How big should your cache be? A sizing guide for editors
Too small and you're waiting on the network. Too big and you're wasting an SSD. Here's how to land in the middle.
Start with a working day
Your cache only needs to hold what you touch in a typical session, not the whole project. Estimate the hours of footage you'll scrub in a day and multiply by your codec's data rate.
| Codec | Approx. per hour | Suggested personal cache |
|---|---|---|
| H.264 / H.265 1080p | ~20–45 GB | 250 GB |
| ProRes 422 HQ 4K | ~330 GB | 1 TB |
| ProRes 4444 4K | ~500 GB | 2 TB |
| BRAW 6K (Q0) | ~600 GB | 2 TB |
| ARRIRAW 4.6K | ~1.2 TB | 4 TB |
Data rates are approximate and vary by frame rate and settings. Check your camera's specs for exact figures.
Shared cache for teams
If several editors in one office work on the same project, a shared cache on the local network means footage crosses the internet once, then every bay reads it at LAN speed. Size it for the active projects on that floor, typically 2–3× the largest personal cache.
Three signs your cache is too small
- Playback stutters when you jump back to clips from earlier in the day.
- The cache meter sits at 100% and evicts files constantly.
- Your network usage stays high even when you're re-watching the same sequence.
Use a fast drive
Put the cache on an internal NVMe SSD if you can. A spinning disk or slow USB drive will bottleneck playback before the network does.