PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

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Stopher Secher

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PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostSun Jun 26, 2016 9:58 am

Hi All,

This has probably been asked before, but ...

I shoot and work in prores HQ (BMCC 2,5k) - semi pro. Editing and color grading in Resolve using my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15″, ultimo 2013) …and it’s struggling.

So, I want to build a bad PC, being able to noise reduce, and using div. new 12.5 plugs (grain, glow, etc …) without it freezing, restarting, losing flow …bleeding!!!

But, to be honest I don’t know anything about PC’s or where to begin? Been reading the configuration guide, but ...?? Need some help with the tailor work. So, how would the ‘best’ PC look like? What parts? Specs?

I need something that is usable for a couple of years from now …and of course without cleaning my bank account.

My budget is around 3.000 US$

I hope you can help point me in the right direction.

Thanks a lot in advance. Very appreciated.

Cheers

Stopher, Denmark
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waltervolpatto

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostSun Jun 26, 2016 4:13 pm

there is a big thread going on about it, but basically you can either pick single components or you get a pre build one.

the latter option, find a hp 820 used with dual xenon, you should be able to snag one for 1k-1.4k.

find one new nvidia 1080 gpu at s reasonable price

get some output card like DeckLink/mini monitor

slap some raid disk.
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waltervolpatto

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostSun Jun 26, 2016 4:17 pm

W10-19043.1645- Supermicro MB C9X299-PGF - RAM 128GB CPU i9-10980XE 16c 4.3GHz (Oc) Water cooled
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Ignacio de La Cierva

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 1:37 am

waltervolpatto wrote:there is a big thread going on about it, but basically you can either pick single components or you get a pre build one.

the latter option, find a hp 820 used with dual xenon, you should be able to snag one for 1k-1.4k.

find one new nvidia 1080 gpu at s reasonable price

get some output card like DeckLink/mini monitor

slap some raid disk.


That's exactly what i'm planning to do, but have some doubts you might help me with .

I've seen a good ebay offer. http://www.ebay.es/itm/HP-Z820-Workstation-2-x-Intel-Xeon-E5-2640-80-GB-RAM-Quadro-4000-256-GB-SSD-/172253354687?hash=item281b199abf:g:0OcAAOSwMNxXbnB1

HP z820 Workstation 2 x Intel Xeon e5-2640/80 GB de RAM/Quadro 4000/256 gb ssd
1200€ (about 1350$)

It only needs a BlackMagic Mini Monitor and ready to Resolve.

My doubts come because one of the features I'd like to have with this new system is my first 10bit monitoring. I have a 10bit monitor ASUS PA2790 and a Blackmagic Cinema Camera for two years and still never enjoyed 10bit color.

I'm waiting for confirmation from ASUS support about the 10bit capability of this monitor's HDMI input. Then I'd use it for program video with BM Mini Monitor, and buy a normal 8bit monitor for GUI.

If it's not, if I have to feed 10bit via DisplayPort, I'd get 10bit GUI from the Quadro card and 8bit video program. Curious config... :mrgreen:

Any advice or warning will be welcome.
Last edited by Ignacio de La Cierva on Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 2:10 am

Building your own high end PC for Resolve has never been cheaper or easier - especially since the release of Nvidia's GTX 1080. Here are a couple of 'home build' articles I had published when I first embarked on this project two years ago. Technology has moved on since but the basics are still the same

1) http://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/2 ... shoestring

2) http://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/2 ... shoestring

3) and RedSharkNews second most popular article ever published: http://www.redsharknews.com/post/item/3 ... production

PS When it comes to 10 bit colour accurate video monitoring out of DaVinci with the 'mini-monitor' card, (or TB box) I recommend using SDI rather than HDMI then use a n SDI to Display Port adapter. We currently have BMD's Decklink SDI 4K Pro card installed as it has two SDI outputs with #2 offering real time hardware downscaling of 4K to HD you can grade 4K material at up to 60P on your colour managed HD display. Good quality 24" 16:10 10bit IPS displays with 14bit 3D LUTs built in can be had now for as little as US$750 if all you need is accurate REC.709 displays.
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Ignacio de La Cierva

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 3:01 am

Hey, you made me remind those days recording 3D Studio animations with a Targa card to Betacam SP, frame by frame with five seconds of pre-roll ...
Your delivery via diskettes is another lever of pain, oh yeah!

The SDI to DisplayPort adapter is a great idea, but I can't find one online! I see several in the opposite direction DP to SDI, and HDMI to SDI, but none SDI to DisplayPort. Do you know of one?

Anyway, let's see what ASUS says about HDMI 10bit input. That would be the easiest solution for 10bit video program output, no adapters in-between. Why do you prefer SDI to HDMI?

I was planning to invest more in GPU than in CPU, but yesterday I learned here that XAVC reading is full CPU task and, apart of the BMCinema eraCam, a half of the footage I handle is Slog2 from Sony A7s and 4K Slog2 from A6300, so I changed my plans to a more robust CPU.

That ebay unit is so cheap it leaves free budget for an extra video card for CUDA. Can I add a GTX 1080 for CUDA to live with the Quadro 4000 that comes with this Z820 for GUI?


Ah... I edited my last post because the config was wrong. My favorite ebay offer was a Z820 with Quadro, not that Z800 with GTX970 I wrote about. Anyway, most of my doubts remain relevant.

Thanks for your help!
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 3:33 am

Ignacio de La Cierva wrote:Hey, you made me remember recording 3D Studio animations with a Targa card to Betacam SP, frame by frame with five seconds of pre-roll ...
Your delivery via diskettes is another lever of pain, oh yeah, !


Yes, those were the days!

Blackmagic still offer their SDI to DP and SDI to DVI converters under the 'HD Link' name and you'll generally find plenty on Ebay second hand as they are not recommended for LUT use but seem good value as straight SDI converters.

HDMI has issues with long cable runs so I find SDI is just a better all round approach. Ideally, you'd buy an SDI monitor like an FSI but they are an expensive proposition if you're not earning good money grading for clients. I use BenQ's FOGRA Certified 24" PG2401PT which is a 16:10 IPS display designed for pre-press soft proofing and has 10bit resolution on either DP or DVI-D inputs. I drive it out of Resolve via the Decklink 12G SDI 4K Pro card and a HD Link SDi to DVI-D converter.

I recommend transcoding all compressed acquisition codecs to either ProRes or DNxHD/HR with a good quality batch transcoder as there's less stress on your CPU and you get proper timecode and reel numbers embedded - it just works.
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Ignacio de La Cierva

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 12:42 pm

Thanks Craig!

I see that HDLink SDI to DisplayPort converter is about 400-500€, out of my budget limit. If 10bit monitoring were mandatory for my work, I'd go for it, but it's not. Maybe in a couple of years, with the next hardware update.

Let's wait for ASUS to give an answer to my question about PA279Q 10bit inputs and then I'll decide.

My main concern now is wether I can attach an GTX1080 for CUDA in that HP820 workstation with a Quadro4000. I've read you can use both if they are sharing the same drivers. If seen some "Vulcano" drivers at Nvidia website promising compatibility with Quadro and Gforce cards but, at the same time, I'm reading reports of incompatibility... so I can't be sure about this aspect.

Thanks again for your help!
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 1:26 pm

If your HP workstation does not have an on-board Graphics chip, you should be able to configure the Quadro for monitor display (multiple displays) and leave the GTX 1080 just for GPU acceleration. Even Resolve free will work with a dedicated GPU (selected) and a motherboard's lowly Intel 4600 to drive GUI monitor/s.

My first i7 PC setup under Resolve 11.xx used the z87 Intel 4600 for GUI and a tiny Quadro K600 for GPU and it worked fine for simple ProRes HD Rec.709 LGG adjustments.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 4:45 pm

On the Other Hand...

(but by the way do not attempt to mix the Q4000 with the 1080X for graphics processing. The VRAM differential alone will turn the 1080X into a Quadro4000, by far the lamest nVidia card that Resolve will still work with)

But looking at a SuperMicro 7048GR-TR and I notice that there are many multi-core options, and considering the small price bump, looking for any advice on whether the 10-core plus CPUs are worth the overhead. I am seeing a lot more 4096x2160 XAVC these days, which literally blew up one of my MacPro 5,1 towers recently. Poor thing just sat there with the little power light blinking when the system tried to recover. But frankly its so past-its-prime and I 'm getting tired of kluging Windows devices into the obviously-not-going-to-improve Apple platform that its time to move on. ProRes or not.

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 5:03 pm

Just build hackintosh :)
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 5:20 pm

Since it's not entirely off-topic, does anyone know how basic the GUI video card (for GUI only) can get, for up to 4K playback?

Will a fanless low-power/low CUDA GTX card do it? Or are we still looking at something like a gtx-970 as a recommended minimum?
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 8:27 pm

Gee, even the onboard Intel 4600 GPU on my 2 year old Asus z87 motherboard could run at 4K (UHD) resolution so maybe a small K620 will too.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 9:45 pm

MY NEW RESOLVE 12.5 BUILD. WINDOWS 10 PRO OEM - ASUS X 99 DELUXE 2 MOTHER BOARD - NEW 10 CORE INTEL BRODWELL POSSESSOR - SAMSUNG 950 PRO MOUNTED ON MOTHER BOARD, NOT IN CARD FOR SYSTEM DISC – 64 GB DDR 4 CORSAIR RAM, 4 STICKS SO I CAN EXPAND TO 128 GB - 2 SSD RAID 0 - 4 HHD RAID 10 – NOCTUA NH D15 CPU COOLER - AMD W7100 FIRE PRO VIDEO CARD IN SLOT # 1 – THUNDER BOLT 3 CARD IN SLOT # 5. SO FAR SO GOOD BUT THE NEW NVIDIA 1080 MIGHT BE A BETTER CHOICE. I DO NOT CLAM TO BE A EXPERT OR EVEN KNOW WHAT I AM DOING. GETTING THE SAMSUNG 950 PRO TO SHOW UP AS A BOOT DRIVE WAS A CHORE. I ALSO GOT THE NEW TANGENT RIPPLE.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 10:28 pm

That seems like a good setup but I would look closely at Gigabyte's new G1 O.C. version of the GTX 1080. I have their G1 970 currently installed and I regularly exceed the performance of a stock 980 so now that the 'non-signature' 1080s are now shipping, they are worth consideration. Which Decklink card have you installed? I recommend the 12G SDI 4K Pro but it does require a full 8 PCI lane bandwidth for full 12G performance.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostMon Jun 27, 2016 11:02 pm

Andrew Kolakowski wrote:Just build hackintosh


Its tempting, and don't think it hasn't been considered -- the take-away though is that I would still be stuck in OSX or "macOS" and all its inherent hostility to nVidia, things CUDA, and all the other professional considerations that Apple keeps insisting on fencing off in favour of making it an even better platform to run iTunes and the AppStore.

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 12:48 am

Craig Marshall wrote:If your HP workstation does not have an on-board Graphics chip, you should be able to configure the Quadro for monitor display (multiple displays) and leave the GTX 1080 just for GPU acceleration.


JPOwens wrote:
[...] do not attempt to mix the Q4000 with the 1080X for graphics processing. The VRAM differential alone will turn the 1080X into a Quadro4000, by far the lamest nVidia card that Resolve will still work with)


... by unchecking the "Use the display GPU for compute" option in the preferences menu, I suppose.

Is that all I need to do?

So that used HP Z820, 80GB RAM, Quadro +SSD + GTX1080 for 2000€ looks a very good deal. The last relevant info I'm searching now is about the dual CPU threading ability of the apps I commonly use.

I've learnt the XAVC (and most compressed codecs) reading is full CPU task. Perfect, I'll buy the fastest CPU I can find. But the million dollar question for me: Are the decompressing routines well threaded dor dual cpu? Beacuse if they're not, buying that workstation loses most of the sense.

Still a killer, best bang for the buck, for Vray render, or the few apps I use with full implementation of dual-cpu. But I'm building this station for Davinci/Fusion with a lot of 4k XAVC footage. And export a lot of h264. That's what I need to be well threaded.

Does Davinci decompress by it's own routines or is it using an external library?
What about Fusion computing? Uses second CPU? Or is full CUDA?

I've googling "benchmarks single vs dual CPS decompress video" and similar, and got oly more confused. Maybe I should ask the BM team about this before spending my little big money on that Dual Xeon.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 1:14 am

Ignacio de La Cierva wrote:Maybe I should ask the BM team about this before spending my little big money on that Dual Xeon.


By all means, but be warned that XAVC editing may prove to be disappointing in Resolve, no matter what hardware you have. You might want to search the forum on that question, as well as on the performance of H.264 footage generally, if you expect to edit those formats natively.

Take it for what it's worth, but when I need an H.264 file for delivery, I export DNxHD from Resolve and then compress that file to h.264 in Handbrake -- faster and better results.

Resolve does not appear to be optimized for handling long GOP formats. The most common advice you'll find here is to transcode.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 2:04 am

Thanks CRAIG
At this time I have no deck link card. I am running two uhd TVs off of the w7001 fire pro card. If someone uses Asus x99 deluxe 2 mother board study the PCIE slots carefully to make it will work for your setup. Thanks for your advice.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 2:48 am

Thanks for the tips, John.

Yes, I use h264 is for delivery only. Mentioned it because is one of the most common (and slow) progress bars I enjoy daily, so it's important for me to know if those tasks can take advantage of the second CPU.


I'm migrating from Premiere to Davinci for editing. t In fact, I've still never done any relevant editing with DR, as most of my work is post pre-edited stuff or simple "delivery conform" of animation sequences.

As a frugal video producer ;) I'm very used to proxies, off-lines, caches, and so on. With this five years old system I can move XAVC HD decently. Jerky cueing, but usable. 4K is too slow to edit, but I can grade. A 3x faster CPU witha 10x faster GPU will surely be enough to handle all this footage directly without transcoding for my small projects.

Of course, if face a project with a lot of editing, I change strategy to get fluid navigation at editing. But that's not very often.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 3:20 am

Ignacio de La Cierva wrote:A 3x faster CPU witha 10x faster GPU will surely be enough to handle all this footage directly without transcoding for my small projects.


If you go back and read the post, you'll see that I tried to warn you not to make that assumption.

But if you're sure, I guess that settles it....
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 3:28 am

I know Resolve is moving toward a complete edit solution but IMO, it really works best with i-frame codecs and is a bit of a resource hog with heavily compressed acquisition media. There are still very good dedicated Editors available (Lightworks for example, which runs today on PC, MAC & LINUX) which only require the most basic of hardware platforms to Export accurate EDL/AAF/XML for later finishing in DaVinci.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 4:04 am

John Paines wrote:
Ignacio de La Cierva wrote:A 3x faster CPU witha 10x faster GPU will surely be enough to handle all this footage directly without transcoding for my small projects.


If you go back and read the post, you'll see that I tried to warn you not to make that assumption.

But if you're sure, I guess that settles it....
Take this advice to heart. There are plenty of users with powerful machines that still find working with highly-compressed, long GOP codecs such like XAVC impracticable -- and I am one of them.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 12:26 pm

Thank you, friends.

Of course I transcode to the timeline codec when I face normal editing. You know... search among many files for the best take, fine adjusting rythm, transitions, try a different version, trim one more frame here and there, then go back to the first approach... :) And transcoding is mandatory if editing more than one video track, modifying play speed, or anything beyond simple full screen playing. You need perfect play and cue to do that creative process and any GOP codec will make it hard. Reverse time a gop codec video is a nightmare, for instance. I know.

(that animation I posted yestarday was done by 1994 with 3ds r3 in a 486 PC with 8MB ram :D )

I just meant that I'm a "wide generalist" and many of my deliveries have no actual editing process. It's just acquire a pre-edited timeline for grading, conform or audio sync a 3D animation sequence, insert some credits... Two minutes on the edit page to create the timeline andquickly rush to the color page. On those occasions, many times I bypass the transcoding and work with camera footage because I just need it to give me simple play.

Back to my PC config... Yesterday I found an offer for a Asus X99 MB+ i7 5820K + 48GB DDR4 2600 + 128GB M1 for 1450€. With a soft overclocking it's a similar CPU power than the dual Xeon HP workstation, but with three relevant advantages:
1) that power is available for all windows apps.
2) I stop wondering which tasks use the second CPU and which don't to adapt my workflow.
3) Motherboard is 2016's specs, not 2011's, with all the implications in possible expansion or future upgrade.

The only con is price, it's 250€ more expensive. Not a deal breaker, so I'm today back to the starting point after two days considering the HP Z820 option. It's, by far,the best "bang for the buck" PC for renderfarm, but not so clearly the best option for a "wide generalist" workstation, even being 20% cheaper.

Still no answer from ASUS to my question about PA279Q 10bit inputs. When I know that I'll be ready to decide the GPU(s) configuration.

A last minute question about that graphics config:

What's better (faster) in Davinci?

one single GTX1080 (2560 CUDA cores) for Display GUI and for calculations. Single GPU PC.

. vs.

GTX 1070 (1920 CUDA cores) for calculation + a 300$ secondary card for GUI display and Window apps only.

(300$ is the difference between 1080 and 1070. It might be a Quadro K620, 10Bit output)






Thanks again for your time.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 6:49 pm

I will get the 1080, do few jobs then double down with another 1080.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 8:30 pm

I'll bet that animation took what, 15 minutes per frame on the 486? We replaced our 486 with a custom Pentium 66 and dropped the rendering time down to about 2.5 minutes/frame. (fortunately, I had configured my PVW-2800 SP recorder to sleep between frames so reducing spinning head time...

That PC mobo deal looks good. Agree with Walter - 1 x 1080 and you can add another later if required.

PS Gigabyte are now shipping their overclocked GTX 1080 G1 gaming edition. I have one of their G1 970s which runs as fast as a stock 980 so the small additional fee for the high performance 1080 could be worth it. Alternatively, put in a 1070 now and wait for the 1080Ti if you need the additional performance.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostTue Jun 28, 2016 9:50 pm

ASUS PA279Q website tech specs:

Panel Size: Wide Screen 27.0"(68.47cm) 16:9
Color Saturation : 99% (Adobe RGB), 100% (sRGB), 120% (NTSC) *1
Panel Type : AH-IPS
True Resolution : 2560x1440
Pixel Pitch : 0.233mm
Brightness(Max) : 350 cd/㎡
ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) : 100000000:1
Viewing Angle (CR≧10) : 178°(H)/178°(V)
Response Time : 6ms (Gray to Gray)
Display Colors : 1073.7M (10bit)
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 12:05 am

John Paines wrote:Take it for what it's worth, but when I need an H.264 file for delivery, I export DNxHD from Resolve and then compress that file to h.264 in Handbrake -- faster and better results.


I left this point behind yesterday, but it is quite intriguing to me.

As far as I know, if you can use original footage in your NLE software, and directly export to delivery format from the NLE timeline, youre avoiding any degradation. Most times you can't do this, that's true, but, in fact, classic off-line editing process is based in intermediate fast files for creative process, then use originals for final render. But when you project is simple enough to be handled with originals, you can save time and storage by going straight.

Or, in other words, as far as I know, a good quality codec intermediate might not degrade original's quality, but can't ever improve it. How could the delivery h264 file be better after an extra DNx compression than without that step? I can't see this. If you're right, if you made your tests and quality is better, I'd give the medals to the Handbrake h264 encoder, not the DNx intermediate.

But all this is "as far as I know" What I'm missing?

Like you do, I also usually export finals to ProRes, DNX or even PNG for short important clips. That's my own master copy. Then, from that master I compress tailored delivery copies. But I do so because I want to get a Master copy for my archive. Intrigued about your comment about delivery quality.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 12:29 am

^ Simply put, Resolve is not a compression application. Like almost every other specialized post production tool -- that is not what it was designed to do. A number of specialized post production applications ARE capable of generating compressed files, albeit with very limited features and toolsets. But none of them operate on the order of dedicated compression programs like Telestream Episode, Adobe Media Encoder, Sorenson Squeeze, Apple Compressor or Handbrake. After a project is finished, most professionals archive an uncompressed master, which is also used in a dedicated compression application to generate the full complement of compressed deliverables.
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Ignacio de La Cierva

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 12:58 am

Craig Marshall wrote:ASUS PA279Q website tech specs:

Panel Size: Wide Screen 27.0"(68.47cm) 16:9
Color Saturation : 99% (Adobe RGB), 100% (sRGB), 120% (NTSC) *1
Panel Type : AH-IPS
True Resolution : 2560x1440
Pixel Pitch : 0.233mm
Brightness(Max) : 350 cd/㎡
ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR) : 100000000:1
Viewing Angle (CR≧10) : 178°(H)/178°(V)
Response Time : 6ms (Gray to Gray)
Display Colors : 1073.7M (10bit)


Yes, I have one in front of me. The point is to be sure which of the three inputs (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort) is 10 bit capable.


I dont want to buy a BM Mini Monitor, get only 8bit image, so discovering that my HDMI input is 8bit only, and 10bit must enter via DisplayPort. Or the opposite; buy a Quadro for 10bit Display port and then discover 10bit is HDMI only (less probable). Or that the monitor does some fancy 10bit processing to the image to label it "10bit image" as a marketing hypo, but it has no real 10bit input... whatever... that sheeeet happens too often and the only way to minimize bad suprises is checking. ( A month ago I was pretty close to buy an external 10bit Atomos recorder for my Sony A7s, and then discovered in last minute checking that the camera HDMI output is 8bit only. That's what I'm doing.


I've searched internet for hours, and found absolutely no info about usig this monitor in 10bit. No indication from asus manuals or support FAQs. No report of no user. No nothing. All saying "Oh, it's 10 bit ready, so cool", but no bragging video on youtube saying "hey, look at my 10bit display WORKING", No nothing. what's more incredible, I did not find anyone else but me asking this question.


I've read ASUS support cant take ages to answer simple tech questions, when they do. I think this is weird. Thousands of users with a "10bit" label in our monitor, a ground-breaking feature for a monitor under 1000$ and then it seems nobody has ever played 10bit on it, noboby asks, and when you ask, nobody has an answer... Don't you find this weird?

PS: Ater writing this post, I reminded that, actually, I had seen a thread in some forum days ago, with someone doing the same question. I've found it again ind guess who gives the only (partial) partial answe ther'es in the whole internet... ;)
Last edited by Ignacio de La Cierva on Wed Jun 29, 2016 1:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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John Paines

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 1:37 am

That Asus monitor is so far removed from anything a professional grader would ever use, that the distinction between 8 and 10-bit would seem to be the least of any worries you might have.
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Ignacio de La Cierva

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 2:19 am

Of course, I don't pretend this is a pro grading monitor. I know the differences. I'm not a colorist, neither.

But it's the monitor I already have in front of me (and I like it), if it has some feature and that feature can be sometimes useful for me, I'm interested on enabling it.

But it's not so important, you're right on that. I don't really need 10 bit display. When I work for big productions I usually deliver 48bit PNG sequences for post. When I'm the producer, (corporate video or youtube content) NONE of my clients have 10bit displays. It's just a freak whim, to have my first 10bit display and get mesmerized with loooong shots of sunrises and sunsets challenging the banding effect.

In the same line, the day I get a camera without rolling shutter, Ill promise I'll make a 10minute video clip full throttle panning with no sense, just for relief and revenge. :mrgreen:
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:07 am

Couple of things about the spec of the system, The 5820K will only give you 28 lanes, so if you intend to add in a second high end GPU in the future it will limit this as each card likes to use 16 lanes if possible to get maximum speed.

Motherboard wise you could go for the Gigabyte X99P-SLI. This board already has Thunderbolt 3 built in so no need to use up a slot with an add in card for Thunderbolt 3
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:39 am

If you're serious about using Resolve, you really do need to purchase the entry level mini monitor as it guarantees a baseline output, bypassing any (graphics) settings you may have configured.

My bet is that your Asus monitor is 10bit only on DP input, not HDMI but the only way to test this theory is to switch between inputs with a Tiff test ramp displaying in the Resolve COLOR page. The difference between 8bit and 10bit is very obvious and it was not till I purchased an SDI to DP converter that I experienced the difference on my current 10bit FOGRA Certified IPS monitor.

You will need to get hold of both SDI to DP converter and a mini-monitor to test this so I suggest you look out on the second hand market or buy them both with the option of returning them if you decide not to proceed.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:49 am

Well he did say earlier that he intended to use a Mini monitor, so I think he is aware of that
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Ignacio de La Cierva

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 4:29 pm

Yeah, that's what I was afraid about, that 10bit is via display port only.

I've received an answer from ASUS. The HDMI input is 10bit capable. I had that info available in the manual, actually, where it says it's a HDMI v1.4. There's a table in wikipedia to check HDMI is 10bit ready since that version.

So, PERFECT!!. I was buying a Mini Monitor anyway, even for 8bit output. It's only I dont have to decide if I go for a Quadro secondary card for 10bit display anymore. Everything is much simple now.

So, the graphic system aspect is closed. I'll follow your advice and go to a

GTX1080 single GPU.

New monitor for windows and Davinci GUI ¿Do you recommend 4K? I'm not sure about that.

Video program output via BM Mini Monitor, with the PA279Q.

Discarded (for the moment) the dual Xeon HP Z820 and will go to modern chipset and mobo. I'll take care of the CPU Lans, to be ready for a secondary GPU in the future. The price step from 5820K to the next level is mugh greater than the perfomance step up, and I'm very budget concerned.

Maybe I wait to the end of summer and vacation to buy. One or two small projects to fill the stack, while prices can go down a little bit. I hope they match by september.

Thanks a lot to all of you, sincerely.

PS: I have another pending discussion about display monitoring size and resolutions, but it's quite specific and off-topic here. I'll post a new thread.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 4:51 pm

Adam Simmons wrote:Motherboard wise you could go for the Gigabyte X99P-SLI. This board already has Thunderbolt 3 built in so no need to use up a slot with an add in card for Thunderbolt 3


From the Gigabyte website

One of the main advantages of Thunderbolt™ 3 is its ability to carry a video signal, but as X99 platforms don’t have a GPU integrated in the CPU, the Thunderbolt controller needs to link with a discrete graphics card.

In order to solve this conundrum, GIGABYTE designed the GA-X99P-SLI with a DisplayPort input on the back I/O allowing users to pair their system to a monitor with a Type-C connector (the required cables to connect the graphics card to Thunderbolt controller are bundled with the board).


Amazing. They have a kind of "DisplayPort to Thunderbolt adapter" built in the mobo.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 5:53 pm

For a custom PC for $3K can get you a decent setup.

Here's my opinion
i7 5930k or OC'd 5820k or the newer 6850k(equivalent to 5930k)
X99 mobo
32gb ram minimum
500-1tb ssd OS drive
500-1tb HD or ssd data drive
Gtx 980 4gb or 6gb ti/sc

This is a pretty solid setup for most likely under $3K, for editing 4K footage. Depending on what 4K, but I know you can run Raw R3D 4K files pretty smoothly.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:26 pm

My new Workstation has the following config and (amazingly) Resolve plays back 4K coming from the URSA in real time:

ASUS Maximus VIII Hero with Z170 chipset
i7 6700K at 4GHz
16GB DDR4 RAM at 2400MHz
Zotac GeForce GTX760 AMP with 2GB DDR5
Kingston HyperX 250GB SSD for the OS
2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB at 7200RPM in RAID0 for footage
SanDisk Ultra II 480GB for caching

I can push it to play in real time even with some basic color correction nodes and power windows. And I didn't even start the smart cache or other optimizations. :shock:

Crazy, I know... :D
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:35 pm

Octavian Mot wrote:My new Workstation has the following config and (amazingly) Resolve plays back 4K coming from the URSA in real time:

ASUS Maximus VIII Hero with Z170 chipset
i7 6700K at 4GHz
16GB DDR4 RAM at 2400MHz
Zotac GeForce GTX760 AMP with 2GB DDR5
Kingston HyperX 250GB SSD for the OS
2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB at 7200RPM in RAID0 for footage
SanDisk Ultra II 480GB for caching

I can push it to play in real time even with some basic color correction nodes and power windows. And I didn't even start the smart cache or other optimizations. :shock:

Crazy, I know... :D


Well done! That's probably more about the disk transfer speed and general integration (no data bottlenecks) than raw CPU power.
Last edited by Craig Marshall on Wed Jun 29, 2016 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Octavian Mot

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:39 pm

Craig Marshall wrote:
Octavian Mot wrote:My new Workstation has the following config and (amazingly) Resolve plays back 4K coming from the URSA in real time:

ASUS Maximus VIII Hero with Z170 chipset
i7 6700K at 4GHz
16GB DDR4 RAM at 2400MHz
Zotac GeForce GTX760 AMP with 2GB DDR5
Kingston HyperX 250GB SSD for the OS
2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB at 7200RPM in RAID0 for footage
SanDisk Ultra II 480GB for caching

I can push it to play in real time even with some basic color correction nodes and power windows. And I didn't even start the smart cache or other optimizations. :shock:

Crazy, I know... :D


Well done! That probably more about the disk transfer speed and general integration than raw CPU power.


I learned that RAID is an ultra must after squeezing my 2011 XW6600 until last year for every single byte and Hz it could find. :lol:
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 7:50 pm

Yes, I burned out a couple of half TB SSDs in RAID config so now prefer to use 3 x 7200 5TB WD Blacks
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jun 29, 2016 10:48 pm

I have an 8GB AMD RX480 card coming next week so will be able to benchmark that against my GTX1080.
On paper it should be as quick on compute as a GTX100 and nearly half the price. Will be interesting to see if that pans out in reality.
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Leslie Wand

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostThu Jun 30, 2016 1:30 am

@david anderson

please do keep us informed. i've been contemplating moving on from my gtx 960 (which does do a good job) but, like many people, am tired of reading gaming results and nothing else.

knowing how both perform re video would be of tremendous value in helping make any furure decisions...

tia
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostThu Jun 30, 2016 1:54 am

Craig Marshall wrote:Yes, I burned out a couple of half TB SSDs in RAID config so now prefer to use 3 x 7200 5TB WD Blacks

I'd like to hear that story, Craig! I would have thought a block of multiple SSDs would do well as a RAID 0.
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostThu Jun 30, 2016 2:09 am

They did run well - not high performance brands - just a matched pair of 512GB SSDs in RAID 0 under Win 10. They offered very good speed for some 4K ProRes but I had them in a dual 3.5" caddy so they may have been too close to cool adequately. When I removed them to see why the drive had failed, they were almost too hot to hold.
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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostThu Jun 30, 2016 4:12 am

I've been running 5 x Samsung 1TB 950 SSDs in RAID0 for about 6 months with no issues. They do have ample ventilation though.

I will post benchmarks of the 480 vs the Titan X next week if someone can remind me how to run the Standard Candle benchmarks and let me know if the benchmark still works in 12.5
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Craig Marshall

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostThu Jun 30, 2016 4:31 am

4K Post Studio, Freelance Filmmaker, Media Writer
Win10/Lightworks/Resolve 15.1/X-Keys 68 Jog-Shuttle/OxygenTec ProPanel
12G SDI Decklink 4K Pro/Calibrated 10bit IPS SDI Monitor
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Adam Simmons

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostThu Jun 30, 2016 5:21 am

davidanderson wrote:I have an 8GB AMD RX480 card coming next week so will be able to benchmark that against my GTX1080.
On paper it should be as quick on compute as a GTX100 and nearly half the price. Will be interesting to see if that pans out in reality.

Well looking at the initial benchmarks on the gaming sites they are coming in around the same as the GTX 970 and apparently are overdrawing power through the PCI-e slot by as much as 20% which if true means they could burn out your motherboard.

Will be interesting to see what it benchmarks like with Resolve
DVC Built Clevo P775DM3-G Laptop with UHD screen, 7700K CPU@4.9Ghz, Geforce GTX 1060 6GB GPU, G-Sync UHD screen, 500GB M.2 Primary, 1x 480GB SSD, 1x1TB M.2, 1x 2TB Video drives.
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davidanderson

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Re: PC specs for Davinci Resolve ...?

PostWed Jul 06, 2016 2:14 am

AMD have released a fix for the current draw, and I have posted benchmark results of the RX480 vs the Titan X in my machine in another thread.

Short answer, way faster than the 970, on par with the Titan X, not bad for a $200 card.
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