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gigadanny
Adept I

New PC build for Avid Media Composer?

I am looking to build a new video editing PC for use at my production company. My two goals for it are to playback 4K, 10 bit, 4:2:2 video files, and to support Avid Media Composer 2019. I know that AMD is an official partner with Avid in terms of video cards, but I'm a little hesitant when it comes to AMD processors... so I have two questions/concerns:

  1. AMD lists their Radeon Pro workstation graphics cards as officially certified by Avid for use with Media Composer. Although the card I am researching, the WX 7100 was released three years ago in July 2016. I am wondering if there is a newer AMD card (in an effect to future-proof), possibly the newly announced RX series, that may pair better with Media Composer.
  2. On the Avid site, they only claim to support their software when installed on systems running on Intel processors. I wonder why they prefer AMD graphics cards, but not paired with an AMD processor. Wouldn't it be better to pair an AMD graphics card (WX 7100) with a new Ryzen 3000 series processor (perhaps the 3900X)? Even if Avid does not officially list it as supported?

Hopefully someone who has recently built a PC for video editing can advise--thank you in advance!

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14 Replies

I suggest one of the R7 processors and for graphics the Radeon VII is as good as it gets at the moment

I have 24GB of RAM and Media Composer works fine for me, my motherboard maxes out at 64GB but the new X570 motherboards claim 128GB support

Thanks for your reply--I hadn't heard about the Radeon VII... even though it's a gaming card, it has an impressive base clock and memory. I'll have to check if it would fit in a micro ATX setup.

Have you run into any hiccups running MC? I'm especially curious if you're editing/transcoding any 4K footage. My group of editor friend really want to try the R7s, but we're bothered by how Avid distances itself from anything that's not Intel.

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Use a full ATX, there is more room for cooling fans which are needed with uppity components

I have an R5 2400G but I have a GTX 1060 which handles encoding when needed

I have not had issues the MC, it seems to be stable on my box

I have 4K30 footage I get from my iPhone and I have some 8K footage from a $40,000 Red camera

Hi! Do you manage to get 4K/8K AMA linked media playback and cut editing flawlessly in the timeline? Or is it sluggish and you always need to transcode?

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foxfender wrote:

Hi! Do you manage to get 4K/8K AMA linked media playback and cut editing flawlessly in the timeline? Or is it sluggish and you always need to transcode?

I use Avid which is a compositor and the source video is uncompressed and so is the output

After compositing is done, I then compress it for distribution wich at 3840x2160 does take a while when there is 120 minutes of video to compress

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Ok but my question is do you manage to playback and edit 4K/8K AMA linked media directly smoothly and flawlessly WITHOUT transcoding or is it sluggish and you need to transcode your footage (to DNxHR for exemple) first? 

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I use a lot of SSD storage and I have 32GB of RAM so I can edit 4K and 8K easily

my R5 3600 is not the fastest but Avid is still able to take shots from cameras and compose scenes and acts etc

on my rig I do not see any sluggishness other than the time it takes to write out the scenes which are assembled from shots, that is unavoidable

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Ok, but please, could you please answer more specifically my question: do you directly playback and edit 4K/8K AMA LINKED files or do you TRANSCODE them before editing?

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foxfender wrote:

Ok, but please, could you please answer more specifically my question: do you directly playback and edit 4K/8K AMA LINKED files or do you TRANSCODE them before editing?

I edit uncompressed completely and transcode anything, not until the work is done

I can play uncompressed video as my SSDs are plenty fast enough. Hard disks do not have enough bandwidth.

So yes I play directly from the SSDs

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All right, thank you for your answers indeed

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gigadanny
Adept I

Now that the whole GPU race is heating up between Nvidia and AMD, I'm wondering about the RX 5700XT versus a WX 7100 or workstation card for video editing... it seems that the newer 5700 series has higher numbers across the board, though I can't figure out if it has 10-bit color space support.

Of course there is the new GTX 2070 Super, but I'm feeling that the extra features you're paying for there are really intended for hardcore gaming.

#RX#5700 series #XT

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The Radeon VII is more powerful than the FX 5700 cards, which are much more mainstream than the flagship

Thanks for the continued input @hardcoregames™ ... you have a point, but the VII ($699) is still more than double the price of, say, the WX 5100 ($299) which according to AMD's and Avid's sites should be more than powerful enough for 4K editing and 5K monitor support. Maybe it would be a wise move to start out with the WX 5100 with plans to upgrade to the VII down the line?

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I agree that the W5100 is lower cost but the Radeon VII is make at 7nm while the W5100 is made on an obsolete 16nm node

This is why the card is far more powerful

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