[Rick Altizer] "If I have an i7, 32 gigs of RAM, Windows 7 pro and an SSD - do I even need to worry about GPU processing?"
It depends... does your computer seem fast enough for you? If yes... then you don't need it. ;-)
Here's real world example:
I have a an Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz that has 6 cores, 12 threads, 16GB of memory. I'm guessing that's a bit more powerful than your i7 QuadCore.
With GPU turned off, I can render 1 minute of HDV 1440x1080 to MainConcept AVC/AAC MP4 in
1:06
With GPU turned on, I can render 1 minute of HDV 1440x1080 to MainConcept AVC/AAC MP4 in
0:30 !!!
That's a 200% improvement in render times with a 6 core CPU vs NVIDIA Quadro 4000 GPU... so I'd say it makes BIG difference having GPU acceleration.
~jr
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