Hi Kev921hs: Welcome to the Cyberlink Forum. Sounds like your computer can handle what you want to do, though I would consider going to an i7 processor, and RAM is cheap, so I would think about "future proofing". Gaming is not what really stresses your computer - video editing does!

Everyone has their preferences re: video card makers. I have nVidia on my main video editing computer (PD10), but my laptop, with PD9, has an AMD card (I had no choice when I bought - DELL doesn't offer much in the way of customization any more). Either GPU card make should do you well, as long as you make sure that get one with at least 1 GB of dedicated video RAM.

Even though you won't be burning BDs, you are still wanting to work in HD, so you will need to ensure, if you want to have a pleasant video editing experience, that your computer has the horsepower, now and in the years to come. Under-powered computers stutter and stall and take forever. My main computer, which I configured specifically for PD10 and HD editing does in minutes, what it takes my i7 laptop with 8 GB of RAM and a 1 GB dedicated AMD card, an hour or more to do.

Just my two cents. I am sure that other experienced editors will have valuable advice to offer. Again, welcome to the forum, and happy PowerDirecting! Have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil Windows 10 Pro x64
Dell XPS 8930
Intel CoreT i7 (4.6 GHz)
32 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
1 TB PCIe -x4 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
PD14 Ultimate x64, 4207
CD4 Ultra and AD6 Ultra
Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor

OK thanks Phil. Looks like lots of 1 GB GPU's out there so I've got plenty of options. Any thoughts on how beefy a processor, or number of cores I'd need on the video card?

I have a Geforce 560ti Graphic card and have no problems to speak of...
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Phil - what AMD card do you have in your laptop?

Would you guys say PowerDirector 10 definitely benefits from a dedicated GPU? I have an Intel i5 with onboard video and some have been suggesting a GPU doesn't improve performance for consumer-level software.

With PowerDirector, I know their tech specs list "supported" graphics cards, but in my mind "supported" is not necessarily the same as "recommended" or "you're way better off if you get one of these"

kev921hs: My Dell Studio XPS 1645 laptop has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 card, with a 1 GB of dedicated display video RAM. I would definitely suggest that having a dedicated video card improves the performance of PD10. On-board graphics usually "share" system RAM.

If I am mistaken (not an ususual occurrence as other forum members will tell you), then I have wasted a lot of money procuring the two NVIDIA GTX580s that I have in my new computer, which I designed to handle HD video in PD10.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you decide. Have a great weekend.

Regards,
-Phil Windows 10 Pro x64
Dell XPS 8930
Intel CoreT i7 (4.6 GHz)
32 GB DDR4-2666 RAM
1 TB PCIe -x4 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
PD14 Ultimate x64, 4207
CD4 Ultra and AD6 Ultra
Bleeping Computer Malware Response Instructor