EVGA GTX 580 1.5gb vs 3gb

[Michael Millichamp]

I am assuming you are editing Scarlet 4K footage, which is capped at 55 MB/s. Any modern 7200rpm hard drive can handle that easily, so disk I/O is not your immediate bottleneck - it is clearly your CPU. Consider upgrading to Sandy Bridge (i7 2600K) or wait for Ivy Bridge (i7 3770K) in 5 weeks. Either of the above will handle 4K Scarlet footage fluently at 1/2 res.

Thanks for the information Subhadip.

I really appreciate it.

Im definitely going to look into the Ivy Bridge. Is there a website with a good amount of information on it?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I am assuming you are editing Scarlet 4K footage, which is capped at 55 MB/s. Any modern 7200rpm hard drive can handle that easily, so disk I/O is not your immediate bottleneck

Sure, but that's per-stream and even then, 55MB/s sustained can still be a tall order for many modern HDD's if the files are not contiguously written to a cleaned space. I've found, even with RED One 4K 2:1 footage, it makes a world of difference even to have a 2-drive (or better) RAID-0 to boost the speed. While I agree his CPU is the primary roadblock here, it never hurts to have faster drives to work from.

@Michael, I'm not sure what your budget is, timing for upgrades, etc.. So you may do best to sit tight with what you have, rather than dumping money into this system now, and then upgrade everything here in the coming months when the new CPUs roll out.

 

[Michael Millichamp]

@Michael, I'm not sure what your budget is, timing for upgrades, etc.. So you may do best to sit tight with what you have, rather than dumping money into this system now, and then upgrade everything here in the coming months when the new CPUs roll out.

Would you agree with Subhadip when he recommended the i7 Ivy Bridge?

Im definitely ok with sitting with what I have now. It's fine for what im doing (multiple short films), so I guess when more cards come out, I will be looking into new cpus.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Would you agree with Subhadip when he recommended the i7 Ivy Bridge?

Sure, it's the next iteration past the current Sandy Bridge models available. Even the current models scream along really well and Intel is continuously showing about 15~20% overall gains with each new release. You will want to look at the i7 for the most processing power, i5 is a step down, both in performance and price. When Ivy Bridge hits the desktop, we'll see integrated support for ThunderBolt and USB3 right on the Intel chipset, you will gain PCIe v3.0 support and faster memory speed.

Im definitely ok with sitting with what I have now. It's fine for what im doing (multiple short films), so I guess when more cards come out, I will be looking into new cpus.

Sitting is fine if you don't need something right away. Exact timing on Ivy Bridge desktop systems is still up in the air a bit. There's talks of delays on many of the dual-core Ivy Bridge mobile CPUs and Intel is releasing the mobile platforms first. Quad-core mobile Ivy Bridge looks to be on schedule though.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Sure, but that's per-stream and even then, 55MB/s sustained can still be a tall order for many modern HDD's if the files are not contiguously written to a cleaned space. I've found, even with RED One 4K 2:1 footage, it makes a world of difference even to have a 2-drive (or better) RAID-0 to boost the speed. While I agree his CPU is the primary roadblock here, it never hurts to have faster drives to work from.

@Michael, I'm not sure what your budget is, timing for upgrades, etc.. So you may do best to sit tight with what you have, rather than dumping money into this system now, and then upgrade everything here in the coming months when the new CPUs roll out.

Absolutely - a RAID array can go a long way. However, modern drives like the new Barracuda can do ~150 MB/s sustained even when full, so 55 MB/s is not the tall order it used to be.

Michael is looking for the primary bottleneck here and as we agree, it is the CPU. It is the CPU upgrade which will get playback to 1/2 res. But yes, of course, faster disk I/O can never hurt.

Ivy Bridge quad core on the desktop is definitely releasing on April 6th. Desktop dual cores come in May, and mobile dual-cores is the one that is uncertain.

 

[Michael Millichamp]

Absolutely - a RAID array can go a long way. However, modern drives like the new Barracuda can do ~150 MB/s sustained even when full, so 55 MB/s is not the tall order it used to be.

I actually just picked up a Barracuda 1tb internal drive.

 

[M.D. Hilton]

Sure, it's the next iteration past the current Sandy Bridge models available. Even the current models scream along really well and Intel is continuously showing about 15~20% overall gains with each new release. You will want to look at the i7 for the most processing power, i5 is a step down, both in performance and price. When Ivy Bridge hits the desktop, we'll see integrated support for ThunderBolt and USB3 right on the Intel chipset, you will gain PCIe v3.0 support and faster memory speed.



Sitting is fine if you don't need something right away. Exact timing on Ivy Bridge desktop systems is still up in the air a bit. There's talks of delays on many of the dual-core Ivy Bridge mobile CPUs and Intel is releasing the mobile platforms first. Quad-core mobile Ivy Bridge looks to be on schedule though.

I'm currently putting together a new editing system (I haven't purchased anything yet, just gathering together my list). I was under the impression is might not be the best idea to wait for Ivy Bridge as the top of the line CPU will only be 4 cores. Granted, it integrates a lot of other stuff into the mix (as you mentioned) but will I get better results with the current 6 core Sandy Bridge when working in CS 5.5?

The system I'm putting together currently looks like:

Intel Core i7 3930k (overclocked a bit, but still stable)
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE
Cooler Master RC-942-KKN1
GIGABYTE GV-N580UD-3GI GeForce GTX 580
Intel 520 Series Cherryville 2.5" 120GB SATA III (for OS and Programs)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
3 x WD Caviar Black 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W
CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

Is there any benefit in waiting for Ivy Bridge for 5 weeks? I have no desperate need in the next month to put this system together so waiting isn't an issue.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

Go for Core i7 3930K. However, there is a benefit waiting for GTX 670 Ti in 3 weeks. Faster, cheaper, uses much less power, PCIe 3.0 and a brand new marchitecture.

 

[Michael Millichamp]

What would you say the benefits over the 3gb GTX 580 vs the GTX 670 are?

 

[Yannick Verry]

Intel Core i7 3930k (overclocked a bit, but still stable)
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE
Cooler Master RC-942-KKN1
GIGABYTE GV-N580UD-3GI GeForce GTX 580
Intel 520 Series Cherryville 2.5" 120GB SATA III (for OS and Programs)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
3 x WD Caviar Black 2TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb
CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W
CORSAIR H100 (CWCH100) Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler.

I would rather take the ASUS P9X79 WS instead of deluxe version, she's dedicated for this kind of application, with lot of space for extra gtx 580 later.
I'd also choose a bit faster G.Skill model especially if you plan to o/c your processor a bit.
Maybe think to take a Corsair 1000+
I also don't feel SSD are mandatory for system. Once my system is running and editing software running, i need speed on editing hard drive, nowhere else... This can save a few bucks for another gtx-580 for instance...