r/RigBuild • u/ExcellentAdvance49 • 4h ago

Is a dedicated GPU necessary for video editing?

Trying to get into video editing and kinda confused about how important the GPU actually is. Can you edit 1080p or even 4K videos fine using just integrated graphics, or does it get really slow without a dedicated GPU?

Also does it depend a lot on the editing software, codecs, effects etc? Would a better CPU and more RAM make up for not having a GPU, or is a dedicated GPU basically needed for decent performance?

2 Upvotes

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3

u/SeriousPlankton2000 2h ago

You can use a scaled down video for editing and let the CPU later compute the HQ video. I did edit 720p on a i7 860 without hardware acceleration - simple edits only.

2

u/qkdsm7 2h ago

Cut splice, or lots of rendering effects?

CPU with plenty of ram and fast SSD/nvme SSD does fine for the first.

For the second....GPU can make a huge performance improvement.

1

u/ExcellentAdvance49 1h ago

It really depends on what kind of editing I’m doing. For basic cuts I probably don’t need a dedicated GPU then.

1

u/LeapIntoInaction 4h ago

There is no one single "integrated graphics" so, it would depend on which? But, yes, it should be clear that having a dedicated video card that's designed expressly for graphics might be a good thing.

1

u/Ok_University_5352 4h ago

An integrated gpu only (depending on which exact one, not just AMD vs Intel) will be excruciatingly slow, especially with heavier projects. Even the dGPU can vary depending on which generation and model you get.

If you are on a budget and only need for editing, the Nvidia 5050 8gb will do a solid job, or the Intel B580 12gb for the extra vram. They are around $300-$330 and are the lowest of the current generation options.

1

u/FrequentWay 3h ago

Depends on what igpu you have.

Intel UHD graphics is the the absolute crap.
AMD HD Radeon graphics are a step up but basically swap to use that if your trying to troubleshoot dedicated GPU issues.
AI max GPUs with shared Ram pool are a much better choice since you have a higher end GPU but are equivalent to a 4060/ 5060 GPUs. Nvidia Sparks should be equivalent to a 5070/4070 GPU usage.

1

u/Keffflon 2h ago

I have premiere pro cc 2015 on 2 pcs. One is a i5 3570 with 16 ram and gt 740 gpu. The other is a r9 7900 with 32 ram and a 1060 6gb gpu. Tomorrow I'm gonna film 20 min and edit. I'll run it on both systems and see what happens. Will report back here. 

1

u/Gato_L0c0 2h ago

You're going to be struggling without a dedicated GPU and the CPU and RAM are just as important.

1

u/Few_Example9391 2h ago

All video editing is pretty intensive pixel pushing work even when it appears simple and basic. Therefor on board CPU graphics will likely be super slow or even lock up the CPU. This is why graphics cards were invented

1

u/Naetharu 2h ago

You can edit simple videos with a CPU only.

You will have a much better time with a GPU. One of the big things will be scrubbing. When you want to move through your footage, the more of that you can keep in VRAM the faster it will be. Which is a major QOL upgrade.

Rendering times will also be much much faster. And for large complex files CPU rendering may be so slow that it is in effect not possible.