Best PC For Video Editing Archives

Performance is important

At BIZON we often get many customers who want to switch from a Mac to a PC Workstation. While there are many reasons our customers want a change, it usually comes down to one major factor, performance.

Whatever you use your Mac or Workstation PC for, performance is important to help you manage your workflow, to ensure your game runs smoothly, for high-quality sound and graphics, and to edit videos efficiently.

The rise in 4K, 6K, and 8K workflows makes optimum performance a necessity for many people, so it is essential to make the right choice when considering a computer.

With performance being the most important factor when deciding between a PC or a Mac, we take a look at why a PC is a better option to use Adobe’s Premiere Pro video editing application compared to a Mac or iMac Pro 2019.

To find out whether a PC or Mac is a best video editing workstation, we took three iMac systems and a PC workstation of a similar price and tested them across performance for live playback, render in to out, and export.

If you love data we’re sure you’ll enjoy looking at our charts, which show how the systems compare, but if charts aren’t your thing you can always scroll past the data to read our conclusion.

To compare the iMac Pro and Mac Pro to our BIZON V5000 4K/6K/8K video editing workstation, we tested the following system configurations, using Premier Pro version 13.1:

Price $5700 + $520 (4K monitor) = $6220 –> ~$6200

• Processor: 14-Core 3.30 GHz Intel Core i9-9940X (up to 18 cores)
• Memory: 64 GB DDR4 3200 MHz
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
  
  Note: With NVIDIA GPUs you get advantages of Adobe’s Mercury Playback Engine acceleration and CUDA support. AMD that comes with Mac have no CUDA.
  
• Hard Drive (Operating system): 1 TB PCI-E SSD (Up to 3500 Mb/s)
• Additional HDD (Storage): 2 TB HDD SATA
• Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
• Monitor: Dell U2718Q 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor
• Keyboard + Mouse: Logitech Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
• Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 5 Year Limited Warranty (5 Year Labor & 3 Year Part Replacement)
• Software Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

• Processor: 2.7GHz 12-core Xeon
  Note: Old generation CPU (2013 Year)
  
• Memory: 64GB 1866MHz DDR3
  Note: Old DDR3 RAM
  
• Graphics Card: Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs 6GB
• Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe-based SSD
• Additional HDD (Storage): Not available
• Operating System: macOS 10.13.4
• Monitor: Dell U2718Q 27-Inch 4K UHD IPS Monitor
• Keyboard + Mouse: Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad + Magic Mouse 2
• Warranty: AppleCare+ for Mac (3 yr limited warranty & telephone technical support)
• Software: Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

Price $8000 + $169 (Apple Care) = $8169 –> ~8200

• Processor: 2.5GHz 14-core Intel Xeon W processor
• Memory: 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC
• Graphics Card: Radeon Pro Vega 64 16GB
• Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe SSD
• Additional HDD (Storage): Not available
• Operating System: macOS 10.13.4
• Monitor: 27-inch LED-backlit 5K display
• Keyboard + Mouse: Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad + Magic Mouse 2
• Warranty: AppleCare+ for iMac (3 yr limited warranty & telephone technical support)
• Software: Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

Price $7200 + $169 (Apple Care) = $7369 –> ~7400

• Processor: 3.0GHz 10-core Intel Xeon W processor
• Memory: 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 ECC
• Graphics Card: Radeon Pro Vega 64 with 16GB
• Hard Drive: 1TB PCIe SSD
• Additional HDD (Storage): Not available
• Operating System: macOS 10.13.4
• Monitor: 27-inch LED-backlit 5K display
• Keyboard + Mouse: Space Gray Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad + Magic Mouse 2
• Warranty: AppleCare+ for iMac (3 yr limited warranty & telephone technical support)
• Software: Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1)

We used version 13.1 of Premiere Pro, as the latest version wasn’t released at the time of this article. We also found major performance issues with Premiere Pro CC 2019 (ver 13.1), with performance drops in ProRes footage on the PC and RED footage on the Mac when using versions 13.1 and 13.1.1.

For a fair comparison we kept the specs and pricing as similar as possible. For example, as Mac systems only support a single internal drive, we used a single 1TB PCI-E SSD drive on our BIZON Workstation PC, rather than multiple storage drives, which improve performance when generating peak files and importing media. As the iMac Pro requires a keyboard and mouse, we also bought a monitor, keyboard, and mouse for the Mac Pro and PC.

To compare the systems, we tested three different functions in Premiere Pro: live playback, export, and render in to out.

Although we didn’t cover every available codec, we covered a large number of RED clips so that we could really see how different compression levels impact performance. Our tests also used three different timelines to stimulate different types of workload.

We recorded the export time from the moment the ‘Export’ button was clicked until completion. We also measured Live playback FPS (frames per second) based on the number of dropped frames relative to the total number of frames in the sequence. For example, by dropping 100 frames in the 4K ProRes 422 HQ "Basic" timeline (which has 579 frames), you will render 479 frames over 24 seconds for a result of ~20 FPS.

We used Lumetri effects from the "Lumetri Presets –> Speedlooks –> Universal" effects folder. However, if you’re using a Mac you’ll probably need to delete and re-apply the Lumetri Color effects, as sometimes they don’t translate properly from the PC to Mac.

It can be a challenge to accurately test live playback performance because performance depends on the codec and resolution of your media, as well as the playback resolution (full, half, etc.) and the effects you’ve applied.

At BIZON we often get asked about live playback performance, so we decided to test our media with three different timelines, as well as with a full and half playback resolution. We also decided to calculate the average performance of each system relative to the 10-core iMac Pro using OpenCL.

We found that using Metal with a Mac is a bad idea for playback performance and found a 20-30% drop in FPS with most of our test media, and a massive drop in FPS with RED footage when using Metal on the Mac system. For example, with 4K RED 11:1 footage the iMac Pro 14-core went from 24FPS to 6FPS without any effects being applied to the footage.

Even when using OpenCL you will get a bump in FPS with a PC. However, compared to the iMac-Pro 10-core, our PC workstation gave 25% higher FPS with ProRes media, 30% higher with DNxHR HQ/H.264/ARRIRAW, and almost 75% higher FPS with RED footage, and was 94% faster on average in our ‘Heavy Effects’ test.

In comparison, the 14-core iMac Pro did slightly better with RED footage and was about 10% faster than the 10-core iMac Pro. However, the PC workstation was the clear winner for playback performance and was 25-60% faster depending on the type of footage used; making our PC workstation a better option for FPS as well as better value for money.

It takes time to export on Premiere Pro and export time is often used to measure performance. Taking 4K, 6K, and 8K projects using the different codecs listed in the Test Hardware & Methodology section we measured export performance on all the systems.

With our export tests we found using Metal on a Mac, rather than OpenCL often resulted in a decent performance gain. RED footage was an exception, usually taking twice as long or longer to export with Metal. However, as our findings in the Live Playback test show, Metal was significantly worse than OpenCL, so keeping Premiere Pro in OpenCL mode will be the best option for most Mac users.

If you do decide to stick with OpenCL a PC is your best option, as our Custom workstation computer exported projects approximately 40% faster than the iMac Pro 2019 10–Core. The performance gap closed by a small amount with the 14-core iMac, but the PC still had a 30–40% performance lead. Surprisingly, the Mac Pro managed to keep up with the newer iMac Pro systems with ProRes footage, but fell behind with other types of media, making our PC workstation 40% to 60% faster, as well as saving you a whopping $2,000 on price.

If you’re willing to switch between Metal for exporting non-RED footage and OpenCL for live playback, the Mac systems do better. However, the iMac Pro systems were still around 15% slower with DNxHR, H.264, and ARRIRAW footage, although the 14-core iMac Pro was able to pull slightly ahead of our BIZON V5000 PC with ProRes footage.

Rendering previews are sometimes a necessity, so we tested the ability to render in to out on all the systems for 4K, 6K, and 8K projects using the different codecs listed in the Test Hardware & Methodology section.

Using Metal on the Mac caused another performance problem, with RED footage dropping to 15-20%. However, due to the lower live playback performance with Metal across the media tested, we feel OpenCL offers the most valid comparison across the PC and Mac systems.

With ProRes media, there was around a 40% performance gain with the PC compared to iMac and Mac Pro. This reduces slightly with DNxHR HQ, H.264, and ARRIRAW media, but our PC was still faster and outperformed the Mac by around 35%.

Surprisingly, our PC had a smaller performance gain in RED media compared to the other tests, however, the PC was still around 20% faster than the 14-core iMac Pro.

Impressively, PC performance was also 30% faster than the 10-core iMac Pro and 40% faster compared to the Mac Pro.

Cost wise the BIZON V5000 Workstations is already a winner, with a $6200 price tag compared to a $8,200 iMac Pro 2019 (14-Core) or $7,500 Mac Pro system.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that we paid $420 for a 4K monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so if you already have them you would reduce the costs even more.

In terms of performance the PC Custom Workstation also comes out on top, with a 35-45% performance gain.

What was surprising was that the iMac Pro 2019 14-Core wasn’t that much faster than the 10-core version and only increased in performance by around 5%. However, live playback performance was usually twice as good on the PC, with tendering and exporting being 40-50% better.

Therefore, our BIZON V5000 video editing workstation PC is the clear winner on both cost and performance.

However, if you’re already stuck with a Mac and want to increase your performance, our findings indicate that OpenCL is a better choice for the majority of Mac users, who want better live playback performance, but Metal was faster with non-RED media for exporting and rendering.

For more information on PC performance compared to Mac systems, you can check out our other articles here.

You can also take a look at our Recommended Workstation PC for Premiere Pro and contact us if you have any questions about making the move to PC workstation.

Welcome to our guide to the best computers for video editing in 2020. Here we've listed the top video editing PCs for a variety of budgets and skill levels, so no matter if you're a professional video editor, a budding content creator, or a hobbyist who's tidying up their home videos, there's a video editing computer on this list for you.

Regardless of your expertise level or budget, you'll want to make sure you get a PC that can handle the demands of video editing. This means having a multi-core processor and enough RAM to handle video editing apps, which are often pretty demanding.

This is especially true if you're editing large video and sound files, as well as exporting, rendering and finalising your footage. This is particularly important if you're working with high and ultra-high (4K and above) videos.

The best video editing PCs will also offer fast SSD (solid state drive) storage. This helps make moving, copying and accessing large files nice and quick. Video files can often be quite large, especially when you're shooting in 4K, so you'll need plenty of hard drive space to store it all on as well.

It also helps to have a powerful graphics card that can be used to accelerate certain visual effects and filters. (While you're here, you might want to check out our guide to the best video editing software, to whip your footage into shape.) 

But why choose a desktop computer instead of one of the best laptops for video editing? While today’s top-of-the-line laptops are indeed powerful enough to be used for video editing, you still get the best performance and best value for money from a desktop computer, with the added benefit that it’s much easier to upgrade.

We’ve picked out some of the top Windows PC and Mac computers for video editing, with a focus on both some of the most powerful workstations on the market today, as well as some options if your budget is more limited. 

The best computers for video editing available now

We think the best computer for video editing right now is the 21-inch Apple iMac with 4K Retina display (2019). Now sporting six and eight-core 9th-generation Intel processors, the 2019 iMac has received the most significant update since Apple added a Retina display to the specification, making it a video editing powerhouse.

Of the two available screen sizes, the 21.5-inch Retina iMac represents a better overall combination of value and performance than the larger 27-inch model. You get an extremely high quality, bright 4K Retina (4,096 x 2,304) display with a quad-core processor and AMD Radeon Pro 555X graphics card, that’s absolutely great for video editing. Choice upgrades would include adding some more memory and swapping the 1TB hard disk for an SSD, while a six-core processor is also available.

Unlike Apple’s iMac all-in-one, a touch-sensitive  28-inch display (4,500 x 3,000) display is the centre piece of Microsoft’s Surface Studio 2, letting you drag and drop video clips with a finger as well as a mouse. It comes with hinge that lets you flip the screen all the way down to edit video and it can be used with a pen for drawing too.

Microsoft needs to update the Surface Studio with more modern CPUs, but it makes up for it with some serious graphics grunt powered by Nvidia, with a GeForce GTX 1070 available that will provide some serious visual power.

If you're after the ultimate video editing PC, packed with the most powerful components money can buy, then the Apple Mac Pro (2019) is definitely worth investing in. The new Mac Pro can be configured to come with hardware that makes intensive video editing tasks complete much faster than less powerful PCs, and while its cheese grater-like design has split opinion, it allows for a unique cooling system that maximizes airflow and keeps the noise down.

All that power comes at a very high price, but its configurable, allowing you to pick specs that best suit your needs or budget. And, because of its modular design, you can upgrade parts of the system later on, giving it a flexibility that many Apple devices lack. The Apple Mac Pro won't be for everyone - for many, it will be overkill - but if you need the very best performance out of a video editing PC, this is the machine to get.

We love the Mac Mini’s flexibility and diminutive form factor, so we’re really pleased to see Apple updated it with a modern specification and a new 'space grey' colour late last year. It is still one of Apple’s most affordable computers (relatively speaking) and now it’s capable of a lot more, including video editing. Pair it with one of the best monitors for video editing for a great setup.

The base model features a quad-core processor, 8GB of memory and a (paltry) 128GB SSD. All of these can be upgraded, with an optional six-core processor and a larger SSD for even high-end video work. But with a bit of tinkering you can upgrade the memory yourself for less money than Apple charges, and there are six expansion ports at the back for either USB or Thunderbolt external storage. This is a great alternative to the expensive Mac Pro above.

With an 8th-generation Intel processor, HP’s silver-fronted Envy desktop PC is a box with more than a few tricks up its sleeve. The range is absolutely great for mid-range video editing, as the Nvidia GeForce graphics card can help out with various processing tasks, such as applying visual filter effects, while the main six-core CPU does much of the hard work.

We’d pick the slightly pricier 16GB option (or perform a memory upgrade) for more demanding video editing tasks, but as it carries an asking price that won't break the bank, this is a great all-rounder family computer with enough performance to cope with video editing well.

If you want a video editing PC that offers a slick all-in-one design without the premium price tag of Apple's iMac PCs, then the Lenovo Yoga A940 is a great choice, and one of our picks for the best video editing PCs of 2020.

It's not quite as powerful as the iMac Pro, though not many PCs are, and its specs list isn't quite as cutting edge as we'd like, as the 8th-generation chips and Radeon RX 560 graphics are ageing at this point. Still, it offers plenty of power for running video editing software (unlike iMacs, this runs Windows 10), and its gorgeous screen will make your footage look fantastic. Plus, it has Dolby Atmos speakers, which will help if you're editing videos with Dolby's latest 3D audio.

The 2019 27-inch iMac is a real powerhouse that represents Apple’s best overall desktop video editing workstation. The reason that it's a little further down our list is that it doesn't come cheap. Its 5K Retina (5,120 x 2,880) display is absolutely brilliant, it produces superb colours, conforming to the DCI-P3 colour specification. And with an optional eight-core processor, it will significantly reduce rendering times and chew through even 4K video editing work.

Typical of Apple, it becomes a pricey prospect if you start adding lashings of SSD storage and the Radeon Pro Vega graphics card, but you can easily add more affordable third-party memory rather than pay Apple’s prices to reduce costs a bit.

With its bright blue LEDs, Acer’s new Predator desktop line-up (Orion 3000, 5000 and 9000) is squarely aimed at gamers, and comes with a specification that pairs the latest Intel processors with powerful Nvidia graphics cards. But with so much power to hand, these quiet and attractive systems are certain to be absolutely brilliant for video editing too.

The top-end Orion 9000 has one of the most powerful hardware configurations of any computer in this list. It has Intel processors with ten, or even 18 CPU cores, up to 64GB of memory and if your budget can stretch to it, even dual Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. That incredible configuration is sure to shrug off complex 4K video editing tasks like they’re simple edits in Microsoft Paint.

We know it's eye-wateringly expensive. But Apple's brand new iMac Pro is the new daddy of computers for designers: if you have the cash, this is the best video-editing computer currently on the market. (If you're after a more affordable model, try the excellent iMac at number two, above.) 

So what do you get for your money? Firstly, there's the 27-inch 5K resolution, which is 43 per cent brighter than standard Apple Retina monitors and delivers up to an astonishing one billion colours. There aren't too many screens around that will flatter your footage more.

Starting with an 8-core Intel Xeon processor, the least expensive iMac Pro option is already immensely powerful, with an outrageous 18-core option for those who can afford it. 1TB to 4TB of SSD internal storage means that you'll be able to store tonnes of 4K footage before you need to think about additional external drives. And it's not short on ports, either, with four Thunderbolt 3.0 ports and a 10GB ethernet port. Plus, of course you get the benefit of the platform's formidable Final Cut Pro X editing software as well.

Read more about the new iMac Pro

Complete with monitor, mouse and keyboard, it's not easy to find exceptional quality computing for under a grand. But this Lenovo PC is an adequate option if you're on a tight budget. It comes with a 23-inch Full HD monitor and packs in up to a 2TB hard drive and 7th-generation Intel processor.

If you're somebody requiring a heavyweight machine for professional video editing all day everyday, this machine probably isn't going to quite cut the mustard. But for keen amateurs and dabblers, the sub £1,000/$1,000 spend on this Lenovo all-in-one should be just fine. It's worth noting that you can buy an even cheaper AMD-based version, but it will be less powerful and you get a smaller monitor.

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Most YouTube content creators are uploading videos even on 4k these days, which give an extra polished feel to the video, which is better than 1080p. Rendering a basic 1080p video from an average PC with the low-end specification can fetch up to more than 50mins of time.

Hence you need a computer with a higher specification to meet those needs. Now if you want to build your CPU with the perfect components, then the article might help you.

Motherboard

The motherboard is in the centermost part of the CPU, and it is important be-cause, without it, you cannot connect different components inside the CPU. Before buying a motherboard, check its compatibility with the processor, and if it has necessary sockets and 3.0 USB ports.

The presence of an integrated sound card and SATA connection must be necessary. The motherboard must use the same sockets as the processors. The Intel I-series processors support LGA 1151 socket, which means the motherboard has to support the same.

Processor

The CPU needs a processor to function, which holds the OS, launches the application, and does logical tasks. So for high standard video editing, you need a processor that will be rapid enough to handle such tasks.

Before buying a processor, you must know that higher clock speeds and cores are always better to handle the task. If you want to save some more and sacrifice speed, then you must at least choose processors like Intel’s i5 10th Gen and AMD’s Rzyen 5 4500u.

Now if you want a faster one or the most superior one then choose one be-tween Intel i9 and AMD’s Ryzen 9 processors. See why you need good processors for video editing.

The Graphics Card

So, talking about GPU, you must know both of them are related to each other while performing graphics-intensive tasks. If you are using a higher-end pro-cessor like i7 or Ryzen 7 and above, you do not need a GPU.

But using a GPU releases the stress on your CPU, making your computer re-main cooler and perform faster.

However, if you want to invest in some lower budget graphics card, then con-sider the GTX 1050 by Nvidia. And if you want to go on a costlier side then buy GTX 1080Ti and Titan Xp, both from Nvidia.

The Random Access Memory (RAM)

RAM is the temporary data storage, where the system will store data to access those programs instantly. The higher the ram, the better the computer will function. However, VRAM can also be utilized as they will store data about the graphics.

VRAM makes it possible to show 3D and D images simultaneously. Computer experts have said that it is ideal to use 16GB RAM for 4k editing which functions more smoothly or a minimum of 8GB RAM. However, 4GB ram is usable for 1080p video editing and rendering.

RAM comes in different variants, i.e. with DDR2, DDR3, and DDR4 and even in several reading speeds and latency.

Storage

The storage of a computer comes in two types, i.e. HDD and SSD. The HDDs are spinning discs that do the job of writing and reading data. The SSD has memory chips to do a similar job and storing data; however, they are 5x faster and expensive.

However, you should remember that for editing 4k video, the spin speed should be 7200 rpm for a fluid experience. SSDs will decrease the booting time and application opening time, as they are faster than HDD.

So, we hope this article has helped you in gaining facts about what should be the perfect components to arrange to develop both the ultimate and the aver-age video editing experience.