GPU options for editing RED 4k via Mercury Engine

Hi Everyone,
I've done a fair bit of research in terms of GPU options, but have yet to have found any decent information regarding specifically the RED 4k workflow.
I'm currently in the process of building this workstation:
i7 2600 Overclocked @ around 3.8Ghz with Corsair H80
Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H Mobo
16GB 1600MHZ Corsair Blue
2x HDs in RAID 0
1x SSD for operating system
2x 24in Dell Ultrasharp @ 1920x1200
My three options currently are:
GTX 570 1.2Ghz @ £220 - 480 CUDA Cores - 320bit
GTX 580 1.5Ghz @ £350 - 512 CUDA Cores - 384bit
GTX 580 3.0Ghz @ £430 - 512 CUDA Cores - 384bit
The sole purpose of this workstation is to be able to edit 4K R3D files at 1/2 res. Does anyone have a similar setup, if so how does it perform with R3D files?
My financial situation isn't great after just shelling out £15,000 on a Scarlet, but seeing as this setup is built solely for the purpose of editing RED content it seems silly to shoot myself in the foot trying to save a buck on the GPU . The 570 is a third cheaper than the 580, but would I notice any real world difference in the editing capabilities of my workstation?
Does Premiere CS5.5 fully utilise the extra 32 cores between the 570 and 580? Are there any advantages of having the extra GPU processor speed between the 1.5Ghz and 3.0Ghz when it comes to Premiere, such as being able to have more 4K streams in the timeline for instance? Are there any obvious bottlenecks in the proposed system?
I understand that Quadros would be the best way forward for workstation acceleration, however unfortunately these cards are out of my budget.
Thanks for your time.
Ross

Ross,
In a thread from 2011 (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/883259) I posted the following test results:
...my test results with the RED 4.5k footage on a high-end PC that does not have any special hardware installed (RED Rocket, etc.), I've summarized my findings below:
PC: Intel i7-970 at 4.2GHz, 7x1TB RAID 5 array, and a GTX 480 with 1.5GB GDDR5 VRAM:
TEST 1a: Hardware MPE and un-rendered timeline:
- Scrubbing and playback at 1/2 resolution - perfect quality, no lag whatsoever, CPU usage around 70% (wow, that's with 6 real cores and 6 hyperthread pseudo cores!)
- Scrubbing and playback at full resolution - HORRIBLE, unusable
TEST 1b: Hardware MPE and fully rendered timeline:
- Scrubbing and playback at full resolution - perfect quality, no lag whatsoever, CPU usage around 20% for playback
- Full timeline render is pretty slow - about 9 minutes for 1 minute and 20 seconds of clips on the timeline
TEST 2a: Hardware MPE and un-rendered timeline; this time with 4 layers displayed simultaneously (each at 50% size and in a separate corner):
- Scrubbing and playback at 1/4 resolution - perfect quality, no lag whatsoever, CPU usage around 100% (again, wow!); also, I have to add that RED at only 1/4 resolution is still pretty stunning!
- Scrubbing and playback at full resolution - HORRIBLE, unusable
TEST 2b: Hardware MPE and fully rendered timeline; same 4 layers as test 2A:
- Scrubbing and playback at full resolution - perfect quality, no lag whatsoever, CPU usage around 20% for playback
- Full timeline render is again pretty slow - about 7 minutes for 4 clips around 20 seconds each
I'm very unqualified to tell someone how to build a system for RED, but my sense from running those quick tests was that RED taxes your CPU massively, but the GPU not so much.
If you have not purchased your CPU yet, go for the 2600k model and shoot for a higher OC, say around 4.4GHz. I think that you will want and / or need lots of CPU "grunt".
Regards,
Jim

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