Faster Editing! CPU vs Video Card Vs Ram ! which is importan

[guevi]

To improve and accelerate editing which improvement is more cost effective a newer cpu or bigger video card or more ram
thanks

[SLICK RICK]

CPU

SLICK RICK

[SLK001]

A faster CPU - most definitely.

[sammie]

Video card is typically not involved in editing speed.

Faster CPU....given that you have enough RAM and adequate de-fragged hard drive space for temp files and so on. i.e., adding 10 gig of RAM won't help 256 to 512 probably would. Make sure you have space at least equal to your original file size on the drive that handles the temp and swap files and so on (typically your C: drive unless you've changed things). You won't always need all the extra C: drive space, but you'll be suprised how often you do and how much faster having adequate space for temp files.

[SaSi]

If you are editing DV or hufyuv AVI files (high bitrate and large files), using two disks, one to store the source AVI files and another to store the edited output can also dramatically increase performance - much more than a CPU upgrade.

RAM plays some role, but once you go beyond 512Mb, it may be a waste.

Video card makes negligible contribution. Even a GeForce 2 is more than enough.

[duhmez]

even an s3 virge 2 meg pci is more than enough, it has nothng to do with it.

[indolikaa]

In my experience, memory above 512MB adds zero power increase to encoding but may speed up editing/handling of .avi and MPEG files.

I'd go for maximum CPU horsepower first.