what laptop for best performance in x264 enconding and video editing?

[marcorocchini]

Hi ****

please I need to buy a laptop pc that is the "non plus ultra" for editing and transcoding with x264. Windows 10 64bit operating system. Can you tell me 3 or 4 laptop, and what is the best hardware configuration?

Hard disk have to be SSD
How many GB or RAM?
What processor?

Hardware configuration of a "gaming pc" is more suitable for Video Editing?

Thanks

[pandy]

Is NVEnc can solve your speed demand?
Nowadays seem that 8GB of RAM is default minimum recommended for normal use as such 16GB of RAM seem to be absolute minimum when video encoding is on table (but general rule is simple more RAM is better). SSD are still expensive when compared to HDD prices and capacity.
CPU fastest you can afford sounds reasonable but in notebooks CPU cooling is biggest issue not theoretical peak computing power (and after while throttling is used to keep everything solid not melting)...

[marcorocchini]

Is NVEnc can solve your speed demand?
Nowadays seem that 8GB of RAM is default minimum recommended for normal use as such 16GB of RAM seem to be absolute minimum when video encoding is on table (but general rule is simple more RAM is better). SSD are still expensive when compared to HDD prices and capacity.
CPU fastest you can afford sounds reasonable but in notebooks CPU cooling is biggest issue not theoretical peak computing power (and after while throttling is used to keep everything solid not melting)...

I prefer x264 instead of hardware encoding NVenc or Quicksync

[redwudz]

My laptop is a Asus GL752VW-DH71 with a SAMSUNG 850 EVO M.2 2280 250GB SSD , 1TB 7200RPM Storage HDD, Intel quad Core i7 (6th Gen) 6700HQ / 2.6 GHz, 16GB DDR4 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 17" screen, Gaming Notebook. W10 Home OS, 64bit.

While it's quite sufficient for encoding, I don't often use it for that. There are likely newer, faster CPUs for laptops
at present. I do use a cooling pad with a fan as it can run quite hot while doing encoding.

I prefer my desktop PC, the one in my computer details. With 8 cores, 3.4GHz CPU, it's fairly fast for H.264 encodes.

If you really need to use a laptop, check the gaming versions as they seem to have good specifications for encoding.
And you would want USB 3.0 or SATA for some external HDDs.

[pandy]

I prefer x264 instead of hardware encoding NVenc or Quicksync

Why? At a cost of perhaps 20 - 40% higher bitrate you can perform encoding in real time with same quality as for x264 so unless you target is live consumer broadcast then NVEnc for distribution may be a better alternative.
I've had impression that your target is for distribution content not live broadcast - studios anyway re-encode material.

[marcorocchini]

exactly I don't know: I'm a cat

but 20 or 40 % more bitrate is a little excessive for me because my usually situation and target is to "transfer" an entire footage (30/40/50 minutes) from xdcamhd422 format (MXF 50 Mbit 1920x1080@50i 4:2:2 --> into MP4/H264 1920x1080@50i 4:2:2 or sometimes scaling to 4:2:0). So my target is a virtually identical quality.

I remember that using Quicksync or NVenc at similar bitrate generated a (little) lower quality result compared to x264 with 8x8dct enabled, 20-40% of more bitrate is a little excessive because in many situation the ftp transfer is almost critical: for example, in my x264 result is 4,5 GB --> using NVenc I should expect
5,4-6,3 GB. Possibe I need more efficiency.


With my outdated HP ENVY 17 i7-4702MQ (Windows 10 64bit) I encode at 16-17 fps using x264 (64bit) ... is too low.

I need a solution to encode at least 30 fps... is possile.

Possibly I need of precise brand and models of laptop pc that can, at least double-up of 100% the speed encoding.

Some fixed point:

-SSD drive 2TB each one (2 drive)
-32 GB RAM
-17 " display

[pandy]

Ok, this fair reason, however seem NVenc being more mature and may deliver in CRF mode not so bad quality. IMHO if you can afford then i would give a chance to NVEnc.

[redwudz]

For a laptop, you don't really need a SSD for your storage drive. Most times the encoder is slower than the drives speed. That's why I suggested an external drive for saving the encodes. Even a external 5400 RPM drive is usually fast enough for the encoded storage. A 1TB boot drive is just a waste of money, IMO again. I have a 250GB boot on my laptop and it's only 1/2 full after two years use.

And, IMO, 32GB RAM will just cost you money, not a faster encode. Most all my X.264 encodes use about 3 GB RAM.

The 17 inch display is good, but nothing to do with encoding.

On the PC in my computer details, I can encode a DVD directly from my optical drive to a MKV H.264/AC3 file using VidCoder, at 18.5 CQ to my storage drives in less than 10 minutes.
BD conversions take a bit longer, usually about 30 minutes, depending on the content. That averaged 93fps. My laptop couldn't come near that.

But, look into some gamers laptops, more cores, better. Some are fairly fast, but a bit pricey. I'm thinking about $1200US or much more. And definitely get a cooling pad with fans.

And take a look at some of the Asus ROG laptops.

[gta5]

give me config and i will tell you exact thing what you want

[marcorocchini]

today I have buy this:

CLEVO P775TM1-G Desktop Laptop

Processor:
Intel Core i7-9700K Unlocked | 3.60~4,90GHz | 12MB | 8C/8T | TDP 95W | Coffee Lake R

Display:
17,3" Full HD 1920x1080 IPS 60Hz Matte G-Sync | 72% NTSC

Graphics Card:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 | OC Edition | VR-Ready | MXM

Thermal Compound:
Repasting CPU | GPU with IC Diamond 24

Memory RAM DDR4 SO-DiMM:
16GB ( 1x 16GB ) DDR4 2666MHz G.Skill RipJaws | Kingston HyperX

Primary HD for windows: 2TB Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2,5" SATA | 5400rpm | 128MB Cache | 7mm

Secondary for video: 2TB Samsung 860 Evo SSD 2,5" SATA | R/W 550/520 MB/s | 7mm

It must arrive in about 10 days, hope works well

[redwudz]

Looks like a great setup. Let us know how it works out.

[marcorocchini]

but can I can expect an increase in speed also for old 32 bit programs?!

[pandy]

No Dual Channel?

but can I can expect an increase in speed also for old 32 bit programs?!

If clock is faster then always you may expect proportional increase in speed. Gain from IPC is usually within few % so equation is quite simple.

[marcorocchini]

No Dual Channel?

what is dual channel?

[pandy]

No Dual Channel?

what is dual channel?

Twice enlarged memory bus bit width - usually two physical SIMM - seem this is 64 bit wide when dual channel means usually 128 bit wide bus... it may deliver (or not) speed gain - depends on tasks, if you have linear and sufficiently large block of data aligned access this may mean doubling transfer speed (so mostly DMA to mass storage or moving blocks of data within address space) - i think video processing may be beneficial from Dual Channel.

[jagabo]

From what I've seen, dual channel memory increases video encoding speed by about 5 percent.

[pandy]

From what I've seen, dual channel memory increases video encoding speed by about 5 percent.

Weird... but this is like half of gain related to newer CPU generation (where average IPC gain is bellow 10%).

[redwudz]

Dual channel RAM comes as a matched set of memory modules, sometimes placed in specific slots, at least in a PC motherboard.
And the motherboard RAM controller has to support Dual Channel.

My LT RAM shows as dual channel in CPU-Z but I'm not sure the controller is dual channel.
Your LT specifications may show that, or contact the LT company. You do get some advantages with DC for encoding.

An article on single VS dual channel memory: https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-dual-channel-works-vs-single-channel

[jagabo]

From what I've seen, dual channel memory increases video encoding speed by about 5 percent.

Weird...

Why do you say that? Very few applications access large amounts of memory linearly. Most applications show low single digit increases. Some of the exceptions are archiving utilities (ZIP, RAR) and encryption/decryption code which achieve low double digits improvement. Only programs written specifically to measure memory bandwidth show anything near a 2x improvement.