I recently found myself back in the world of the PC Master race after years of basking in the convenience of console gaming. I built two PC’s within the past year, one strictly for gaming and one that I built for basic productivity.
Now, I’m onto my third this year and this one is going to be a beast of a machine (In my eyes). As a tech lover/reviewer I love to write. It’s the best way for me to be expressive and not have the burden of dealing with not only the expense of a camera but also dealing with the learning curve of video editing software. That time is slowly coming to an end. I decided that I’m not gonna be a pu–y anymore, I’m gonna man-up, get a camera and learn how to edit and begin to transition away from “old” media and get more into “new” media. It’s time.
With the revelation that I was going to start editing video came the realization that I now have to build a new PC. Building a machine for video editing is not quite like gaming PC building. There are some minor nuances with CPU, board and GPU that make video editing/workstation a bit of a different endeavor. Whereas with a gaming PC you can get by and play your games with components that aren’t really that expensive, video editing may cost you a bit more. You can get a solid experience even if not the best with gaming. Video editing is a bit different, it’s more specific.
I’m no expert and I’m still learning and I could be dead wrong here but over the past year messing around with video I’ve begun to understand two things. It’s better to record at a higher resolution than a lower one and the more power you have the better. The second part of my statement in regards to power also applies to gaming but you have a lot more leeway in gaming than you do video, at least in my experience. I’m going to speak on both my experiences with gaming and video but video editing is first.
The main reason why I never really got into video editing was mostly the expense. Cameras are expensive, lenses are even more expensive and then the computer(s) that you’ll need to tie it altogether makes trying to video edit feel like buying a car outright. Why did I go into this lengthy diatribe? I’m trying to give you a sense of my frustration and how broke I was wanting to do this video editing thing. I also wanted to play my games at higher resolutions too and just couldn’t afford it.
My situation got a little better over time and I had some extra cash and I was able to build a PC for gaming and I tried to edit some basic video with that. It wasn’t bad. My first card I attempted with was an EVGA 1050 ti SSC. It wasn’t bad for gaming at all especially when I played in 1080p. Using it for video editing wasn’t that bad either as long as I was recording in 1080p or lesser than. It wasn’t until someone asked me to help them with some minor editing with a video collage for a recruitment that I saw that I didn’t have enough power in my GPU. I was having incredible difficulty scrubbing through my video and more often than not my software would stall and crash sometimes. I’m using Premiere Pro by the way.
Premiere has built into it GPU acceleration that speeds up Premiere Pro. With all the power that the 2080 Ti packs into it, Premiere Pro was so much easier to use. Keep in mind, my overall editing skills are still shit. Having this GPU has nothing to do with my ability to create a great video but what it does do, is make the process free of frustration because of hardware issues. Scrubbing through a video to whereas it gets stuck or drops frames is a nuisance and you always seem to “conveniently” drop frames exactly where you want to make an edit and that could be because you just didn’t have enough power. Since I installed my 2080 Ti, this has all changed. No bullshit. Using Premiere has been so much smoother. Having this new GPU alleviates pressure in a variety of ways. I can shoot video the way I like instead of the way that I can. For a person that’s still learning the ropes, finally being able to have the power to work in this fashion is a godsend.
GAMING WITH A 2080 Ti
Gaming is the real reason to buy this card and when you finally connect it to your motherboard and power your PC on, this may sound strange but, you can almost feel the power. I’ve never been able to afford or rather I never wanted to afford a GPU at the highest end of the pricing range. I won’t make light of this. The RTX 2080 Ti is expensive AF. It’s not a bargain relative to what most would consider a bargain. As of right now this card is still priced well over $1000, $1200 to be exact. Not cheap. However, the more you dive into cheap you the more you realize that being cheap can be expensive too. Not just in dollars but in time.
Gaming with this card saves you a lot of time by giving you options and overhead. Having a GPU that’s more powerful than most actually need can and will save you time and in gaming, it’ll also save you money, in the long run. Having a GPU like a 2080 Ti gives you future proofing. To me, this is THE most important thing. In my experience buying video cards I’ve found that when you buy a GPU that’s a little more affordable and not at the top end of the spec sheet it always seems to get replaced by a newer version that usually comes out months later and you end up feeling cheated. I experienced this recently when I first bought the RTX 2060 when the 20 series cards became available. Not to long afterwards, Nvidia updated those cards with the Super series which somewhat made my 2060 feel a little useless, in just a couple of months. With the 2080 Ti, this doesn’t happen. It’s the best of the best universally and with that comes never having to worry about being obsolete for at the very least 2 to 3 years, if not longer.
Having a video card this powerful allows you to play any game you want essentially. Granted, you do have to have the CPU, motherboard and RAM to support the games you want to play but I’m sure if you have a GPU like this then that’s kind of a given. Finally, I was able to experience 4K gaming (4K gaming is stupid by the way) and 1080p gaming was nothing for the 2080 Ti with frame rates well over 100, but my sweet spot in gaming right now is any game in 1440p with custom settings between high and medium which I find to be the perfect balance since I’m a sucker for frame rates with consistency. It makes gaming on PC so much more worthwhile.
WHY DID I WRITE ABOUT THIS?
By now, if you got this far, you have to be asking yourself aside from “why did I read this?” but asking “Why did he write this?”. Truth is. I don’t really know why. I do know that I felt the urge to try and describe my experience trying to become a serious creative and tech writer who was semi-broke but wanted to work with the best equipment. The folks at Nvidia allowed me to mess around with this high end GPU and I couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunity. I am spoiled now though. The PC I put this GPU in is a fairly new build. I wanted to have it for the reasons of this article. Now I put the GPU through it’s paces and work on my content creation and be more of the gamer I am and wanted to be.
Yes, this is a strange article to have written, i’ll admit it but if you’ve ever been broke before and always wanted something but had to wait and then you finally got it. Then you understand me. All things considered. If you’re in the market for a GPU and you’re building a PC try to possibly save the money. Get an Nvidia 2080 Ti. If not, I ain’t mad at ya. I mean, after all, it is a $1000 plus dollar GPU which seems like a lot for a one part purchase. It is. However, when you consider that with this GPU you can do ALL things you need to do with your PC for at least a few years which makes it worth it over that time.
