Hardware requirements

[Dazzray]

I've been using VP to edit 4K video, downsizing it to 1080p on export. But my PC can't play a 4k video clip (in any program I've tried) without it stuttering, and the audio breaking up. In the VP clip preview window, the audio plays ok, but I constantly get the "Building preview" msg, even with resolution set to a minimum. I'm using a relatively new Dell desktop with I5 processor, 8gb ram, internal graphics, Windows 8.1, 7200rpm hdd. It's just not fast enough. (The final exported result is just fine though).

 

So, I'm planning to buy a new Windows 10 pc, and would like some guidance on what hardware I should get. I'm currently considering another Dell as follows, and would like to know if you think it will perform adequately, or should some features be added/changed?

 

-Will 24gb ram be enough?

-Are the cpu and gpu adequate?

-Regarding the solid state drive, what files would you place on it? Is it even necessary?

-Will VP be able to exploit these features? Do I need more, or is it overkill?

 

 

XPS 8900,

6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.2 GHz),

24GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz (8GBx2 + 4GBx2),

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960 2GB DDR5,

2TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive

256GB M.2 Solid State Drive

[borate]

While not specific to Videopad, here are some general suggestions. Much depends upon the scope of your productions.

 

Display

• 1024 x 768, 16-bit color or above
  

CPU Processor

• AVI Capture/Produce: Profiles: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2
  
• DVD Quality (MPEG-2) Profiles: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2
  
• High Quality MPEG-4 and Streaming WMV, QuickTime) Profiles: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2.
  
• Full-HD quality H.264 and MPEG2 Profiles: Intel Corei5/7 or AMD Phenom II X4
  
• AVCHD and BD burning Profiles: Pentium Core 2 Duo E6400, or AMD Phenom II X4
  
• 2K/4K/3D video editing profile: Intel Corei7 or AMD FX series with 64 bit OS 6 GB RAM
  

Memory

• 2GB required
  
• 3GB or above recommended for 32 bit OS
  
• 6GB or above recommended for 64 bit OS & 3D editing
  

Hard Disk Space

• 
  7GB minimum
• 10 GB (20 GB recommended) for DVD production
  
• 60 GB (100 GB recommended) for Blu-ray Disc/AVCHD production
  

Burning Drive

• A CD or DVD burner (CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW or DVD-R/RW) is required to burn VCD/DVD/SVCD/AVCHD titles
  
• A Blu-ray disc recordable drive is required to burn Blu-ray Discs
  

Graphics Card

• 128 MB VGA VRAM or higher (1 GB or higher VRAM and OpenCL capable are recommended)
  

NVIDIA:

• GeForce 8500GT/9800GT and above
  
• GeForce GT/GTS/GTX 200/400/500/600/700/800/900 Series
  

AMD / ATI :

• AMD APU Family with AMD Radeon™ HD Graphics: A-Series, E2-Series, C-Series, E-Series, G-Series
  
• AMD Radeon™ Graphics: R9 Series, R7 Series, R5 Series,HD 7000 Series, HD 6000 Series
  
• ATI Radeon™ HD Graphics: 5900 Series, 5800 Series, 5700 Series, 5600 Series, 5500 Series, 5400 Series
  
• ATI FirePro™ Graphics
  
• ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD: 5800 Series, 5700 Series, 5600 Series, 5400 Series
  
• ATI Mobility FirePro™: M7820, M5800
  

[c_major]

VideoPad's design will not take advantage of high-end hardware. We aim for the most popular hardware and the ability to work under low end equipments.

 

Have high-end gear will boost the performance in a generic manner.

 

Please note that VideoPad is currently built 32bit so the maximum memory it can access is 4GB.

 

Best Regards,

[Dazzray]

Sam,

 

Then what do you recommend I do to get VP to play 4K clips smoothly, without constant "Building preview" interruptions? In the clip preview, a 4k/60p (150mbs) clip will play for only a couple seconds before "Building preview". It makes it very difficult to use VP to edit 4K.

[c_major]

Yes, we aware of the issue and working on optimizations.

 

It is the decoding that take most of the time therefore none of the software can play it smoothly.

 

For the moment the only way is to wait for the cache to finish. Once the cache is generated, VP plays the clip without decoding. The cache can be used every time you load the same clip and in multiple projects (for the same resolution).

[Peval]

I have the same "Building Preview" problem editing MP4 H.264 Clips on both PC (i7 Quad Core 16GB RAM nVidia Quandro GPU) and on MacBook Pro (i7 16GB RAM AMV Radeon HD 6770M 1024 MB).

Even waiting for teh Cache to be generated the problem happens too often passing from one Clip to the Next. W/WO Transitions or Effects.

The fact that the product is build 32Bit could be one of the reasons.

Nowadays it should be better to have it 64bit compiled since all the modern PC (even low level ones) are 64Bit.

I notice that the amount of memory used while working is not that much (400/500 MB RAM used by the process).

Probably the Clip Cash on Disk is one of the bottleneck for smooth transaction between clips. When a huge amount of RAM is available probably should be better of have the Clip Cash on RAM.

Please let me know your suggestion how to better smoothly work.

Many thanks.