Gear Advice Going to Build a PC for Editing - Need Component Advice

[EnglishwithLiz]

So I actually own an M1 Mac Mini and am using with with Davinci Studio. It is as fast as my 16" MBP, but not as fast as my PC with the GTX2080ti. With that said, I still do 90% of my editing on the MBP or M1 Mac Mini. It isn't drastically slower.

FCP is one of the apps that is optimized for the M1 chip.

If you don't need to render 4k video, I'd say go for the best deal. If you are working in 4k or doing a lot of effects rendering, then the PC is a good way to go.

Thank you, a very useful post for me. I think the flexibility of a PC will in the long run serve me better. I just guess I will need to be patient on the GPU front. However as I do little 4k work and special effects, I am wondering should I build my PC and install a lesser GPU until a GTX3070 comes along. The trouble is I am not sure what to get that would serve me well in the meantime. Any ideas?

 

[SILTHW]

Thank you, a very useful post for me. I think the flexibility of a PC will in the long run serve me better. I just guess I will need to be patient on the GPU front. However as I do little 4k work and special effects, I am wondering should I build my PC and install a lesser GPU until a GTX3070 comes along. The trouble is I am not sure what to get that would serve me well in the meantime. Any ideas?

Sure! Honestly, any card from a 1080 up will serve you well. There are some optimizations in to GTX 20XX series that may make it worth spending. Honestly, if you could lay your hands on a used GTX2070/2080 it will be a great card and more then adequate for your needs.

The reason for the chaos in the market right now is a 3070 actually outperforms the 2080 for less money. In fact, the 3060ti outperforms the 2080 for less money.

 

[BensTechLab]

Thank you, a very useful post for me. I think the flexibility of a PC will in the long run serve me better. I just guess I will need to be patient on the GPU front. However as I do little 4k work and special effects, I am wondering should I build my PC and install a lesser GPU until a GTX3070 comes along. The trouble is I am not sure what to get that would serve me well in the meantime. Any ideas?

Honestly if part of the benefit of building a PC is that you can add a 30XX series card when the market settles, then you can build your PC with just about any other graphics card for now. Look around for even a used GPU on facebook marketplace or something just to hold you over. Maybe you'll get lucky with someone who just got a 30XX card and has an old one to sell.

It may not be crazy fast, but even a non-Nvidia card will be fine. I have an AMD Radeon 5500XT which still works fine with Davinci Resolve. I later replaced that card with a RTX2060 which is faster, but the 5500XT did work. Another way to look at this if you are less technically minded, is look for any card with 3 - 4Gb of VRAM or up (that will eliminate older cards like a GT710 or 910 which maxed out at 2gb and will eliminate older Radeon cards too).

 

[Yilk81]

So I actually own an M1 Mac Mini and am using with with Davinci Studio. It is as fast as my 16" MBP, but not as fast as my PC with the GTX2080ti. With that said, I still do 90% of my editing on the MBP or M1 Mac Mini. It isn't drastically slower.

FCP is one of the apps that is optimized for the M1 chip.

If you don't need to render 4k video, I'd say go for the best deal. If you are working in 4k or doing a lot of effects rendering, then the PC is a good way to go.

So would you say that the M1 Mac mini is a steal if one is looking for a faster machine to edit with? I'm not looking to upgrade yet as I found out with rendering my first ever video. But it seems so crazy to have a cheap mac that outperforms a machine that is much more expensive.

Having been burned a few times with new 1st gen Apple tech I tend to say NO to 1st gen tech unless you have to.

 

[EvaWar]

I'd dig a little deeper on the M1 performance. I was reading something the other day that the performance gains that have been marketed as far as video editing goes only relates to x265. x264 is nowhere near as impressive.

 

[SILTHW]

So would you say that the M1 Mac mini is a steal if one is looking for a faster machine to edit with? I'm not looking to upgrade yet as I found out with rendering my first ever video. But it seems so crazy to have a cheap mac that outperforms a machine that is much more expensive.

Having been burned a few times with new 1st gen Apple tech I tend to say NO to 1st gen tech unless you have to.

I'm not much of a first-gen buyer myself, but I had a 15" MBP I had used for work I wasn't using so trading it in got me the M1 Mac Mini for $73.

That said, it is my first desktop mac in quite a while and my main computer is my 16" MBP. Its performance is very similar for most uses. When I render 4k h.264 stuff it is roughly the same. That is observed versus actually benchmarked. AS @EvaWar mentions, you do see a difference in h.265 with the M1 getting an edge.

However, nether comes close to the performance on my PC with a GTX2080ti.

That said, your question was price/performance and I would say the M1 Mac Mini ($799) wins handily there versus my MBP ($2500) or my PC ($3000). I would also note I am seeing continual performance gains as companies optimize their software for the platform. Davinci Resolve Studio 17 Beta 7 added some performance improvements and bug fixes that are making it feel even faster.

 

[amisclinic]

thanks for some good bit of knowledge from the experts

 

[Yilk81]

Great insight indeed, Thanks for weighing in. The price for a GTX2080ti is scary so luckily it is worth it by the sound of it.