The Best Processors for Video and Audio Editing

Any current gaming PC is capable of running video or audio editing programs without much trouble. However, if you intend to do it frequently, you should know that there are certain processors that are going to give you much higher performance and with which you will save a lot of time. In this article we are going to tell you which are the best processors to edit video or audio on the market today.

It is one thing to edit a video of a gameplay to upload it to YouTube, and another thing to do it every day. Likewise, if you are a professional and you dedicate yourself to video or audio editing, then you will surely know that having a suitable processor can save you several hours of waiting times a day, and it is not an exaggeration. So, let’s see what are the best processors you can buy for it.

Best Processors for Video and Audio Editing

How to choose a processor for video or audio editing

Surely you will already be imagining that when we talk about processors for video and audio editing, the said “big donkey whether or not it walks” comes into force, and in part it is true because it is precisely this type of programs that best take advantage of the processor having a large number of cores and process threads (we will not enter here to value RAM memory or other hardware components, only the processor).

However, and especially when we talk about audio editing with programs like ProTools , having many process threads is often not enough, because here sometimes they work with dozens and dozens of tracks in a single session, and in this case it is better to have a lot of cache and speed even before many cores. In any case, we will see all the best options.

Edición de audio con ProTools

The importance of performance

It must be said that each type of processor (and here we talk about AMD and Intel) behaves better with one software or another; for example, Intel processors tend to have a better affinity with audio editing programs like ProTools, but when it comes to video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro, then AMD’s brute force takes more advantage.

You have an example in this performance comparison using PugetBench for Premiere Pro 2020 (14.0).

Rendimiento procesadores edición de vídeo

As you can see, not having too many cores necessarily has better performance, and proof of this is that 32-core AMD Threadripper 2990WX that has a lower score than an Intel Core i7-9700K.

The best processors for video and audio editing

We are going to see then what are the best processors that you can buy if you want to dedicate yourself to this, and we are going to divide it into two ranges : on the one hand, the ones that will give you the best absolute performance, oriented to users and professional platforms and that They have a prohibitive price for the average user on foot. On the other hand, processors oriented to general use but that give an excellent result for video and audio editing.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X

Threadripper 3990X

The greatest “beast” ever created by AMD. Well worth it, but is that this processor will provide you 64 cores and 128 process threads at a speed of 2.9 GHz base and 4.3 GHz in Boost mode, with 32 MB of L2 cache, 256 MB of L3 cache and PCIe 4.0 support, plus up to 512GB of 3200MHz DDR4 RAM on Quad-Channel. Immeasurable performance.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X

In this processor we see the number of cores and threads reduced by half since it has 32 cores and 64 threads, but its price is also reduced to a third. In this case, its base speed is 3.7 GHz and it reaches 4.5 GHz in Boost mode; however, the cache is also considerably reduced and it only has 2 MB of L1 cache, 16 MB of L2 cache and 128 MB of L3 cache, just half the previous one.

Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition

Core_i9_10980XE_cascade_lake

Interestingly, Intel’s Xeon processors aren’t the best for video or audio editing, and instead the HEDT range competes with AMD’s all-powerful Threadripper. However, only this wonder of Intel is able to compete, relatively, with AMD. The Core i9-10980XE features 18 cores and 36 3 GHz (4.6 GHz Turbo) process threads, with a total of 24.75 MB of cache. It falls well short of AMD processors for these purposes, but the performance it provides is still immeasurable.

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

procesadores falsos AMD

We entered the range that is no longer professional, but even so we have in our hands the very high range of both AMD and Intel. In this case, this AMD processor has no less than 12 cores and 24 process wires at maximum 4.6 GHz, with 6 MB of L2 cache and 64 MB of L3 cache. Obviously it is not going to provide us with the performance of the Threadripper, but it costs less than half and even so, its performance in all kinds of situations is far above any “average” gaming processor.

Intel Core i9-9900K

Intel-Core-i9-9900KS-3

Finally, this is the highest-end Intel processor for “normal” PCs. It has eight cores and sixteen process threads at 3.6 GHz base and reaching 5 GHz in Boost mode. It has 16MB of shared L3 cache and in this case it’s the one with the lowest term design, at just 95 watts. Still, the performance that this processor will deliver for video or audio editing will be quite worthy, and it is an excellent processor for gaming.