MacPro 2013 Configuration for Davinci Resolve

Today Apple finally starts the sale on MacPro 2013 and I bet there's many more like me, eager to get their hand on it. But as I sit there looking at the options I wonder; which is the best configuration for DaVinci Resolve as it will be the only software running on the machine.

Is Davinci Resolve a hyper threading multi core user or does it benefit greater from a faster CPU?
I'll fit mine with D700 and 64GB of RAM, no worries there, it's the CPU matter that conserns me.

And lastly now that it's been released I wonder if it will be possible to link two MacPro's via say thunderbolt? So I can have one as a Master machine and another as a slave, utilizing the GPU in the slave machine?

Looking forward to a good answer. So I can finally buy the damn thing!
Thanks.

Best configuration for price vs performance is a Windows 7 machine running 2 x nVidia 780s

Ah yes yes, there's only one thing though... Hell will freeze before I ever buy a PC.

From my experience Resolve is much more depending on the GPU than on the CPU.

So, if you can afford, buy the biggest config you can get.
If you have to keep the budget a bit smaller, take the biggest GPU (D700) and go with a smaller CPU ( i think the 6 Core is a good compromise).


I doubt that there will be a way to link 2 or more machines to double (or at least "increase") your GPU-Horsepower.
Thunderbolt2 is fast, but not as fast as a modern PCI-Connection which is required to connect a high-performance graphic-card. There maybe also some latency on the TB2-Bus, which will make it more or less useless for realtime-processing.
But that´s just my thought. Hopefully Apple and BM will proof me wrong…

There's no bother for me to buy the 6 core or the 12 core, I just want to know which is better for Resolve. Is it hyper threading dependent or does it multi task within? So more cores or more speed?

And I agree on just pumping it full with RAM and GPU.

And yeah, it would be nice with a 4-6 MacPro cluster for blazing fast rendering

Might we hear from the BMD folks regarding the new Mac Pro configuration guidelines? The GPU requirements are a no brainer (D700) ... wondering about the CPU processor configurations cost/benefit issue.

Scott - I'm on hold with them right now to ask the very same question. First thing this morning, orders placed were shipping in Jan from Apple, now into February...

I'll post their recommendation.

Resolve makes good use of multiple threads, at least it fully utilizes the 8 cores in my current Xeon. I have no doubt 12 cores will perform better, but I'm not sure I want to spend that much money.

Today Apple finally starts the sale on MacPro 2013 and I bet there's many more like me, eager to get their hand on it. But as I sit there looking at the options I wonder; which is the best configuration for DaVinci Resolve as it will be the only software running on the machine.

Is Davinci Resolve a hyper threading multi core user or does it benefit greater from a faster CPU?
I'll fit mine with D700 and 64GB of RAM, no worries there, it's the CPU matter that conserns me.

And lastly now that it's been released I wonder if it will be possible to link two MacPro's via say thunderbolt? So I can have one as a Master machine and another as a slave, utilizing the GPU in the slave machine?

Looking forward to a good answer. So I can finally buy the damn thing!
Thanks.

Peter Chamberlain will be updating the Configuration Guide for the new Mac Pro but he has not done so as of this moment. The big change there will be support for the new Mac Pro dual GPUs and of course, all aspects of 4K.

Yes, you can create a GPU render cluster by connecting two Mac Pros via Thunderbolt 2. It's very simple.

Resolve doesn't currently make much use of RAM so 32 GB is likely fine. I'm also waiting on the recommendations on the CPU. The short story is truly "buy what you can afford" as the more power it has, the longer it will be useful. Even if 6-core seems fine today, you know there will be new developments that demand 12-core machines. I may just compromise and go for 8-core, 1TB flash, 32 GB RAM, D700s.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

No recommendations as of yet from BlackMagic - got off the phone with them a few minutes ago.

12 core would be nice, but at $3k premium, I'm not sure... went 6 core, 32GB RAM, D700 GPUs. Since my unit won't be shipping till Feburary by the time I got in the order queue, there will be lots of time to make changes once BlackMagic has been able to do their testing and publish recommendations.

We pulled the trigger on a 12-core model largely to help with 4K DCP encoding times, which are CPU-bound. As a general-use Resolve workstation I would guess 6-core would be fine, but I think any Resolve user would be nuts to pass on the D700 upgrade for only $600 more over the base 6-core model.

The Apple site for Canada can now order the new MAC and shows shipping in Feb.

i'll be ordering within a month...

Any idea as to when they might have a configuration guide up for the new mac pro? Just curious, as I would like to order my CPU before the break hits. I'd like to go up to the 6 core version, but I might not be able to. Thus I want to see how a 4 core, 16gb mem and D500's would do in case I can't get the 6 core version.

i'm so curios if BMD is testing Resolve 10 right now on new Mac Pro 2013, and what kind of performance they can get from Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs. Mr Dwaine Maggart : Knock, knock? Is anybody out there?

[Dwaine Maggart]

We have not yet tested on shipping machines, since no machines have shipped yet. However, on the Apple site, in the MacPro Performance area, you can see their test results with a pre-release Resolve V10, pre-release Mavericks on a pre-release MacPro.

As I tell everyone who calls, the performance is based on a mix of things. Storage bandwidth, CPU and GPU processing all play a part. Which one of those plays how much of a role depends on a multitude of things, like what type and resolution of source material, timeline resolution, sizing and grading operations performed, and render type and resolution.

Until systems of various configurations are out in the world, testing all these combinations, it's hard to give any precise guidance on exactly what type of system you should get.

As always, it's safest to get the best configured system you can afford.

I would recommend the 12 core, 64GB, 1TB flash storage, dual D700 system with the 32TB Pegasus Thunderbolt 2 storage, if you want to cover all your bases. Sadly, not a system I can afford.

Thank u Dwaine, every one is going to hit the purchase button on apple online store ( especially freelancers), every news is usefull.....before the 6000-8000 Euro bill....

Davinci Resolve 10 performance are on Apple.com, Mac Pro front page, 6.0x faster with NR filter, 3.0x faster + 4K blur filter in 4 nodes, 1.0x faster Baseline (link : http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/performance/ )

I am just getting into video editing and VFX... I do more music production and Sound design which doesnt require such a powerful system... I opted for a

6 core mac pro
32GB ram
D700 GPU setup
512GB Internal Drive
12TB Pegasus2 External Storage setup
3 - 27" Dell Ultrasharps

Thats basically where my budget ended.. This is just to self educate.

Yes, you can create a GPU render cluster by connecting two Mac Pros via Thunderbolt 2. It's very simple.

Rick, that sounds very interesting.Do you have more infos on that or some furthergoing sources?
Thanks, Daniel

Indeed, Rick, that feature is not documented anywhere by DaVinci nor Apple. Please explain.

Yes, you can create a GPU render cluster by connecting two Mac Pros via Thunderbolt 2. It's very simple.

Rick, that sounds very interesting.Do you have more infos on that or some furthergoing sources?
Thanks, Daniel

When you connect Mac Pros together via Thunderbolt 2, in System Preferences / Network, you will see the options regarding Thunderbolt networking.

It is mentioned on the Performance webpage for the new Mac Pro. At the end of the paragraph describing the Mac Pro / Performance / 3D Modelling and Animation:
High-speed collaboration.
With Thunderbolt 2 you can connect to your workgroup via SAN or NAS shared storage with up to 20Gb/s of bandwidth. Want to hook up for a simple and fast local transfer? IP over Thunderbolt support in OS X Mavericks gives you a 10Gb connection to another Mac for the cost of a mere cable. Connect several Mac Pro systems together with Thunderbolt cables and you have an instant network render cluster.

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

That establishes an IP over Thunderbolt network connection between the machines, but the software you're using needs to actually support clustering via IP for that to be useful. Resolve, as far as I'm aware, doesn't.

That establishes an IP over Thunderbolt network connection between the machines, but the software you're using needs to actually support clustering via IP for that to be useful. Resolve, as far as I'm aware, doesn't.

There are references to Resolve supporting a cluster of computers… Even on the Resolve product page it says:

DaVinci Resolve smashes this limitation because it lets you add extra GPU cards or even clusters of multiple computers for super computer power!

However, I have not been able to figure out how exactly to make this work. I can't find anything in the documentation or just by searching around the web. I have found references to the "Linux License" supporting network clustering, but still no details.

That establishes an IP over Thunderbolt network connection between the machines, but the software you're using needs to actually support clustering via IP for that to be useful. Resolve, as far as I'm aware, doesn't.

There are references to Resolve supporting a cluster of computers… Even on the Resolve product page it says:

DaVinci Resolve smashes this limitation because it lets you add extra GPU cards or even clusters of multiple computers for super computer power!

However, I have not been able to figure out how exactly to make this work. I can't find anything in the documentation or just by searching around the web. I have found references to the "Linux License" supporting network clustering, but still no details.

Hopefully BMD will respond although they may not have seen this question in this thread. Perhaps it deserves its own thread "Enabling a render cluster in Resolve on multiple Mac Pros."

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

The Linux version of Resolve can do this over InfiniBand. See the Linux configuration guide for some details. As far as I know there's no support in the Mac and Windows versions.

The Apple site for Canada can now order the new MAC and shows shipping in Feb.

i'll be ordering within a month...

I placed my order.
6core, 64mb, D700s, Pegasus 2 R6/12

Q: Does the fact that the CPU runs slower with more cores actually inhibits the performance of the GPUs by running at a lower clock speed?
If I recall correctly, I've seen this happen in the previous MacPro single proc 6core vs Dual4core & Dual8core that was available for a while. The lower clock speed on 8 & 12 core gnawed back on the performance for applications that were GPU dependent, which left the 6 core as cheaper & better...

Any pro advice on this out there?

[Rohit Gupta]

Q: Does the fact that the CPU runs slower with more cores actually inhibits the performance of the GPUs by running at a lower clock speed?
If I recall correctly, I've seen this happen in the previous MacPro single proc 6core vs Dual4core & Dual8core that was available for a while. The lower clock speed on 8 & 12 core gnawed back on the performance for applications that were GPU dependent, which left the 6 core as cheaper & better...

Any pro advice on this out there?

There is no impact on the GPU performance. Typically more CPU cores are useful for handling CPU based codecs, like DNxHD, ProRes, Red R3D, etc. 6-core is plenty for getting real-time playback for ProRes and DNxHD, but higher number of cores can speed up rendering speed especially at 4K.