by Alex ⋮ There are quite some factors to consider when building a new PC that is mainly targeted at After Effects use.
This article is about building the best bang-for-the-buck Adobe After Effects PC/Workstation Computer and what Hardware parts are the best picks for your intended use:
Best Processor (CPU) for After Effects
We have to differentiate between two use cases to find the best possible CPU for our needs:
1. Actively Working in After Effects
If you are planning on actively working heavily with this Computer I recommend a maximum single Core-Clock CPU such as the i7 8700K or the newer Intel i9 9900K. This i7 8700K CPU clocks at 3,7 GHz base and has 4,7 GHz single-core turbo-clock and the i9 9900K even boosts up to 5GHz with 8 Cores, 16 Threads total.
The interface and frame updates in After Effects heavily benefit from high core clocks. Take a look at these tests from Pugetsystems, where it becomes clear very quickly how superior high-clocking cpus are in After Effects CC.
Image-Source: pugetsystems.com
Similar to a Computer for 3D Modeling and Animation or Video Editing, having a high Core-Clock will make your Computer much snappier.
2. Using the Machine mainly as a Render-Node
Now if you are using this Computer mainly to render out projects that you have already set-up on a different workstation, you would want to go “max CPU-core count” x “CPU-core clock” or in other words max CPU-Multi-Core Performance (similar as for 3D Rendering).
This means the more cores you have and the higher those cores are clocked, the better.
Since unfortunately there are no CPUs with more than 6 cores that have Turbo-Boost frequencies as high as an i7 8700K you will have to trade clock speed for core-count.
Good options here are:
- AMD Threadripper 2990WX(32 cores), 2970WX(24 Cores), 2950X(16 Cores), 1950X (16 cores), 1920X (12 cores), 1920X (8 cores)
- Intel i9 Series 9920X (12 cores), 9940X (14 cores), 9960X (16 cores), 9980XE (18 cores)
These don’t clock quite as high as an Intel i9 9900K Processor but have much more cores.
This means if you use a Render-Manager such as Thinkbox Deadline and make full use of all of your cores, going for a high-core count CPU will make the difference in delivering your projects on-time.
Well suited are the new AMD Ryzen 7 CPUs such as the 2700X and especially the Threadripper CPUs. They offer an excellent price/performance ratio in comparison to Intel Workstation CPUs.
How much Memory (RAM) for After Effects?
I recommend getting at least 16-32 GB DDR4 RAM for 4-core CPUs and to go up to 64+ GB of RAM for 20+ cores.
Best Graphics Card (GPU) for After Effects
The important factor here are the CUDA Cores, since After Effects can make use of these in 3D viewport rendering and also in calculating some effects.
Great choices here are the Nvidia 2070 RTX, 2080 RTX since these have a great price/performance ratio. If you have some cash left over consider the RTX 2080 TI for top-tier performance.
Best Hard-Drive (HDD/SSD) for After Effects
The new M.2 SSD Drives such as the Samsung 970 EVO or PRO have excellent performance and outperform any SATA SSD by far. Highly recommended for Footage, Cache and Software Drives.
After Effects Custom Computer Builds
Head on over to the CG-Director PC-Builder Tool, that will let you configure a Motion-Design & After Effects build in less than 4 clicks.
An excellent Build, that I recommend often would consists of the following parts:
- Processor: Intel i9 9900K
- CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 1151
- Graphics Card #1: NVIDIA RTX2080TI
- Memory(RAM): 64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX Kit DDR4-3000, CL15-17-17-35
- SSD: Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB SATA
- PCIE-SSD: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 1TB, M.2
- Mainboard: ASUS Prime Z390-A ATX 1151
- Power Supply: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 650W ATX 2.4
- Case: be quiet! Silent Base 601 orange
What kind of Computer for After Effects are you building?
- 3Shares
Hi Alex, thanks for the great article. I’m coming from being on the Mac for a couple decades and now pricing out a PC system. I’m trying to decide between the i9 9900k and the 9940X. I run AE, Premiere Pro, C4d (TFD and Xparticles) , Syntheyes, Mocha, PhotoScan/Metashape, Lightroom & Photoshop. I’m regularly tracking, comping, and rendering 4K (or higher) footage. I like the power that comes from the 9940x, but is the 9900K higher clock speed and lower price out-weight the higher core count?
Hey Nate,
Thats a tough choice! You basically also compare two different systems with each other and not just the cpu. The i9 9900K is mainstream platform with a 64GB Ram limit and 16 pcielanes for gpus, it has 3,6ghz base and 5ghz turbo clock.
The i9 9940x is HEDT platform with 128GB RAM max, 44 pcielanes with 3,3ghz base and 4,4 ghz turbo clock.
I’d say the 8 cores with higher clock wins against the 14 cores with lower clock unless of course you need some specific features such as 128gb ram or want more than 2 gpus.
AE and PP both love the i9 9900K, c4d too I can’t say anything about syntheyes and mocha, but the high clock speeds fare very well in most digital content creation apps. Unless of course you do multi-core rendering and the like a lot.
Hope this helps,
Alex
Hi, thank you for a very good overview! I’m coming from an iMac 5k Retina and would like to know what monitor you would recommend?
Hey Johan,
I’ll have to get back to you on Monitors as this is an area in which I am still extending my knowledge. You won’t find a 5K display Monitor for a reasonable price but 4K there are lots of models to choose from.
Be sure to get an IPS and not TN Panel monitor as the contrast and colors are better on those. Also, I think the iMac has a glossy finish. Usually most of the professional monitors have a matte finish so you don’t have any reflections distracting you, but you will have to see what your preference is there.
I can recommend the Asus PB27UQ as I have been using this Monitor for quite a while now and am very happy with it, but as I said I will have to do some more testing on different monitors to be able to really recommend great monitors in their budget ranges.
Hope this helps,
Alex
Hello Alex, awesome insight and tips on the best build for after effects. My question to you is, which motherboard would you recommend for all these awesome components?
Hey Luis,
Check out the PC-Builder over here, that will give you complete Builds for your purpose within your budget:
https://www.cgdirector.com/pc-builder/
If you are looking into LGA 1151 Mainboards (i9 9900K, i7 8700K etc) Id go with ASUS Prime Z390-A ATX 1151 or similar Board.
Cheers,
Alex
Awesome!! Thank you Alex!
Hey Alex, thanks for all the awesome insight. PC build Q for you, I’m looking to build a microATX rig with 9900k and two 2080 TIs (one to start). I do mostly Ae and some C4D but want to balance that out more with 3D work. I’m a little confused on which mobo to go for, do you have a preference given this setup? Thanks!
Hey Joey,
Lots of Mainboards don’t have great PCIE Slot psacing but MSI usually does it right as is the case with the MSI Z370M Gaming Pro AC. Check it out!
As you probably already know the 2080Tis and the 9900K are both components that like to get hot especially in a micro atx enclosure, so be sure to get extra strong cooling.
Cheers,
Alex
Awesome thx for the suggestion. I plan on doing a Noctua DH15 along with a somewhat spacious matx case with 4 intake and 2-3 exhaust fans. Does that raise any red flags for you?
And is there a noticeable difference in 2666, 3000 and 3200 for RAM in Ae and C4D performance that I should keep in mind? Thank you!
Hey Joey,
Sounds good! Ram Clock speed you can pretty much ignore as it doesnt make much difference and when it does it seems to be in the margin of error.
Cheers,
Alex
Hi,
I am looking to build a PC with its general aim to produce and mix music (for a hobby as to start off). Ocassionally I would like to play a game or two but I don’t need ultra graphic settings there.
What would you recommend considering I would like to use Cubase and work with vst instruments in combination with effects I use. I want to keep latency as low as possible as I may load and record different instruments and effects simultaneously.
Thanks in advance!
Koen
Hey Koen,
I don’t have that much expertise in building Digital Audio Workstations but I would think loading lots of samples that tend to be quite big would require fast ssds such as an m2. samsung 970 evo.
I would expect DAWs to work similarly as 3D Workstations, as in that they need a high core-clock and not as much lots of cores. This makes most sense to me considering they rely on realtime playback a lot. The i7 8700K is an excellent pick here, or if you can swing it maybe the i9 9900K.
A good GPU for fairly nice gaming would start at around 1070 upwards I’d say. Check out some builds on this page here, especially the Intel 1500$ Build seems to be great for you:
https://www.cgdirector.com/best-computer-3d-modeling-rendering/
I would also expect a DAW to need some digital audio Interface such as the Behringer U-Phoria UMC22 but I’d check with a specialised Forum, such as the steinberg Forum if I were you.
Let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Alex
Hi Alex
Thanks for the interesting reflections. I found the article you referred to very useful. At the moment I already bought a Steinberg UK22 mkII AI which suits my needs perfectly.
I see that the clock speed of the single core, both AMD and Intel are equal in your article but that the AMD has got 8 Cores. Do you think it will have any difference in performance? I imagine the extra cores would only kick in if I had a lot of windows opened?
What are your thoughts on the added value of an M.2 SSD VS a ‘normal’ sized one?
Thanks for helping me out!
Koen
Hey Koen,
Base clocks might be the same, though even more important in single-threaded workloads is the Turbo Boost clock. Here Intel has an advantage. So it usually comes down to this: Do you need Multi-Core Performance more than Single-Core Performance? Get AMD over Intel and vice-versa.
Cheers,
Alex
Hi there Alex, my current build is this
i7 8700k with corsair h110i
RAM 64GB G.skill 3200mhz cl14
m.2 samsung for AE cache
some other normal ssd’s for storage
GPU PSU is irrelevant in this case.
I want to know the ABSOLUTE cpu money can buy without having me to change my rams.
i ONLY care about PREVIEW. not render, i want to be able to preview realtime so i dont have to render my complex scenes in order to check my result.
is a high end MAC an option? maybe their OS process better stuff, and my realtime PREVIEW will be flawless.
Hey dim.
Macs are based on the same parts a computer is based on. They use the same cpus, ram, ssd parts and so on. So a mac won’t be any faster than a pc can be.
That said, the only way to increase your realtime playback marginally would be to get a i9 9900k, as this clocks at 5ghz and has 2 more cores than your i7 8700k. Don’t expect a big jump though!
It depends a bit on what mainbaord you have currently but dropping the i9 9900k in should normally be no problem as it has the same socket and these two generations are supposed to be compatible.
you can keep the ram of course, these are excellent and will be compatible with up and coming cpus for some time.
Cheers,
Alex
Hi Alex, I’m looking for a new computer for motion graphics and compositing. Most of the time I use After Effects. But sometimes I also use Premiere Pro. Would there be a big performance difference between the Ryzen 7 2700x and the intel 9700K since they both have 8 cores. I know that the Intel processor clocks quite a bit higher! But is it really worth the extra price for the processor and the motherboard? Also I was wondering if the render performance between a GTX1080 and a GTX1060 (6GB) would be very big? Thanks for the help
Hey Fabian,
Both CPUs will perform very similarly. The 9700K has a higher clock, but has hyperthreading disabled. So 8c/8t while the 2700X with its lower clock has the possibility of using AMDs pendant to hyperthreading.
As there are only very few Effects in After Effects that are GPU accelerated, both the 1060 and 1080 will perform almost the same. So if you are on a budget here, feel free to go the ryzen / 1060 route.
Cheers,
Alex
Hi Alex, nice article. I´m working in Inventor and rendering in 3DS max – Arnold. I choosea new PC a i don´t sure, whitch Grafic card i would use. RTX 2080 Ti, or quadro P5000. THX.
Hey Richard,
You might want to head over to the article about 3D Rendering, Modeling or Animation. There is lots of interesting stuff there that should get you started!
https://www.cgdirector.com/best-computer-3d-modeling-rendering/
https://www.cgdirector.com/best-computer-for-animation/
Cheers,
Alex
My pc will be completed within a week. Can you rate it?
ASUS PRIME X299- A, X299, LGA 2066, 8 x DIMM DDR4,
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4-3000MHz,
Corsair zdroj 1200W HX Series HX1200, 80 PLUS Platinum
Delid CPU Intel Skylake- X i9- 7940X
Fractal Design Define R6 Black
Gainward GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Phoenix GS, 11GB GDDR6,
Intel Core i9- 7940X, Quattuordeca Core, 3.10GHz, 19.25MB,
Noctua NF- P14s redux – 1200 PWM
Noctua NH-D15
Samsung 970 PRO NVMe SSD, PCIe 3.0 M.2 Typ 2280 – 512
WD Black 2003FZEX 2TB HDD 3.5”, SATA/ 600, 7200RPM,
Thanks.
Hey Richard,
Looks like a great Build! Go for it! 🙂 Are you delidding the CPU?
Cheers,
Alex
Hi Alex,
Yes, it is already.
Max. temperature CPU 65C, GPU 76C – all CPU cores at max. like render + GPU totally for max .. both CPU and GPU
Richard
Hey Richard,
That’s great! If you don’t mind, could you comment with some benchmark results of your delidded CPU? Just curious. Maybe Cinebench or similar!
Thanks!
Alex
Hey Alex! Great article! Well
I’m very doubtful about what my future CPU might be. I use After Effects at the same time as Premiere Pro, on projects from many precompositions and levels on AE and videos in 4K with Sony A7s on PP. In addition I use many open Google Chrome tabs … a real workstation. Plus I’m starting to use 3D for a bit of motion graphics. I had seen the 2700X but AE is more for single cores, so 8700K. Which CPU do you recommend?
Hey Guido,
If 3D Rendering is not your main Tool right now, I’d go max-core-clock. So Intel 8700K would be the way to go. There is a new generation, the 9700K and 9900K that is being recently currently, that have even better Single-Core Scores than the 8700K. Though the new generation is extremely expensive, so if you are on a budget I’d stick with the 8700K.
Cheers,
Alex
Hey Alex
Brand of DDR4 memory? Specifically After Effects Machine.
Hey Reggie,
If this is a non-ECC Workstation (basically every normal PC) I’d go with RAM from Corsair, G.Skill or Crucial. They tend to be excellent. For ECC RAM (HEDT with Server grade CPUs like XEON or Epyc) take a look at Samsung or Kingston. I have used both in XEON Workstations extensively.
Cheers,
Alex
Hi Alex,
quick question. You mentioned that we need an Nvidia GPU in order to work good with AE. Do you mean only the Nvidia Manufacturer, or it is okay if it just has Nvidia chipset and the Manufacturer is not Nvidia?
Thank you
Hey Aris,
There are many Nvidia Partners that sell GPUs from Nvidia. Like Asus, Msi, Gigabyte and so on. They all use the exact same Hardware that they get from NVIDIA. They usually just design some of the Cooling solution to make it look different and depending on how good their cooling solution is can adjust the clock speeds somewhat.
So any of those GPUs will be great.
You can of course buy directly from Nvidia, but that is usually more expensive.
Cheers,
Alex
Thank you very much for the fast reply, I really appreciate it.
Bonjour Alex ;
je commence une société d’animation et de cration de short or long motion 3d films pour tous usages sauf gaming .Il y a une multitude de très bons softwares ,cependant je ne peux pas acheter une machine spécialisée et considérée la meilleure par métier ou par software ,je recherche donc le meilleur desktop pour création ,rendering-animation 3d du début à la fin c’est à dire de la création à la finition commerciale avec sons et soind effects .Je me suis fixé un budget de 6 k euros (il faut mettre une limite quelque part)Peux-tu m’innonder de conseils et de choix judicieux ?
pascalpbt@gmail.com
Yea, thanks Alex,
I Am Mushfique. and gonna take my carrier as a 3D MGX/VFX Compositor/Post editor (film).
and I this is a nice place to discuss our experiences and advice. ………………..like it !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey I am student and just started with after effects so I wanted to build a but don’t want to invest more then $1000
So which graphics card should I go with
Is this configuration great ???
AMD RYZEN 5 2600 6-CORE 3.4 GHZ (3.9 GHZ MAX BOOST) SOCKET AM4 PROCESSOR
ASUS PRIME B450M-A MOTHERBOARD
CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 16 GB DDR4 3000MHZ MEMORY CMK16GX4M1B3000C16
Samsung 860 Evo 250GB 2.5-Inch Sata Iii Internal Ssd
WESTERN DIGITAL CAVIAR BLUE 1TB INTERNAL HARD DRIVE WD10EZEX
AMD RADEON PRO WX 3100 100-505999 4GB GDDR5 WORKSTATION GRAPHIC CARD
cooler master masterbox lite 3.1
Corsair CX Series 550 Watt 80 Plus Bronze Certified Modular Power Supply (CP-9020102-NA)
Hey Harshil,
For After Effects you will want to go with an Nvidia GPU, as these perform somewhat better than AMDs GPUS at the moment. Also, go with a non-workstation GPU, as those are heavily overpriced. Take a look at the GTX 1060 or GTX 1050Ti as these are in a similar price-range but will perform better.
cherrs
Hi Alex:
What about the Ryzen 7 2700x for After Effect?
Is that bad?
Hi Alex, I Just modeling 3D, ( Solidworks )and rendering ( Keyshot ), I want to start learn with animation videos for my work. Seem there is a lot of good options of programs to learn. But what you considering a best option for learn in the market of the consumer products?
Hey Jose,
An easy 3D-Software to pick up is Cinema 4D. It has a flat learning curve and there are loads of free recources available. If you are looking for something free take a look at Blender, as this is open-source, though it is usually a bit more difficult to learn as lots of the interface isn’t what you usually expect. After Effects is a must in the Motion Graphics industry. You can do compositing, Motion Design and also Edit Videos, so this is a great package to learn.
Cheers
Thanks Alex,
I really appreciate it.
There seem to be a lot of options, thats why I feel confused about what to do.
I go for Cinema 4D step by step.
Thank you
IS this build good for after effects and premiere pro?
CPU
– Intel® Core™ CoffeeLake i7-8700K 3.7GHz 12M Cache 6 Core 12 Thread LGA1151 $2739
主機板
– ASUS PRIME Z370-P $1020 SALES
$1250
顯示卡
– ASUS Cerberus GeForce® GTX 1070 Ti Advanced Edition 8GB GDDR5 $4400
RAM
– G.Skill DDR4 Aegis Gaming Series 3000MHz 1x8GB F4-3000C16S-8GISB $670 SALES
$730
– G.Skill DDR4 Aegis Gaming Series 3000MHz 1x8GB F4-3000C16S-8GISB $670 SALES
$730
火牛
– Antec NX Series NX650 80Plus Bronze 650W PSU $489
HDD
– WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200rpm 64MB 3.5 Inch HDD $319
SSD
機箱
– ANTEC P8 ATX $459 SALES
$499
Quite an insightful article.
Just in case, any major update on this build since last March?
… maybe just the 7700k would be now replaced by the 8700k (?)
Thanks
Alex,
For pure After Effects / Premiere uses, would you see any significant advantage to get 2 SSD drives (one for the system and softwares and the other one for the sources and caches) rather than just one?
If so, would you consider a Samsung 960 Pro 512Mb (Nvme) (for the system) + a Samsung 850 Evo 1tb (SATA) (for the sources and cache) a good option?
Or would it be here worthwhile to add when possible the extra bucks necessary to replace the Samsung 850 Evo 1tb (SATA) by a Samsung 960 Pro 1Tb (Nvme), just to be sure no bottlenecking ever happens when actively working on these Adobe softwares?
Thanks!
You definitely want to go with a dual SSD config (and a large HDD as a third drive for data) because having everything on one drive is going to overwork the drive,
A Samsung 960 Pro is overkill as a system drive. So swap your initial proposed config around, but I recommend the Samsung Evo *PRO* as a system drive because the Pros have better write endurance. If you want the best bang for your buck, check out the Intel 600p NVMe 512gb as a system drive. In terms of performance, it’s in between a SATA SSD and a Samsung NVMe SSD.
AE CC2017 Still use 1core for rendering right?
Nadir,
Unfortunately AE CC 2017 still has problems with multicore rendering. The last good multi-core Version was v12. So I would still recommend getting high clock-cpu over max core count.
Cheers