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How much RAM do I actually need for video editing? ( Sony Vegas Pro 13 )

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I only have 1 HDD and I cant afford buying new SSD / HDD / RAM, I've spent enough lately so Im just gonna stick to what I have.

Though I'll probably end up switching to Adobe Premiere Pro.
The reason is that when I render with Sony Vegas, the CPU load is never high, it's usually 50-70% whilst when rendering with Adobe Premiere Pro it's always like 80-95% which is what it should be, this is important to me because when I overclock the CPU rendering times will be smaller.

Other than that the reason why Sony Vegas Pro was using too much RAM when rendering is because I've set it to a high amount of dynamic RAM preview, I've lowered the amount and now it doesnt use much RAM when rendering but the CPU load remains not so great and as I mentioned most probably I'll just switch to Adobe Premiere Pro.

Looks like you have done as much diagnostic as you can with your system. There is one thing I'm thinking like someone mentioned here, check your hard drive light on your case and look to see if it's a solid light when rendering than it would be your hard drive holding you back.

I if your hard drive light is flashing then the Sony Vegas Pro is holding you back for a lower time like we all want, that will tell you the efficiency of Sony Vegas Pro like you were saying.

I was just wondering does Adobe Premiere Pro render faster than Sony Vegas Pro at the same settings on your PC?
 
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I agree with Wingman, your doing really good with what you have and were right to want to tweak your system to get that little more out of it without spending a lot of money
 
I have just tested if my HDD bottlenecks renders, but turns out it's not the HDD bottlenecking.
My HDD has a red light, usually it lights when Im opening applications and when I render, it barely lights, it only lights every now and then but it's not a constant lighting.

And yes, I believe Adobe Premiere Pro offers faster rendering simply because it makes the CPU work at higher load so it can use its power, Sony Vegas Pro usually holds it about 45-55% load whilst with Premiere it's always above 85% and variates up to 95%.
 
You cant always go by a load test, a time test is the only way to test for sure.
Edit.
 
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I would use 32 GBs

His motherboard maxes out at 24GB.

Also, the error in detection of how many channels it is running does sometimes happen. It should be in dual channel at best if you're running four sticks in a LGA1366 motherboard (with six DIMM slots).

I had my X58 board set up with 5 memory sticks the other day, but it said it was in triple channel.
 
His motherboard maxes out at 24GB.

Also, the error in detection of how many channels it is running does sometimes happen. It should be in dual channel at best if you're running four sticks in a LGA1366 motherboard (with six DIMM slots).

I had my X58 board set up with 5 memory sticks the other day, but it said it was in triple channel.

Thanks I did not look at what motherboard he had.

If you use 3 or more sticks in the correct slots according to your motherboard manual you should be in triple channel.

check to see if that helps with error in detection of triple channel?
 
I doubt that I am using triple channel since Im using 4 RAM sticks, I guess that's nothing but a detection error
 
Well to make sure fill DIMM_A1 DIMM_A0-DIMM_B0_DIMM_CO, for 4 sticks.
That is what your motherboard manual says to do.
The last thing you can do if you have not already, update your bios.

From what I gather from reading the manual the bios searches A0 first for single channel, for dual channel A0-B0, for triple channel A0-B0-C0.
 
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Now that I bought a new cooler for the IOH, I'll overclock my CPU and the RAM a bit soon and I'll take off my 4GB SP RAM and just use the 12GB Kingston since that's enough and will allow me to overclock without problems as well as use triple channel instead of dual channel.

Anyway, I just wanna ask something related to the cooler I bought.

In the specs of the cooler there are 3 speeds, 2000 RPM as for low speed, 2400 RPM for middle and 3500 RPM for high speed, but I dont really understand how does that work ? The speed remains same ( 2100 RPM ) regardless of the CPU load. Maybe there's 3 fans by the same brand and model but each one of them works on different speed .. does that make sense ?

Thanks
 
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Sounds like you don't have a PWM fan? have you plugged into CPU fan header? If no then you would need a fan controller to change the speed of the fan.
 
I dont really understand you very well but I guess I cant change the speed of the fan, maybe the different speeds were meant for other fans or I dont know.

Anyway, I overclocked my CPU 50% just like before, from 2,4 GHz to 3,6 GHz and unfortunately there's no change in the rendering time.
For an 8 mins 30 seconds video I need about 36 minutes to render, using Sony Vegas Pro 13, rendering in full HD 1920x1080 resolution, 29,970 FPs, high profile, 8-12 MBps video bitrate, 192 mbps audio, 48kHz audio sample rate.
There are total 21 transitions ( few flash and most of them are fade in / out transitions ), total 7 tracks ( 1 audio rest are video tracks )

Basically it takes exactly the same time as if I havent overclocked the CPU, yet now my PC scores much more points than before in Cinebench test, before, with my CPU at 2,4 GHz I had 365 points and now Im getting around 570 points after overclocking.

Im using CPU + GPU rendering and mostly during rendering the CPU load is not really high it's like 50-70% but never above 70%, though the GPU load is mostly 80-90%.
I dont think my HDD is the problem here because there's no constant red light during rendering ( bottleneck ).

I also tried raising the RAM frequency from 1200 MHz to 1600 MHz but that doesnt seem to help either ..
Before overclocking I took out the Silicone Power 4GB RAM I used before, the reason why I took it is because it doesnt match the Kingston RAM specs so I just wanted to be safe by not risking anything at all and now I am using 12GB DDR3 Kingston RAM which currently is running on 1600 MHz.

Does anyone have any idea what could possibly be the bottleneck here ? Is it maybe the program itself ?
 
Here is my .2 cents. I am also a Sony Vegas Pro 13 user. Your CPU usage is also base on what plug ins FX you are using. Here is my test, I am rendering footage from my 5D Mark III, rendering in Main Concept .MP4 I select CPU render only and my 6 cores system blast full 92-97% but when I add BCC8 color correction and then render it again. The CPU blast to around any where 56-72%. So, CPU usage is totally depends on what FX you are using.

Here a video I benchmark The Sony Vegas Project, it is heavily FXed applied.

https://vimeo.com/home/myvideos
 
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Well, I dont really use any video effects other than color correction and sometimes I dont use that too.
So, I made a little test by adding Noise effect and color correction and the CPU usage still remains low, 30-50% and rendering with Adobe Premiere makes the CPU at higher load.

Other than that, I checked if my HDD is the problem but it seems that it's not, I created a new disk of 1GB of my RAM just so I could test if rendering on the RAM disk will be faster than rendering on the HDD disks and there is no difference, it takes the same time to render both on the new created RAM disk and on the HDD disks ( If my HDD was the problem rendering on the HDD would take more time than rendering on RAM disk because the RAM has significantly higher speed than the HDD ).

So, my CPU at 3,6 GHz hits almost 570 points in cinebench, it's definitely not the bottleneck, nor it is the RAM and after the last test I ran my HDD is not the problem either.

Is it possible that my GPU is the bottleneck ? I know that GPUs are like " bonus " when it comes to rendering, CPUs have the priority, but maybe my GPU's bandwidth is just too small to work in good order together with the CPU, for example my CPU is able to work fast - send fast which frames need to be rendered to the GPU but the GPU's bandwidth is just too low to accept and answer to those calls by the CPU ? Does that make sense ?

My GPU is Nvidia GT 630 4GB DDR3, if it's possible that the bottleneck lies in the GPU shall I try overclocking it a bit so I can see if there's any difference ? Or do you think that the rendering time I get is normal and there is no bottleneck at all ?
 
In the old days of single core all programs used 100% of the CPU then multithreading came along and I feel that the efficiency of multithreading in the program is the cause of less than 100% of the CPU.
 
just my 2cents experience with vegas 11, 12 and 13.
my pc specs:
motherboard: Asus Z97 Deluxe
CPU: i7-4770K overclocked to 4.4 GThz at constant clock meaning no intel stepping and boost and water cooled with NZXT kraken 62
GPU: Asus GTX970 strix (yes the 3.5GB one)kept out of the box
2x8 GB 2133Ghz DDR3
Win 10 Pro 64 Bit
OS drive : Samsung 960 M.2 NVME 500GB (vegas is on it)
Tempory files folder is also on C drive above
video files are rendered to D drive : 3TB HDD (i have 2 in my pc and not sure who is the D drive but one is hitachi and the other is seagate barracuda)
also have stuff that isnt related to vegas : the 2th HDD , 1SSD 840 pro 128GB 1SSD 840 pro 256GB
i use CAM to monitor the pc and this mostly because i can see the water temp.
idle core temps are around 45 to 55C at 4398,97Mhz and 1.27V and goes between 4.5 to 30% atm on cores (not the cpu count) kraken is in performance modekraken fan speed at 75% cpu fan about 600 to 1000RPM and pump 3480 to 3600RPM water temp 37C ,RAM load is at 23% atm at 3.7GB GPU is at 38C 17% load core 135Mhz mem 324Mhz mem load 0.28GB fan 0 RPM

now this sayed i had alot of problems with GPU rendering enabled and only could render when this option was shut off so it stays off in this pc config.

now i gona do some testing and put the number in here .
beside the normal stuff i have zone-alarm running in the back opened Cam in advanced mode also taskmanager , this browser and realtempGT for this purpose.
the room temp is 25C so its hot here today lol.

first i will test an short video (about 4 min) main video mixing already pre-rendered i have 5 video lines and 3 audio lines . video's are in overlay methode and audio in paste mode . the file is rendered as mainconcept AVC/AAC mp4 internet 1080p format
the video will not be pre viewed in full second screen. just the in GUI preview.

last idle control:
taskmanager: cpu 1-4% mem 22% up to 3.6GB
realtempGT: max 54C min 38C on view about 43C single core
CAM set to hour : cpu min 37C max 62C over all cores GOU 37C core 135Mhz , mem 324Mhz mem load 0.26GB fan 0RPM

rendering:
Taskmanager shows 100% load at 4.38Ghz
realtempGT shows 96 to 100% load min 38C max 78C single core
Cam shows CPU 4398Mhz temp min 37 max 78C 94 to 99% fan at 1060RPM pump at 3600RPM fan 76% GPU up to 4% load 38C mem load 0.27GB core and mem clocks stays the same RAM 25% 4.2GB load
video result can be seen at

test 2 the final video is rendered in 2 parts while the whole video is rendered as fully the added on screen text is added on 2nd rendering . This video is much more complex i have 97 lines 1 audio ( pre-rendered as its an mixwith enhanced audio))and 96 video lines.many manual effects are added beside auto zoom effect. the video is about 40 min and rendered in about 2Hrs.

rendering:
Taskmanager cpu 100% load 4.38to 4.4Ghz Ram 28% 4.4GB of 15.9GB drives goes up to 3% as far i sawed and that only for C drive.
RealtempGT cpu 99.9% load at 4.4Ghz min temp 38C max temp 80C
CAM
cpu 4.398,97Mhz fan 1056RPM temp up to 85C because of the long run temp gets higher and water temp goes up to 43C
RAM 4.5GB 28%
GPU up to 5% load 0.32GB mem load temps are 37 min and 42 max

final video can be seen at :

So here you go its not Vegas badly supporting multithread but its your hardware and settings that gives you problems. in my experience and from i saw alot of youtubers ,the rendertime is always about twice of video lenght exept when complexity is added.
its a knowed fact that dealing with complex rendering you have todo pre-rendering so it helps render times and that means while you're editing ,have to plan what part should better be pre-rendered .in test 2 for example at the beginning you have the zoom effect that are many small parts after each other so its better to pre-render this as full part as each part ads complexity .also an good example if you want to render 100 very small video views in one screen . thats 100 parts and if that is just a fill in for another video its better to render it apart.

i dont use adobe premier and yes adobe has much more addon tools but the rendering is the same from i saw and hear from others.

i advice you to watch this video :
that shows adobe on the best workstation hardware from intel and AMD but be aware that intel is downclocked to the AMD lvl to compair it fairly.

in hardware i give this advice:
CPU : use 4/8 intel up to how much you can afford. the intel 6/12 6850K beats in small margin the AMD 1800X 8C16T we dont know yet how the new 6core 12 thread perform (7800X) so cant advice this one and its possible that the 1800X could be better choise then. if you use intel 4/8 K or 6/8 K/X always overclock the cpu to increase render speed .found out what the max stable overclock is of your cpu and then lower about 200Ghz (also lower the voltage) for long and stable cpu performance)
For example my 4770k max overclock is 4.7Ghz but it was to much voltage so i kept in mind that the max clock is 4.6Ghz so i lowered down to 4.4Ghz and to stablize the cores i turned of intel steppings and boost so it stays around 4.4 from start up to shutting it off.

Ram : use atleast 16 GB total of ram and atleast 2 sticks . use high clock with lowest CL (my DDR3 2133 is CL 5 and is faster than any DDR4 2133 Mhz) for DDR3 use 2133Mhz as any higher doesn't give much perfromance boost with a to much ad of cost . for DDR4 3200Mhz is the one you want to go with .with the lowest CL possible. if you buy the one i say then DONT overclock it with intel cpu's and you can tighten them up but is not needed.

GPU: while my own GTX970 should work well with GPU rendering it always crash the software while rendering.if you have a GPU that works then use the GPU accelerated option as it will help render times...well it should ...not for me ....if you use an second screen and watch rendering preview then DONT use the GPU rendering and you will need an beefy card if you want todo it in 1440p or 4K , meaning you gona need at this time the GTX 1080 or more likely the GTX1080Ti

Drives:always use an fast SSD as C drive .Go for the NVME ones if you can afford it and also use it with the best connection meaning possible . dedicated PCIE 3.0 or M.2 (PCIE) is much better than Sata
For Temporary files i didnt saw any improvement to use it on seperated drives . not for HDD or SSD (ive tested with the 840 pro 128 and 256 ones ) thats why i kpt it on the fastest SSD aka C drive
for final file its ok to use an HDD (its better anyway to hold all your library's on a HDD due the limitations of SSD overwritings) i also use HDD for everything i can . i mean downloading from the net into the download file is on a HDD drive but also the OS my music,video ,documents etc . you can google it how todo so.

Motherboards: you will be surprised that i say dont cut on your motherboard but the fact is ,there is an reason why the high end stuff is more stable and have more stable ability's. PCIE lane cuts from chipset or CPU is an good example or PCIE ability's (the X4 ,X8 ,X16 and also chared PCIE). i am an fanboy of ASUS for sure while the enhanced features of 15 years ago has shifted to other features all asus MB i had and have (P5E , Z87,Z97 atm) are (still) working without any problems. i use mostly the deluxe or if not needed the full function then i use the A version (example Z97-A) as its an cut down deluxe (cutdowns are extra features for specific needs like wireless ,dual Lan,etc) im not gona advice you what to look for when you want to buy an Motherboard as this is about vegas and not specific hardware topic.the asus bios /UEFI have always been the best but dont use the auto overclock software (only to test out what cpu can do as mainline then delete the software . always do the OC yourself)

PSU : another thing that people cuts alot on but shouldend. i advice you to buy a 1000W power supply in any cases as you will overclock CPU use highend GPU use fast SSD and use many drives together . on my PC (specs above) i got already 2 PSU dieing on me
both where Corsair AX top of the line PSU one is the 860i and the other 860 now i use the 1000W RM (i think ) and no problems sofar while the other 2 gave problems from the start.you will read alot that you dont need an 1000w PSU and you will be fine with 700 or 800 or even lower but every specific use of an pc needs other specs.

cooling:use AIO watercooling . it will simplify your life. give secure higher overclocks. while i use NZXT kraken now (i did and still use some other AIO on this and other PC's) specific because i can see in CAM software the temp of the water itself .for noise reduction use the biggest rad and the largest fans possible (counts for all fans in the case ) 140MM fans are better then 120MM fans to reduce noise so 140,280,420 rads are better than 120 ,240 , 360mm rads but also 420 is better than 280 and 280 is better as 140 (actualy deny on the 140 and go for atleast 2 fan rad)

dont go for the fancy ,pancy features as RGB or good looks but go for good headsinks on MB ,etc ,the needed features, positif airflow,enough of the good connections (USB3 types are a mess to keep up lol), good specs and do research ,alot of research.dont depend on one person advice (mine included )and try so see a line in the results (if majority overclock to 4.4 and some can go for 4.6 then aim for 4.6 but be satisfy with 4.4 if 4.6 is out of reach and dont aim for the 4.8 that a few are telling but try it yourself if you can reach it)
headsinks on SSD is/will be the future as SSD loose performance on heating up and o boy those SSD gets hot .(that was announced 3 years ago that this will be a problem).

Do you need all this expensif stuff? not at all. everybody start on the ladder that the wallet can handle but if you want to go semi-pro render its an good advice to follow .(pro renders are for me those that use pro industrial hardware).
it seems that these days everybody makes video's and render as a youtuber or stream on what ever(even 8 year old ones) and all have theyre own opinion based on who knows what. i shared my own experience and its up to you , the reader ,what to think about this.

sorry for text wall but i hope it helps all readers.

Ruangi out....time to make some video's lol.
 
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