What are the Best possible specs for Shotcut Video Editing in 2022 / 2023

[Shary]

What are the best possible specs for shortcut video editing in 2022 / 2023?

First of all, I love this software because it is so easy and effective to use but one issue which I find regularly is that I am always forced to use preview scaling (at around 540p) and some other performance boosting settings (e.g nearest neighbour for interpolation) in order to reduce stutters / lag.
Now I found this really weird since I’ve got a Ryzen 7 5700x CPU 1650 Super GPU 32gb RAM and a 4TB hard drive, which are some pretty high - mid tier specs especially for 1080p 60fps Videos.
So if I had the opportunity to upgrade my PC what would be the preferred upgrades to improve the most performance for Shotcut alone?

Also what are the best possible Specs to use for Shotcut in general (feel free to go full 4090 overkill if you believe it will make a big difference)

[Elusien]

@Austin gave a good rundown of what options, CPU/GPU/Memoory etc were a good fit. Why not check that out?

Best New Computer for Video Editing under $3,000 USD

Greetings all, This thread is very eye-opening to me, so I’d like to contribute my findings and learn how other people are taking advantage of some of the hardware recommended on here. Most importantly to the OP, what program are you using to edit your videos? This is a Shotcut forum, but only a few of the hardware suggestions make sense to me based on my experience with Shotcut over nearly two years of heavy usage. Here are my findings so far: CPU - With Premiere, “the more cores the bette…

[Shary]

I read though the forum, they mention the software using around 8 cores at most which is convenient since as I mentioned I own an 8 core CPU which has a boost clock of 4.6GHZ, my hard drive may seem to be an issue because everyone is apparently using an SSD or M.2 drive (I might consider getting one). another thing they mention is that CPU encoding can sometimes be better than some GPU encoding for exports, however exporting time is not my issue it is more about maintaining a stutter-less preview (hopefully without having to use any preview scaling) especially since I work with lots of filters such as size position rotate, keyframes, chroma key tools, colour grading and some other heavy workloads such as blur, crop and vignette. people have mentioned using a good graphics card such as an RTX 2070 which may fix the issue since I only own a Mid - Low range 1650 Super. Should I consider getting a GPU like an RTX 3060 TI (which has similar performance to the RTX 2070) Or even a Radeon Card such as the RX 6750 XT (I’m leaning more towards the 6750 XT because it has more VRAM and I will be able to use Smart Access Memory in games although the encoder may affect performance).

[Elusien]

An SSD would be a good investment.

Apart from hardware encoding on export, Shotcut doesn’t make much use of a GPU. See the FAQ from the item below to see why:

Shotcut - Frequently Asked Questions

[Shary]

so if my GPU isn’t an issue, my 32GB of RAM is more than enough, the hard drive is definitely an part of the issue but doesn’t make too much of a difference and my CPU has more than enough power for big projects then what why is the preview so laggy that I am forced to lower the preview scaling?

[Elusien]

the answer is almost certainly here:

@Shary

especially since I work with lots of filters such as size position rotate, keyframes, chroma key tools, colour grading and some other heavy workloads such as blur, crop and vignette.

the Size,Position, Rotate filter alone is very CPU-demanding. See here:

Export same project with CapCut, VSDC vs. Shotcut

I know that there have already been many discussions about exports, but I cannot explain the following difference: I have created 1 identical project each with Shotcut, CapCut, VSDC Pro. Each the same: Input file. Cuts (7 clips). Filters (4 x text, all clips enlargement 110% no rotation, 1 clip slow motion). Settings for the export (codecs 5 mbit Hardwareenc) Time of export directly one after the other (Shorcut, CapCut, VSDC then for comparison CapCut, VSDC, Shotcut). Projekt-Film duration 3…

[Shary]

Ok, thank you for your help.

Do you think an upgrade from a Ryzen 7 5700X to a Ryzen 7 5800X3D would be a good option?

Or even a processor with more cores like the Ryzen 9 5900X or Ryzen 9 7900X (or even wait and get the Ryzen 9 7900X3D which is expected to release soon)

[Elusien]

The main difference between the 5700X and 5800X3D is that the former has 32MB of Level-3 cache rather than the 96Mb Level-3 cache of the latter. The latter in fact has a slightly smaller Turbo speed of 4.5GHz vs 4.6GHz. Personally I don’t think doing this upgrade will give you any better performance than what you already have.

Comparing Ryzen 7 5700X vs Ryzen 9 5900X, there is a small (9%) increase in base frequency 3.4GHz increases to 3.7GHz and a small (4%) turbo increase from 4.6GHz to 4.8GHz. The main increase in performance of the 5900X over the 4700X comes from the increased number of cores - from 8 to 12. However, there is some evidence that would suggest that Shotcut currently maxes out at 8 cores, so the extra cores may not help with the workload you are presenting it with.