Best GPU for 4K video editing in Premiere Pro?

Question

I've been editing in Premiere for like 8 years now and usually I'm the one giving advice but man I'm finally stuck. Just picked up an A7SIII and my old 2060 Super is literally screaming trying to scrub through 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 footage without proxies. Im finally ready to drop some cash on a real upgrade.

My logic was to grab a 4070 Ti Super for the 16GB VRAM because I heard Premiere loves that for 4K exports but then I see people saying the 4080 is way better for the extra CUDA cores. I've got about $850 saved and I need to buy it by Friday for a big wedding project. Is the 16GB VRAM on the Ti Super enough or am I gonna regret not going bigger?

MinMaxingLife · Accepted Answer

Regarding what #1 said about the 4070 Ti Super, I agree its the best bet for $850. Unfortunately, I had issues with 4:2:2 footage even on big cards since NVIDIA cards dont have that specific hardware decoder... kinda annoying.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16GB: Best 16GB VRAM for your budget.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB: Fast but the 12GB VRAM is risky for 4K. Just get the 16GB card and hope for the best.

RadiantRiddle · Answer

I've been doing this for over a decade and honestly, sticking with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16GB GDDR6X is the move. I moved to one recently for my main rig and i'm super happy with how it handles heavy 4K h.264/h.265 stuff. The market right now is kinda weird because AMD has the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT 20GB which has more VRAM for the price, but Premiere is so heavily optimized for CUDA that you'd likely regret switching teams for video work. That 16GB VRAM is the real hero here. When you're doing heavy color grading or using Lumetri with a bunch of layers, that memory buffer is what prevents those annoying out of video memory crashes that used to plague us. The 4080 is nice, but for $850? You wont find a new one, and the performance gain in actual export times is usually only like 10-15%... definitely not worth the extra $200+ tbh. Plus, that 4070 Ti Super is much more power efficient than the older 30-series cards. If you're worried about that 4:2:2 footage, just remember that the GPU handles the effects and scaling, while your CPU usually does the decoding for that specific codec. You're gonna love how smooth the timeline feels compared to that 2060. Grab it and dont look back, it works well for everything I throw at it. Just make sure your power supply can handle the new 12VHPWR cable... most come with adapters tho. Good luck with the wedding project!

TeaTimeTitan · Answer

I switched to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super 16GB GDDR6X a while back and honestly I have no complaints. It works well for those heavy 4K timelines. Since you have $850, the 4080 is basically out of reach anyway unless you find a crazy open box deal.

Memory: The 16GB VRAM is the sweet spot for Premiere. You wont see much benefit going higher unless you do heavy 3D or 8K.

Speed: It handles the H.265 10-bit stuff from the A7SIII like a champ.

Price: Its right in your budget while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16GB usually hits that $1000 mark. Im really satisfied with the Ti Super. It keeps my exports fast and the scrubbing is buttery smooth now. Just grab it and get that wedding project done... you wont regret it.