GTX 1080 for 10bit 4k (and other hardware)?

Hey there!

I'm on the way to update my system for a new resolution and codec.
The thing is, i have no money for 16GB or even 32GB RAM beasts of GPUs
(because i must update my cam also )

So i became an idea to buy a gainward GTX 1080 phoenix with 8GB and rather overclocked profile.

the rest of the system:
16GB 2800 C15 RAM (i want to update it to 32GB with the same RAM, is it a good idea?)
i7 6700k (rather old, but the change to the 7th generation gives no benefit and for the 8th gen. i need a new mainboard)
SSDs for the data and system itself.

So is it possible with that system to work some 4k 10bit stuff? 1 or 2 video tracks, with some titles and a little bit fusion and FX. Or is it just a system for FullHD stuff?

Thanks!
regards!
Alex

You'll need to ad a decklink card for 10 bits.

Something like this: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/decklink/techspecs/W-DLK-32

With a Decklink card to take the high resolution, full screen Display strain away from your GPU, you can easily work in 4K with Resolve so long as you have no data bottlenecks. We operate a professional 12G, 10bit SDI Resolve suite with four monitors (3 off the GPU) but work easily in real time 4K 25P on the Color page (with scopes up on one of the aux monitors) using just a 4 core z87 Haswell i7 3.6GHz CPU and a small 4GB GTX 970GPU but we employ a very fast and efficient internal RAID 0 (2 x 8TB 7200 RPM) as well as a small 250GB SSD for Cache which we use occasionally when adding additional video tracks.

hmm... never heard about that.. but i'm new in semi-professional area
i must read more about this dectlink solution.
So i can not use 10bit just with gtx 1080, is it correct? only with this dectlink-card.

The other thing is... do 10bit improve my workflow with just 8bit monitor? or is it just completely useless?

I have rather fast M2-SSD for the system-data and rather fast SSD for the video-data... but no raid.
By the way, i use now also gtx 970.

Resolve is designed around Decklink hardware and it is currently the only way you will see a full screen display on a second monitor, no matter how powerful your GPU. Many of our commissions are shot with 8bit cameras but we always trancode acquisition data to professional 10bit post production codecs such as ProRes, DNxHR or Cineform to preserve quality and reduce strain on the CPU.

IMO, installing and running DaVinci Resolve without an integrated Decklink card (or TB solution - to guarantee a proper Video signal, not your computer's interpretation of a video signal) plus a properly calibrated and accurate display monitor, is simply a waste of time.

so, you mean, i dont even need to buy 1080, just use my old gtx 970?
better to buy decktlink mini monitor 4k card and 10bit monitor?

It depends on what you plan to do. We've never seen our 970 maxed out but we simply use Resolve to grade 10bit I-Frame ProRes and DNxHR 4K codecs from very well shot and well lit material so we're not fiddling with compressed H264 etc, direct from toy cameras. A bottleneck free, highly optimised data path is probably more important than the size of your GPU and the installation of at least a mini-monitor playback device is the real 'purchase price' of Resolve.

i consider to use Fuji XT-3 or Blackmagic Pocket 4k or Blackmagic Micro 4k
.. i think it will be the fuji, because of the photo i also need.
fuji shoots 10bit H265 4:2:0

do you have some suggestion for a monitor?

so, you mean, i dont even need to buy 1080, just use my old gtx 970?
better to buy decktlink mini monitor 4k card and 10bit monitor?

GTX 970 only has 3.5 GByte of VRAM, that's enough for Full-HD and 2k(we have 3 ourselves), for 4k you need atleast 8k when you also want to do some noise reduction (more is better).

You NEED the decklink card for full-screen output.

With resolve you always need a decklink card if you want to output to full-screen and also when you want to do 10 bit (we also use 10 bit VEGA cards, but for resolve we have to use a GPU for the processing and a decklink for the full-screen display).

... do you have some suggestion for a monitor?

The Fuji XT-3 is a nice camera with S35 sized sensor so can be adapted to classic, full frame SLR lenses with a focal reducer (AKA Speed Booster) without any loss of wide angle FoV.

Real 10bit SDI 'video' monitors are still very expensive so most people use Computer Displays but they rarely have SDI inputs. Some high quality Computer Monitors are 10bit, some with Display Port and some of the latest with HDMI 2a support 10bit YUV. We use a high end photographic Monitor from BenQ which is calibrated to Rec.709 via use of internal LUTs and we get 10bit RGB at 4:4:4 but it only has Display Port so we use a BMD SDI to Display Port Converter.

A native 4K 10bit monitor which can be accurately calibrated will be expensive so look at the new 4K OLED TVs where you can insert a calibration LUT into the signal path - either via Resolve or an SDI > HDMI converter.

#Edit

hmm.. so it would be good to get GTX 1080 with decktlink card anyway.
The decklink monitor card is for transmitting 10bit color and fullscreen mode to 10bit monitor over SDI (or HDMI 2.0, whats the difference to 2.0a?), as i understood.

puh...
200,- decklink
500,- gtx 1080
1500,- fuji
lenses, cables AND monitor ... it will be expensive for such no pro

One more question:
If i buy the decklink monitor card to relieve my gtx 970. Can i use the connected monitor over hdmi for all applications within windows, or is the decklink card active just in davinci resolve? So i need anyway a second monitor for the decklink?

Just start with the decklink, you can always upgrade to a better GPU in a later stage.

hmm, ok... thanks.
what is about HDMI 1.4? Do i need HDMI 2.0 on the 10bit Monitor, if i want to get 10bit colors?
Don't know any chaep monitors with SDI

hmm, ok... thanks.
what is about HDMI 1.4? Do i need HDMI 2.0 on the 10bit Monitor, if i want to get 10bit colors?
Don't know any chaep monitors with SDI

The 10 bits goes thru the decklink so no worries. HDMI1.4 at max 30 fps(at 4k) and HDMI2.0 at max 60 fps(at 4k).

so HDMI 2.0 makes just then sense, if i'm going to grade 60p 4k

Make sure your chosen Decklink is rated at 12G, not 6G or you will not see 60p/4k. (6G = 4K @ 30P) A true 4K/60P 10bit pipeline can be very expensive..

BTW, BenQ showed their PV271 at last NAB - a native 4K monitor with 12G SDI input and will take 3D LUTS on board for internal calibration though not yet available. A 4K TV with Terenex 12G SDI to HDMI converter might be the way to go...

puh, i think this will be crazy stuff i can not pay
but it sounds good

so i think, i will take some compromise without 4k/60p