Intel?s New Processor Speeds Up Video Rendering

PVC by Jose Antunes

Intel's fastest processor is available now and it can drastically reduce the time to render video. But you need to pay the price

Intel's new consumer processor is not on the same league as their Xeon chips, those used in workstations, but the Haswell-E is the fastest processor many working videographers may need, at a much lower price than the Xeon costs. Recent tests show results that may surprise everybody. The entry level processor costs close to $400.

Recently, we published here at PVC a story about cinematographer Jonathan Bird, in which he mentions how it was to change from a Mac to a PC. In the interview Bird said that "I?ve always loved working with Macs. But when we decided to move away from Final Cut Pro, we realized that we didn?t have to stick with Macs anymore. We decided to switch to the fastest computer we could find, which turned out to be the HP Z Workstation. We did a rendering test to compare the speeds, and an Adobe After Effects project that took 12 hours to render on the Mac took two hours on the HP system."

In fact, the machines like the HP Z820 Workstation, offer the ultimate performance, but they come with a price. HP says that "the dual-processor HP Z820 Workstation delivers outstanding performance, award-winning industrial design, and tool-free serviceability in the industry's most expandable chassis. With next-generation Intel Xeon processors, support for up to 24 processing cores, and the latest professional graphics, you'll tackle even the most demanding projects like never before."

Although we're talking about different things, the truth is that a workstation is probably too much for many of us. But having a processor that renders video at high speed and is, in general terms, fast, is something everybody dreams about, and the time to experience the dream seems to be now. In fact, the new processor from Intel, named Haswell-E, can cut video rendering time close to 50% when compared with the previous generation of consumer processors. read more...