New to graphics cards, advice for picking video editing card

[Bowerz]

Hi all,

I've never really needed a graphics card in any of my builds, I don't use them for gaming, just work. However recently started for using on aerial photography with another hobby of mine (RC flying). I have found the graphic intensive tasks when editing and rendering are struggling quite a bit on my current setup so decided to invest in a card.

I've looked around and done some learning but if I'm honest the numbering of the NVIDIA cards still somewhat confuses me however can understand the tech specs. This is where I thought I would use the years of experience here as I've looking but just really not sure on what's a 'good deal'! I understand more Cuda cores is better for rendering/editing so looking for above the 600 mark there at least.

A few key points that would be helpful:

- Mobo: P8Z77-v LX (PCIe 3.0 compatible)
- CPU: i5-3570k (not OC'd)
- Monitors are not 4K but will be editing some 4K footage. running dual 27" matched monitors both have HDMI and DP1.2, however would like to add another 1080 22" monitor possibly at some point
- Would like a card with water blocks available to at some point add into my loop, so guessing reference board preferable?
- 6pin power available from PSU and going in a NZXT phantom case so a fair amount of room available

Can't think of anything else I need to mention other than £100-£150 budget (can stretch a little more if there are significant improvements over the best card within budget)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Dicehunter]

What software are you using ?

If it's Premier Pro then a 960 will do nicely, 1024 CUDA cores, Plays very nicely with PP, Is only £8 more expensive than your range, Uses 1 x 6 pin and looks quite good too

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-379-as.html

 

[Bowerz]

What software are you using ?

If it's Premier Pro then a 960 will do nicely, 1024 CUDA cores, Plays very nicely with PP, Is only £8 more expensive than your range, Uses 1 x 6 pin and looks quite good too

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-379-as.html

Thanks for the suggestion

I'm using Vegas Pro 13 at the moment, but may play with twixtor soon so will be after effects/premier pro also

 

[Dicehunter]

Thanks for the suggestion

I'm using Vegas Pro 13 at the moment, but may play with twixtor soon so will be after effects/premier pro also

Vegas Pro's CUDA acceleration is borked at the moment and doesn't work properly with Maxwell cards, Unless they've fixed it in a patch lately.

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

The next option would be the 380x by AMD better than the 960 in terms of performance if I can recall correctly

 

[Kushiro]

Cant run off a single 6pin though.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Sony Vegas Pro 13 and Adobe Premier/effects all support OpenCL so a good equilvalent would be the AMD 370 or 370x(most don't have a single 6 pin though) and is generally cheaper than a 960 if budget is a bigger concern. Only bringing this up because Maxwell cards and Vegas like DiceHunter mentioned is a bit messed up atm. It doesn't mean the Nvidia card won't work but you may just not get the full benefit of it. OpenCL is starting to become more common among editing/video software and is just as great as Cuda but unlike Cuda it's open source and therefore free and works on more hardware(meaning it's cheaper to make software and supports more hardware) so it'll eventually become a standard like Cuda once was for software. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[Bowerz]

Thanks guys,

To be honest, hadn't really considered AMD as an option, just assumed you needed an AMD board to use them

 

[NeverBackDown]

Thanks guys,

To be honest, hadn't really considered AMD as an option, just assumed you needed an AMD board to use them

Nope. You only need an AMD board for an AMD CPU. You could be running an AMD cpu with Nvidia if you wanted to GPUs don't care which platform you put them on as long as you have a PCIE slot for it to fit into

 

[Bowerz]

Out of interest, why would the previous GTX960 be advised over this card?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kfa2...i-express-graphics-card-retail-gx-085-kf.html

The above is cheaper, and has 4GB DDR5 rather than 2GB

Not arguing or ignoring advice, just interested in why/learning

The only reason I can imagine is KFA2 are a smaller brand?

 

[Tolemac]

Out of interest, why would the previous GTX960 be advised over this card?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kfa2...i-express-graphics-card-retail-gx-085-kf.html

The above is cheaper, and has 4GB DDR5 rather than 2GB

Not arguing or ignoring advice, just interested in why/learning

The only reason I can imagine is KFA2 are a smaller brand?

AMD cards perform better in that end of the market fella and you can get 4GB variants of them

 

[SeanAngelo]

Hi all,

I've never really needed a graphics card in any of my builds, I don't use them for gaming, just work. However recently started for using on aerial photography with another hobby of mine (RC flying). I have found the graphic intensive tasks when editing and rendering are struggling quite a bit on my current setup so decided to invest in a card.

I've looked around and done some learning but if I'm honest the numbering of the NVIDIA cards still somewhat confuses me however can understand the tech specs. This is where I thought I would use the years of experience here as I've looking but just really not sure on what's a 'good deal'! I understand more Cuda cores is better for rendering/editing so looking for above the 600 mark there at least.

A few key points that would be helpful:

- Mobo: P8Z77-v LX (PCIe 3.0 compatible)
- CPU: i5-3570k (not OC'd)
- Monitors are not 4K but will be editing some 4K footage. running dual 27" matched monitors both have HDMI and DP1.2, however would like to add another 1080 22" monitor possibly at some point
- Would like a card with water blocks available to at some point add into my loop, so guessing reference board preferable?
- 6pin power available from PSU and going in a NZXT phantom case so a fair amount of room available

Can't think of anything else I need to mention other than £100-£150 budget (can stretch a little more if there are significant improvements over the best card within budget)

Thanks in advance for any advice!

A GTX 960 will be more than enough for your needs, since you're using Sony Vegas, it can take advantage of CUDA Acceleration

AMD cards perform better in that end of the market fella and you can get 4GB variants of them

But AMD doesn't offer CUDA....

 

[NeverBackDown]

Out of interest, why would the previous GTX960 be advised over this card?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/kfa2...i-express-graphics-card-retail-gx-085-kf.html

The above is cheaper, and has 4GB DDR5 rather than 2GB

Not arguing or ignoring advice, just interested in why/learning

The only reason I can imagine is KFA2 are a smaller brand?

It's cheaper because it's an Nvidia reference design OEM card. You'd be much better off getting a non OEM card as you get much more quality in the cooler and prices aren't that different.

May I ask, what PSU do you currently have? As you could get an AMD 380 for cheaper than the one you linked and they tend to be slightly more powerful. They have an Alphacool GPX block available for them iirc.

A GTX 960 will be more than enough for your needs, since you're using Sony Vegas, it can take advantage of CUDA Acceleration



But AMD doesn't offer CUDA....

No they don't but they offer OpenCL and are better at it, which all his software supports. He won't be losing anything by choosing AMD over Nvidia. CUDA is not as great as it once was as OpenCL is becoming much more popular and is easier to integrate than CUDA and is free. That's why it's becoming more popular and OpenCL has advanced a lot since it first debuted.

 

[SeanAngelo]

It's cheaper because it's an Nvidia reference design OEM card. You'd be much better off getting a non OEM card as you get much more quality in the cooler and prices aren't that different.

May I ask, what PSU do you currently have? As you could get an AMD 380 for cheaper than the one you linked and they tend to be slightly more powerful. They have an Alphacool GPX block available for them iirc.



No they don't but they offer OpenCL and are better at it, which all his software supports. He won't be losing anything by choosing AMD over Nvidia. CUDA is not as great as it once was as OpenCL is becoming much more popular.

fair play, but if he decides to move onto Adobe Premiere for example, I believe CUDA is more beneficial compared to OpenCL.

 

[Bowerz]

It's cheaper because it's an Nvidia reference design OEM card. You'd be much better off getting a non OEM card as you get much more quality in the cooler and prices aren't that different.

May I ask, what PSU do you currently have? As you could get an AMD 380 for cheaper than the one you linked and they tend to be slightly more powerful. They have an Alphacool GPX block available for them iirc.

It's a BeQuiet L8 630w

My issue with the AMD cards is the lack of multiple DP ports (I know I can daisychain with 1.2, however worries me for expansion in the future, maybe I'm just being weird not sure, however the price is certainly attractive!)

 

[NeverBackDown]

fair play, but if he decides to move onto Adobe Premiere for example, I believe CUDA is more beneficial compared to OpenCL.

I'm pretty sure last year(or late 2014 can't remember) Adobe and AMD teamed up and starting to really support OpenCL and now all of there products support it. Pretty sure Adobe is OpenCL's(and in turn AMD) biggest supporter, mainly because it works on OSX too and is just easier for them to support one API instead of two different ones.

It's a BeQuiet L8 630w

My issue with the AMD cards is the lack of multiple DP ports (I know I can daisychain with 1.2, however worries me for expansion in the future, maybe I'm just being weird not sure, however the price is certainly attractive!)

So you do have enough 6 pins to support the 380. Just making sure before we help you make a final choice. AMD and Nvidia both have really good multi display support. While they have less DP options you can still daisy chain 3x1080p monitors iirc at 60hz. Can still use HDMI as well if need be. And getting a HDMI to DP adapter is doable and works well since they are both digital signals instead of analog.