For those not tracking the Edius 8 rollout closely, folks who upgrade to Edius 8 Pro by July 31 will receive Edius Workgroup 8, which will have some advantages over Edius 8 Pro.

I have installed the workgroup version a few days ago, I was planning to get a new pc as well but when I saw version 8 makes the realtime experience even better I decided to hold off and continue on my 3 year old i7 3770.

With edius 7 when I would edit a multicam with three 1080p 28mbs avchd files and one 4K file from a ax100 it would stutter on playback, if I had to guess I would say playback was about 80% realtime but now that same setup plays without any stutter.

Even better, I tested with two 60mbs 4K files from ax100 in a multicam and it's realtime, only when add a 3rd 4K layer it starts to stutter but I would say still around 90% realtime playback.

When I play two 4K files in a multicam my processorload is 40% and memory usage doesn't go above 4gb. When I play three 4K files processor load goes up to 80%.

This means the embedded gpu from the processor is doing a lot of extra the work to improve playback, if you have the right setup Edius runs very fast on older systems, you don't need a dedicated videocard if you don't use gpu accelerated effects and you don't need lot's of system memory so you don't need a pc that could power the spaceshuttle to handle most of todays formats. :)

Hi Noa,
Just wondering if you can tell me what HDD setup you have for your media drive? I am struggling to get good playback with 4k footage & am wondering if my HDD is too slow. Speed test indicates i am getting around 300MB/s read & write. Is this fast enough? I do notice the 100mbit/s footage from the GH4 & GX85 plays better than the 60mbit/s footage from the Phantom 4 quadcopter.
Thanks in advance,
Bryce

It might be a codec Edius doesn't like and in that case you could convert to HQXAVI, I only use single wd red pro discs and can run up to three 4K 60mbs files from a ax100 in a 1080p project and up to five 4K 60mbs files from a ax100 in a 4K project in realtime, I can even add one more layer but then I start to hear a slight stutter in the sound. In both cases all files reside on the same disc. (I have a i7 4790k now)
Is your system set up to use the integrated GPU on the CPU?

Interesting thanks Noa,
I'm not even sure my chip has an integrated GPU. It is an old I7 950. I have overclocked it a little & it seems to be running stable & a little faster, but i am still not able to play back smoothly all 4K clips on a 1080 timeline. As soon as i do a little CC or such, i have to render to play back in real time.
I am thinking about upgrading my edit computer, but was hoping to get a little more life out of this one first. Still some things to try. Codecs maybe one.
Regards,
Bryce

No, the 950 doesn't have a integrated graphics chip so there lies your problem, it's also a too slow chip to handle 4K efficiently. When you use Edius that GPU is very important, especially to render, on my i7 4790k when I render out a one hour 4K file to a h264 file with the cpu only it takes 3 hours, if I use the GPU on the CPU it takes 25 minutes.

Hmm, thanks Noa, that sounds like my problem then. Looks like i will have to bite the bullet & upgrade.
Thanks again for your help.
Regards,
Bryce

Bruce, I am using the old i920 cpu and likewise 4k is a no go. Got to replace my computer before going to Edius 8 and 4k editing. My goal is to upgrade my computer and replace my GH4 with GH5 if it has 4K 60fps.

For edius 8 you don't even have to spend that much on a new pc, I paid just under 1000 euro for a i7 4790k with 32gb of memory, I then moved my harddrives and hd sparkcard from old pc to my new one and that's it. I do have a dedicated graphics card for the new pc but that's because the GPU on my CPU didn't support the resolution from my 21:9 LG screen, I got the cheapest card I could find; 40 euro for a nvidia gt610. I"m very satisfied with the performance as everything is in realtime, even with colorcorrection (usually I have 3 to 4 camera's in a multicam which are a mixture of HD and 4K) and rendertimes are twice as fast as realtime.

Interesting! I was thinking of going for an I7 6800k chip in the hope of future proofing a little. I already have a Nvidia GTX460 GPU, so maybe that will be all i need.(I could always put something more powerful in later if needed) Looks like i can just update my MoBo, CPU, Ram etc as my case will still work, along with all my HDD's power supply GPU etc.
Thanks for all the help.
Regards,
Bryce
P.S. I too am hoping for a GH5 with 4K 60fps Mark. Would be a very nice camera indeed if they can at least maintain light sensitivity at that higher frame rate. Hopefully improve on it a bit in 30p! Of course after buying a GX85 with its IBIS i am hoping that will be in the new cam too!!
Just thinking about it now. I do believe the .MP4 files from the GX85 are playing better in Edius 8.2 than the .MOV files from the GH4. I will test it out again later today & let you know. If it turns out that is the case, i may go to an MP4 format for the GH4 as well.

The i7 6800k doesn't have a gpu build in so you will loose any gpu acceleration which in my case is up to 6 times faster for h264 renders. The i7 6700k would be a better choice if you ask me.

This is the build that I have narrowed down for $1659 from avadirect who built my current computer 7 years ago. I have an assortment of SSDs to add as needed.

CORSAIR Carbide Series Clear 400C Compact w/ Window, No PSU, E-ATX, Black, Mid Tower Case

ASUS Z170-E, Intel Z170 Chipset, LGA 1151, DDR4 64GB, HDMI, M.2, USB 3.1, ATX Retail Motherboard

INTEL Core i7-6700K Quad-Core 4.0 - 4.2GHz TB, HD Graphics 530

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, 1506 - 1708MHz, 6GB GDDR5 192-Bit, PCI Express 3.0

KINGSTON 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2133MHz, PC4-17000, CL14 (14-14-14) 1.2V,

EVGA SuperNOVA Series 650 P2 650W, 80 PLUS Platinum ECO Mode, Full Modular, ATX Power Supply

Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Slim, Socket CPU Cooler

ANTEC Formula 7, 4g, 8.3 (W/m-K), Nano Diamond, Thermal Compound

OCZ 128GB RD400 2280, 2200 / 620 MB/s, MLC, PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe, M.2 SSD system drive

SAMSUNG 500GB 850 EVO 7mm, 540 / 520 MB/s, 3D V-NAND, SSD video storage

MICROSOFT Windows 10 Home 64-bit Edition, OEM

Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, Life-Time Labor Warranty)

Thanks Noa,
Would the newer processor not be a better way to go though having 6 cores & 12 threads?. Everything i have read indicates it is much faster for multi core processes. Single core it is behind the 6700K because of the clock speed, but multi core & overall it is faster. Faster memory too. The newer motherboards also have more SATA ports & PCIE ports. The one i am looking at has super fast M.2 which i will use for the C drive. I am thinking if Edius takes advantage of the GPU for rendering out to files, it should be able to use my GPU to speed up that process. Like Mark, i was looking at a GTX1080 GPU card, but think i will hold off on that until i see how Edius performs with my old one.
Regards,
Bryce

EDIUS ONLY uses integrated quicksync for preview and encoding and does not use the GPU from Nvidia or AMD for example. Effects plugins will use these additional cards but EDIUS does not use for encoding or preview. I run my system with no other GPU than the i7 4790K as I do not use any of the GPU accelerated plugins. So one may find that the Intel with integrated GPU is in fact faster than a 6 core in EDIUS because it uses the Quicksync GPU so much for editing and export.

Ron Evans

This is the build that I have narrowed down for $1659 from avadirect who built my current computer 7 years ago. I have an assortment of SSDs to add as needed.

CORSAIR Carbide Series Clear 400C Compact w/ Window, No PSU, E-ATX, Black, Mid Tower Case

ASUS Z170-E, Intel Z170 Chipset, LGA 1151, DDR4 64GB, HDMI, M.2, USB 3.1, ATX Retail Motherboard

INTEL Core i7-6700K Quad-Core 4.0 - 4.2GHz TB, HD Graphics 530

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, 1506 - 1708MHz, 6GB GDDR5 192-Bit, PCI Express 3.0

KINGSTON 16GB Kit (2 x 8GB) HyperX Fury DDR4 2133MHz, PC4-17000, CL14 (14-14-14) 1.2V,

EVGA SuperNOVA Series 650 P2 650W, 80 PLUS Platinum ECO Mode, Full Modular, ATX Power Supply

Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Slim, Socket CPU Cooler

ANTEC Formula 7, 4g, 8.3 (W/m-K), Nano Diamond, Thermal Compound

OCZ 128GB RD400 2280, 2200 / 620 MB/s, MLC, PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe, M.2 SSD system drive

SAMSUNG 500GB 850 EVO 7mm, 540 / 520 MB/s, 3D V-NAND, SSD video storage

MICROSOFT Windows 10 Home 64-bit Edition, OEM

Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, Life-Time Labor Warranty)

You may want to consider a Corsair water cooler like the H90 Don't settle for a stock air cooler, water cooler, or CPU cooler fan, especially if you're looking for extra performance (http://www.corsair.com/en/cooling)

Ron Evans

EDIUS ONLY uses integrated quicksync for preview and encoding and does not use the GPU from Nvidia or AMD for example. Effects plugins will use these additional cards but EDIUS does not use for encoding or preview. I run my system with no other GPU than the i7 4790K as I do not use any of the GPU accelerated plugins. So one may find that the Intel with integrated GPU is in fact faster than a 6 core in EDIUS because it uses the Quicksync GPU so much for editing and export.

Ron Evans

Ron, so you are advising to use the on-board graphics of the 6700k and no graphics card? Are you using an Edius Spark card for realtime preview?

Well that makes it interesting Ron. Thanks for the information. I am really trying to future proof this next purchase to a certain degree, so thought the newer processor would be the way to go. Now i'm wondering if i should hold off and see what happens with both Intel CPU's & also Edius.
Regards,
Bryce

A i7 6700k will outperform any other processor with more cores that doesn't have integrated graphics when rendering to a h264 file, that's why the 6700 processor is the most cost effective processor available right now. I also have been editing in the past without a dedicated graphics card and just by using the integrated gpu on the cpu to help with 4k playback and rendering.
The spark card will only output a 1080p 25p timeline to a tv screen, there are other cards available that support other resolutions and framerates but for that you best ask for advice on the grassvalley edius forum.

I am really trying to future proof this next purchase

Pc technology moves so fast I rather by a new one every 2-3 years. I only need the motherboard, cpu and memory and move all the rest like harddrives or dedicated output cards from my pc to the new one. My last pc was less then 1K (excl taxes) and handles everything I trow at it very well.

Ron, so you are advising to use the on-board graphics of the 6700k and no graphics card? Are you using an Edius Spark card for realtime preview?

Currently I use an i7 4790K and like Noa just upgrade motherboard , cpu and memory when I change. Yes I use a SPark card for monitoring but will move to one of the Black Magic cards next time if they get to the point of outputting 3840x2160 at a reasonable cost. I only use UHD in a 1920x1080 interlaced timeline so the Spark works fine. I do not use any of the GPU accelerated effects so do not have another graphics card in the system. If you use a lot of GPU effects then of course you would need a fast graphics card. However then you also need to make sure that the onboard GPU is active all the time to get EDIUS to use Quicksync. Lots of instruction around to do that.

Ron Evans

Thanks Noa & Ron,
Going this route makes things a lot more affordable & i should end up with a much faster system. I am curious how it all works with the quick sync & a dedicated GPU. Will they both work in tandem? I would like to play around a little with DaVinci Resolve so would need to upgrade my GPU for that, but not if it doesn't play nicely with the quick sync.
Thanks,
Bryce

There are lots of instruction on the GV forum of how to get quicksync working with GPU etc . Short answer is to make sure the bois is set to always make onboard GPU active and have the onboard output connected to a monitor input ( does not have to be active just powered on) so that it is "seen" . So you can run a normal GPU for monitoring for instance and get all the GPU acceleration for GPU effects but still have Quicksync for EDIUS preview and output.

Ron Evans

Great thanks Ron,
Will check it out.
Regards,
Bryce

Ok, quick update. I have replaced the MoBo, CPU & Ram based on the feedback here. Wow! this thing is super fast compared to my old system. Still ironing out some issues, like the Mobo not recognizing the keyboard plugged into the rear USB2 port?? A few other little things, but overall, i am happy with the upgrade. Now to get editing!
Thanks for all the help.
Bryce