Need help choosing a video editing/3D rendering laptop
September 7, 2018 9:23 PM Subscribe
Help! I've researched myself into decision paralysis. Given my workflow, should I go for more CPU and RAM with a GTX 1050 at 4GB, or less CPU and RAM with a GTX 1070 at 8GB VRAM? This is mostly After Effects and Cinema 4D. The new version has GPU rendering in the default renderer.
My bread and butter is After Effects, lately mostly working with vector art and text with some FHD video backgrounds. After Effects doesn't actually seem to benefit from a powerful GPU. Even the GPU-accelerated features enabled in recent versions (motion blur etc.) don't seem to provide much of a time-savings in rendering or previewing with GPU enabled. Having a supported GPU enables certain 3D features that aren't available with the "classic" 3D engine, but in other non-3D scenarios the GPU doesn't seem to be much help with regard to render times.
I also work with Cinema 4D. The new version of C4D (R20) has added GPU acceleration to their default renderer. I haven't worked with the new version yet so I don't know the specifics, but I'm hoping there will be a noticeable improvement in rendering time.
I anticipate C4D becoming a bigger part of my workflow, with a fair amount of physics simulation.
I also do a lot of Photoshop and Illustrator, some editing in Premiere, and some audio production with Sonar (which is reverting to the Cakewalk name under new ownership). I'm probably going to get a Blackmagic capture box as well and capture uncompressed HD video via HDMI from my DSLR.
I need to get a new laptop to work on. I travel a lot, and my current machine weighs nearly 12 pounds including the power brick. So I'm in the market for something lighter. I am having trouble figuring out whether I should prioritize the GPU and VRAM over the CPU and system RAM. At my price point I can't have it all.
I can get a Dell XPS with an i9-8950 CPU, 32GB of system RAM and a GTX 1050Ti with 4GB of dedicated video RAM, or I can get a Gigabyte Aero with an i7-8750 CPU, 16GB of system RAM (expandable to 32GB), and a GTX 1070 with 8GB of dedicated video RAM. The XPS price would be out of range, but Dell's having a sale that brings it within range of the Gigabyte machine. I'd have to wait to add RAM to the Gigabyte machine, but I feel like 16GB won't be too much of a bottleneck.
Given my workflow, should I go for more CPU and RAM with the GTX 1050 at 4GB, or less CPU and RAM with a 1070 at 8GM RAM?
My bread and butter is After Effects, lately mostly working with vector art and text with some FHD video backgrounds. After Effects doesn't actually seem to benefit from a powerful GPU. Even the GPU-accelerated features enabled in recent versions (motion blur etc.) don't seem to provide much of a time-savings in rendering or previewing with GPU enabled. Having a supported GPU enables certain 3D features that aren't available with the "classic" 3D engine, but in other non-3D scenarios the GPU doesn't seem to be much help with regard to render times.
I also work with Cinema 4D. The new version of C4D (R20) has added GPU acceleration to their default renderer. I haven't worked with the new version yet so I don't know the specifics, but I'm hoping there will be a noticeable improvement in rendering time.
I anticipate C4D becoming a bigger part of my workflow, with a fair amount of physics simulation.
I also do a lot of Photoshop and Illustrator, some editing in Premiere, and some audio production with Sonar (which is reverting to the Cakewalk name under new ownership). I'm probably going to get a Blackmagic capture box as well and capture uncompressed HD video via HDMI from my DSLR.
I need to get a new laptop to work on. I travel a lot, and my current machine weighs nearly 12 pounds including the power brick. So I'm in the market for something lighter. I am having trouble figuring out whether I should prioritize the GPU and VRAM over the CPU and system RAM. At my price point I can't have it all.
I can get a Dell XPS with an i9-8950 CPU, 32GB of system RAM and a GTX 1050Ti with 4GB of dedicated video RAM, or I can get a Gigabyte Aero with an i7-8750 CPU, 16GB of system RAM (expandable to 32GB), and a GTX 1070 with 8GB of dedicated video RAM. The XPS price would be out of range, but Dell's having a sale that brings it within range of the Gigabyte machine. I'd have to wait to add RAM to the Gigabyte machine, but I feel like 16GB won't be too much of a bottleneck.
Given my workflow, should I go for more CPU and RAM with the GTX 1050 at 4GB, or less CPU and RAM with a 1070 at 8GM RAM?
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posted by sammyo at 6:19 AM on September 8, 2018