Advice on a graphics card video editing and work

[stevember]

I currently have an Intel I 5, 3.2 GHz. 

Radeon RX 560 graphics card.

16Gb RAM, pretty up-to-date motherboard and an M2 very quick Samsung hard drive.

 

I share the rest because it gives you the complete picture.  I don't need an SSD drive or more RAM.

 

I run an ultrawide monitor 3440×1440.

 

My main work is Photoshop, Premier, going live (so OBS, converting and combining multiple sources and streaming).

 

I want to spend around $250 on a new graphics card because the whole of windows redrawing and encoding is really sluggish. 

 

I used to have AMD Asus HD  6950 (still sat on the side) and sometimes I'm wondering whether I have gone backwards going to the RX 560?

 

The questions:

 

1. Have I gone backwards?

2. Happy to move to Nvidia what should I get from my requirements?

 

Thank you for your advice, it's always awesome to come back and pick the wise brains of Nbeoiwin.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

We need to know a little more before we can help you...

 

i5 ####?

Radeon RX560 GDDRAM?

16GB RAM, Speed? Company? Latency?

motherboard company? socket?

What M.2? Company? Space? NVME, at all?

"Fast" Samsung HDD, Size? RPM? SATAI/II/III?

Ultrawide monitor, what size? 27? Company? Refresh Time?

 

Also, what is your PSU? Company? Wattage? Model name (CS###, MS###)

 

Once we know all this, we can help choose what is best for your configuration.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

As well as the specs Mindovermaster asked for, it may be possible you have the nerfed version of the 560. Last summer AMD released a cut down 14CU version from the original, launch 16CU version without detailing or advertising the change. Which card do you own?

 

Either way I believe both will be better than your old 6950, but it may explain why you don't see much of an improvement. Also remember that Photoshop is not specifically a GPU intensive app, although some features require a GPU / CUDA. The processor, RAM and storage will be far more beneficial for most tasks in the app over GPU.

 

The Nvidia 1050 is technically better than your 560, but it's in the same budget GPU bracket and won't change things significantly to warrant switching. Never mind that right now cryto-mining is pushing GPU prices very high and would probably cost more to switch regardless.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

24 minutes ago, Andrew said:

As well as the specs Mindovermaster asked for, it may be possible you have the nerfed version of the 560. Last summer AMD released a cut down 14CU version from the original, launch 16CU version without detailing or advertising the change. Which card do you own?

 

Either way I believe both will be better than your old 6950, but it may explain why you don't see much of an improvement. Also remember that Photoshop is not specifically a GPU intensive app, although some features require a GPU / CUDA. The processor, RAM and storage will be far more beneficial for most tasks in the app over GPU.

 

The Nvidia 1050 is technically better than your 560, but it's in the same budget GPU bracket and won't change things significantly to warrant switching. Never mind that right now cryto-mining is pushing GPU prices very high and would probably cost more to switch regardless.

I thought crypto-maniacs were going after 1070/1080, not the 1050/1060. No?

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Just now, Mindovermaster said:

I thought crypto-maniacs were going after 1070/1080, not the 1050/1060. No?

Generally yes the higher cards are the ones sought after, but the scarcity and inflation of prices has lead to even 900 series cards being sucked up and used. If you have an old card sitting around, it's actually a good time to earn more back than you would this time last year.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

1 minute ago, Andrew said:

Generally yes the higher cards are the ones sought after, but the scarcity and inflation of prices has lead to even 900 series cards being sucked up and used. If you have an old card sitting around, it's actually a good time to earn more back than you would this time last year.

Truth...

[satukoro]

Man am I glad I bought my 8GB RX580 when I did. I only paid $299 in december and comparable cards are $400 - $550 now.

[stevember]

1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

We need to know a little more before we can help you...

 

i5 ####?

Radeon RX560 GDDRAM?

16GB RAM, Speed? Company? Latency?

motherboard company? socket?

What M.2? Company? Space? NVME, at all?

"Fast" Samsung HDD, Size? RPM? SATAI/II/III?

Ultrawide monitor, what size? 27? Company? Refresh Time?

 

Also, what is your PSU? Company? Wattage? Model name (CS###, MS###)

 

Once we know all this, we can help choose what is best for your configuration.

The hard drives and the RAM is fine, main drive 950 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD with Western Digital Red 2x 3tb raid 0. It's a 1200watt power supply cannot remember now whether it's Corsair but it's a good one.  The motherboard is Asus, less than 12 months old with the latest 16 GB RAM at the time.

 

My system is not lagging memory or writing to the hard drive when it is crunching videos. 

 

The monitor is LG 34 inch curved running at 50 Hz, for some reason I cannot get any higher.

 

Hope this helps.

 

The bottleneck is either the CPU or the graphics card.

 

Perhaps, I should have put a little background.  I used to own a computer shop, been repairing computers for many many years.  Just out of touch with the latest graphics and suchlike over the past 3 years.  And I trust you guys on here.

 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

4 minutes ago, stevember said:

The hard drives and the RAM is fine, main drive 950 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD with Western Digital Red 2x 3tb raid 0. It's a 1200watt power supply cannot remember now whether it's Corsair but it's a good one.  The motherboard is Asus, less than 12 months old with the latest 16 GB RAM at the time.

 

My system is not lagging memory or writing to the hard drive when it is crunching videos. 

 

The monitor is LG 34 inch curved running at 50 Hz, for some reason I cannot get any higher.

 

Hope this helps.

 

The bottleneck is either the CPU or the graphics card.

 

Perhaps, I should have put a little background.  I used to own a computer shop, been repairing computers for many many years.  Just out of touch with the latest graphics and suchlike over the past 3 years.  And I trust you guys on here.

 

I don't give a RIP what is "fine" or "not lagging". I want YOUR system information. Answer everything I threw at you. See my Sig? tell me EVERYTHING. If you don't know, open up your case.

[stevember]

1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

We need to know a little more before we can help you...

 

i5 ####?

Radeon RX560 GDDRAM?

16GB RAM, Speed? Company? Latency?

motherboard company? socket?

What M.2? Company? Space? NVME, at all?

"Fast" Samsung HDD, Size? RPM? SATAI/II/III?

Ultrawide monitor, what size? 27? Company? Refresh Time?

 

Also, what is your PSU? Company? Wattage? Model name (CS###, MS###)

 

Once we know all this, we can help choose what is best for your configuration.

 

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

As well as the specs Mindovermaster asked for, it may be possible you have the nerfed version of the 560. Last summer AMD released a cut down 14CU version from the original, launch 16CU version without detailing or advertising the change. Which card do you own?

 

Either way I believe both will be better than your old 6950, but it may explain why you don't see much of an improvement. Also remember that Photoshop is not specifically a GPU intensive app, although some features require a GPU / CUDA. The processor, RAM and storage will be far more beneficial for most tasks in the app over GPU.

 

The Nvidia 1050 is technically better than your 560, but it's in the same budget GPU bracket and won't change things significantly to warrant switching. Never mind that right now cryto-mining is pushing GPU prices very high and would probably cost more to switch regardless.

Hopefully these screenshots might help.  Not sure where the boxes are, being paralysed I would have to wait I can get some help to get them. 

 

Graphics card : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07219923L/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[stevember]

1 minute ago, Mindovermaster said:

I don't give a RIP what is "fine" or "not lagging". I want YOUR system information. Answer everything I threw at you. See my Sig? tell me EVERYTHING. If you don't know, open up your case.

I see your signature, and mine is pretty much identical to yours as far as I can tell.  Including the case.

 

If you require more information than what you've got please let me know.

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

I believe, for video editing, you need an i7. I'm not 100% sure on that, but from what I remember.

 

Video editing is not GPU intensive as Andrew said above.

 

Are you sure your CPU temps are OK? That it's not running at 100% when you video edit? Does it ever eat up your RAM?

[stevember]

I will be right back with the information, just go do my Facebook live.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

1 hour ago, stevember said:

 

Hopefully these screenshots might help.  Not sure where the boxes are, being paralysed I would have to wait I can get some help to get them. 

 

Graphics card : https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07219923L/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

Unfortunately (I think), you have the nerfed 560. It's "almost" the same as the original spec, but comes with 2 GB VRAM instead of 4 and 14CU / 56 TU vs 16 / 64. All in all, the difference is 12.5%.

 

Another way to tell is if you bought it before October or not. Apparently the new and old editions eventually came in both 2 and 4 GB VRAM configs.

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3240264/components-graphics/amd-quietly-radeon-rx-560-graphics-cards-worse.html

 

AFAIK, AMD never made good on an upgrade or replacement scheme. When did you buy it? Was it from Amazon? They might let you return it if you explain the situation, then you could go with the GTX 1050.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Andrew

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

5 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Unfortunately you have the nerfed 560. It's "almost" the same as the original spec, but comes with 2 GB VRAM instead of 4 and 14CU / 56 TU vs 16 / 64. All in all, the difference is 12.5%.

 

AFAIK, AMD never made good on an upgrade or replacement scheme. When did you buy it? Was it from Amazon? They might let you return it if you explain the situation, then you could go with the GTX 1050.

That is the nerfed one? OK, I wasn't sure. Thx

 

*writes this down in my black book of nerfs*

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

15 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

That is the nerfed one? OK, I wasn't sure. Thx

 

*writes this down in my black book of nerfs*

Updated my post. Apparently AMD are now shipping both 2GB and 4GB variants, which is what I was going off from his screenshot to identify.

[stevember]

My temperatures are good, I have Noctua fans temperatures never go high even under workload.  I am an absolute temperature obsessive no noise as I do recording and it's in a studio.

 

Okay, that's not good.  So I do need to replace it.  So am I better off in the money into an i7?

 

I really do not care for games at all.

[stevember]

5 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Updated my post. Apparently AMD are now shipping both 2GB and 4GB variants, which is what I was going off from his screenshot to identify.

You purchased this item on 9 Nov 2017. 

 

So really it could be. 

 

Even in Windows the 2D drawing is not great at all.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

28 minutes ago, stevember said:

My temperatures are good, I have Noctua fans temperatures never go high even under workload.  I am an absolute temperature obsessive no noise as I do recording and it's in a studio.

 

Okay, that's not good.  So I do need to replace it.  So am I better off in the money into an i7?

 

I really do not care for games at all.

 

25 minutes ago, stevember said:

You purchased this item on 9 Nov 2017. 

 

So really it could be. 

 

Even in Windows the 2D drawing is not great at all.

If your performance in Windows is as bad as you say, it's likely it's the lower 560 model IMO. That card, while in the budget bracket, is capable of 1080p gaming (if we're talking about the original specification).

 

So, it comes down to if you still experience issues with rendering or editing? If it's the rendering time I'd focus on a CPU upgrade to an i7 so you can take advantage or hyper threading. If it's editing work where you experience an issue mostly, a GFX card upgrade would probably benefit you more. The i5 Skylake isn't very old and can probably render 1 min of 1080p in less than a minute with ease, and upgrading it to the equivalent i7 would have only shaved off 1/3rd if that. Coffee Lake has added more cores, but IIRC Photoshop is a single core app, so it's not going to benefit hugely there. Otherwise, the extra cores will just make rendering times shorter.

 

A GFX card upgrade will help boost your editing performance, and on the side even help off load work from the CPU for rendering. I'd contact Amazon and see if they will help you out with a refund; their customer support is usually really good about this kind of thing. They might not understand the tech jargon, but if you show them the article I posted earlier it may help. That way you could put money towards a different card from the refund and put the $250 you originally budgeted towards a new i7.

[stevember]

1 minute ago, Andrew said:

 

If your performance in Windows is as bad as you say, it's likely it's the lower 560 model IMO. That card, while in the budget bracket, is capable of 1080p gaming (if we're talking about the original specification).

 

So, it comes down to if you still experience issues with rendering or editing? If it's the rendering time I'd focus on a CPU upgrade to an i7 so you can take advantage or hyper threading. If it's editing work where you experience an issue mostly, a GFX card upgrade would probably benefit you more. the i5 Skylake isn't very old and can probably render 1 min of 1080p in less than a minute with ease, and upgrading it to the equivalent i7 would have only shaved off 1/3rd if that. Coffee Lake has added more cores, but IIRC Photoshop is a single core app, so it's not going to benefit hugely there. Otherwise, the extra cores will just make rendering times shorter.

Thank you, that makes some sense.

It is the rendering time I would like to decrease.

Also, Netflix will not allow me to have ultra quality with this video card.

[stevember]

4 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

That is the nerfed one? OK, I wasn't sure. Thx

 

*writes this down in my black book of nerfs*

Hey, do you have any advice? I provided you with all the details. I presume my RAM and HDs are okay? 

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

57 minutes ago, stevember said:

Hey, do you have any advice? I provided you with all the details. I presume my RAM and HDs are okay? 

I asked you for your information. I asked you that so the other members can help you more. I think Andrew answered your question rather well. What do you need from me?

[Sensi]

If you only want to spend around $250ish I would wait until  the bitcoin craze calms or hopefully dies.
It's making pc upgrades a cash grabbing rip off for retailers, for example the gtx 1060 6gb was about 220 and a year later it is 340.. It really is a bad time to upgrade 

[stevember]

5 minutes ago, Sensi said:

If you only want to spend around $250ish I would wait until  the bitcoin craze calms or hopefully dies.
It's making pc upgrades a cash grabbing rip off for retailers, for example the gtx 1060 6gb was about 220 and a year later it is 340.. It really is a bad time to upgrade 

Thank you,  that makes sense. 

 

 I will look at some price trends for CPUs, I’m not sure they are as wanted as the GPUs.

[stevember]

7 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

I don't give a RIP what is "fine" or "not lagging". I want YOUR system information. Answer everything I threw at you. See my Sig? tell me EVERYTHING. If you don't know, open up your case.

Being a member of this site for 17 years, I stopped posting a few years ago because of this kind of attitude. I appreciate you helping, and I have given you the respect in answering your questions. But respect goes both ways. Please don’t presume that I know nothing about computers. And as the thread when on I was right. I pointed out where the problem wasn’t to save time. 

 

Perhaps it was my bad to not explain in detail my depth of knowledge in computers to begin with. My career has taken a different path, and I don’t daily study the crunching power of graphics cards. 

 

However, thank you for your time and appreciate the help. 

21 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

I asked you for your information. I asked you that so the other members can help you more. I think Andrew answered your question rather well. What do you need from me?

 Andrew did indeed.  Just wondered if you had any more knowledge, we can always learn more. So it looks like new CPU would be the most beneficial.