Hardware for Better 4K Scrubbing

Hi everyone,

I'm new to DR coming from PowerDirector, and wondering if you could help me see where my hardware bottleneck is, or if I need to upgrade.

My main concern is when I am scrubbing high resolution clips (eg. 4k), the playback will skip or stutter. This is made worse when playing back at 2x or 4x speed. This is before adding any effects/transitions, etc on the timeline. I don't have this problem when I play the same clip in VLC Media Player with 2x / 4x speed.

I am thinking a better video card would help, and could use an opinion to which one to upgrade to (1080Ti?), but I don't want to buy an overpowered video card that my system can't use. The other option would be to put up with it, and consider upgrading my whole computer next year.

I edit mainly for personal purposes, home videos. I would like to learn more about Fusion, but haven't done much with that tab yet.

My configuration is:
Dell XPS 8900 (from year 2016)
32GB DDR4 2133MHz
NVIDIA GTX 960 2GB
i7-6700K
Windows 10
Samsung 256GB SSD (for OS, program files)
Samsung 860 EVO 1TB (for video files)

I apologize if this is a simple question. Thanks for your help!

Are your 4K files h.264 or h.265...?

also, for 4K you really want a graphics card with more vRAM, 8 Gb is good, which rules out any "cheap" (oximoron) Nvidia below xx70...you have low-priced AMD RX 570/580 with 8 GB RAM, the only problem is 8-bit h.265 output only or no h.265 export at all (since there is no h.265 software encoder in Resolve for Windows)

It looks like it is H.264 (recorded from my phone Galaxy Note 8).

I should clarify the above further. The skipping / dropped frames occurs when I am viewing a clip at 2x-4x speed, before I even put it on the timeline.

When placed on the timeline with edits and cuts, and played at regular speed, I usually don't experience any problems. It is when I'm trying to scrub through clips to find the appropriate ins and outs that it skips. A work around would be just to jump around on the time line with the mouse, rather than playback at higher speeds. I bought the ShuttlePro v2 hoping to use the dial to get through video clips in this manner, but because of the skipping, it has been a bit of a disappointment.

There is a MSI Duke GTX 1070Ti in my neighborhood used for $350 CDN ($265 USD). If there are no red flags, I'm thinking of picking this up.

Thanks for your comments!

Are your 4K files h.264 or h.265...?

also, for 4K you really want a graphics card with more vRAM, 8 Gb is good, which rules out any "cheap" (oximoron) Nvidia below xx70...you have low-priced AMD RX 570/580 with 8 GB RAM, the only problem is 8-bit h.265 output only or no h.265 export at all (since there is no h.265 software encoder in Resolve for Windows)

VRAM can be worked around easily, but you need at least a 4GB Card. OP should upgrade to at least a 1060 or 2060.

The rest of his machine is good.

Have done enough 4K with MacBooks that only had 4GB GPUs. It's not a major issue, if at all - especially with how the OP plans to use the software.

AMD seems to be causing a lot of people problems with their software/drivers, as well

Resolve 16 will Decode and Encode with AMD UVD/VCE, so that is not a factor (moving forwards). Whether the quality is comparable to QSV or NVENC is a different matter (that I cannot comment on, as I don't use AMD hardware).

Hi everyone,

I am thinking a better video card would help, and could use an opinion to which one to upgrade to (1080Ti?), but I don't want to buy an overpowered video card that my system can't use. The other option would be to put up with it, and consider upgrading my whole computer next year.

Hello,
Waiting for the new Nvidia Super cards and the new rates to arrive on the market.

I think with a new RTX 20 (60?)70/80 (with 8 Gb VRAM or more) : you'll be happy. But is RTX

Are your 4K files h.264 or h.265...?

also, for 4K you really want a graphics card with more vRAM, 8 Gb is good, which rules out any "cheap" (oximoron) Nvidia below xx70...you have low-priced AMD RX 570/580 with 8 GB RAM, the only problem is 8-bit h.265 output only or no h.265 export at all (since there is no h.265 software encoder in Resolve for Windows)

VRAM can be worked around easily, but you need at least a 4GB Card. OP should upgrade to at least a 1060 or 2060.

The rest of his machine is good.

Have done enough 4K with MacBooks that only had 4GB GPUs. It's not a major issue, if at all - especially with how the OP plans to use the software.

AMD seems to be causing a lot of people problems with their software/drivers, as well

Resolve 16 will Decode and Encode with AMD UVD/VCE, so that is not a factor (moving forwards). Whether the quality is comparable to QSV or NVENC is a different matter (that I cannot comment on, as I don't use AMD hardware).

Yeah, my GTX 960 4GB worked with 4K sources most of the time in 1080p, only when it didn't and "GPU memory full" would pop up. You never know when you'll need that extra byte of RAM that you don't have and you just don't have the time or the will to work around it.

Nvidia also causes problems of their own kind, just read the forum.

AMD VCE with "quality" preference is good enough for his purposes, they improved it...

The RTX 2060 Super will be like $450, thank you very much. The cheapest Pascal card with 8 GB especially if found at good price is probably the best compromise.

Are your 4K files h.264 or h.265...?

also, for 4K you really want a graphics card with more vRAM, 8 Gb is good, which rules out any "cheap" (oximoron) Nvidia below xx70...you have low-priced AMD RX 570/580 with 8 GB RAM, the only problem is 8-bit h.265 output only or no h.265 export at all (since there is no h.265 software encoder in Resolve for Windows)

VRAM can be worked around easily, but you need at least a 4GB Card. OP should upgrade to at least a 1060 or 2060.

The rest of his machine is good.

Have done enough 4K with MacBooks that only had 4GB GPUs. It's not a major issue, if at all - especially with how the OP plans to use the software.

AMD seems to be causing a lot of people problems with their software/drivers, as well

Resolve 16 will Decode and Encode with AMD UVD/VCE, so that is not a factor (moving forwards). Whether the quality is comparable to QSV or NVENC is a different matter (that I cannot comment on, as I don't use AMD hardware).

Yeah, my GTX 960 4GB worked with 4K sources most of the time in 1080p, only when it didn't and "GPU memory full" would pop up. You never know when you'll need that extra byte of RAM that you don't have and you just don't have the time or the will to work around it.

Nvidia also causes problems of their own kind, just read the forum.

AMD VCE with "quality" preference is good enough for his purposes, they improved it...

The RTX 2060 Super will be like $450, thank you very much. The cheapest Pascal card with 8 GB especially if found at good price is probably the best compromise.

I have a 45 minute 4K timeline and it's no problem on a laptop with 4GB. It depends on how you use the software, and iwould never spend $450 on a GPU for relatively basic home videos.

Unless I was also a gamer, and needed the card for that, as well.

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Someone may have already said this, but I didn't see it mentioned when browsing the replies, but its worth noting that the free version of Resolve doesn't have the accelerated decoding of h264 that comes in the Studio ($300) version. Also, the free version to my knowledge (and someone correct me if i'm wrong on this) does not use GPU to decode footage. These factors would slow down your 4k playback, so it may be resolved just be a software upgrade.

You may want to try that, because if my understanding is correct of the free vs studio difference, then even if you upgrade your GPU it may not give you the performance you want. I have evidence to support my statement, as I have a system with 2 1080 TI GPU's in it, 64GB or RAM, and intel six core at 4.7Ghz and running everything on SSDs and I couldn't get smooth 4k scrubbing either when I was using the free version (and that should be more than enough to do so).

Once I went to the studio version of course, these issues were no longer there (and the only thing that changed was that I was using studio instead of free. Hope this helps.

Someone may have already said this, but I didn't see it mentioned when browsing the replies, but its worth noting that the free version of Resolve doesn't have the accelerated decoding of h264 that comes in the Studio ($300) version. Also, the free version to my knowledge (and someone correct me if i'm wrong on this) does not use GPU to decode footage. These factors would slow down your 4k playback, so it may be resolved just be a software upgrade.

You may want to try that, because if my understanding is correct of the free vs studio difference, then even if you upgrade your GPU it may not give you the performance you want. I have evidence to support my statement, as I have a system with 2 1080 TI GPU's in it, 64GB or RAM, and intel six core at 4.7Ghz and running everything on SSDs and I couldn't get smooth 4k scrubbing either when I was using the free version (and that should be more than enough to do so).

Once I went to the studio version of course, these issues were no longer there (and the only thing that changed was that I was using studio instead of free. Hope this helps.

Correct. You need to be able to use the Decoder SIPs for smooth scrubbing, pretty much in any NLE. Without it, you pretty much need to Optimize/Proxy or Transcode the media... Otherwise, you just get depressed with the performance, and start hating the thought of sitting down to edit that footage.

Thanks everyone for your input. I apologize for the delay replies on my end... my posts are still being moderated.

Anyhow, it sounds like the best bet might be to buy the Studio version before upgrading the card, as the accelerated decoding is what's holding me back. Yes, I agree, the scrubbing causes me to procrastinate on making videos!

There's a used MSI Duke 1070 ti (8GB) that is for sale at $265, which I think I'd be looking at next. Otherwise, I can buy a new GPU like a RTX 2060 6GB for around $380. Any more, I'd worry about my PSU, which is stock, so I believe around 460 watts. It sounds like the rest of the system is still good enough.

GTX 960 will not hardware decode h.265 or encode (deliver) h.265 in 10 bit... That's why I asked...and 2 GB VRAM is not enough for 4K, perhaps playback only, no FX. I'D go for the 1070 straight away.

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I agree with the above poster on the hardware. You may still have hardware issues (and may need to bump up your gpu), but a 1070 is pretty affordable so not a crazy unreasonable expense.

But the studio version would still need to be the first step. But honestly, for what you are getting in davinci studio, its well worth it at a one time fee of 300.

I went out and bought a RTX 2060 (6gb ram), (the 1070ti fell through), along with a bigger PSU. On the free version of Resolve, I haven't noticed any difference in scrubbing. I was going to purchase Resolve Studio 16 but realized you can't just download it! So I'm waiting for an authorized vendor to get back to me........

Hello,

For 4K it is recommended 8GB VRAM (Min).
Wait for the Nvidia super.

It looks like it is H.264 (recorded from my phone Galaxy Note 8).

Long-GOP H.264 files are bad for post in general -- the overhead and stress on the CPU make them tough to handle for any software. You'd be better off converting it to a simpler format like DNxHD or DNxHR, then using those transcodes for editing and final color.

Extraordinarily fast hardware, like a 20-core CPU, tons of RAM, fast drives, and multiple beefy GPUs might help. But I think this is a workflow issue -- a smartphone is not ideal as a camcorder for post.

If it's long gop hevc from Samsung after all, it is even worse... Of course the gtx 960 couldn't help there, but it should have if it were h.264. Only it couldn't because he uses the free version of resolve.

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Ok, I would like to report back. So, I finally (after 2 weeks) obtained the Studio license. The new graphics card alone didn't make a difference, however with Resolve Studio, I can scrub through 4k video at 4x speed with no problems. It starts to stutter at 8x speed. So much improved, as there was skipping at 2x speed. Thanks for you help.

I know this post is fairly old but really glad I found it!

Put together a monster PC, AMD Rayzeon 9 3800 Proc and 5700XT Graphics.
Hoping for great performance but struggled scrubbing h.265 4K
Monitored the GPU and hardly used at all although it plays at normal speed perfectly.

Next test was to play in the standard Windows 10 viewer, plays perfect, simulated scrubbing with the timeline bar, perfect!

OK I get it, fantastic free use of a great product but I understood that the rendering output is restricted to below 4k, would be nice to know that use of GPU was restricted during editing too, it gave me the impression of poor performance or a problem with settings.
Much time wasted coming to this conclusion but willing to buy the full studio