Need Advice on Video Rig

[Civil Service Cog]

Hello, great and powerful Adobe Community.  I'm hoping someone can help me compare some specs.  I put in for two new workstations fitted out as hot rods to handle video production.  Our IT department questioned whether we needed anything as powerful as what I asked for and counter offered with a configuration they have in stock.  The fact is that I'm not a tech head and don't really know, I just took the best components Dell had on offer while trying to avoid total sticker shock.  I don't expect an opportunity to upgrade for quite some time and want all the machine I can reasonably use.  Currently, we mostly do basic video production (talking heads in front of green screens) with some modest animation and special effects.  Current render times average about 2-3 hours to render roughly three minutes of video.  However, we've just been handed a multi-year project that will call for much more ambitious productions.

The main difference between what I put in for and what they offered is the processor.  The machine I put in for has an Intel Xeon Processor E5-2697 v4 (18 core, 2.3 GHz, 3.6GHz Turbo, 2400MHz, 45MB, 145W).  I realize that's a sick processor.  The machine they're offering (and which they tell me will offer similar performance) has an Intel i7-7700 3.6GHz (4 Core, 4.2GHz turbo).  My questions are:

• Is the Xeon processor extreme overkill, or do I want that much processing power for video and animation?
• Will the i7 processor they're pushing on me actually offer similar performance?  When I compare specs and price points, this seems impossible.

If the XEON is more than I need and the i7 has enough muscle to get me quick render times and real time processing of effects and filters, I can live with that.  But I think I could get the Xeon if I push for it.  I want as much power as I can get, but not more than I realistically need.  What do you guys think?  Can anyone offer me any solid advice on how to approach this?  Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks! 

[Bill_Gehrke · Accepted solution]

Your IT department needs an overhaul.  Take a look at my Premiere Pro BenchMark Blog and under the CPU tab you will see major differences between 18-cores and 4-cores.the i7-7700 is appreciable less than half the power when used  with Premiere Pro.  They might as well give you a 4-core laptop.

If they offered you a 8-core i7 then you probably should consider

[RjL190365]

As Bill stated, that i7-7700 is not powerful enough to handle this type of content. However, the Xeon E5-2697 v4 is overkill for this type of work, largely because the law of diminishing returns kicks in above 8 to 10 CPU cores (16 to 20 processing threads). As a result, the best PC for the job would have been one with an 8- to 10-core Intel i7/i9 or an AMD Ryzen 7-series CPU.

If your IT department's PC budget is so low that you'd have to settle for only a quad-core (or worse) CPU, your company might as well close up shop.

[Civil Service Cog]

Thanks, guys.  I really appreciate the advice.