What Specs Do You Need to Edit 4K Videos?

When it’s about editing 4K videos, you will need a smooth-performing PC so you can finish your work just the way you desire. And if you don’t have a high-performance device, your videos won’t look as thrilling as you want them to be. 

So, the question is, what specs do you need to edit a 4K video? Don’t worry; we have the solution for you. In this article, we’ll cover every detail and make it the ultimate guide for you.

what specs do you need to edit 4k videos

What Specs Do I Need to Edit 4K Videos?

You have come to the right place if you want to know about the 4K video editing requirements. For editing this footage professionally, you will need a high-performance PC for an enhanced resolution and quality. 

So here is the recommended computer system that you need for the most incredible editing experience. 

CPU

When going for the fastest video editing experience, you need to take care of the CPU core. The greater the number is, the more advanced performance can be expected from it. 

Processors such as the 11th gen Intel Core i7 are superb options for your offline edits. And if you want to edit your 4K videos online, you can go for CPUs such as Intel Core i9 or AMD Ryzen 9 processors. 

GPU

For a breezy editing experience, always make sure that your video card is compatible with your software to alter the footage. Otherwise, you won’t be able to edit a single frame, which isn’t expected at all!

You can use an AMD and NVIDIA GPU for an advanced experience. If you are not going to work on 4K videos, you won’t need a powerful GPU, to be honest. 

But for these high-resolution clips, you will definitely need a high-performance video card such as NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080.

RAM

With bigger RAM comes greater speed; there is no doubt about that. Though it has a crucial role in boosting the performance of your system, it is a relatively cheap component. Hence, you can easily get high-powered RAM without burning holes in your pocket. 

For an optimal experience, you can go for 8GB DDR4 RAM if you are mostly planning for offline editing. And for online edits, you should go for 32GB RAM to enjoy a glitch-free experience. 

Storage

As you have to edit high-resolution footage most of the time, the usual HDD storage will not do the trick for you. You need to bring on the bigger guns here if you are looking forward to having the time of your life. 

Yes, it would be best if you had SSD in your system for editing those long HD videos; otherwise, you will have to work for hours to edit one clip, and you don’t want that. 

Therefore, you should get a Solid State Drive (SSD) to maximize the speed of your CPU. In this way, you can increase your productivity greatly, which is all we need. 

Motherboard

Well, without a motherboard, there is no computer, to begin with! Hence, you need to pick these components carefully as your system’s overall performance depends on it. 

When you choose a CPU, you need to buy a motherboard according to its form factor. There will be a high-performance motherboard no matter what processor you pick, so you won’t have to go through any issues. 

A good motherboard comes with at least three to four PCI-e slots, so you can install all your graphics or memory card to make your PC super lit! When these PCI-e ports allow your cards to run at full speed, you can edit your 4K videos like butter. 

Audio Quality

These days, most of the onboard chipsets are designed to pick sound from the motherboard. You can hear these sounds when you are moving your mouse. 

However, getting dedicated audio cards will solve this problem. Still, it will also take some space inside your system, which needs to be avoided if you want to have peak performance from your computer. 

In this case, the best solution you have is to get an external sound card. It doesn’t cost much; you will get these components under a hundred bucks or so. 

In this way, you will enjoy the enhanced audio quality, and no space inside your PC will be wasted. That’s just the best of both worlds. 

So, have you gotten your answers to what specs do you need for video editing? Well, now it’s time for us to discuss how much it’s going to cost. Let’s dive into that part right away. 

What Will Be the Cost?

If you buy a computer for offline edits with all the recommended specs above, it will cost you around 3500USD more or less. And when you are planning for online edits most of the time, the check has to be bigger, to be honest. 

For online footage editing, you may have to spend around 8000USD. However, by choosing to customize all the components by yourself, you may be able to reduce the cost a little and invest it in other gadgets. 

How Do I Choose My Video Editing Software?

There are tons of video editing software options out there, but you cannot use them all for your 4K clips. Hence, it would help to make sure that the software you purchase can handle high-resolution videos and alter them the way you want. 

Moreover, always check if the software is compatible with your system or not. Otherwise, you will spend hard-earned money on the best editing software, but your system won’t be able to run it! You don’t want that, do you?

The Bottom Line

It is pretty hard for anyone to figure out the specs of a computer when planning to edit high-resolution videos. 

One faulty component and the experience will be ruined forever. Therefore, we always see people asking, what specs do you need to edit 4K video? And to solve that dilemma, we’ve given a detailed answer in this article! 

After you finish reading it, you won’t have confusion ever again, that’s what we believe!

Chris Martin is a professional tech writer. He's been covering tech tutorials, hardware reviews, and more as a professional writer for over seven years now and it doesn't look like he'll be stopping anytime soon! In addition to writing about the latest gadgets on the market, he also covers topics such as how to set up your home network or troubleshoot any computer problems you may have.

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