New CPUs and GPUs. How is the speed?
It's been a while since we posted a series of articles about the best hardware for Neat Video noise reduction and for video editing in general. AMD, Intel and NVIDIA have recently released several new CPUs and GPUs, so it’s time to check what speed gains are possible on the newest hardware.
New CPUs tested
Both Intel and AMD have updated their CPUs lines. We’ve had a chance to test some of the new CPUs directly and have also got some NeatBench results from our community (a big Thank you guys!).
| CPU |
Neat Video 5 Speed FPS* |
Num. Cores |
Cache (MB) |
Cache (MB per Core) |
Base Clock Frequency (GHz) |
Turbo Boost Clock Frequency (GHz) |
Memory Channels |
PCIe Support (version, # of lanes) |
Price (USD) *approx. |
| AMD Ryzen TR 3970X | 48.7 | 32 | 128 | 4 | 3.7 | 4.5 | 4 | 4.0 x88 | $1999 |
| Intel Core i9-10980XE | 33.8 | 18 | 24.75 | 1.38 | 3.0 | 4.6 | 4 | 3.0 x48 | $1100 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 3950X | 27.8 | 16 | 64 | 4 | 3.5 | 4.7 | 2 | 4.0 x16 | $830 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 3900X | 23.2 | 12 | 64 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 2 | 4.0 x16 | $530 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | 21.1 | 8 | 32 | 4 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 2 | 4.0 x16 | $310 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600X | 19.3 | 6 | 32 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 2 | 4.0 x16 | $200 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 3600 | 18.6 | 6 | 32 | 5.3 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 2 | 4.0 x16 | $190 |
| AMD Ryzen TR 1950X | 18.5 | 16 | 32 | 2 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 4 | 3.0 x64 | $520 |
| Intel Core i9-9900KS | 16.6 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $630 |
| Intel Core i9-9900K | 16.6 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 3.6 | 5.0 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $490 |
| Intel Core i7-9700K | 14.1 | 8 | 12 | 1.5 | 3.6 | 4.9 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $400 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 2700X | 13.4 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $215 |
| Intel Core i7-8700K | 13.2 | 6 | 8 | 1.3 | 3.7 | 4.7 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $560 |
| AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 11.2 | 6 | 16 | 2.7 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $125 |
| Intel Core i5-9600K | 11.2 | 6 | 9 | 1.5 | 3.7 | 4.6 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $240 |
| Intel Core i5-8400 | 10.8 | 6 | 9 | 1.5 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $200 |
| AMD Ryzen 7 1800X | 10.6 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $290 |
| AMD Ryzen TR 2990WX | 10.5 | 32 | 64 | 2 | 3.0 | 4.2 | 4 | 3.0 x64 | $1720 |
| Intel Core i5-9400F | 9.2 | 6 | 9 | 1.5 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $160 |
| Intel Core i3-9100 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 1.5 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 2 | 3.0 x16 | $150 |
* Tested on FullHD 32-bit with default filter settings.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X wins this competition with a pretty high score of 48.7 frames per second. In addition to the excellent speed, this CPU is also compatible with PCIe 4 (the newest PCIe), which allows it to use PCIe 4-compatible GPUs more effectively. However, to get this advantage you will also need a motherboard supporting PCIe 4. Intel Core i9-10980XE is the closest competitor with 33.8 FPS, however the price difference is also significant. Intel Core i9-10980XE is $900 cheaper than the Threadripper at the moment, so you have a choice here.
To learn more about the most critical CPU parameters, please check out our previous article that has lots of juicy details.
GPUs battle: Speed or Value?
This time the fastest GPU was NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with 42.9 FPS, however AMD Radeon VII did not fall too far from it. And if you compare the prices, 2080 Ti does not look as attractive as it costs — $1200 at the time of writing, while Radeon VII is only $850. The GeForce RTX 2080 and the Radeon RX 5700 XT both give decent results around 35 FPS for a more reasonable price: $720 and $440 respectively.
| GPU |
Neat Video 5 Speed FPS* |
Processing power (GFLOPS, single precision) |
VRAM (GB) |
Memory Bandwidth (GB/s) |
PCIe Configuration (version, # of lanes) |
Price (may vary from store to store) |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 | 59.7 | 25060 | 24 | 760 | 4.0 x16 | $700 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti | 42.9 | 11750 | 11 | 616 | 3.0 x16 | $1200 |
| AMD Radeon VII | 39.7 | 11136 | 16 | 1028 | 3.0 x16 | $850 |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 | 35.5 | 8920 | 8 | 448 | 3.0 x16 | $720 |
| AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT | 35.1 | 8218 | 8 | 448 | 4.0 x16 | $440 |
| AMD Radeon RX 5700 | 32.9 | 6751 | 8 | 448 | 4.0 x16 | $330 |
* Tested on FullHD 32-bit with default filter settings.
In the previous article we explained that the GPU Processing Power, Memory Bandwidth and VRAM are the parameters you want to watch for when choosing a new GPU. Head to our “4 Factors when Choosing a GPU for Faster Digital Noise Reduction” article to learn more about that.
Other things to keep in mind
A very big contributor to your GPU’s speed is a PCIe bus. When using older versions of PCIe (prior to PCIe 3.0) or a eGPU via Thunderbolt connection, the data exchange between GPUs and the system memory may become bottlenecked and slow down the overall render speed.
If you are thinking about upgrading the whole system, then choose a system with a fast PCIe bus, preferably PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0. The latter is better because each PCI Express 4.0 lane is twice as fast as a PCI Express 3.0 one. The practical choice between these two is currently determined by the number of GPUs that you plan to use in the system. If you are going to use only one GPU, then you can already find suitable PCIe 4.0-based systems on the market, although neither NVIDIA nor AMD have supported PCIe 4.0 in their top GPUs yet. Please note that in order to work at PCIe 4.0 speed all components (CPU, motherboard and GPU) need to support this standard. However if you need two GPUs, then things get a bit more complicated. At the time of this writing, no CPUs and no motherboards are able to support more than one PCIe 4.0 GPU at full speed. In fact, if you are planning to use two fast PCIe 3.0 GPUs (such as RTX 2080 Ti), then you will be better off with a PCIe 3.0 system where both the CPU and the motherboard provide enough PCIe lanes (32 or more). We certainly hope that the situation will improve as PCIe 4.0 support becomes more widespread.
Another thing to keep in mind is the amount and speed of RAM you have in your system. It’s a good idea to have more than 32 GB available. This raises the chances of your video editing software and plugins getting enough memory for their needs. This becomes especially important when working with higher resolution videos such as 4K and larger. Higher memory speed will also contribute to better CPU performance.
Check your system
To find out what your system is capable of at the moment, run our freely available NeatBench tool or run the Optimize Settings tool in Neat Video Performance settings. We would love it if you to send the results to our team (contacts)! The more data our developers have the easier it gets to optimize Neat Video and the quicker you will get your video rendered!