Thanks very much for your comments, it definitely helps me.
 

Is anyone using an Intel Arc GPU ?

What about the experience?

@MME007

Hi.

Out of the people who regularly try to help out with replies to questions posed on these forums there are none to my knowledge. I know of one other who was contemplating buying the 770 but I think they will go with an nvidia 4060 or 4070.

The mistake I think I have made is getting a 3060 before upgrading my CPU to an Intel processor with a chiplet design. They seem essential for a good productive pairing, starting with an 11th gen CPU with inboard GPU upwards. Without that, the bits that seems to make a difference are resizeable bar and the Intel quick sync when talking about using Intel graphics and Nvenc when talking about nvidia. Both really need to have motherboards that support PCIe gen 4 whereas at present I only have PCIe gen 3 at my disposal. Literally twice as slow as gen 4.

At present neither Nvenc or Quick Sync actually work together so in theory only an Intel CPU 11th gen processor along with an Arc graphics card should be able to combine via Quick sync to produce faster render times.

On the other hand an Intel 11th gen with inboard GPU coupled with an nvidia card would have both a good encode and decode engine within the CPU plus the use of nvidia Nvenc with both having access still to resizeable bar.

What will be better will depend on both the processor choice as much as the GPUs chosen. The motherboard may also be a contributing factor.

Component choice is very hard for sure and because Magix video editors don't get as much online testing done with them as say Adobe does, then it becomes a difficult one to make choices about.

One thing I have noticed is that the specs needed to run Adobe is very similar to the Magix requirements. So their recommendations to my mind are relevant to thinking about a video editing machine in general. Most sites, excluding DaVinci Resolve and Filmora, have similar specification requirements but you never know which way the next upgrade to a video editing program is going to swing.

The one thing I wish I could have afforded personally would have been to keep both CPU and GPU generations together as opposed to having to decide which to upgrade first. In the past it was easier and often smarter to upgrade the GPU first but this may have been reversed in recent years.

Personally I would go for the nvidia card but then I haven't made a good choice myself so possibly I'm not the best person to get advice from. Then again at least you know what hasn't really worked for me and what I think I need to do to rectify the situation.

The nvidia card has seen my system become more stable and achieve smoother playback of complex projects and relatively fast exporting of projects up to HD. At 4K however things has slowed down considerably for export although playback is still good. My conclusion is that my CPU is now my weakest link.

My own personal thoughts are also that the stability and smooth running of a machine while video editing is more important than a slight difference of export times and nvidia on that score is a known positive.

Ray.

Thanks Ray !

I’m investing in a full new quite high end computer, this for a long period.
My priority is to have a stable system for years, not the fastest possible today.

I slowly fear that Intel doesn’t guarantee me today a stable system…

100 EUR more for the Nvdia 4060 ti 16 gb seems to be the safest solution. At least I’m confident Magix will support that card for some years.

@MME007

If the idea is to be stable then then 3060ti is just as capable and a lot cheaper. The additional vram of the 4060ti is only going to be of more use video editing if you want to edit above 4K or your CPU is not as recent as the GPU.

In my experiments do far, the only time my 3060 uses more than 8GBs is when the CPU is pressed into service by selecting it in one of the Import, Processing, Export options. Otherwise it stubbornly sits around the 5 to 6 GBs of usage. Then again, if the Infusion engine changes again in an unexpected way your choice may be the correct one. Changing one of those settings makes no difference to the export speed but playback can suffer smoothness issues. Allowing the CPU to do one of the tasks send my 12GBs of vram to complete saturation and then even taking some shared reserved ram along with it from the motherboard. Unfortunately the 3060ti was outside of my budget or that would have been my choice but again you would be pairing your choice with the latest CPU and possibly a better match. That is outside of my experience but makes sense.

In my personal experience so far, unless one goes really high end on all components it will mean a faster decrease in ability for the computer to deal with newer releases of programs over time regardless of component choice. Middle of the road systems can be good for four years or so but much higher end systems may only survive a few years more. It's always a tough call and results vary from person to person entirely dependant on the workflow and demands that person makes on their system.

The problem at the moment is we no longer get better performance for roughly the same price we once did. That make these decisions that much harder.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

Ray.

Thanks Ray for your thoughts.

The computer I'm trying to replace is a good 10 years old and perfectly capable of doing all I need to exept video editing since some software updates. It also can't be upgraded to win 11. It's a i7 4770K on Asus MB, 8Gb recently upgraded to 24Gb, all from the origin.

Actually, 40 years ago as I bought my first computer (An IBM PC G, I'm not young...) all evolved very quickly and after 4-5 years all was completely obsolete and I had to buy a complete new computer, again and again. Today it is quite slower, mostly the marketing of the new softwares pushes you to replace your hardware...

Yes a GPU 3060TI would be enough. Yes 8Gb also. But in some years probably not and I do not want to purchase another GPU too soon.

I looked to the prices and a RTX4060Ti is about the same price as the RTX3060Ti today, not taking the highest end.

I'm satisfied with the choice I made in 2013 and I will repeat it with a i7 14700k mounted on well build components, not the most expensive! The GPU will probably not last as long as the rest of the computer but gen 40 and 16Gb will give me the chance to use it long, at least I hope so.

Investing 30% more today offers me a nice computer that I will be able to keep more than what would just be enough for me today.

One mistake I made was to upgrade the software (Windows then Magix) not checking the HW compatibility and the problems started... I'll pay attention in the future to that!

Each has his own logic in terms of purchasing...

Marc

@MME007

Hi Marc.

I had read your previous posts from the French forum so had a slight clue as to your old system. I find reading a few old posts can sometimes give me a starting point to a reply.

I would not disagree with any choice you made as you seem well informed and just asking around for some reassurance. I would do the same if I could.

At the end of the day you know your requirements and expectations better than anyone else. I just try to be a sounding board in these situations. The only thing I would personally change if you intend to work with any graphics (such as custom text using a text editor) along with 4K footage is to put in more motherboard ram. I have been finding 32 GB a stretch sometimes and the ram I had made finding new compatible ram difficult. Again your work flow may be completely different but even with my 12GB of vram I can still get above using 24GB of motherboard ram. Even some plugins rely on motherboard ram as opposed to vram.

The other thing is because my last graphics card is still in production I think I can get about half to two thirds of the cost back if I sell it soon. Even if I got slightly less than half That would make the spend on my new card about the same as I paid for the last one. Swings and roundabouts again. As you say, each has their own view in terms of purchase.

Let us know how you get on.

Ray.

Thanks Ray,

Interesting to see that the GPU card can expand on the MB ram, I wasn't aware of that. This confirms that looking for a 16Gb GPU card isn't a bad idea.

I also thought that 32 Gb on the MB could be quickly a limiting factor and I purchased a set of 48Gb. Why 48? Because under DDR5 2x24Gb is still "1 rank" Ram, meaning that it can use the fastest speed of the MB

I received it it is stable at 6800 MT/s, instead of 7200... still searching the reason.

I'm now looking for a good deal on Asus 4060Ti 16Gb, around 500 EUR, already an investment !

Where are you from ?

Thanks for your help.

Marc

@MME007

Hi Marc.

Not quite, that system ram gets marked as reserved video ram should either the CPU or internal Intel GPU need it for processing such as for 3D rendering.

The Infusion Engine III allows for various parts of a project to be processed by the main different components of the computer if you have them and if needed. Most of the time, if you have a strong graphics card, the best settings in the program device settings to have is to keep everything set to the dedicated graphics card but sometimes a given plugin or type of workload within a project may mean a section of the project doesn't get fully rendered correctly on export even though it may play back in the project just fine. Being able to set the program to render part of the processing or handle the feed of data to the processor via another route internally may overcome that problem. you may get different processing choices for each of the Import, Processing, and Export options. That redirects resources and can affect how much system ram gets used where and to what component.

Also some effects like some de-noise, text, colour grading, effects do not get processed by the GPU but the CPU regardless of the program settings.

So depending on the Program settings, the demands on which bits of the computer are being used, what for and when, can vary.

Above I had set my copy of MEP 2022 up deliberately to show that sometimes motherboard ram use can get high but some projects will cause that to happen during normal use and even when the program is set to mainly use the dedicated graphics card for all three sections of Importing, processing, and exporting.

Often when there is an increase in the use of the motherboard ram it is because either the internal Intel GPU is doing something like video encoding or decoding or an amount of 3D rendering or the CPU is being used or maybe just a lot of audio has been put straight to ram on projects that have a lot of audio tracks.

Compiling animated text in a plugin like New Blue Titler 7 or Boris Effects Titler is a big user of ram while compiling anything that deviates from their basic templates. Another large user of memory and CPU load are de-noise plugins. Some stand alone effects such as the Pro-Dad Hide also can use mass amounts of ram depending on the quality settings used.

So these screen grabs are also from the project I set up for the image above.

Notice in this instance the internal Intel GPU have grabbed a huge amount of system ram reserved for using as video ram even though that would be slower than using the vram of the nvidia vram. The amount of work the nvidia card is doing is negligible and the amount of its vram in use is much less. I could easily set up a project to do the complete opposites. Sometimes there are benefits to doing different program setups as a project progresses and other time it makes no difference at all or makes things worse.

I only did this to show as an example rather than a working project but in the past I have had projects that in places have grabbed parts of the components in a similar fashion, even when the project had been set to using the nvidia card only. Also that priorities seem to change between components between playing a project and exporting a render.

As for your ram speed. That is normal and will be dependant on the CPU rating combined with the motherboard choice. Different CPUs will limit the DDR transfer speeds. Your specs for your CPU can be found here.

I too found out the hard way 😅. With the 9th gen processors the i7 series had faster ram transfer speeds than the i9 series.

You may get higher speeds from overclocking but that cost you in system stability or reduced life span of the CPU.

Personally I feel that is best left alone.

But GPU choice is also complex and not just about the amount of ram but can be about clock speeds of various parts as well as the amount of PCIe lanes and ram. You will notice the very top end cards get plenty of everything while lower end tier GPUs get part of the dies disabled so as to fit the profile of the cards capabilities and cost. Not because the die itself may not have been capable.

In short there are too many variables that go into a computer build for most people including myself to give accurate feedback on how it will behave. A lot will also depend on what type of projects the individual creates and their individual needs.

I hope that hasn't confused you more 🤣.

I was born and live in the South east of England.

Ray.

My take on this is not so much about 'Intel' or 'NVidia', but rather 'Acer' or 'Asus'. If I need to choose I would 100% choose Asus, because Asus creates higher quality components. If you want to go for Intel I would suggest looking for a different maker.