@Robert-Johnson

Hi Robert and welcome to the Movie Edit Pro user to user forums.

The minimum specs page can be found here. Bear in mind they are minimum specs and you asked that MEP play smoothly.

All that apart my recommendations would be at least 16GB of ram 32GB would be possibly more than you would ever need. Definitely an Intel CPU with as many cores as you can afford (preferable an i7 or i9) and the latest inboard GPU 630 or higher for future proofing. The intel GPU is really more important than an additional GPU but both play a part for smoother playback.

Nvidia cards work better with MEP than Radeon and should have at least 4GB of vram and have a Turing based architecture. I'm running a 1650 super at present and think that is possibly a base model to run from.

A fast C: drive, preferably solid state and at least 500GB (although my own is smaller) plus at least one other large drive (can be a fast normal SATA drive or one with a large inboard cache, does not have to be solid state) to place the intended files to use in a project on to. 2TB and upwards preferably. Plus further external backup storage to be safe. If the second drive is not internal I would recommend one that is USB 3 compliant as I would also for the backup drive.

This is based on your request for a smoother experience and assuming you may go as far as using 4K footage at some future point. Please bear in mind everyone gets to a point where they add either some processor intensive task using a plug-in that puts additional strain on the system and requires you use either proxy files or some other measure to help Movie Edit pro to play back smoothly. All systems in my opinion could suffer from this at some point.

This is not a bear minimum suggestion but one which should not give you too many future problems for a while.

[Edit] I have added a bit more information since I originally posted this reply.

Ray.

I am having constant crash issues with Movie Edit Pro on my old Core i5, 16gb RAM Windows 64bit machine, running an older Radeon graphics card with 3gb of memory.

My machine is more lowly specced than yours and it runs MEP fine (I deliberately have not updated to MEP 2021; I'm on 2020). Before you fork out $1000+ for a new computer, reformat your machine with a fresh version of 64bit Windows 10. If it's crashing often, there's a software or hardware issue somewhere.

@AAProds

Hi Alwyn.

Could you add whether or not you had to disable the hardware acceleration on your system and what is a typical project resolution and file types that you work with is please?

There is admittedly a big difference between what works well with the various releases of MEP and it's true that the 2020 release was less demanding than 2021 version but 2020 is no longer on offer for sale unless you can find a copy away from the Magix site and the possible associated problems that sometimes brings with it.

Ray.

Can still by 2020 from Amazon. (Although I hate to endorse Amazon.)

Wow! Thanks for the responses, especially you, Ray. MEP is the only program with consistent crash issues on my system. I am running a Radeon video card with 3gb on board RAM. Good to know the next system should be NVidia with 4gb vram, and that I don't need to spring for the 64gb of system RAM I had been recommended by my company's engineering folks.

@Robert-Johnson

Hi Robert.

A lot comes down to how individual video editing packages work. Your companies engineering folks may not have been completely wrong if their experiences were different.

Some editing packages place more emphasis on the amount and speed of CPU cores and huge amounts of motherboard ram being in place. Others like Movie Edit Pro rely on the Intel GPU performance and the vram and Turing capabilities of the nvidia cards. I edit mainly 4K footage and rarely get to 20GB of ram use but the vram on my nvidia card always seems to be close to maxing out around its 4GB of DDR6 vram.

I'm currently running an i9900K on an ASUS motherboard with 32GB of DDR4 memory. NVMe C: drive, and two internal WD Black 7,200rpm Disc drives for project files and external backup USB3 portable hard drives. Nvidia 1650 super 4GB graphics card. Windows 10 Enterprise with all current updates and drivers. Audio is currently set up to a NAD amplifier powering a pair of Ram Acoustic studio monitors although I have a lot of alternatives to chose from.

The whole thing is now very stable running both MEP and VPX.

A few others here though have different system setups and also have stable systems although I don't know all their workload requirements.

[ Edit ]

I should add, do make sure you have a good power supply and a very good heat sink for the CPU and and a nice large case for the airflow and to accommodate the huge heat pipe heat-sink.

That's mine. Keeps the CPU below 50c always. Things can get very hot over a long export time if not kept under control.

Ray.

...Could you add whether or not you had to disable the hardware acceleration on your system and what is a typical project resolution and file types that you work with is please?...

@CubeAce @Robert-Johnson

Sorry, I've been away reinstalling Windows to try to cure MEP's dummy spit with some of my AVIs. Not happy about that.

My settings are here:

I'm normally working in HD: 1920x1080.

File types: MPEG 4s (MP4. MOV) from phones, DV-AVI, M2T from my HDV camera, and Lagarith Lossless AVIs up to 90gb each.

I concur with your comment about cooling; I had a stock Intel cooler on my CPU which worked OK when it was clean but required regular vacuuming. My temps got to 95° on rendering after a couple of months due to dust. Try as I might, I couldn't get the heat sink really clean because it was "bolted" to the CPU and I didn't want to upset the paste. Yesterday I installed a Corsair H60 Liquid job and my temps are 45° on render now. Although it's liquid, the best part is the radiator and fan are on the back of the case, so they will be easy to clean by removing without disturbing the CPU.

@AAProds

Hi Alwyn.

If you are running compatibility mode (videoForWindows) then having the other two boxes ticked in the other screenshot will make no difference (or harm as far as I know) as everything should be running within MEP at software level.

Have you really gone for liquid cooling (water pump, reservoir, and heat block) or do you mean you are are using a fan cooler with heat pipes? As for the CPU paste, it will degrade over time and ideally needs to be replaced if cleaning heat fins on the cooler no longer works. That normally rectifies things.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Ray, the H60 is liquid. The pump is in the CPU heat block.

I couldn't get the old fins completely cleaned unless I pulled the fan off the CPU, which I don't think is a good idea on a regular basis.

@AAProds

Hi Alwyn.

Now I'm completely confused! I would love to see an image of that if possible.

I've been known to wash my fans under a running tap with a dishwashing brush and liquid soap and then left them to dry for a few days before reinstalling but I would not recommend doing this as there are precautions to be adhered to and never turn the fan upside down during the procedure. (Yes I'm serious).

By 'regular basis' I mean every couple of years, but some pastes are much better than others. I've been very happy using the Arctic Silver 5 heat paste over the years. The problem is getting both the dye and base of the heat sink completely clean without scratching either surface. For that I tend to use isopropyl alcohol (98% proof or higher from Radio spares) and the now illegal cotton buds.

I have always tried to keep CPU temps below 64c. Never had one fail and often passed them on to my son for further use along with the motherboard and ram. He is still currently using my old motherboard but he put in an i7processor of same vintage.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Here you go, Ray:

https://www.ple.com.au/Products/631818/Corsair-Hydro-Series-H60-V2-AIO-Liquid-CPU-Cooler

@AAProds

Hi Alwyn

Are you able to do any hardware rendering on export in MEP2020 as the Radeon HD4770 was one off the Legacy cards that could do HWA export via Open CL back in much earlier versions of MEP?

Why do you need to run 2020 in VFW Compatibility Mode?

Peter

@AAProds

Thanks Alwyn.

Hadn't seen that one before.

Ray.

@Scenestealer

Gday Pete,

...Are you able to do any hardware rendering on export in MEP2020 as the Radeon HD4770 was one off the Legacy cards that could do HWA export via Open CL back in much earlier versions of MEP?...

Nope, no hardware acceleration in either 2020 or 2021. I got that info from the top of the export dialogue.

Why do you need to run 2020 in VFW Compatibility Mode?

I think I had a black monitor screen at one point and started clicking on things to try to fix it. 😉

Cheers, Al

@CubeAce

Hi Ray

. . . . I've been known to wash my fans under a running tap with a dishwashing brush and liquid soap and then left them to dry for a few days before reinstalling . . . .

That is a bit extreme 🔫😱 - I use a small (12mm 1/2in) soft paint brush, and occasionally compressed air, and a vacuum cleaner - no problems with dust not being removed, just don't get the vacuum too close to the fan, they don't like being spun at high speed - they start whining like a jet.

John EB

@johnebaker

Hi John.

I have an air compressor I use for delicate cleaning via my Badger air brush. I can adjust airflow pressure and spread with that. (No there is no old paint left in it.) Some of my fans have been around for a long time (Since my first self build) and are discoloured. They all still work well but some are only three pin. I have a separate speed controller for those. I have about twenty I use on a rota basis. The loudest fans I hear seem to be on my graphics card.

You don't want to know what I've done to some of my old keyboards to clean them 😉.

In the old days I could take my gear into work and put it into an ultrasonic wet bath.(Not water) That was brilliant. Took about two hours to be slowly slowly pulled out and completely dry.

Ray.

@AAProds

On yer Al

Were you ever able to do HWA with that card back in the day?

As far as more recent releases of MEP go I think it might be the lack of DirectX 11support that it doesn't like and that card only supports DX10.1 amongst lower shader and open CL levels. MEP used to run with DX9 up to about 2014.

Peter

@Scenestealer

Pete,

Were you ever able to do HWA with that card back in the day?

I don't recall. I do remember being over the moon with the rendering speed to MPEG2 compared to my old Pentium M laptop! Then MP4 came along, and probably with the new Direct X, things went back to the speed they were before. 😂 That, and the retirement of Smart Rendering...😎

Al

@AAProds

Hi Alwyn

Has smart rendering completely disappeared for you or have the conditions changed that allow smart rendering, as I still get that option from time to time.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Gday Ray, I haven't been able to smart-ender for some time; the Smart Copy box is always greyed out. I can't put my finger on when SR stopped for me though. I do recall thinking (and doing) that I'd save everything in MPEG 2 because I'll be able to SR it when I eventually get around to edit it properly. No such luck now. Everything else I use SRs MPEG 2 and MP4; I can't understand why Magix took it away.

@AAProds

Hi Alwyn.

That indeed sucks and justifies I think some of my older comments on some forum posts about codecs being eventually dumped and the question of archive material codec choice for future use not being guaranteed.

As to why a codec should be taken away, I have no solid answers but some do seem to go over time. It could be down to a general lack of end user use. For instance. How many people still use Real Player? It's still out there with new updates but I for one had forgotten its existence until recently. Yet it was always on my machine when running Win98.

Ray.

@CubeAce

Ray, MPEG2 (and MP4, of course) is still very much main-stream, being the DVD format. Magix has chosen not to allow smart-rendering of those (in my experience, at least).