@choplife

Hi

Dell computers have optional upgrades, so there may be a Nvidia or AMD graphics card already in it.

To find the available GPU's list:

• open a command prompt - - hold down the Windows key and press R
• type in msinfo32 and press the Enter key.
• expand the Components option in the left panel - click the +
• Select Display

In the right pane you will now see the installed GPUs.

The sales spec you posted is @AAProds  has commented 'incorrect'. IIRC the base system hard drive would be a 1TB drive.

Personally I liked working on Dells everything is so accessible inside.

John EB

Thank you guys it does not have a graphic card but it does have onboard intel uhd graphics 630. My question is for a faster rendering do I have to purchase graphic card to upgrade the PC? Bear in mind one of Magix system requirements and recommendation is to have an onboard intel uhd graphics 630.

This PC has 32gb ram and it's the intel Core i7 8th Gen. 6 cores....

@johnebaker @choplife @AAProds

As John has mentioned and after looking there are a lot of variations in the options available. One of which I have seen says it has a 2TB 7,200rpm hard drive and an additional 32GB Intel Optane drive which may be for the operating system as well as 32GB of DDR4 memory (speed unspecified). This is a machine built primarily for gaming.

Try going to Windows Settings / System / Storage and it should list the main C: drive and capacity.

From there you can check for other drives and capacities.

Ray.

Is the Asus Geforce GTX 1660 SUPER graphic card a better card for this PC for video rendering? I want to buy one. Please advice...

I just need a graphic card that is not too expensive and is good for video rendering that's all.

@choplife @AAProds @johnebaker

Hi.

It's rated as being 40% more powerful than my GTX 1650 Super and has 6GB of DDR6 Vram. It's the card I would have bought if I could have afforded it at the time.

It is not the fastest card out there by any means but I would think (hopefully) would cope with a few more upgrades of MEP to come.

Did you use Windows to check which drives are present and what is the C: drive as I asked?

If you are using only one monitor also consider getting a Headless ghost so both GPUs can be used within MEP. They are not expensive and will help a lot with render times if using two GPUs.

Ray.

@choplife

Hi

The problem, as I see it, is you are in a Catch-22 situation due to the current shortage of GPUs.

What you now have is far superior and faster then your old computer, you may have noticed this when exporting using the UHD 630 for hardware acceleration.

The price of GPU cards have gone through the roof, my RTX 2060 was £320 a year ago the same one is now £600, all due to shortages, as supplies start coming through again the prices of the older graphics cards should drop.

I cannot find a GTX 1660 Super below £360 which IMO is daylight robbery.

If there is not a specific need for absolute speed performance, personally I would be to hold off getting a second graphics card, save more money and get a better graphics card later.

John EB

@johnebaker @choplife @AAProds

While I completely agree with everything John has just typed I can't see GPU prices falling in the next 12 months unless the Intel ones come to market at a reasonable price, then it may make manufacturers think about the lower end of the graphics card market again. I don't think this is now a shortage of chips problem but manufacturers only supplying the very high end of the market to be able to get a better margin of profit and using the shortage of chips excuse. I say this because if you look at the releases of newer cards it is mainly the high end and the lower end has all but ceased production. Nvidia have announced a 'new' RTX 2060 with the old die but but giving it 12GB of DDR6 vram. This on average will not give the card much of a performance boost as it still has the same old architecture underneath with a 192 bit bus. So why make a new old card? My guess will be the chip will be easier to manufacture with less rejects per wafer and adding more ram will enable nvidia to charge more. Also still no news on the numbers of such cards or a precise release date yet. It will do little to bring down the price of other cards. Car manufacturers have been doing basically the same thing and only supplying higher specified models and no basic models.

If it is a shortage of chips then we will have to probably wait until the new chip fab plant is built in the States and up and running. About three to four years and I'm not sure that will bring prices down due to the cost of getting a new Fab plant online.

The main reason for an nvidia card with the use in MEP is the smoother playback as projects get more complex or working at higher resolutions and frame rates. I don't feel the Intel GPU is as good at that.

At the end of the day though it is personal choice and difficult for us to show you a comparison on performance variations as even the types and sizes of the video clips we use are different in encoding, resolution, frame rate, and MB/s.

Ray.

Many thanks everyone for your contributions. I have just set the PC running now. It's a Windows 10 Home Edition (not Pro) and as you have suggested ​Ray ​​​​​​i have used windows to check the drive on the PC I attached a screenshot. Meanwhile I will try install the MEP and see how it goes. If I am not satisfied with the speed I get I will pop up to eBay to try get a used GPU card.

@choplife

Hi.

Take a screen shot using the 'Print Screen' button and then paste the result into paint. Save as a jpeg. Must be easier than using the camera.

If you can now do the following in Windows Settings / System / Storage.

That will give us all the drive information we need for drive speeds etc.

So so far nothing like the spec you put up. Looking better (fingers crossed).

Ray.

Good afternoon everyone I hope we are all doing great? Please I am still on this matter of the right PC for MEP 2022.

I just bought another computer and it arrived today. The new one I bought is Acer Predator Orion PO3-620 Gaming Computer. The computer is running on Windows 11 and is powered by a :

1- 10th gen Intel i5 10400F 6 core/12 Thread Processor,

2- Nvidia Geforce GTX 1660 Super Graphics Card with 6GB of onboard Memory,

3- 16GB of G Skill main memory

4-Western Digital PCI-E NVME 250 GB SSD Boot Drive plus a 1TB Toshiba Storage Drive

5_ PCI-E Wireless / Bluetooth Network Card

6- S-RGB Fans for both the front of the case and also for the rear of the case

The previous one is Dell Alienware Aurora R7 Gaming PC

Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K (6- Core/12-Thread, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel(R) Turbo Boost Technology)`

GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 630

32GB DDR4 at 2666MHz Dual Channel

500GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

Seagate Barracuda 1TB

850W EPA Bronze PSU Liquid Cooled Chassis

Qualcomm DW1820 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wireless + Bluetooth 4.2

Windows 10 Home

I need advice please should I take the GTX 1660 Super graphic card on the Acer PC and put it on the Aurora R7 PC? Is having both onboard graphic (Intel UHD 630 and integrated graphic GTX 1660 does it make any difference in rendering?

Should I forget about swapping the Graphic card and just stick with the NEW Acer PC ? All I need is a PC fast enough for editing and rendering 1080 file as I am not into 4K yet and I don't play computer game either. Can MEP run on Windows 11?

@choplife

As far as I'm concerned there is always a benefit to having both at whatever resolution you work at, especially if you are working with additional graphics and effects. Some effects will favour one processor over the other and the extra combination of power I find often helps when projects get more complicated. Where it doesn't help is with additional audio tracks which makes sort of sense. As for Windows 11, the developers have not put Windows 11 compatible on the specifications page for the software yet, so personally I'm holding off of using it but also because I have other programs I'm dubious about running them on yet.

Ray.