Question Help replacing CPU for better reencode/system speeds (using i5 11400 now)

[Perene]

This is my current machine:

CPU Intel i5 11400, 32 GB DDR-4 (two 16 GB, 2666 MHz, Corsair Vengeance CMK32GX4M2A2666C16), motherboard MSI Z590-A Pro, Windows 11 64 bit. RTX 3060 (model DUAL-RTX3060-O12G-V2) for video card.

COOLER: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black; Main SSD: WD_BLACK SN850X, 2 TB NVME.

CASE: LIAN LI, Lancool 216

I am not using the VGA for reencodes, they are H.265 only. Even so, the CPU leaves Windows slow more than I like, so I asked in chatGPT-like sites what should I do, and it was suggested to replace the CPU. If this also leads to replacing the motherboard, I don't know. I only asked for INTEL, so no AMD.

But the suggestions were not the same, and I forgot to ask one thing they may not know the answer: how much energy these would consume.

You see, this i5 CPU's TDP is 65W, so this indicates (as far as I know) it saves more on this.

Here's what I need to find out:

1) What CPU in terms of cost/benefit would represent a substantial upgrade over this one, in terms of reencodes (especially from these 4K contents, or video editing)?

2) Would this CPU need me to replace the motherboard?

3) Can I expect a lot more energy consumption, or slightly more than now?

 

[Lutfij]

Have you thought about GPU encoding for H.265?

3) Can I expect a lot more energy consumption, or slightly more than now?
If you're going with 12th, 13th or 14th, then yes. If you're going with the Gen after that the power draw was reduced a little and so did it's performance numbers. If you're lucky, you might not encounter any issues with the 13th/14th Gen processors. The 12th Gen is safe to invest on but that would mean you get a new motherboard, which happens to be a gateway into the 13th/14th Gen processors since the socket if the same.

You could logically put in an i7 without changing the motherboard but we're up that ladder in terms of power draw, again.

 

[Bob.B]

This is my current machine:

CPU Intel i5 11400, 32 GB DDR-4 (two 16 GB, 2666 MHz, Corsair Vengeance CMK32GX4M2A2666C16), motherboard MSI Z590-A Pro, Windows 11 64 bit. RTX 3060 (model DUAL-RTX3060-O12G-V2) for video card.

COOLER: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black; Main SSD: WD_BLACK SN850X, 2 TB NVME.

CASE: LIAN LI, Lancool 216

I am not using the VGA for reencodes, they are H.265 only. Even so, the CPU leaves Windows slow more than I like, so I asked in chatGPT-like sites what should I do, and it was suggested to replace the CPU. If this also leads to replacing the motherboard, I don't know. I only asked for INTEL, so no AMD.

But the suggestions were not the same, and I forgot to ask one thing they may not know the answer: how much energy these would consume.

You see, this i5 CPU's TDP is 65W, so this indicates (as far as I know) it saves more on this.

Here's what I need to find out:

1) What CPU in terms of cost/benefit would represent a substantial upgrade over this one, in terms of reencodes (especially from these 4K contents, or video editing)?

2) Would this CPU need me to replace the motherboard?

3) Can I expect a lot more energy consumption, or slightly more than now?

What's busy when your doing this reencode and trying to do other stuff?

 

[TerryLaze]

I am not using the VGA for reencodes, they are H.265 only. Even so, the CPU leaves Windows slow more than I like

If this is your only issue then set priority for the encoding to idle, if that's not enough you can use affinity to force the encoding to use only 5 out of the 6 cores so the other can run whatever else you want.
Affinity mask calculator, at the very bottom they give you the console command that you can use in a batch file, if you add /low after the hexcode it will also start it with the lowest priority.

CPU Affinity Mask Calculator

on GitHub How to Set the CPU Affinity of a Windows Process Permanently The best way to set a CPU affinity permanently on Windows is to use Process Lasso. The custom CPU affinity will be applied eac…

bitsum.com

Both of these can also be set by task manager in real time, just go to the details tab and right click on the encoding task.
No matter what CPU with how many cores you will get, CPU encoding of 265 will always use all of them (at lest when talking about desktop cpus) .

 

[Misgar]

I am not using the VGA for reencodes, they are H.265 only.

I don't know if you're using Premiere Pro, but Adobe has supported H.265 encoding on NVidia and AMD GPUs since 2020. I'd expect similar H.265 GPU support in other modern software.
https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...and-H-265-Hardware-Encoding-Performance-1778/

"Premiere Pro has supported H.264/H.265 hardware encoding for a long time, but it was limited to Intel CPUs that supported Quicksync. In the new 14.2 version, Adobe has added GPU-based hardware encoding that supports most modern GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD."

1) What CPU in terms of cost/benefit would represent a substantial upgrade over this one, in terms of reencodes (especially from these 4K contents, or video editing)?

An Intel 14900K or Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, paired with an NVidia RTX 4090 would represent a significant (but very expensive) upgrade. Of course you can select a slower CPU and GPU to save money.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/soluti...be-premiere-pro/hardware-recommendations/#cpu

3) Can I expect a lot more energy consumption, or slightly more than now?

More power consumption usually results in shorter render times. You trade one off against the other.

I run H.265 encodes in Topaz Video AI on an AMD Ryzen 7950X and RTX 4070. The CPU and GPU share the load roughly equally during H.265 encodes, with each component dissipating up to 170W. Total power consumed by the PC is circa 400W during renders.

Comparing the 9950X with a 14900K, I'd expect to see faster renders with the Intel CPU, but the slower AMD CPU will probably use 50W less power. As a very rough rule of thumb, 14900K = 230W when pushed hard and the 9950X = 170W. If you enable PBO on the Ryzen, consumption will shoot up.

If you use a GPU for renders, allow another 150 to 450W, depending on card type.