[SOLVED] Editing 4k 60fps Video; Upgrade RAM or Video Card?

[wahtah955]

Hey i have an Intel i7 3770K @ 3.5 GHZ CPU, 16 gig RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card. I use Win 10 and Davinci Resolve. I can edit at 4k 30fps fine, But it's too choppy at 60FPS. I can wait for render times till i can afford a full upgrade. Where is my bottle neck? Would 32 gig Ram help me edit 4k 60 FPS? Or would the ram not help at all? Thanks for the feedback

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

I'm afraid that you'll probably need a CPU upgrade for smooth 4k 60fps editing. More RAM might help a little, but it would only make a real difference on larger files. A GPU upgrade would help with rendering, but not with scrubbing through footage or playback. For smoother performance you're going to need more speed or more cores. If you want to do it on the cheap a Ryzen 5 2600, a reasonable lower end B450 motherboard, and 16GB of DDR4 3000 will set you back about $300. That said, for not a lot more you could probably get an 8 core 16 thread Ryzen 7 2700.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2 GHz 8-Core Processor ($167.35 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($110.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($52.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $331.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-09 23:52 EST-0500

So, I priced it out with the Ryzen 7 2700 here, but you can get the Ryzen 5 2600 for about $40-50 less. You could also double the amount of RAM and still be under $400. The 2700 is a chip from last generation, but it still very capable. You're not really going to gain much in single core performance, but for things that use lots of cores the doubling of resources is going to make a big difference. Added to that newer CPUs support more up to date instructions so your performance will further increase in loads that leverage them. As far as raw performance goes your 3770K isn't terrible, but the Ryzen 7 is in a COMPLETELY different class when it comes to these kinds of workloads. Nothing else you can upgrade will see the kind of difference you'll see with a new CPU. I'd have recommended an Intel CPU as well, but honestly Intel has nothing in the price range that can touch the performance of the Ryzen chips, the 2600 or 2700.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Aldo Ramdani]

CPU and VGA.