Posts by granitecrane2

analogviper87 said:I'm looking to pick up a PC for video editing (nothing 4k, just standard stuff), mostly using Adobe software, with a budget of roughly $1,000.

I just got a pretty decent offer, so I wanted to see what you guys think about this setup...

Intel Core I5 10400 2.90GHz
Intel B460 , 2x8GB DDR4 2666MHz
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6
M.2 SSD 500GB , HDD 1TB,
NO ODD,10/100/1000 Mbit,
Midi Tower 500W.

This quote is about $800.

It's solid. I especially appreciate that you're willing to settle for the "underpowered" 2060. Honestly, I would have pulled the trigger on that too if I had known where to find it. Instead, I ended up grabbing a 3060—specifically that less popular, chunky ASUS Phoenix model—which has been a total win for me (not going to get into why).
The only thing that gives me pause is whether that 500W power supply will actually cut it. I might be wrong, though. Since the 2060 draws less power and you opted for an Intel i5, it might be okay.
Also, in my opinion, a 1 TB HDD is way too small for video work. I went with a 12 TB drive myself, so I’d suggest aiming for at least 3 TB. They're super cheap these days. My advice? Grab this now, then just add more storage later.

hiddenmoose22 said:Hey everyone, I wanted to reach out and see if we might be able to gather all you hardware enthusiasts, gamers, and crypto miners together into one space? We’ve started building up this little corner of the internet on an American forum, and we’ve already grown to over 250 members, which is pretty incredible when you think about it. Our goal is really just to foster a genuine community where we can swap info, find people to game with, and just hang out. So, if that sounds like your kind of thing, why not come take a look?

https://disboard.org/server/768836109618118656

If I'm reading the rules correctly, that's actually against the site policy. Besides, isn't the whole point of a forum being public rather than behind closed doors? You might as well just meet up at a local pub instead.

Zachary Baker2 said:About 12 months ago, the right hinge on my Dell laptop broke, causing the screen to wobble. It was replaced under warranty, but now the screen just slides around loosely whenever I try to tilt it. If anyone has any quick advice or a clever fix...
Thanks.

Just look for a new one. This isn't right. You shouldn't even feel the hinges moving. They need to function perfectly.

wiredotter14 said:I highly doubt there’s a single retailer out there without orders in for all the current-gen cards. It's actually much simpler than that—suppliers just aren't delivering them.

It basically boils down to this: they're being squeezed. They either stop manufacturing the older models entirely or just keep them sitting in a warehouse. Honestly, there is zero technological reason why they wouldn't produce something like an RTX 2060 anymore. There are tons of people who don't play games at 4k, and for them, that card would be perfect. It's great for video editing, too. But you simply can't find it for sale.
To be fair, I managed to snag an RTX 3060 at a decent price, even though I don't strictly need the 12 GB of VRAM. I'm not some 4k gamer, and I couldn't care less about pushing cyberpunk at 4k (truthfully, I don't really care about resolution; even 1080p looks perfectly fine to me). Take the 3060 Ti, for example—it's more powerful, yet it only has 8 GB. How does that work? It costs exactly $333 more and has more processing units, but LESS memory. So much for the idea that 12 GB is "essential."

Alexander Moore67 said:The Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060 Twin X2 OC was sitting at Best Buy just four days ago for $1667 now it's gone and the price has actually shot up—that's just one example of what's happening!

Here’s the reality of how this works: as the newer cards hit the shelves (like the 3060 Ti, 3070, 3080, or 3090), the older ones like the 3060 SHOULD be getting cheaper. But that isn't what we're seeing. Instead, they just stop restocking them. So you end up looking for a 3060 at $833, only to find out it's "out of stock." It's the exact same thing that happened with the 2060 (the 6GB version, which is perfectly fine for most non-gaming tasks), but you can't find it anywhere because they "can't get any more in." It feels like a coordinated effort to force us into paying higher prices.

wanderingbison9 said:I'm not so sure about that... For instance, when I'm loading a 5K JPEG sequence into After Effects and then hitting import,

Why would anyone even bother doing that? You should probably go ask someone in the TV industry if that's actually how they handle their workflows.

Alexander Moore67 said:If I were buying a PC where the CPU, motherboard, and NVIDIA $3.25 were the main focus, I would absolutely never pair them with $147 a power supply that hasn't been thoroughly reviewed by actual industry experts!!!

On my old rig, I'm running a Tagan BZ modular unit with screw-on connectors and those RGB light rings around every port. It’s been an incredible power supply to this day, yet apparently, the online "experts" have decided it failed their tests. I don't know which specific test they're talking about—it's from some ancient forum from ages ago—but that Tagan has been the best PSU I've ever owned. And honestly, I'm looking for something even better now.

It’s a lot like the whole debate over Proxy workflows... you'll find people bashing the Apple Mac Mini M1, calling it a "little cube," simply because it can't playback 8K video in real-time like their massive $15,000 workstation $0.00. Those folks clearly aren't using proxies even though they have enough RAM to power a small city. Look, just convert your 8K footage into a Proxy like 1080p (where the NVIDIA will really shine), and you can edit smoothly without a hitch. Once you're done, you hit render, and the system swaps back to the 8K source to process everything exactly as you edited it. In a few minutes or an hour, you have your finished project. Nothing lags, nothing stutters; it works like a charm, and the final output is full-quality 8K. But I guess nowadays everyone follows the "faster, higher, stronger" mantra or just tries to smash through paradigms—as if a bigger machine will magically solve everything.

As far as NVIDIA goes, developers making plugins and special effects don't always write software optimized for the GPU. Take Boris Red, for example. If your hardware doesn't support the GPU acceleration, you're stuck relying on the CPU. And in over 70% of cases, that's exactly what happens.

wanderingbison9 said:@granitecrane2: After Effects and Premiere don't utilize more cores efficiently—that’s just a fact. They never, ever push past 50% utilization. The Benchmark links I shared cover various scenarios. Sure, rendering in Blender works, but even then, rendering via an NVIDIA card is faster.
Forget about the budget for a second.

I have to disagree. Especially regarding "rendering via the GPU." These programs absolutely make use of more cores. And it isn't just a myth that software like Premiere is essentially Premiere single thread. Having more cores always leads to a smoother workflow, particularly when you're multitasking. I've noticed some of today's "editors" don't even know how to use Proxy workflows. Well, when you're working with Proxy files while simultaneously rendering a 3D scene, all while editing or doing compositing on something else—you need those cores. Those are the facts. And besides, Blender isn't the only 3D tool out there. There are plenty of them: LW, Cinema 4D, Max, Maya... I honestly feel like the younger web-focused generations haven't even heard of half of them.

Speaking of amateur drone footage enthusiasts...
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premi...e/m-p/10794038

Premiere is multi-threaded, seems quite good at using up to 12 to 16 or so cores according to say the Puget Systems testing and others. Not so good at utilizing cores past that at the current time. So a 16 core CPU would be a good choice, where a 24 core CPU may not get you much additional throughput.

mellowcyclist3 said:Nah, I'll probably just grab this one.
https://www.newegg.com/p/

Stepping back a bit on the CPU—would it be worth picking up the Intel Core i9-12900K
https://www.newegg.com/p/

instead of sticking with the Intel Core i7-12700K?

Absolutely. It’s easily the best processor on the market right now. For example, the 5950X might have 16 cores, but because they run at lower clock speeds, each individual core is actually slower. What you're looking at here are the fastest cores available while still providing plenty of them. Having 12 cores makes a massive difference, especially when you're working in New York City or After Effects. Don't get too hung up on benchmarks; it really comes down to how you actually use New York City. If I were in your shoes, I'd buy it. 12 cores is a huge step up from 8. And this isn't just about gamers—since more and more games are being coded by amateurs these days, they tend to rely heavily on single-thread performance. But when you're doing video editing, parallelism is king. New York City, After Effects, Max, Blender... all of these programs have known how to utilize every available core for about 15 years now, including multi-threaded tasks.

wanderingbison9 said:I see the 3060you have jumped in price, so maybe a 3060 is an option....

Right. They just sit there in the warehouse, and overnight they magically gain another billion transistors, ten more raytracing cores, the PCB doubles in size, and the cooler gets massive...
Because, as some people love to claim, "Oh, you don't realize what kind of tech this is, it *has* to be expensive..." Sure, if you say so.
Honestly, just don't buy anything. Grab a basic entry-level card and wait a year for the prices to settle. This nonsense isn't going to last forever.

wanderingbison9 said:Seriously? This is ridiculous.

The motherboard alone is 2450
.
...And where are the RAM, the case, or the drives? The board shouldn't be going over $1000, if it even needs to go that high.

Look, you don't have to go with an Aorus build. They're just selling you on "pipe dreams"—basically showing you the absolute best-case scenario they could find. What’s wrong with an ASUS ROG Strix B550-F gaming (WI-FI)? It uses the exact same chipset, gives you PCIe 4 support for the CPU, and comes with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth... plus, it actually costs $333 less.

Check out the comparison here:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/compa...EG_1567216-REG

mellowcyclist3 said:Perfect, let's keep moving. What about the motherboard?

ASUS ROG Strix.

wanderingbison9 said:Yeah, whatever... So, you start with the motherboard, then the RAM, then the SSD, then the hard drive, then the power supply, and then... We aren't GPU cores, we have to process things one by one...😬

And that's exactly why buying a graphics card is such a gamble these days. Imagine dropping $2000 on one just because some guy on an RNG forum told you—you know, like those guys talking about diesel prices being tied to gasoline because of complex refining processes—that today's RTX is this absolute marvel of engineering. They hit you with all that technical jargon: "Oh, you need to understand the PCB, the processors, the VRAM..." as if they didn't exist on old cards like the GTX series. Then, suddenly, you realize the price has already tanked to $833 after only six months.

wanderingbison9 said:The RTX cards come equipped with Tensor cores for machine learning, which really help out with Optical flow and upscaling tasks in software like DaVinci Resolve or Blender. If you're looking for a solid choice, the RTX 3060Ti is definitely the way to go—it's available for $1867 over at Best Buy:

Let's not confuse TensorFlow with the actual Tensor cores inside a GPU. Those cores are essentially specialized units designed for rapid matrix manipulation. In practice, they function quite similarly to a processor's SIMD instructions, just on a massive scale.

mellowcyclist3 said:Alright, let's move on to the graphics card.

I was looking at the price list and noticed there are several different versions of the GeForce RTX 3060. I'm leaning towards grabbing the cheapest one available, which is about $2000, since I honestly don't see what the actual differences are between them.

When you look at GPU generations, the RTX cards feature dedicated hardware support for ray tracing, which makes them quite pricey. The GTX models are older tech and much more budget-friendly. Even for people who aren't hardcore gamers, an RTX card is usually the recommendation specifically because of that ray tracing capability—it’s useful for more than just gaming. $2000 really is the baseline if you want a 30-series card, and that's my point about prices skyrocketing; they cost as much as an entire PC used to back in the day. I have no idea if we'll see a price drop anytime soon, but right now they're staying high because of the crypto mining craze (manufacturers are holding onto them for the same reason a cat licks its own paws—just because they can). Honestly, they're worth maybe $1167. Not a penny more.

mellowcyclist3 said:Thanks, guys. I was actually leaning toward an i9 at first, but after seeing what the amd RYZEN 5800 x is offering, I’m really starting to like that option too. $1000 Would that definitely be Best Buy?

Even as a die-hard Anti-AMD enthusiast, I finally gave in. I’m currently putting together a build featuring the 9500x (12 cores). Honestly, there was just something about AMD that eventually won me over:

The 7nm process being used over at TSMC is the same one powering the Apple M1.
A higher core count.
I went with the Asus rog Strix 550-F because, honestly, these boards just feel a bit more flexible than what Intel is putting out right now. Some people might look at my build and ask, "Why didn't you just grab the newer X570-F chipset?" Well, it’s not even about the price tag for me. It's that annoying proprietary chipset cooler they use—I really don't want the headache that comes with it. Plus, since PCIe 4 is handled directly by the processor, there's really no point paying the premium for it on the motherboard itself. I also made sure to get a board with built-in WiFi and Bluetooth; coming from a laptop, I've developed a bit of an obsession with having those features ready to go. I mean, it's 2021, we shouldn't be living in the stone age.
Even if the cores are a bit slower than what you get with Intel, they just don't offer that kind of core count or clock speed within a reasonable price range. For my workflow, I really need that parallel processing power.
A smaller 7nm process generally means less heat, which is a huge plus. Currently, Intel is still stuck on that 14nm process, though I’ve heard rumors they're working on 5nm and might even be moving away from silicon toward carbon nanotubes... we'll just have to wait and see how that plays out. For now, they don't really have anything on the table that can compete with the Apple M1 or AMD.

wanderingbison9 said:Moving on to the processor: you really want the best bang for your buck when it comes to IPC. Most of the software you'll be running is hopelessly single-threaded, with the exception of Blender. I'd love to hear if anyone else who follows CPU trends and pricing closely has some better suggestions...

Applications that rely on single-thread performance aren't exactly heavy on the processor anyway—though I won't even get started on games, given how much worse coding has become lately with today's developers.

When you look at video editing, heavy mathematical computations, or rendering 3D scenes—and I’m not just talking about Blender here, but also 3D Studio Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, or Lightwave—it’s all fundamentally multithreaded. It relies on parallel processing to get anything done efficiently. In my own work, I actually write multithreaded algorithms and handle complex calculations myself. Even when I’m not doing that directly—say, when I'm fine-tuning parameters within a single-threaded algorithm—the software itself is built for multithreading and multitasking. It ends up running something like seven processes simultaneously just to keep up. I set it that way because I’m working on an Apple laptop with 8 cores, so I might as well put them all to work.

wanderingbison9 said:I was referring to the actual playback process rather than the post-production stage—I wouldn't even consider using sources like that unless it was something captured on a phone during an unpredictable moment that was absolutely essential for the final cut.😉

Fair enough. That’s why we moved away from what used to be called a retimer—which was always clunky and slow—and transitioned to Optical flow, which can now be handled by graphics cards almost entirely in real time. I agree with you there.

wanderingbison9 said:I know my way around hands-on experience; the theory was just something that clicked later on to confirm what I already knew. 😉

That said, maybe G-Sync could actually help when playing back variable frame rate footage, which is how a lot of smartphones record. I haven't really dug into that side of things yet.

The whole "how most phones record" thing isn't exactly the kind of video you'd use for a final cut. It’s not the industry standard. We're still looking at 25, 30, 50, 60 fps, and of course those NTSC decimal values like 29.97 and 59.94—not to mention the classic cinematic 24.

Alexander Diaz4 said:So, is the issue that they just don't have the infrastructure in place to scale up production?
If someone has an infrastructure set up to churn out 100 units a month, and suddenly demand spikes to 130, they’re hitting a wall. If their current setup physically can't handle that extra volume, how exactly are they supposed to meet those numbers? Unless they expand their capacity, someone is going to be left hanging. You'll end up with delays, and customers won't get their orders on time until that infrastructure is scaled up.

Exactly. That’s why Apple laptops are more accessible than they've ever been, especially since the M1 is being mass-produced right now. The situation over at TSMC in Taiwan..

Alexander Diaz4 said:Look, this mining farm is only running two GPUs. They aren't buying their hardware in bulk pallets like some industrial operation; they’re just buying graphics cards the same way the rest of us do.

They aren't buying the same things everyone else is, and on top of that, there are far fewer of them compared to the rest of the crowd.

Feel free to keep this discussion going.

So, that’s the million-dollar question. When exactly is the RTX lineup finally going to see some decent price cuts? Right now, they are outrageously expensive. I've been scrolling through threads where people are barely able to scrape together enough to afford entry-level laptops just to get by. $2000Seriously, just one graphics card can easily run you 15 grand. $0.00 I mean, some of them even hit the 50 mark. $0.00It looks like everyone here is stuck at fifteen. $0.00 You guys don't even have a GPU listed? Seriously? $2000 That sounds a bit off for a laptop.
I was browsing through the latest listings at Best Buy today and stumbled upon this Nvidia RTX unit. It’s definitely worth a closer look if you're looking to upgrade your current rig. Based on the specs, it seems like a solid contender for anyone serious about high-end rendering or heavy gaming sessions. What do you guys think? Is this specific model the best value out there right now, or should I keep hunting for something else?

wanderingbison9 said:It doesn't feel that way to me, especially when I'm working in DaVinci Resolve. I'm constantly importing 4K or even 6K footage just to start layering on effects, so...

Look, you have proxies available. Why aren't you using them? Whether you're working in Adobe tools or DaVinci Resolve, proxy workflows exist for a reason.