What’s the best CPU for Adobe Premiere Pro? It’s complicated

I am not a video editor. But Alex Esteves is — in fact he edits most of the videos on PCWorld’s YouTube channel and TikTok. So he knows a thing or two about what kind of PC works best for Adobe Premiere and other video editing software. And he’s in the studio, in front of the camera this time, to break it down for us.

First of all, it’s not a straight matter of Bigger Bar Better. So simply shelling out the most you can possibly afford on a processor, or tracking down the one with the best benchmarks for your budget, might not be the optimal approach. More and faster processor scores are generally better, but that’s a generality. Examining the subscores in PugetBench’s Premiere Pro test breaks them down into Intraframe, LongGOP, and uncompressed RAW scores, different measures of performance based on how codecs are processing video.

Once again, I am not video editor — watch Alex’s explanations for the technical details. But the gist of it is that how you edit your video, the hardware you use, the specific methods you choose between the different editing steps, affect which processor will be the ideal choice for you. For example, if you’re using LongGOP heavily, shelling out for a processor with more performance cores probably isn’t going to benefit you that much.

The good news is that the delta between more affordable, mid-range desktop processors and the most expensive stuff on the market isn’t absolutely insurmountable, so you can do plenty of quality editing without sinking multiple thousands of dollars into hardware. For more on PC hardware, be sure to subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube, and check out our weekly podcast The Full Nerd.