GPU for video editing/rendering (AMD vs. Nvidia)

[uvuse]

Hi there,

I try to build a PC to edit/render some video as fast as possible without spending tons of money. Maybe I will do some 3d rendering also. I’ve got all the stuff together except for the GPU as this matter is confusing me a lot. I haven’t got any knowledge of the market as I built my last PC about 15 years ago. I hope someone around here has recent knowledge about the whole AMD vs. Nvidia thing.

I realize that about a year ago there was no way around Nvidia with their CUDA when doing video editing. My research suggests that since then the world changed quite a bit and OpenCL performance on price wise comparable AMD cards seems similar. As on my research I found too many old articles which don’t seem valid anymore.

So, for example Radeon R9 280X on AMD’s side and GTX 770 on Nvidia’s side (or R9 270X and GTX 760): do they really perform similar in jobs like video encoding? I am aware that Adobe’s GPU accelerated ray tracing needs CUDA and that Blender’s GPU acceleration also doesn’t work with OpenCL. But I guess Premiere Pro is able to use both, OpenCL on AMD and CUDA (and OpenCL) on Nvidia. What performance differences are to be expected with AMD/OpenCL vs. Nvidia/CUDA and Nvidia/OpenCL? Those cards do support the live preview (and not only the final rendering), don’t they?

I hope that, by this question I don’t wake to many fanboys and I receive some objective answers and additional input.

Thanks in advance!

 

[TriBeard]

I think openCL is probably the future, and more and more stuff will support it going forward. However, that doesn't help you now. Sony Vegas is another video application that uses openCL.

If most of your applications can use OpenCL, I would probably go with AMD, as their openCL performance is a good deal better than nvidia's at the moment. That being said, if what you use only uses CUDA, then you either have to change what programs you use, or go with nvidia if you want to get the most out of your card.

 

[ferwindjacks]

To answer your questions, the equivalent video cards from either manufacturer are similar in their jobs as they are similar in performance cards. I do believe that both Adobe and video editing software such as Sony Vegas Pro offer primarily Nvidia specific rendering options, CUDA rendering more specifically. OpenCL promises a portable language for GPU programming, capable of targeting dissimilar parallel processing devices. Unlike a CUDA kernel, an OpenCL kernel can be compiled at runtime (kernel being a piece of code that executes data processing instructions). On the other hand, this quick runtime compile may allow the compiler to generate code that makes better use of the GPU. CUDA is developed by the same company that develops the hardware on which it executes, so one may expect it to better match the computing characteristics of the GPU, offering more access to features and better performance.
Also, last I checked, CS6 does not support AMD hardware acceleration either, so Nvidia will net better performance there.

To (attempt) to sum it up quickly, Nvidia will get you better performance for editing on most applications, however AMD is more cost effective and similar in terms of performance.

I did my best to stay fanboy-free and bias free.

 

[uvuse]

Thanks a lot for the great answers. I still am struggling a bit but this was some valuable input, thanks again

 

[ferwindjacks]

Struggling with what exactly? Maybe I could clarify more. Hard to transfer tech lingo into understandable words sometimes.

 

[uvuse]

I’m struggling with the decision …I still have to figure out what software I maybe will use in the future. I’m trying to stay as future-proof as possible. I had my last desktop computer almost 15 years ago. During my laptop only time I didn’t do much media stuff, because my laptops just weren’t powerful enough. I now try go on where I stopped 15 years ago. It just is a little bit confusing…some Software benefits from OpenCL, which Nvidia cards seem to suck in…other Software relies in important features on CUDA, which AMD isn’t able to satisfy at all. If that wasn’t enough word is that more software will turn into the OpenCL direction soon. I guess I’ll go with a low-to-mid-range GTX 760 because currently I can get the most use out of it. Later, if I feel the urge to upgrade and OpenCL really has risen, I’ll check out on one of the new AMD cards.