Why GPU matters for video editing
Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects all use GPU for rendering effects, color correction, and export. NVIDIA CUDA: 10 years mature, all software optimized. AMD HIP: newer, good support in DaVinci, still catching up in Premiere.
CUDA (NVIDIA) vs HIP (AMD)
CUDA: RTX 4070 Ti = 5,888 cores, $2,000, excellent Premiere support. HIP: RTX equivalent (AMD RX 7900 XT) = 5,376 cores, $1,500, weaker Premiere support, strong DaVinci.
Performance for 4K editing
RTX 4090: 8K timeline scrubbing at real-time. RTX 4070 Super: 4K at real-time, minor effects hiccups. RTX 4060: 1080p smooth, 4K stutters. For 4K: minimum RTX 4070 or RX 7800 XT equivalent.
VRAM requirements
1080p: 6GB VRAM fine. 4K: 12GB minimum, 16GB better. 8K: 20GB+ needed. RTX 4070 has 12GB, RTX 4090 has 24GB. RAM speed rarely bottleneck unless 10-bit color grading.
Software optimization
Premiere Pro: NVIDIA CUDA only (Adobe doesn't support HIP). DaVinci Resolve: both CUDA and HIP equally good. After Effects: NVIDIA only. Choose based on your software stack.
What to pick
Premiere Pro users: RTX 4070 Super minimum ($1,500). DaVinci users: RTX 4070 or RX 7800 XT ($800-1,200). Budget: RTX 4060 Ti ($500) for 1080p editing.