Ulead Cool 3D : AMD vs. Intel

[Jerry Jones]

Which would be best?

1Ghz AMD?

1GHz Intel?

[Dr Mordrid]

I'll let a recent post on MUG speak to this. The context was setups for the RT-2000 and similar high performance boards;

"I know a lot of folks =think= they need the latest & greatest mainboard/CPU
combo to do editing, but this is simply not the case. Just because a board
supports PC133 memory and the CPU has a gigahertz clock does NOT mean it's
going to be a good performer when it comes to video. What you give up to
use a gigahertz processor is often not worth the sacrifice.

What I'm about to opine is =my= perception of the current situation:

The current batch of "hot" chipsets are not necessarily the best setups for
high performance editing. VIA, i8xx....whatever. Some of them, most
notably the i815's, just flat should not be used with high performance
editing hardware like the RT-2000 or other similar products. They are low
end chipsets for cheap home and small business systems and act like it.
They also do not support 256 meg AGP apatures, which is very important for
some setups.

What to do.....

If you want to set up a fast, stable editing system with the least
possibility of problems PLEASE consider a quality 440BX mainboard with a
PIII. Given the recent price cut on PIII's they are now a bargain. My
choices for the mainboard (in order of preference): Asus P3B-F, Asus CUBX,
ABIT BE6-II, ABIT BX133, etc.

(another user suggested these additions in a later post:

"I wholeheartedly agree, and would add the Soyo SY-6BA-IV+ and Soyo SY-6BA-+100
as EXCELLANT BX based motherboards....")

AGP "x" numbers have nothing to do with the ability to size the AGP apature.
Either your BIOS and chipset supports setting the apature to 256 megs or it
doesn't. If it doesn't then you sacrifice the ability to export MPEG-2 IBP
with the RT-2000.

I wouldn't buy another FIC board for an editing system.

======

Post Scriptum on my little tirade....

Just because a board is a Slot-1 is no reason not to use a Coppermine/FCPGA
socket 370 CPU. Gigabyte and others make excellent slotkeys to adapt Slot-1
boards to these CPU's."

I would only add that CuMine support in Slot1 boards will also require a BIOS update. For my Asus P3B-F's this is version 1006.

The ideal situation would be a BX board with PC133 memory/1ghz CPU support without O/C'ing the PCI and AGP busses.

As to the difference if you had to go with a PIII/850 vs. the 1ghz you are contemplating: you likely won't notice the difference in the real world.

Also, if you run a 1 ghz processor on an inferior chipset (VIA, i815 etc) you will be sacrificing other modes of performance. PCI bus & memory performance are two great examples.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 01 February 2001).]

[wkulecz]

I agree with Doc 100% some of these "performance" features introduced mostly to look good on some popular but misguided benchmarks definitely interfere with the low latency, high thruput, and reliability you need to have for good NLE.

--wally.

[Jerry Jones]

http://www.polywell.com/prod-142.html

>Were there any surprises
>in our testing, you ask?

>The AMD Athlon 1GHz processor,
>used in the Polywell 800K7-1000A,
>was a wonderful sight to behold.
>It performed better than we
>had anticipated, with a single
>1GHz Athlon measuring up well
>against many dual-processor (Intel)
>machines.

http://www.dv.com/magazine/2000/1000/seal1000.html

I was mainly asking the question relative to processing speed.

Anybody actually *using* a 1Ghz AMD? Your performance with Cool 3D?

[This message has been edited by Jerrold Jones (edited 02 February 2001).]

[Jerry Jones]

It's hard to believe there's not a single AMD 1GHz user out there to respond.

Darn.

[Indiana]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Dr Mordrid:
Also, if you run a 1 ghz processor on an inferior chipset (VIA, i815 etc) you will be sacrificing other modes of performance. PCI bus & memory performance are two great examples.

Dr. Mordrid
</font>

Hmm, the VIA KT-133 chipset wipes the floor with any Intel based one (apart from the P-IV ones, of course) when it comes to memory performance. And, due to the fact that the AMD chips unlike the Intel CPUs can be multiplier-unlocked very easy, it's possible to oc the CPU while still having PCI and AGP-busses in spec.

To try to answer the original question: I have A Duron800 that's currently running at 1026MHz and I have no problems capturing video at full PAL resolution uncompressed/HuffYUV'ed/MJPEGged with the Hauppauge WinTV in both Win98SE and Win2k.
I don't know Cool3D (yet), what eaxactly does this prog do? Is there a free trial so I could check it for you?

[Jerry Jones]

http://www.ulead.com/cool3d/trial.htm

Trial version of Ulead Cool 3D.

If you don't mind - thanks - I would be interested to know your impression of the general "speed" and "ease" of use.

[Jerry Jones]

Another AMD note from DV Magazines 2000 WorkStation review:

The Polywell 800K7-1000A Video WorkStation

"...was one of the fastest at rendering in Premiere and at the Gaussian Blur test in After Effects. Most shockingly, it was the fastest at running the LightWave OpenGL preview."

The Polywell 800K7-1000A uses a motherboard with the older AMD 750 chipset (not VIA).

http://www.polywell.com/prod-142.html#specifications

The DV Magazine commentary followed:

"...I was surprised that a single-processor system, even if it is a 1GHZ processor, could outrun some of the dual-CPU boxes. It becomes more surprising when you remember that it only has 256MB of RAM, and that it costs less than half of what you'd pay for some of the other machines..."

http://www.dv.com/magazine/2000/1000/seal1000.html

Having noted all this, I'm still leaning toward buying a Pentium 4 because I believe Ulead is optimizing its software - based on this new VideoStudio 5 Web page - for the Pentium 4 processor:

http://www.ulead.com/vs/new1.htm