Pinn Studio 23.2.297 (64 bit)

Computer is Asus M11AD-0060, USB 3, i7, HD Graphics 4600 (June 2013)

I am starting a long project which will have hundreds of clips, most of them GoPro MPEG 4 shot at 1080p and 60fps.

Rendering and processing time is adequate  but far from speedy. Some questions:

1. I am linking to clips on an external hard drive USC 3 rated up tp 140 Mb/sec.  Would a faster drive make a big difference in editing and rendering?

2. My HD Graphics 4600 is "aimed at office use." Would a faster card make a substantial difference in rendering?

3. My Pinn settings are "Floating Preview: OFF, "Opt Threshold" 100 Agressive, :Render While Play" Automatic. Sound right? 

My workflow is to make many short sections, then paste them together eventually, which keeps most project files shorter than 10 minutes. But when so many many clips get manipulated in post, things slow down a good deal. I may just be pushing Pinnacle 23 to the limit. 

My YouTube channel has about 50K subscribers, and I've always used Pinnacle Studio.  Suggestions for upgraded equipment or setting appreciated.  

Christian

Typical video: https://youtu.be/z5m9yT06Khg 

1. define "rendering". Do you mean the background rendering of the timeline or the exporting process ?
2. a faster drive does not improve the workflow unless you're using a very old and slow drive
3. what kind of footage are you editing ?
4. what kind of export are you doing ?
   

Regarding the GPU/graphics card:

• Studio does make use of the GPU's "2D/3D acceleration" features during rendering of titles, many effects and some transitions - both during the "background rendering for preview" while editing and for rendering during export. And if the export uses a codec such as H.264, if there is hardware acceleration available in an Intel, Nvidia or AMD GPU, Studio will use it (in Studio's control panel "export and preview" page, on youyr PC you should see the hardware acceleration set as "Intel").
• A separate graphics card might give a small improvement in performance if your videos contain a lot of effects, title overlays etc. But graphic cards beyond the very bottom-end/entry-level ones are scarce and horribly expensive at present. Also most of those cards have large heatsinks and require a double-width chassis slot so might not fit in that Asus PC's mini-tower case!

Regards,
Richard

Saby:

1.  By rendering I mean background rendering of timeline for preview.   

3.  The footage is mostly GoPro MPEG 4 shot at 1080p and 60fps.

4. I export as H264/AVC  

 Richard:

Yes, my hardware acceleration is set to Intel. (However, if I click on "automatic",  it switches to AMD although my computer lists the Intel 4600 under Display Adapters)

Couple of comments:

1. Generating the background preview render files uses a software MPEG-2 codec - so the CPU speed is possibly the limiting factor...

You might be able to "speed it up" by doing less of it:

(a) If you are using preview quality = best quality, try setting it to "balanced" instead (reduces the frame size of the preview files so they will be generated more quickly)
(b) Try adjusting the "optimization threshold" such that only parts of the movie that won't preview smoothly on-the-fly (and actually need the help of the preview render files) are rendered, and other parts of the movie that don't use any effects, overlays etc.(and which will preview smoothly on-the-fly) are not rendered. Depending on the content of the video, you might need a setting somewhere between 50 and 80.

2. Mis-detection of the hardware acceleration - I recall that happening too (seemed to affect systems with older Intel CPUs). But it's only a bug of the auto-detection; with the hardware acceleration manually set to "Intel", Studio should use it when exporting H.264 coded video.

Regards,
Richard

Thank you. I'll adjust the optimization threshold. Your explanation of how it works is a help.

I have a hunch most of my issue is the 60 fps frame rate.  Agree?

I'm into the project and not experiencing any crashes or major background rendering delays. But it does slow things down.  I suppose instant editing and post is out of reach for home equipment.  

I don't know what you do to your clips specifically. But if it's simple editing, I would try Optimization set to "0" and see how timeline playback progresses. As others have said, Balanced or even Fastest can get you through editing quickly.

But is also comes down to hardware. You are using older hardware to edit newer video types that demand more computing power. But what you have will work as you already know, it just takes a little more time.