100% CPU Usage While Editing Video — Is It Normal?
Sometimes, excessive concern over 100% CPU usage is unnecessary. Instead, Low CPU usage might be a problem. For instance, when editing videos, instead of being alarmed by high CPU usage, some individuals may actually strive to maximize CPU utilization across all cores. It’s quite normal for a computer to fully leverage its available resources (CPU/GPU) when exporting or rendering a video.
Imagine a scenario where only 50% of the CPU is utilized, it will cost you two times longer for the process to finish because your resources are not fully used. Then what’s the point of building a powerful computer?
The Reasoning for Fully Using Your CPU
Just as a video editing fan says, “If my CPU is not working at full capacity, then I would think that my money was wasted.”
But that’s under the condition that your CPU is doing its work at full speed, and delivers results within a reasonable time. If it’s overheating and cracks down, make sure you have a good cooler on your CPU, and that your CPU is under the max load of thermal. If it’s super slow and laggy, there are both hardware and software issues to consider.
Not caring about technical details? You can jump to the last part for the workable solution: Use Video Converter software to convert footage into editing-friendly formats.
Hardware Considerations
Searching for the best CPU for video editing doesn’t make sense, as people have different needs in terms of video editing. It might sound counterintuitive, but it’s not the more the better. For instance, more CPU cores do help with video editing, but the enhancement gradually becomes less noticeable when you reach a certain core count.
According to PugetSystems, while editing 1080p and 4K videos, the performance plateaued on 10 CPU cores, beyond that, the enhancement is less noticeable. To illustrate, using 2 cores, you could see 2 times improvement of the performance; 4 cores: nearly 4 times, 7 cores: maybe 5 times the performance.
Here is a list of CPU specs catering to people in various levels of video editing.
For Power users
- AMD Ryzen 5 1600–6 cores/12 threads/ up to 3.6GHz
- AMD Ryzen 7 2700X — 8 Cores/16 Threads/up to 4.3GHz
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X — 8 Cores/16 Threads/up to 4.4GHz
- i7 9700K — 8 Cores/8 Threads/up to 4.9GHz
- i9 9900 KS — 8 Cores/16 Threads/up to 5.0GHz
For Super users
- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X — 12 Cores/24 Threads/up to 4.6GHz
- AMD Ryzen 9 3950X — 16 Cores/32 Threads/up to 4.7GHz
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX — 32 Cores/64 Threads/up to 4.4GHz
- AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper 3970X — 32 Cores/64 Threads/up to 4.5GHz
That list could be overwhelming if you are not a computer DIY guy/gal. But the general idea is, video editing is a complex computing process that is CPU intensive. When you have high-definition videos such as 4K, and complex effects, it requires more CPU resources to process.
RAM storage and drive type are also factors to be considered. 16GM RAM might be ok with HD videos, but with 4K or higher, it requires 32GB or more for efficient editing. General HDD reads at 30–100MB/s. For 4K videos, that’s not enough. You need at least 400M/s for better 4K post-production. Modern SSD on the market reads at 500M/s or so, and that’s an optimal choice for general users.
Other Things to Consider Besides Hardware (H2)
CPU works when you preview, render, and export a video. FCPX, Premiere, and Sony Vegas can take advantage of multi-core and hyperthreading CPUs for better performance, though GPU does have a role to play in video editing, especially for DaVinci Resolve.
There are various things that might influence CPU usage, some of which we can deal with.
1. Playback Resolution
You might find playing back and scrubbing a 4K video causes high CPU usage, as it trying to give a real-time preview of the frames you are dealing with. You can switch to a lower resolution, which won’t affect exported resolution.
To change playback resolution in Premiere Pro, hover your mouse over the editing monitor, and switch Full to 1/2, 1/4, and so on.
To reduce playback quality in Final Cut Pro, click view in viewer, and select Better Performance.
If you are a Sony Vegas guy/gal, click Preview, and select a quality that your CPU can handle.
2. Effects
Adding effects to videos is also CPU intensive. Though some effects support GPU acceleration, which will shift the load of work from CPU to GPU, there are still other effects that rely on CPU solemnly.
VFX with the following icon supports GPU acceleration in Premiere.
3. Source Video Types
DJI videos are highly compressed ones that require excessive computing when you are editing. You might wonder then why would DJI adopt codecs that are CPU-intensive and editing unfriendly in the first place. Well, those highly compressed videos make it easy for the tiny memory card in DJI devices to store more videos. Editing Long GOP videos from DJI devices and DLSRs is one of the notorious nightmares. It’s fairly easy for the drones and gimbals to encode these videos, but disastrous for post-editing using Premiere, FCP, or other NLEs.
Another ready example, the Sony A73 shots 4K HLG with H264 codecs, and it doesn’t pose much difficulty for Premiere. While drones such as Mavic 2 Pro encode 4K HLG with H265 codec, it’s hard to playback on Surface Pro, let alone editing in Premiere.
For these demanding source media, you can change preview settings or adopt a proxy workflow. Also, there is another easy way to tackle the problem: convert videos into post-editing-friendly format.
How to Convert Video to Reduce High CPU Usage
Apple ProRes, DNxHD/DNxHR, and GoPro CineForm are intermediate codecs especially suitable for video editing and cross-platform workflow. For instance, you can convert videos into CineForm and edit them in Premiere, then throw them into DaVinci Resolve for sophisticated color grading. It’s highly efficient and compatible to pass files through various post-production software.
VideoProc is a handy tool for you to do such pre-works before launching NLE. You can convert mainstream and weird formats into Apple ProRes using VideoProc Converter.
Step 1. Download and install VideoProc Converter from VideoProc official site.
Step 2. Import your 4K videos.
Step 3. Click Target Format > Apple Device > ProRes Video. Select one of the ProRes presets.
You can enable hardware acceleration when click Run to convert.
Besides converting format, VideoProc Converter is also one of the best Video Compressors on Mac and Windows. It can reduce video file size to make it smaller and easier to edit.
By converting the videos beforehand, you can ensure smoother editing processes without overloading your computer’s CPU. This approach mitigates the potential performance issues — especially when you are dealing with long-GOP from DJI and GoPro. Those high-compressed formats can often lead to high CPU usage. By converting the videos to ProRes (or directly recording the video in ProRes/CineForm in the beginning), you can alleviate CPU strain and focus on the creative aspects of your editing workflow.