Video card recomendations with CS5

[Terry Lee]

So all components for my system upgrade are pretty easy to figure out..but a video card? I have been stairing at countless lists of specs for video cards, have been to the Adobe requirments section for CS5 and cannot find something that isn't like $500. All I want is a video card that allows 1080i output and can handle HD video from my T2i and isn't a million dollars. Something in the range of $100 or less?

[Jay West]

Don't know about things less than $100, but $500 sounds as though you only looked at a very low end Quadro card or ones based on the GTX 580 chipset. Lots more choices than that.

The low end of workable CUDA cards will be those using the GTS 450 chipset and having 1 gb of RAM. (That is GTS not GTX). Last time I checked, Newegg had about 10 versions of GTS450 cards with prices in the range of $110 to $120 (US$). To use an unlisted card like a GTS450 with CS5 and 5.5, you only need to add a couple of words to a text file and save the file. Can you type "GTS 450" and save a file? (This is the so called "hack"). If not, if text files scare you to death, if you are intimidated by saving files, if you will lie awake at night in fear that you will irretreivably break your computer and destroy CS5 if you do this --- which you will not --- this is not for you. If you have those kinds of fears, nobody can reassure you and you need to spend more money to reduce your stress levels. If you can overcome the fears, you have a wide range of choices including GTX460 cards which seem to run about $160 to $180.

For a listed card, you could look at the GTX 470 (Newegg has recertified ones for about $200) and GTX570 cards (which seem to run around $300 to $350).

[Spiros Zaharakis]

You will only need ANY nVidia card with at least 1GB of DDR5 RAM and a script found here Adobe Premiere CS5 and CS5.5 Video Cards with CUDA Acceleration Mercury Playback Unlock Enable MPE Hack Mod Tip
I just bought a cheap Asus GT440 with 1GB DDR5 RAM and Premiere CS5 flies with DSLR files.

Here is a link to some of the lower cost options http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...atedMark=False

If you also play games get a better card, if not, anyone of these will be enough

[Jay West]

I forgot about the GT 440. They run about $20 less than the GTS450. I've read some complaints that some of the 440 cards run hot and and that some folks think the cooling fans are loud, so it is probably a good idea to read customer reviews. I'm guessing that Spiros did his homework and that the ASUS card may be a good one to check out.

There have been some long running discussions here about the relative merits of various cards. The gist of the discussions seems to be that the higher-end nVidia cards (like the 470 and 570) are better when you edit mulitple layers and multi-cam projects but do not seem to offer a very large improvement over baseline cards when working with a single camera like the T2i. Here's a recent thread which discusses the GTS450, GTX 470 and 480, and some of the older "200" series cards:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-cr...ard-cs5-5.html

[Terry Lee]

Awesome!

Currently, I am running CS4 and will be soon upgrading (once finances allow). So what I am trying to do is just plan for the future. This card should be fine with CS4 for the time being right? And afterwards, I will have to use the so called "hack" on the graphics card I choose, correct?

I am not even really sure I know why the files need to be modified anyway..Whats going on with that?

I think I like the ASUS GT440: ASUS ENGT440/DI/1GD5 GeForce GT 440 Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, VGA, HDMI, DVI, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot at TigerDirect.com From Tiger it will be around $80 after the rebate.

Thanks alot everyone!

[Jay West]

The reason that you need to add the name to the file is that CS5 references this text list when it turns on hardware MPE. If you have a video card that is not on the list, PPro only allows software MPE. The original list has the names of the cards that Adobe actually tested.

[Terry Lee]

And what exactly does MPE prevent? Just the hardware being recognized?

Oh and buy the way, What do you guys think about the AMD 6 core processor - Phenom II 1055T?

[Spiros Zaharakis]

Originally Posted by Terry Lee

I think I like the ASUS GT440: ASUS ENGT440/DI/1GD5 GeForce GT 440 Video Card - 1GB, GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, VGA, HDMI, DVI, DirectX 11, Dual-Slot at TigerDirect.com From Tiger it will be around $80 after the rebate.

This is the card I got. It doesn't seem to get hot at all and it's not noisy either.

For low to mid level PCs anything else would be overkill. You will gain more if you spend the extra money on more RAM or an SSD drive.

My PC is an i7 930, with 12GB RAM, 80GB Intel SSD C drive, 3 Samsung 1TB on Raid0 and two 2TB Caviar black.

For a higher end PC I would get a GTX550 but still nothing more expensive than that. I will probably do that when I upgrade to a six core CPU and 24GB RAM

Better spend the extra cash on something else.

Regarding the AMD CPU:

I'm not a big fan of AMD processors but premiere runs well on those six core AMD processors.Maybe a bit better than the similarly priced Intel processors. However Intel beats the 6core AMD in almost every other application.

[Jay West]

1. MPE does not "prevent" anything. The file is like a guest list. If you are not on the list, you do not get in to the party.

"Hardware" MPE accelerates playback of HD files (including AVCHD), multiple layers, and avoids the need for rendering some things. When it came out last year, some folks testing indicated a 10-fold increase over "software" MPE in processing capabilities for these things.

2. As for an AMD chip:don't bother. Running CS5 with an AMD processor would be like using a Honda Civic to pull a fully loaded four horse trailer. You can do it but why would you want to? At the risk of sounding testy, please do a search. This question has been answered repeatedly. Here is one thread that discusses why:.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/non-line...r-effects.html

You can also run CS5 with intel I3 and I5 processors. Again, why subject yourself to the limitations those chips impose?

[Terry Lee]

Well Jay, I did search and that thread did not come up. Is it just that the 950 is pushing 3.06 and the AMD is only 2.8 GHz?

Why limit? Well none of us want to really, just trying to justify spending that kinda money in one spot is what i'm trying to figure out. I don't know this stuff off hand so i'm trying to talk to people who have experience with the hardware so I can get a better idea.

My list is currently..

CPU: pending...but i7 950 seams to be the general concensus.
ASUS GT440 graphics card
Motherboard..whatever comes with the bundle..x58 probably.
RAM: 4gb Corsair or Kingston..

[Jay West]

Well, I just tried to do a further search for you and everything turned up with no results. Maybe the forum search engine is down at the moment.

For a good overview of what you need for editing H264 and AVCHD, look at Harm Millard's posting in the Adobe Forums: "System requirements for Premiere Pro CS5".

Adobe Forums: System requirements for Premiere Pro CS5

This is a good explanation of relating hardware needs to editing projects under CS5. For a general discussion of video editing set-ups see this:

Videoguys Blog - Videoguys' System Recommendations for Video Editing

This is a guide by DVinfo sponsor Videoguys. (They do sell some graphics cards but do not sell systems or other components.) Here is another thread with a long discussion of what to get/build for running CS5:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-cr...-cs5-pc-2.html


Regarding your specific question about clock speeds: the issue is not clock speeds but utilization of cores. Specifically, hyperthreading (sometimes referred to as SSE 4.1). You need hyperthreading to be able get many of the advantages of the upgrade to CS5. WIthout the hyperthreading, systems with Intel i/3 and i/5 chips and systems based on AMD processors will be much slower with AVCHD and H264 formats, and will take muccchhhh longer to transcode for delivery formats. Do you understand that AMD lacks support for the hyperthreading that CS5 apps use for rendering and encoding? That is why they are not generally recommended for CS5.

Also, for the same reasons, I would strongly suggest you get at least 6 gb of RAM (8 gb if you go for an I7/26000 "Sandybridge" system). 12 gb is something of a sweet spot for CS5 and would be better if the budget will allow it. If you are running Vista 64 or Win 7 Pro --- do not even consider a 32 bit version of Vista or Win 7 because CS 5 will not run at all on a 32 bit OS --- you pretty much need the whole 4 gb for the OS, alone. I remember a thread where somebody was complaining about it taking 11 hours for him to render and transcode a 35 minute timeline from CS5.

Of course, it is physically possible to run CS5 on a 4 gb system. Heck, there are people who have claimed to have been very happy running CS5 to edit DSLR footage on a 4gb laptop with a dual core processor and an ATI card and doing everything from the 5400 rpm system disk. Different strokes, as they say.

[Terry Lee]

Jay, thank you for finding all of that for me. It is greatly appreciated.

From Harm Millard's explanation, I am looking at the following:

CPU- i7 950. Why? Hyperthreading and L3 Cache of 8. Pretty self explanitory..

RAM - Minimum of 6 but will go to 8 in the future. i'm thinking 2x Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 PC12800

Motherboard x58..the i7 comes with this bundle.

GT 440 Graphics card.

My comp now already has a 500g HD and a 1tb external, H50 water cooler and a 600 wat power supply.

[Jay West]

Power supply seems adequate. That is a thing that some people overlook. Good that you checked.

Is the 1 tb external drive an e-SATA?

If it is a USB, hopefully it is one that spins at 7200 rpm and has its own power supply. (The little HP "Passport" and other such USB drives are too slow to be of much use in video editing.) Even if you have a powered 7200 rpm USB drive, I still recommend getting an additional internal SATA drive to use for your T2i media and projects. My experience is that USB drives which worked fine with SD video, can be okay with single tracks of HDV but become problematic for editing and transcoding AVCHD and H.264 file unless you are working on very, very short projects. Mind, using a USB drive won't wreck any projects, but working with them can result in annoyances such as projects slowing wayyyyy dowwnnnn and sometimes random playback difficulties. Basically, you want a SATA drive with a large cache and 7200 rpm rotational speed. Last time I checked, Hitachi 1 tb Deskstars were running about $59 each. I've used Hitachis without problem for several years and Videoguys recommends them, but most brands are pretty good. (Always a good practice to check the reviews at NewEgg.) These kinds of drives generally are priced in the range of $60 to $70 each (US$) right now. It usually is not a great budgetary stretch to add one of these, and the "bang for buck" benefit ratio is very high with CS5.

Since you've read Harm Milaard's helpful guides, you no doubt know about the benefits of adding two SATA drives. You've also read about the alternative of combining them into a Raid 0. So, no need for me to repeat that information here.

For RAM, 6 gb will get you functional. For your future upgrade, you may want to save up for expanding to 12 gb rather than 8. You will be using triple channel RAM. There's a rule of thumb that even multiples of 3 (that is, 6 gb, 12 gb, 24 gb) are best.

[Scott Chichelli]

you would be far better off with the 2600k than the slower 950

Scott
ADK

[Jay West]

An I7-2600k (and make sure it is a "K") processor seems to perform very well for editing with CS5. These are also referred to as "Sandybridge" systems. I had mentioned them above as a good basis for a budget CS5 editing system. Scott is making good points.

Scott has reported testing in other threads (and others have confirmed) showing that current Sandybridge I7/2600k systems can do more with less RAM than systems using I7-950 CPUs on an X58 mobo. Out of the box. I7/2600K systems surpass non-overclocked I7/950 (and higher) systems in editing tasks. For what Terry wants to do, he would not go wrong if he chose a Sandybridge system over a i7/950-X58 system.

However, simple economics may favor the I7/950 for Terry. I see three factors at play:

(a) Terry is already planning on working with the minimum amount of RAM (so no savings there);

b) I7/950 CPUS are going for about $260 at NewEgg while I7/2600k CPUS are running about $315 (a price difference that basically covers the cost of a second internal SATA drive for his new system);

and (c) the last time I looked, the prices for both 1155 (Sandybridge) and 1366 (X-58) mobos seemed to be clustering around $200.

These things are subject to commodity pricing and can vary week by week. Since Scott is building systems, maybe he has some more up-to-date information on pricing than I do? Maybe Terry already looked at the current pricing?