Best Processor for video encding.

[Pongydog]

I'm looking to buy a new PC.

I my budget I have a choice between:

-An i5 Dual Core 3.3ghz

or

-an intel quad core 2.3ghz

Both with the same RAM, hard drive etc.

I was wondering which would be quickest at video encoding. I will be mainly using software such as XMediaRecode, Handbrake, AVIDemuxe.

I'm just wondering which processor would give the quickest encode? I was thiking of getting the quad core but noticed the clock speed is 2.3 compared to the 3.3 of the dual core processor.

[sneaker]

Name the exact models to get better advice. Base clock speed may be meaningless if all-core turbo boost is much higher. Also things like AVX2 or even hardware encoder may play a role. What do you want to encode to/from? AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265? 8 bit, 10 bit?
What GPU?

But mostly video encoding scales well with multi-core CPUs, especially if it's only 4 cores. And 4x2.3 > 2x3.3. So most likely the quad-core would be better. If you are on a limited budget maybe AMD would also be worth looking at.

[pandy]

Assuming (rather conservative Amdahl's law estimation 75% thread utilization) a four core CPU will be marginally faster than higher clocked two core CPU. If you are lucky then you may achieve higher gain so 4 core should be better. Also suggest to not discard AMD upfront - perhaps you will be win win on AMD (higher clock and higher number of cores).

[Pongydog]

How much RAM would be recomended with a quad core? Is 8gb enough, would i notice a vast improvment if i went with 16gb instead?

[redwudz]

I have 16GB in my 8 core encoding PC, but less than 3GB is typically used for encoding with VidCoder, a hybrid of Handbrake.

But RAM seems to have gotten less expensive at present, so if you can afford a matched set of 16GB, go for it.
It does really help with graphics programs like PhotoShop and similar.

And I would definitely recommend a CPU water cooler for higher power CPUs.

For CPUs, I prefer AMD processors at present. My current PC:

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/384584-Ryzen-upgrade-with-X1700-CPU-DDR4-RAM-and-M-2-SSD?

[pandy]

How much RAM would be recomended with a quad core? Is 8gb enough, would i notice a vast improvment if i went with 16gb instead?

For UHD+ resolutions (2 - 3 times more than HD) it may be even mandatory to use 16GiB.

[redwudz]

Good point. I haven't ventured into UHD+ video yet, but it sounds interesting.
My monitor and video projector aren't up to those UHD+ specifications.

[sneaker]

Depends on the encoder settings and filters. ffmpeg uses about 3 GB for x265 preset slow with 4K 10bit. Preset veryslow it's 4.3 GB. So if you aren't doing any complex filtering then 8 GB is still sufficient for 4K.
Still, I'd probably buy 16 GB just to have some reserve e.g. for background tasks. It's not very expensive at the moment.

[medeamajic]

Premiere Pro can make use of Intel's Quick Sync. Quick Sync works great for h.264/265. There will not be a huge difference between a 6 core CPU without HT and an 8 CPU with HT because the Quick Sync module on the Intel chips is the same regardless of the the amount of cores. In other words the 8 core CPU does not have 8 Quick Sync modules. FCPX and Edius can also make good use of Intel's Quick Sync.