When it comes to video editing, how important is good hardware?

[GAP]

While my previous home laptop was not a powerful machine, I was still able to use things like FFMPEG or Virtualdub2. I've long since sold off my broken laptop to someone who can repair it. I only have an old XP business computer (HP Vectra vl420) as well as a Chromebook.In regards to video editing, how important is having good hardware? I have never really havehad the best hardware since they are troo expensive to purchase.

[Forteen88]

Of course it's very important.
Nearly every machine for use in production requires its own specifications to meet the needs of the artist using it. For example, editorial requires fast I/O, lots of RAM and now that most editing suites are making use of some form of GPU acceleration, having a decent GPU can go a long way. Lastly, high clock speed CPUs are a must to help keep encoding/transcoding times down. Typically you're going for clocks over cores in this situation.

Rendering is not too dissimilar depending on what application you're rendering in. CPU-based rendering requires as much processing power and RAM as you can fit into a single chassis. Obviously, there is a level of diminishing returns, but I don't think I've ever heard "it has too much RAM."

On the other hand, GPU rendering is dependent almost solely on the specs of the GPU/GPUs in the system and relies on CPU for specific processes (texture processing, compression, I/O, etc). Another consideration for rendering, regardless of the processing unit, is parallelity. Since render processes are typically broken down to a per frame basis, the more frames you can have processing at one time, the better.

So typically we're looking at setups with more cores, more GPUs and more machines in general. At the end of the day, the biggest consideration is cost effectiveness. You could throw $50,000 into a machine that can do everything, but that’s just not practical or cost effective.

We typically try to tailor the machine for the task - balancing a mixture of processors (CPU and GPU), RAM, I/O, scratch and static storage depending on the need. This allows us to target the hardware in a more efficient manner and have a more straightforward hardware-upgrade path. It also keeps driver/software overlaps to a minimum, as there are cases in which some driver/firm compatibility conflicts can prevent you from running some processes on the same box.
https://www.techradar.com/news/best-video-editing-computer

[teamxp2001]

Having good hardware is certainly important for video editing, but it's not the only factor that determines the quality of your final product. There are many software tools available that can help you achieve great results even with less powerful hardware. While your old XP business computer and Chromebook may not be the most powerful machines, there are still video editing tools that can run on these systems and produce decent results. SnapTiK (https://snaptik.pro)

You can also try browser based video editors. Adobe Premiere Rush is a simplified version of Adobe Premiere Pro that runs in your web browser. It offers a streamlined interface and basic editing features, making it a great option for beginners.

[spoRv]

Well, it depends on what you are working with - uncompressed, lossless, lossy? 16bit, 12bit, 10bit, 8bit? 60fps, 30/25fps? 8K, 4K, HD, SD? - and what software you are going to use - if it needs a GPU or not, for example.

When I got the Intel 4790, I had no problems dealing with HD 8bit on Virtualdub and Avisynth, but the encoding may take ages... now with the AMD 1950x, same encoding takes an order of magnitude less time, still it struggles sometime if I dare to work with 8K 10bit 60fps. :D

[GAP]

Well, it depends on what you are working with - uncompressed, lossless, lossy? 16bit, 12bit, 10bit, 8bit? 60fps, 30/25fps? 8K, 4K, HD, SD? - and what software you are going to use - if it needs a GPU or not, for example.

When I got the Intel 4790, I had no problems dealing with HD 8bit on Virtualdub and Avisynth, but the encoding may take ages... now with the AMD 1950x, same encoding takes an order of magnitude less time, still it struggles sometime if I dare to work with 8K 10bit 60fps. :D

I was aiming for HD but that would take along time unless I can use a library computer. I mstly use Virtualdub but I intend to use other programs in the future. For nowe, I am just sticking with Virtualdub2 for encodes.

[Katie Boundary]

The first computer that I did editing on was a 1.6 ghz Pentium 4 with integrated graphics.

Hardware is not important. Not with Premiere's caching of rendered frames.