GPU Upgrade Worth It?

justsomedude

Newbie Joined: Jan 02, 2011 16:32 Messages: 11 Offline

Solved by

Nov 26, 2022 20:20

Hey. I have a 1050 Ti in my PC now. It's been in there a very long time (it was a pretty new model when I got it for a previous build), but the rest of the PC was new a couple of years ago.

Ryzen 3900X
32GB RAM

It works pretty well for editing in PD with 4K30 video. No complaint about rendering times or general operation. My only real complaint is that it is really slow when I add a bunch of video files and wait for it to process shadow files. I even stack 4 4K30 vids on the timeline for some vids with 4 simultaneous cams, and it can edit without much noticeable lag unless I add effects or even color adjustments sometimes.

My question is; would a newer GPU like a 3060 or 3060Ti change the experience very much? Would it speed up shadow files at all or smooth out the mostly minor hiccups with 4K editing?

I also use Corel Paintshop wuite a bit and that will lag with some large image editing at times or tying to use a really large paint brush or eraser for example. I know it's not directly related, but it anyone knows if the GPU upgrade would help a lot there I'd appreciate the input.

I'm mostly happy, but with some Black Friday prices that will be around for another couple of days and wondering how much longer my old GPU will last before it fails, I'm tempted. It's still expensive to me though, so I'm not looking to spend money just to spend money. Thanks.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Nov 27, 2022 09:15

Quote My question is; would a newer GPU like a 3060 or 3060Ti change the experience very much? Would it speed up shadow files at all or smooth out the mostly minor hiccups with 4K editing?

Q1) No, nothing significant, you may actually loose something if you do any interlaced hardware encoding, for instance profile AVC 1920x1080/60i (24Mbps) would not be available in the 20 or 30 series.
Q2) No, the GPU is currently not used at all for shadow file creation, only CPU.

Jeff

justsomedude

Newbie Joined: Jan 02, 2011 16:32 Messages: 11 Offline

Nov 27, 2022 10:23

Quote

Q1) No, nothing significant, you may actually loose something if you do any interlaced hardware encoding, for instance profile AVC 1920x1080/60i (24Mbps) would not be available in the 20 or 30 series.
Q2) No, the GPU is currently not used at all for shadow file creation, only CPU.

Jeff

Thanks for the info.

I was doing my own research, watching the performance meters while doing different things. It looks like my GPU isn't getting above 20% any time when I'm editing and the CPU is not really stressing. I'd probably see the biggest gains for shadow files with a faster hard drive, because that's basically maxed out during shadow file creation.

For anyone else that finds this that may be curious about Corel Paintshop, I saw that when I used large enough brushes with quick movement to create lag, the CPU was maxxing out and the GPU was barely doing anything.

So for me, I think speeding up everything significantly would probably require a new CPU like a 7900X-7950X and that's a big investment since they can't just swap in place of my 3900X. Maybe I'll check out some Black Friday/Cyber Monday storage deals though.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Nov 27, 2022 14:03

Quote Thanks for the info.

I was doing my own research, watching the performance meters while doing different things. It looks like my GPU isn't getting above 20% any time when I'm editing and the CPU is not really stressing. I'd probably see the biggest gains for shadow files with a faster hard drive, because that's basically maxed out during shadow file creation.

For anyone else that finds this that may be curious about Corel Paintshop, I saw that when I used large enough brushes with quick movement to create lag, the CPU was maxxing out and the GPU was barely doing anything.

So for me, I think speeding up everything significantly would probably require a new CPU like a 7900X-7950X and that's a big investment since they can't just swap in place of my 3900X. Maybe I'll check out some Black Friday/Cyber Monday storage deals though.

I'd be really surprised at your HD comment for faster shadow file creation. Saying 4K video does not tell me much but if of a typical bitrate, HD being issue does not follow the norm for anything I've seen. Only time HD speed really becomes significantly relevant is dealing with a uncompressed codec, especially multiple streams playback.

PD throttles CPU load during shadow file creation. Additionally, you may have HyperThreading (SMT) turned on which doubles the perceived core count so your monitored load is artificially low as PD does not do HyperThreading well and you will never see these additional cores loaded significantly. Also remember to remove shadow files so they are recreated or use a new file that does not have files created yet when testing.

If you want to see load on your GPU, do a high bitrate H.265 GPU encode process with PD, you'll probably see near 100%

Jeff

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 27. 2022 14:32

justsomedude

Newbie Joined: Jan 02, 2011 16:32 Messages: 11 Offline

Nov 27, 2022 14:37

Quote

I'd be really surprised at your HD comment for faster shadow file creation. Saying 4K video does not tell me much but if of a typical bitrate, HD being issue does not follow the norm for anything I've seen. Only time HD speed really becomes significantly relevant is dealing with a uncompressed codec, especially multiple streams playback.

PD throttles CPU load during shadow file creation. Additionally, you may have HyperThreading turned on which doubles the perceived core count so your monitored load is artificially low as PD does not do HyperThreading well and you will never see these additional cores loaded significantly. Also remember to remove shadow files so they are recreated or use a new file that does not have files created yet when testing.

If you want to see load on your GPU, do a high bitrate H.265 GPU encode process with PD, you'll probably see near 100%

Jeff

I always encode H.265 and it is around 100% CPU.

I tried again and this time I was only seeing very low use of anything for shadow files. I do wish I could speed that up, because sometimes I'll make a video with ~100 different 4K source vids (GoPro Hero9, 60Mbps) and I'll have to leave the PC going for a half a day at least.

I had 4 4k files stacked and when I skipped somewhere, that's when I would see 90-100% HDD use, but I tried again and I see that it's brief and then goes way down. Even then CPU use is around 30% while having those stacked and it's trying to create shadow files.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 27. 2022 14:38

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Nov 27, 2022 14:57

Quote I always encode H.265 and it is around 100% CPU.

I tried again and this time I was only seeing very low use of anything for shadow files. I do wish I could speed that up, because sometimes I'll make a video with ~100 different 4K source vids (GoPro Hero9, 60Mbps) and I'll have to leave the PC going for a half a day at least.

I had 4 4k files stacked and when I skipped somewhere, that's when I would see 90-100% HDD use, but I tried again and I see that it's brief and then goes way down. Even then CPU use is around 30% while having those stacked and it's trying to create shadow files.

100% CPU load during H.265 encoding either tells me you didn't enable hardware encoding on the "Produce" page, or you have done things like color correction to the timeline video.

Shadow files are created from content in the Media Library, not on the timeline. If you have 1280x720 shadowfiles, they are about 6000kbps, or 0.75MB/s for playback once created, that's very trivial load for any HD. If 1920x1080, 1.1MB/s, again nothing for HD loads. If you are applying timeline color corrections or something for timeline playback, that's 100% CPU load, only improved CPU will help there.

Again, your 30% CPU load is that way as shadowfile creation does not use full CPU capability, PD throttles. You may have additional low % from HyperThreading, SMT for your Ryzen.

If above not the case, probably need some attached pic to see what may be going on.

Jeff

justsomedude

Newbie Joined: Jan 02, 2011 16:32 Messages: 11 Offline

Nov 27, 2022 15:29

Quote

100% CPU load during H.265 encoding either tells me you didn't enable hardware encoding on the "Produce" page, or you have done things like color correction to the timeline video.

Shadow files are created from content in the Media Library, not on the timeline. If you have 1280x720 shadowfiles, they are about 6000kbps, or 0.75MB/s for playback once created, that's very trivial load for any HD. If 1920x1080, 1.1MB/s, again nothing for HD loads. If you are applying timeline color corrections or something for timeline playback, that's 100% CPU load, only improved CPU will help there.

Again, your 30% CPU load is that way as shadowfile creation does not use full CPU capability, PD throttles. You may have additional low % from HyperThreading, SMT for your Ryzen.

If above not the case, probably need some attached pic to see what may be going on.

Jeff

Yeah, I think I'm just going to leave it alone. Nothing is wrong... I just always want to be faster.