Wondering what hardware and software people are using to render and edit their videos in 4k.  CPU GPU's Monitors etc

You need some serious processing power to edit 4k, I'm not a computer guy so as far as specs someone else will have t chime in.
I have a 2011 Macbook Pro and it wouldn't even play 4k. I installed 16gb or RAM and a 500gb SSD drive and it will do it now but just barely.

I have a computer that I only use for editing, it uses an i7 processor with 6 cores, 32GB of fast RAM, GTX-570 GPU, water cooling, and is equipped with all SSD drives. It is a few years old now, but the main thing you need is a fast processor and SSD drives. The GPU is not all that important, as many editing programs do not use them properly.
I mostly work with Blackmagic Resolve for grading, and edit using Sony Vegas Pro.

Geebax Posted at 2016-3-26 19:20
I have a computer that I only use for editing, it uses an i7 processor with 6 cores, 32GB of fast RA ...

Thanks Geebax I have a couple of AMD Radeon 6900 my kid was using for PC gaming and I put one in my bench PC i7 8 core  but only had a SATA drive and 4GB of RAM.  The video file was only 2GB I was working with and the display was really choppy so I wasn't sure where I should be focusing.  I will throw an SSD drive in it and some RAM.  32GB of RAM is pretty pricey though... I may try SLI or crossfire with the 6900  and use display port on TV although I think I am going to need a buy a 4K monitor as well so I can see what the finished output will look like.

Is anyone using some type of off the shelf 4K editing appliance that is optimized and preconfigured HW / SW for working with 4K video.  The hack a PC together is a good idea for people who are comfortable doing this but probably more expensive than a special purpose appliance and you wouldn't need that skill set.  Would be nice if DJI or Apple could recommend or even sell one.  <$1000 would be a good price point.

im still using a i3 processor 3225 @ 3.30 GHz with 16gb ram in windows 10. It just about handles it ok so anything above that should be fine. I will update soon as possible as sometimes the playback is laggy. If I restart it then its ok. Also edited ok using windows movie maker but adobe pro seems to suffer under this spec.

I just tried my Wifes HP envy laptop.  Nice laptop and she only uses it for Word and Power point :-)  i7 8 core 2Ghz , 16 GB Ram, very smooth when playing and editing video but could only output 4K at 24hz (Old HDMI spec)  so it sounds like 16GB + RAM and 6- 8 core CPU is key although if it can't output 4K at 60hz I think that is also a challenge.   I haven't tried any large files yet.  Going for a flight today so will try and shoot until battery runs out and see how it goes.  

Nink Posted at 2016-3-28 00:20
Thanks Geebax I have a couple of AMD Radeon 6900 my kid was using for PC gaming and I put one in m ...

The use of GPUs is problematic, some programs make use of them, some don't, they they will argue over which GPU architecture is compatible or not. The most important factor I find are a fast processor and SSD drives.

I have a ASUS Pro monitor, it does a good job of displaying the material, but in truth I don't care much about 4K anyway. I can't use 4K directly, there is no real release format for it, so I simply post-produce my footage as far as I can go in 4K then downscale it to 1080p for final finishing.

If you want an all-in-one solution, probably the best route is to buy a Mac Pro, they might be expensive, but they are designed from the ground up to handle 4K, and they do it well.

As an aside try using a different player, I've seen an instance where the standard windows media player struggles on my Surface pro 3 (i5 @ 2.5 GHz, 4GB RAM) with lumpy playback of 4k files, but the 'films & TV ' App' in windows 10 on same machine gives super smooth playback.

Im using Windows 10's Movies & TV app, it runs 4K very smoothly...