Loved Vegas Pro 15 has been released !

Could you please give me some reasons off the top of your head why it might be advantageous to spend more money and move over to Vegas Pro Edit?

When I think of Vegas Pro, the main thing it can do that Vegas Movie Studio cannot do, is accurate Colour Correction.
Only Vegas Pro includes Scopes to get your levels accurate.
It also comes with a proper Masking Tool.
There are a large amount of differences, but it all depends on what functions are important for you.
I did make a comparison between Vegas Pro and Vegas Movie Studio some years ago, which is still valid today.
I recommend you read this:
www.moviestudiozen.com/free-tutorials/sony-vegas-pro/512-sony-vegas-pro-12-vs-movie-studio-platinum-12

If you make DVDs and Blu-ray discs, please know that Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 14 & 15 and Vegas Pro 14 & 15, now come with the same Pro version of DVD Architect. If making discs is important for you, you should get the latest version of Vegas Movie Studio Platinum or Vegas Pro 15. Vegas Pro 15 Edit does not come with the latest pro version of DVD Architect.

Derek has given you good reasons but remember you can always download the trial version to see for yourself. It won't cost you anything and then you can decide whether it is advantageous to spend more money.

Thank you Derek.

First, some heartfelt flattery. You are terrific. I can honestly say that there is no way I could have figured out (to the extent I have) Vegas Movie Studio over the years without the invaluable assistance of your tutorials and comments. You are worth your weight in gold, or more!

While I have wished at times that I had the ability to fix colors, I can't say it is an overriding necessity for me at the moment. And mostly I upload to Vimeo now, and want to be able to do so in 4K. (Masking is something I have not even thought about). So those things are positive selling points, but not crucial to me at the moment

I guess my primary interests are rendering performance and output codecs. I can get pretty good performance out of my Windows 10 desktop with SSDs, 24GB of DDR3 memory and a Nvidia Quadro P4000. My 2009 Intel CPU was top of the line then, but is probably a little bit of bottleneck now and obviously not able to make use of Intel QSV. Are the rendering engines basically the same, or are there differences between the VMS15, VPE15, and VP15 that might make a difference? For example, if VPE15 or VP15 will make better use of my Quadro than VMS15, that would be important to me.

Will I have the same codecs available to me in VMS15, VPE15 and VP15, particularly h.265, or are there meaningful differences that I should take account of?

Thank you in advance for any thoughts.

Brian

Are the rendering engines basically the same, or are there differences between the VMS15, VPE15, and VP15 that might make a difference?

The same rendering engines are used in both programs now.
Vegas Pro just has more options that are more applicable for a professional video editor.
Anything the average to moderate to semi-advanced user would need, is available in Vegas Movie Studio 15 Platinum.

If you want to do 4K video editing, you need to upgrade your CPU - a CPU from 2009 is not going to cut it.
It may work, but will be extremely slow. A modern 8x Core CPU is the minimum required for a proper 4K workflow, if you don't want to be sitting around all day waiting for things to happen.

You can output 4K video using the traditional Mainconcept AVC/AAC encoder in both programs.
However, both programs now use an alternate newer MAGIX AVC Encoder (default encoder), which is configured to take advantage of all modern Nvidia graphics cards. MAGIX AVC Encoder is quite capable to output 4K video.
HVEC is available if you have a modern Intel CPU, and is meant for outputtings large 4K videos, if you want to super compress the file size.

Specifications for both programs:
Your Nvidia P series card is listed as a compatible model.
www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-pro/specifications/#productMenu
www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-movie-studio/specifications/#productMenu

You can download a free 30 day trial for both programs, which every person should always do before purchase.

Thank you Derek.

Very helpful!

Two kids in college right now . . . I am going to try to limp along for a few years more before I buy my 8 core monster.

Brian