Ryzen 7 2700x vs Ryzen 5 3600 Linux Video Editing

Good Day Everyone,

All things being equal (same x570 motherboard, same DDR4-3200 32gb ram, Radeon RX 580/590 Video card, etc.) which of these two processors would you use for a 4k video editing workstation?

I’m going back and for on this one. The benchmarks between these two processors are ridiculously close and pretty much all I can find when it comes to comparisons of these two processors is gaming which I honestly don’t care about because I don’t play modern AAA titles. The little I can find seems to suggest that the older 2700x is the better way to go for my workload.

The OS in question is Linux, most likely Arch or an Arch derivative (Arco has my attention.) My thought is that under that workload, I will try to offload most of the rendering work to the GPU, but there will be effects, etc that will have to be processed by the CPU and that is where I am wondering if the higher core count of the older 2700x would give me an advantage.

Yes I could save up a few more pennies (and I might do that) and get the best of both worlds with the 3700x, but right now I’m trying to keep this build in a budget that will not put me in the dog house.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Generally I would say go for they higher core count and clocked part for media production and development builds (2700X). The only caveat to my comment is if you live in a country with high electricity costs where the power efficiency of the 3600 is capable of outweighing the performance benefit to you, though this is an edge case.

I’d suggest getting the 2700X and then if that starts to get long in the tooth in a few years time considering an upgrade in the future to a (hopefully by then cheaper) higher core 3000 series or 4000 series if it indeed shares the same socket.

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How about the 470 mobo?

Is pci gen 4 really important to you?

I’d go for 2700 or 2700x because core count

Edit: also distrotube uses a script that makes arch install a breeze, he uses archify, take a glance at It before arco

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Other things to consider is would the 3600 be as fast as the 2700 if you overclocked (and are willing). I currently have the 1700 overclocked, and compared it to a friends 2600x also overclocked and I am about the same speed with 2 more cores in multithreaded tasks, and slower in single core tasks. It may be worth considering the 3rd gen for the faster PCIE Gen 4, and faster single thread as not all tasks are multi threaded, and even with less cores, it may be similar speed.

EDIT: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd-ryzen5-3600x&num=2 Here is a good article comparing those processors on linux

@anon85095355 Dern0s, last I heard DT was using Arco but I could be wrong. I will take a look at the Archify script (is it the same as Archfi?

What I really like about Arco is it is pretty lean out of the box and beautiful without my having to do a bunch of theme-ing. Each to their own I guess, but I will certainly take it under advisement.

As for the 2700x you and @kdb424 see to be confirming my suspicion that for my workload I would be better off with the higher core count.

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How about opting for a decent B450 mobo and pushing the budget to a Ryzen 7 3700? An X570 mobo would be lost on a 2700 or 3600.

I also would recommend not going X570 if budget is that tight. Third gen is so much more responsive and snappy, even on X470, I’d always go with that.

Perhaps an unpopular opinion: If you don’t already have the RX580 or 590, you could potentially find yourself saving a not insignificant amount of money in the long run (especially since you plan to stress the GPU) by opting for a new gen GPU like the 5500XT or GTX 1660 Super.

I have been considering an X470 or a B450 motherboard as I’m not that worried about PCI 4.0 and the budget is being artificially constrained in order to prevent myself from spending a small fortune.

Ideally I want to try and stay under $800 in parts and depending on which direction I go that will either be no sweat (allowing me to go with a 5700xt or gtx 1660 super).

Since we’ve broached the subject of budget, I have toyed with the idea of upping the budget to where I can get a 1st gen threadripper (1950x) or a 3900x.

Thoughts?

I’d go for the 3900X and supplement it with ram with good timings. TR1 is too old for 2020.

Pair the 3900X with a Radeon RX 5700 (mainly for the 8GB vram), while investing in 32GB+ 3200mhz+ ram with tight timings (CL14 atmost for 3200, so you know you have samsung b-die) and a good ssd to load media from. And most importantly, don’t skimp on cooling.

I don’t know what software you’ll be using for video editing but Davinci Resolve is available on linux, and the above specification should do decent with 4K video editing.

I suspected TR1 was getting too old but I wanted to verify that. I don’t know if I can convince the keeper of the checkbook to let me do both a 3900x and a 5700 xt

What software are you using? Does it prioritise single core performance over multi-core? If so, you could get away with a 3600 or 3700, with a nice upgrade path to 12/16 core Ryzen 4000 if you ever need to.

From someone who has actively tried to use resolve on Linux several times, I can say that their support is terrible at best. They have little to no interest in helping you if you don’t have hardware that “Just works”. I tried working with them when I moved to my 1700x and RX 590, and got the “Works on my system” treatment, and that was the end of it. Couldn’t even launch. Moved to kdenlive and have never been happier, and makes use of enough threads that render times are alright, though it seems to be useless to add more threads after 12 in my use case, so my 8 core still has threads left over. Video editing seems to be a mix of single and multi core on all platforms. If I gave my 100% honest opinion, I’d go with 6 faster cores than 8 slower ones, but I could be in the minority, and it will again matter on your exact renders. Generally speaking, 3d work and compiling is the only case I’d go for the extra 2 cores that have slower single thread.

Currently I am using Davinci Resolve on a 2017 15" Macbook Pro. I’m making the switch back to Linux and was planning on using Resolve there as well assuming all the hardware and software plays nice.

I have been trying to play with KDENLIVE however it doesn’t play nice in a VM but that is why I was thinking of going to something with more cores/threads than the 3600x.

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