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Recommended Configuration for Editing Video w/New 27-inch iMac

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filmboy

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 1, 2013
48
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My partner has been editing independent feature-length documentaries on her 2013-era, 27-inch iMac and is ready to upgrade to the new 27-inch iMac. She's clear about ordering the baseline 8GB memory (to be maxed out with third party ram) and 1TB SSD, but uncertain about which model and which configuration will offer the best balance of performance and price. Suggestions?

Thanks.
 
Hi there. - First upgrade I would absolutely recommend is the 5700 XT with 16GB of VRAM. - The video card is one of the most important parts here. After that, the i7 8-core chip is very very good, but if we are really kicking it the 10 core will likely give some benefit, but I don't necessarily think it's worth the upgrade.

I can recommend Max Yuriev/Max Tech (two channels same guy and his brother) on YouTube. They have a series of Buyer's Guide for Video Editing for the new iMac and have ordered two different configs to test further (not arrived yet). Their buyer's guide is made from a long series of tests of older iMacs with various codecs and cameras which can affect what you need to focus on for parts.

But the config I ordered myself, partially for video editing, is as follows:

i7 8-core (base CPU from the highest config)
8GB of RAM (also upgrading myself)
5700 XT 16GB GDDR6
2TB SSD

I would not recommend the nano texture glass unless you're working directly in front of a very glare-creating window. It makes it less easy to just clean and does slightly reduce sharpness though doesn't affect colour like traditional matte films.

I'm also personally getting it with the extended keyboard so I can use my custom created shortcuts for Final Cut which utilise up to F19.

Hope this helps :)
 
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casperes1996 said:
Hi there. - First upgrade I would absolutely recommend is the 5700 XT with 16GB of VRAM. - The video card is one of the most important parts here. After that, the i7 8-core chip is very very good, but if we are really kicking it the 10 core will likely give some benefit, but I don't necessarily think it's worth the upgrade.

I can recommend Max Yuriev/Max Tech (two channels same guy and his brother) on YouTube. They have a series of Buyer's Guide for Video Editing for the new iMac and have ordered two different configs to test further (not arrived yet). Their buyer's guide is made from a long series of tests of older iMacs with various codecs and cameras which can affect what you need to focus on for parts.

But the config I ordered myself, partially for video editing, is as follows:

i7 8-core (base CPU from the highest config)
8GB of RAM (also upgrading myself)
5700 XT 16GB GDDR6
2TB SSD

I would not recommend the nano texture glass unless you're working directly in front of a very glare-creating window. It makes it less easy to just clean and does slightly reduce sharpness though doesn't affect colour like traditional matte films.

I'm also personally getting it with the extended keyboard so I can use my custom created shortcuts for Final Cut which utilise up to F19.

Hope this helps :)
Click to expand...
Thank you very much!
 
How much will that 16 gigs of vram actually matter? Like in what specific situation is 8 vs 16 gigs going to be a bottleneck?
 
iemcj said:
How much will that 16 gigs of vram actually matter? Like in what specific situation is 8 vs 16 gigs going to be a bottleneck?
Click to expand...
You need at least a 2:1 ratio between system RAM:VRAM. Because the information in the VRAM must also reside into the System RAM. So if you have 16 Gb 5700XT you need at least 32 GB system RAM. Keep the 2x4 GB standard modules and add 2x16 GB of Crucial/Kingston/Samsung RAM so you will have a total of 40GB which will be more than enough.
 
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pldelisle said:
You need at least a 2:1 ratio between system RAM:VRAM. Because the information in the VRAM must also reside into the System RAM. So if you have 16 Gb 5700XT you need at least 32 GB system RAM. Keep the 2x4 GB standard modules and add 2x16 GB of Crucial/Kingston/Samsung RAM so you will have a total of 40GB which will be more than enough.
Click to expand...
Ok so when you say "must also reside", what exact scenarios is that bottleneck going to matter? I'm just wondering because I have the 2017 imac listed below and I can scrub through 4k video in FCPX no problem. The only things that I run into that are time consuming is when I'm converting video to prores (which is a CPU task), exporting (CPU task), and when I'm doing NEAT noise reduction (which on my system goes faster when I have it just using the CPU).

I know the GPU is important, I just haven't encountered any areas where my current GPU is the bottleneck. And so I'm wondering in what specific tasks having 16 vs 8 gigs of vram on the graphics card is going to actually make a difference for video editing specifically.
 
casperes1996 said:
Do you mean system RAM or GPU VRAM?
Click to expand...
GPU VRAM, or "vram" as I wrote lol. I'm aware they're two different things, what I'm asking is in what actual specific task during a video editing workflow having 16 gigs is going to matter vs having 8 gigs. Because I've used my machine for years to work on 4k videos for wedding clients and my graphics card is rarely the bottleneck as most of the time intensive tasks are using the CPU heavily (according to the Activity Monitor).
 
iemcj said:
GPU VRAM, or "vram" as I wrote lol. I'm aware they're two different things, what I'm asking is in what actual specific task during a video editing workflow having 16 gigs is going to matter vs having 8 gigs. Because I've used my machine for years to work on 4k videos for wedding clients and my graphics card is rarely the bottleneck as most of the time intensive tasks are using the CPU heavily (according to the Activity Monitor).
Click to expand...

I think maybe I replied to this in the wrong thread or something because I remember writing a long response to this, where I also apologised for misreading before
But it definitely happened somewhere; also had an exchange with @pldelisle about his 2:1 rule, where we discussed how it doesn't necessarily always apply but can be fine as a rule of thumb.


In any case; I will rewrite the main point of that message.

It's not just about the amount of VRAM. The only way to get the 5700 XT GPU in the iMac is with 16GB of VRAM. With 8GB you can get the 5700 but it would not only be a difference in VRAM but also GPU performance, and I'd say that for most tasks that would make the bigger difference. - Some tasks can heavily benefit from the additional VRAM, like some large computer tasks, for example machine learning training, or large 3D modelling projects, but for the most part I advice the bigger GPU for the more powerful processing unit, not the extra VRAM.

And as for what in a video editing workflow can stress it; Multicam, effect rendering, compositing, vfx; All of this also depends on what codecs you edit
I pushed my last 5K iMac to its knees many times, always the GPU was the first to bottleneck and that was the top-end at the time, R9 M295X. Try and make a Multicam clip with like 3 angles, and then retime it to either half speed or double speed or something like that, and try playing it back in the timeline; Maybe overlay some Motion vfx on top, a few layers of colour correction; I'm sure your GPU will be hit hard
 
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