reality. No CPU can offer that and since I'll be running hard renders 24/7 I need something which will keep the temps and consumption as low as possible. 13900k I think cant offer that.
What do you think?

 

[Lucky_SLS]

For SSD, WDSN850X if you can. I am guessing for your workload you would be working with huge amounts of data. So I would suggest looking for drives with higher usage life or tbw rating.

Regarding ryzen cooling, derbauer is releasing new offset mount cpu brackets.

View: https://youtu.be/qKFYawQOKJo

 

[Fullest]

For SSD, WDSN850X if you can. I am guessing for your workload you would be working with huge amounts of data. So I would suggest looking for drives with higher usage life or tbw rating.

Regarding ryzen cooling, derbauer is releasing new offset mount cpu brackets.

View: https://youtu.be/qKFYawQOKJo

Thank you so much for this link. This is insane! It lowers temps 20-25 degrees on Ryzen 7000 Series which means I can easily run 7950x on 105W. Jesus this is amazing, and the best part is since Thermal Grizzly is from Germany/Europe it should be available in Europe first. Great! I guess ill order it as soon as its available.

 

[g-unit1111]

Watched couple of his vids on Ryzens few days ago. I mean he didn't say anything bad for his 7950x that he is rolling with atm.

And my main options now are Ryzen 7950x, 7950x3D or I9 13900k.

Since ill be doing rendering almost 24/7 my temps and power consumption needs to be as low as possible, and the issue is there isn't many tests done on these CPUs in Eco modes or the available data is misleading.
For example, I've found one one place that 125W on 13900k does around 32k on Cinebench R23, while on some other places it was lower, and somewhere higher.
It's hard to find the right CPU to run it on ECO mode while still doing good performance for multicore.

As I said - I just need temps and power consumption to be as low as possible while keeping good performance.

Will go with 128GB ram most likely.

Thanks for the tips on SSDs. Ill check that out!

Yeah I'm starting to think his problems were more with Asus than with the CPU. But I have seen other videos on erratic behavior with the 7950X3D. I think Gamers Nexus had a video a couple of weeks ago where they reported that one of their rigs with a 7950X caught fire.

 

[Fullest]

Yeah I'm starting to think his problems were more with Asus than with the CPU. But I have seen other videos on erratic behavior with the 7950X3D. I think Gamers Nexus had a video a couple of weeks ago where they reported that one of their rigs with a 7950X caught fire.

Yeah.
I am afraid what MOBO should I get now due to recent events and should I even go for AMD.
Thoughts?

 

[Lucky_SLS]

^ if i am not mistaken, the problem is only with the X3D chips. normal 7950X sill can take a bit of extra voltage and not fry up like the X3D ones.

The non X3D cpu have higher boost clocks on multicore scenarios and hence a better choice for the workloads you have mentioned compared to the X3D.

You could even even play with some undervolting if that helps!

 

[TerryLaze]

^ if i am not mistaken, the problem is only with the X3D chips. normal 7950X sill can take a bit of extra voltage and not fry up like the X3D ones.

Derbauer had a 7900x send to him that turned out to have the same problem.

The thing is that you will definitely get a replacement NOW if something goes wrong because the media is hard on their cases.
So if you are going with AMD get it now so any possible problems show up before this passes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VbutE-Qss

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arDqhxM8Wog&t=4s

 

[Fullest]

^ if i am not mistaken, the problem is only with the X3D chips. normal 7950X sill can take a bit of extra voltage and not fry up like the X3D ones.

The non X3D cpu have higher boost clocks on multicore scenarios and hence a better choice for the workloads you have mentioned compared to the X3D.

You could even even play with some undervolting if that helps!

Yea I think that all 7000 series are affected. Not sure if the new BIOS will fix issued. Some people say it did not fix anything for them. Others say just to get any ASRock MOBO and that I'll be fine. No idea

 

[Fullest]

Derbauer had a 7900x send to him that turned out to have the same problem.

The thing is that you will definitely get a replacement NOW if something goes wrong because the media is hard on their cases.
So if you are going with AMD get it now so any possible problems show up before this passes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34VbutE-Qss

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arDqhxM8Wog&t=4s

My heart says AMD but brain says Intel. I guess I can also run Intel on low W? Like 105W will still perform good?

 

[g-unit1111]

My heart says AMD but brain says Intel. I guess I can also run Intel on low W? Like 105W will still perform good?

Yeah I was in the same boat. I wanted to get the 7900X for my new rig but ultimately decided in favor of the i7-13700K.