I always start my shopping by checking out these CPU benchmarks. I recommend a processor with a minimum benchmark of 6,500. A 10,000 is much better, especially if you're editing 4K. Beyond that is a measure of budget vs. need.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

The GPU's role in PowerDirector is a bit harder to quantify. You certainly don't need a gamer machine. In fact, a gamer machine is often just a very expensive toy. But maybe others have more specific suggestions for a graphics card.

I've also focused my investment on the processor, and I've never lacked for editing power. As you can see from the benchmark chart I linked you to above, you can get a lot of processor power for a few hundred dollars these days!

Quote
What works great for you?

For me it's a second hand Dell Precision T7610 workstation and a nvidia GTX1080. There is no need of that 1080 for editing, any card that has hardware NVENC performs the same, I had the 1080 for other reasons. The issue is that on those workstations you need to have cards that are not taller than the standard PC bracket, the case is designed for the Quadro series of cards.

For my dual CPU Xeon E5-2667 V2 at 3.3GHz, the CPU passmark is 21,247. Both CPU's and all 32 logical processors (16 physical cores) can be used by the PD:



If I would be to buy now a new GPU only for the editing, I would go with the new version of GeForce GTX 1660, just for the best decoding/encoding performance.

On the other hand, even a cheap Quadro P620 has decent 4K decoding/encoding capabilities. And uses less power. I have one of them in my rig too.

See the support matrix from here:

https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-gpu-support-matrix

PS: I was fan of AMD, but their buggy drivers made me switch to nvidia for stability and consistency. I use their "Studio Driver", not the "Game Ready Driver".

welcome to the forum.
on my b-day i got myself Ryzen 7 2700X on Asrock Taichi X470 mobo BECAUSE it supported old, like me , W7 with bios version 1.60. (i do not know or want to experiment and update bios to 2.0 or ≥3.10...)

i have MSI GTX 1060Ti 6GB and HA with nvidia driver versions 390.65 & 411.70. HA decode and encode H.265. woohoo!

if i went to WX straight then it woulda been Ryzen 7 3700X. second choice woulda been Ryzen 9 3900X or Ryzen 9 3950X.
graphics card woulda been MSI GTX 1660Ti 6GB. i likes them twin frozr!

Now i'd like to recommend 32GB(≥3200MHz) RAM of memory rather than 16GB.
corsair 500W PS, when the GPU requires 450W(+50W).
ABSOLUTE minimum 500GB SSD or M2. (nope! no more spinning metal disks for main HDD.)
and 8TB external drive for $129.00.

(Jiminey Crickets. i paid that for a WD 6GB PATA HDD or two 1MB DIMM memory once upon a time... ^^)
(found'em in the garage.)

happy happy joy joy

PepsiMan
'garbage in garbage out' 'no bridge too far'

Yashica Electro 8 LD-6 Super 8mm
Asrock TaiChi X470, AMD R7 2700X, W7P 64, MSI GTX1060 6GB, Corsair 16GB/RAM
Dell XPS L702X i7-2860QM, W7P / W10P 64, Intel HD3000/nVidia GT 550M 1GB, Micron 16GB/RAM
Samsung Galaxy Note3/NX1

I currently have an NVIDIA 1660 Super and it works very well. I had an AMD RX 580 before.

I am not sure about AMD cards from this generation but the RX generation had several problems with PD18.

Quote I currently have an NVIDIA 1660 Super and it works very well. I had an AMD RX 580 before.

I am not sure about AMD cards from this generation but the RX generation had several problems with PD18.

That was almost my journey too. I have "donated" the RX580 to my daughter's PC and got myself a GTX 1080.

Do you get hardware acceleration Ok on your GTX card? Does it use the CUDA option in PD18?
Reccently I upgraded an upmarket system with an MSI RTX 2080Ti 11GB card and am thinking of buying and installing PD18 on it.
to see how it perfoms against Premium Plus and DaVinci Resolve Studio

I have been told that currently this card is not supported in the CUDA mode by Cyberlink
and that MPEG2 is not supported at all in hardware accelerations.
I have also been told that a CUDA update is available from Cyberlink, but have been unable to fiund that.
Am also aware that the "free" version does not have the h/ware acell turned on, but am reluctant to buy the 18. version (365 is not for me) if it does not support CUDA as this significatly enhances production times according to my info.

Any relevant info would be appreciated
John

Quote Do you get hardware acceleration Ok on your GTX card? Does it use the CUDA option in PD18?
Reccently I upgraded an upmarket system with an MSI RTX 2080Ti 11GB card and am thinking of buying and installing PD18 on it.
to see how it perfoms against Premium Plus and DaVinci Resolve Studio

I have been told that currently this card is not supported in the CUDA mode by Cyberlink
and that MPEG2 is not supported at all in hardware accelerations.
I have also been told that a CUDA update is available from Cyberlink, but have been unable to fiund that.
Am also aware that the "free" version does not have the h/ware acell turned on, but am reluctant to buy the 18. version (365 is not for me) if it does not support CUDA as this significatly enhances production times according to my info.

PD does not have any CUDA based encoders, they simply use the Nvidia NVENC and NVDEC for encoding and decoding. This Nvidia supplied API via the drivers utilizes the specialized SIP core, not the CUDA cores. PD18 will work with the 2080, it simply does not take any advantage of some offerings of the GPU, HEVC B Frame support, H.265 (HEVC) 8k via GUI, 10-bit hardware encoding, so on nor any real speed improvements in the Sixth generation NVENC vs Fourth.

If you are into the AI Styles provided by CL, https://www.cyberlink.com/products/add-ons/powerdirector/styles-effect/ai-style_en_US.html , they will utilize CUDA for the effect computations.

Jeff

Jeff explaind it perfectly.
Just want to add that there was a "CUDA encoding" but it was deprecated by nvidia in their drives a long time ago (Dec 2009). It was possible to use it with those older drivers, on Fermi class of GPU's, in previous versions of PD

Not anymore, now only NVENC encoding is supported. That SIP bloc is separated from all those CUDA cores:
https://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-video-codec-sdk

First my thnks to Jeff (JL_JL) for his illuminating reply....tried to reply to you ASAP I got yr message Jeff, , but had a WIN10 crash when in the reply mode here and only just back up....apologies for that and a belated thank you.

SONIc67

Thanks to you also. I just read your SDK link... bit disappointing, I was previously misinformed about CUDA in the nVidea GFX ,, though I know I had read somewhere that it had it available, now not so Ime afraid.

The Black Magic specs says it supports CUDA.

Perhaps one of you knowledgable guys can advise me of the best, say, 4 or 8GB ram GFX card whichdefinately suppports H/ware accel in PD18?? I still have a need for MPEG2 DVD generation and hware accell would speed things up a bit.
I have seen MP4 with the hware light on in anothers PD18, but not Mpeg2???
I used PD11 (licensed) a long time ago and PD18 seems to have a lot a lot more going for it.
Thanks again, both, for your input.
Regards
John

No Nvidia GPU's will support your MPEG2 desire, it's not part of the SIP core. Just H.264 and H.265, and very efficient for H.265 vs CPU encoding.

For MPEG support you will have to consider iGPU or AMD. I'd not do AMD with PD, in my view encoding reliability just not been there through the years with PD. Although I have not tried again since PD18 2405 release states "Adds support for enabling AMD VCN2 hardware acceleration." VCN2.0 replaced VCE4.0 in mid 2019. I brought home a compliant VCN2 Navi 10 AMD GPU some time ago but haven't evaluated for my needs in PD18 yet. If MPEG2 a small part of your need, I'd just use CPU encoding or consider CPU with iGPU with a series of HDMI switchboxes to alternately switch between iGPU and Nvidia GPU functionality with PD for some niche needs, can't have both simultaneously.

https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/65974.page#post_box_300990 may offer you some insight into some tradeoffs for various needs. Additionally, the GeForce 20 series will lack any interlaced support in PD18.

Jeff

Quote I still have a need for MPEG2 DVD generation and hware accell would speed things up a bit.

Sorry, MPEG2 gets no love today. Just get the fastest CPU that you can afford and do it in sofware. Or two CPU like in my case...

hi ...
i m going to buy a new pc for my editing work
i wanted to know what is the best hardware to compatible with PD

in order to run at the top performance during editing
i need to clear some of my curiosity
1.is it amd or intel ?
2.what is the maximum ram PD needed (64gb or 128gb)
3.NVIDA or AMD graphic card would be the best compatible ?

welcome to the forum.
my recommendations from June 2020 hasn't changed much.

Quote ...
1.is it amd or intel ?
...

any Ryzen 7 or 9 series cpu, most bang for the buck is Ryzen 5 5600X with $2k-3k nVidia gpus.
7th or later gen Intel cpus. why? it has hardware encode and decode H.265...

Quote ...
2.what is the maximum ram PD needed (64gb or 128gb)
...

just as previous reponse 32GB(≥3200MHz) RAM minimum.

Quote ...
3.NVIDA or AMD graphic card would be the best compatible ?
...

minimum MSI GTX 1660Ti 6GB gpu.

moreover, any powersupply +50W and ABSOLUTE minimum 500GB SSD or M2.

happy happy joy joy

PepsiMan
'garbage in garbage out'