Resolve 14 only using one CPU on DUAL 22 core XEON system

After years of suffering with Vegas Pro and Premiere, I finally jumped to Davinci Resolve and can't wait for the Studio version to arrive tomorrow. I've been learning on the free version of resolve and see that only one CPU is utilized when performing edits and exports and am wondering if this is a software limitation? Will dual CPU support be implemented in the future? My workstation has the following spec:

CPU - Dual Xeon E5 2696V4
RAM - 64 GB Crucial DDR4 PC-2666 (8x8GB)
Storage: 2X800GB HGST SAS SSD RAID 0 for application/scratch disk
1x 8TB HGST He8 SAS HDD
OS - Samsung 1TB 960 Pro NVME
GPU - ASUS Strix GTX 1080 ti
Motherboard - z10pe-d16 ws
PSU - Seasonic Titanium 1000W

I am working with the 4K footage from my 5D Mark IV which are MJPEG files.

Resolve uses all threads avb on dual CPU's, even the free version

Resolve uses all threads avb on dual CPU's, even the free version

Interesting but when I do any edits or preview, other than color grading, I see only one physical core being used. Even when exporting the final footage, the second CPU remains idle.

i see machines with dual xeon's useing all threads in taskmangler when rendering caches or exporting masters

i don't really edit in Resolve, when i am in the edit page i don't have any issues, everything runs smoothly and it does what i want when i want it to - so i rarely look at taskmangler

in color again i rarely see any reason to look at taskmangler, the feedback experience there is very fluid

i avoid the F'light page for now, no idea about that

in deliver i typicaly will leave taskmangler on top tho to see what's happening

are you useing an OFX plug-in that forces compute onto only one core / one proc by any chance?

I am just using the vanilla install of Resolve 14 w/o any third party plug-in or add on. I never see the second CPU utilized in any way or form

Can someone from Black Magic confirm?

[Peter Chamberlain]

Dual CPU, multiple core and multiple treading has been in Resolve free and Studio version for many years. Are you sure your CPU is enabled at a computer level.. its not a Resolve issue.

Dual CPU, multiple core and multiple treading has been in Resolve free and Studio version for many years. Are you sure your CPU is enabled at a computer level.. its not a Resolve issue.

Hello Peter - thanks for responding to my thread. Both CPUs are enabled in my system. My task manager shows 44 cores and 88 threads. I just opened my project after reinstalling to the Studio Version and did a 4K MP4 export and I only see one CPU being utilized

This may be a Windows limitation.

I remember reading an older thread on here where another user was having your same issue.

Something about windows having issues assigning more than 64 cpu threads over 2 CPU's to a single program.

So if you have 88 cpu threads...windows can only assign 44 from a single CPU.

This is all from memory...but there is another post on here from a couple years ago with the same topic.

I bet you can use all 88 CPU threads in Linux.

This may be a Windows limitation.

I remember reading an older thread on here where another user was having your same issue.

Something about windows having issues assigning more than 64 cpu threads over 2 CPU's to a single program.

So if you have 88 cpu threads...windows can only assign 44 from a single CPU.

This is all from memory...but there is another post on here from a couple years ago with the same topic.

I bet you can use all 88 CPU threads in Linux.

I've never heard of such limitations...maybe in older version of windows? The problem is resolve doesn't even use the second CPU and it maxes out at 44 threads. Maybe I need to play with the windows affinity so it forces all physical thread to resolve rather than a mix of hyperthread & physical thread. On other applications such as adobe media encoder, I have 80%+ CPU utilization when doing exports or transcoding.

Interesting but when I do any edits or preview, other than color grading, I see only one physical core being used. Even when exporting the final footage, the second CPU remains idle.

Are you saying that on the Color Page, you do see both CPU's and all cores being used?

P.S. Crazy idea, but in some situations, could dual CPU's actually require dual video cards?

Interesting but when I do any edits or preview, other than color grading, I see only one physical core being used. Even when exporting the final footage, the second CPU remains idle.

Are you saying that on the Color Page, you do see both CPU's and all cores being used?

P.S. Crazy idea, but in some situations, could dual CPU's actually require dual video cards?

I just played around more in the color tab, it seems again only one CPU is used when performing playback, which maybe 3 or 5 cores pegged at 90%+ depending on the effects applied. I understand that color is primarily a GPU intensive task. Some OpenFX filters such as watercolor brings the system to a standstill and the FPS is usually under 6.

Do you do not need two GPUs in a Dual CPU system, the QPI interconnect patch in dual CPU systems links everything together. However, you will have a minor performance drop lets say CPU 2 needs to access the GPU due to the slower nature of the QPI interconnect path, but this is rarely an issue for my workload.

After years of suffering with Vegas Pro and Premiere, I finally jumped to Davinci Resolve and can't wait for the Studio version to arrive tomorrow. I've been learning on the free version of resolve and see that only one CPU is utilized when performing edits and exports and am wondering if this is a software limitation? Will dual CPU support be implemented in the future? My workstation has the following spec:

CPU - Dual Xeon E5 2696V4
RAM - 64 GB Crucial DDR4 PC-2666 (8x8GB)
Storage: 2X800GB HGST SAS SSD RAID 0 for application/scratch disk
1x 8TB HGST He8 SAS HDD
OS - Samsung 1TB 960 Pro NVME
GPU - ASUS Strix GTX 1080 ti
Motherboard - z10pe-d16 ws
PSU - Seasonic Titanium 1000W

I am working with the 4K footage from my 5D Mark IV which are MJPEG files.

Try as a test converting this to DNxHR or Cineform.

Also- if you have realtime preview then Resolve has no needs to use all cores. This should change though when exporting. It should go as fast as it can, so you would like to see all cores active. It's still may be far from true. Saturating 88 threads is not easy- only some tasks/apps can do it.

Good point, could it be a limitation in the codec that's being used? For example, maybe some issue with the Red SDK? (But it's mentioned that Adobe Media Encoder is not having this problem, so it's probably not solely a codec issue.)

Nonetheless, is this behavior seen with all file types, or just specific ones?

After years of suffering with Vegas Pro and Premiere, I finally jumped to Davinci Resolve and can't wait for the Studio version to arrive tomorrow. I've been learning on the free version of resolve and see that only one CPU is utilized when performing edits and exports and am wondering if this is a software limitation? Will dual CPU support be implemented in the future? My workstation has the following spec:

CPU - Dual Xeon E5 2696V4
RAM - 64 GB Crucial DDR4 PC-2666 (8x8GB)
Storage: 2X800GB HGST SAS SSD RAID 0 for application/scratch disk
1x 8TB HGST He8 SAS HDD
OS - Samsung 1TB 960 Pro NVME
GPU - ASUS Strix GTX 1080 ti
Motherboard - z10pe-d16 ws
PSU - Seasonic Titanium 1000W

I am working with the 4K footage from my 5D Mark IV which are MJPEG files.

Try as a test converting this to DNxHR or Cineform.

Also- if you have realtime preview then Resolve has no needs to use all cores. This should change though when exporting. It should go as fast as it can, so you would like to see all cores active. It's still may be far from true. Saturating 88 threads is not easy- only some tasks/apps can do it.

Thanks - do you mean export the footage as DNXHR or Cineform?

Here. I found the older thread relevant to this issue

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=35940

Guys - is it normal for everything to slow down when noise removal is applied? When I apply Temporal NR, my playback rate half from real time to between 10~12 fps..

Guys - is it normal for everything to slow down when noise removal is applied?

Yes, and it can slow down a lot depending on what settings you are using.

and how much GPU you have, NR is all about raster & frames to process & GPU
i have a system with a single 1080 and it runs 2fr NR @23.98 in 2k timelines, strugles in 4k
i have a system with dual 1080Ti's and it runs 2fr NR @23.98 in 4k timelines all day long

and how much GPU you have, NR is all about raster & frames to process & GPU
i have a system with a single 1080 and it runs 2fr NR @23.98 in 2k timelines, strugles in 4k
i have a system with dual 1080Ti's and it runs 2fr NR @23.98 in 4k timelines all day long

Correct me if I misunderstood your post. Are you saying you get 2 fps playback/preview with your setting? Does Davinci do background pre-render? For example when I first edit, color grade and denoise the clip, my playback rate is at around 10 to 15 fps. After a while, the timeline turns from red to blue and I can playback at real time speed.

After years of suffering with Vegas Pro and Premiere, I finally jumped to Davinci Resolve and can't wait for the Studio version to arrive tomorrow. I've been learning on the free version of resolve and see that only one CPU is utilized when performing edits and exports and am wondering if this is a software limitation? Will dual CPU support be implemented in the future? My workstation has the following spec:

I am working with the 4K footage from my 5D Mark IV which are MJPEG files.

Try as a test converting this to DNxHR or Cineform.

Also- if you have realtime preview then Resolve has no needs to use all cores. This should change though when exporting. It should go as fast as it can, so you would like to see all cores active. It's still may be far from true. Saturating 88 threads is not easy- only some tasks/apps can do it.

I tried to export the footage to 4K DNxHR 444 12 bit and the CPU usage is only 15% but my GPU usage is pegged at 50%

[Peter Chamberlain]

Try the same process with blur in the color nodes. (free version)
and with NR on for Studio version.
That will exercise the GPU a lot more.

and how much GPU you have, NR is all about raster & frames to process & GPU
i have a system with a single 1080 and it runs 2fr NR @23.98 in 2k timelines, strugles in 4k
i have a system with dual 1080Ti's and it runs 2fr NR @23.98 in 4k timelines all day long

Correct me if I misunderstood your post. Are you saying you get 2 fps playback/preview with your setting? Does Davinci do background pre-render? For example when I first edit, color grade and denoise the clip, my playback rate is at around 10 to 15 fps. After a while, the timeline turns from red to blue and I can playback at real time speed.

i think there's a mis-understanding
useing 2fr setting in temporal noise reduction (that is typicaly what i use) i get 2k timeline to playback with a single 1080FE

Are you still only seeing one CPU used... I have the same issue and it is 'solved' by going back to version 14.01.... perhaps you could try the same thing?

My machine is a z8 with 2 x 14core Xeons