Computer upgrade for Resolve - best "bang for the buck"?

I have a Windows 10 64 bit system.
CPU i7-6700K 4 GHz
16G of DDR4 3200 RAM
Video is GeForce GT 710 with 2GB 64-Bit DDR3

I'm working on some fairly simple 1080 HD videos (but importing some 2160 video from GoPro Hero 7 and zooming into a 1080 or less area for the final output).

I'm finding working in editing mode is slow and laggy, and the timeline often fails to update.

I'm looking to improve performance (and maybe have enough cash remaining to spring for DaVinci Resolve Studio

I looked at CPU upgrades, but the motherboard can take up to an i7-7700K, which isn't that big of a step. Probably need to upgrade the whole computer to improve in that area.

I could double my RAM to 32G for about $190. How much of an impact would that have?

I started looking at upgrading the video card, and find the prices astonishing. I looked at my records and I paid $54 for my GT 710 at the end of 2016. Now, the current generation of RTX-2080 boards are north of $700, and some versions are at $1500. However I am not a gamer, so maybe I'm looking for the wrong things. Also, these cards come with huge fans. I am primarily involved in audio production, and I have my computer in the studio. It is built with all low-noise components and is almost silent. I selected my current video card primarily because it is fanless.

I read in other threads that the free version of Resolve doesn't use the GPU that much, so I'm thinking that maybe I should go for the RAM upgrade.
But if the GPU also needs upgrading, are there any that are both quiet and affordable?
From the Nvidia 700 generation where I am now, to the 20 series that is the latest were there any significant changes to the GPU that are used by Resolve? I.E. maybe I could find an older card from 1000 or 900 series that would still provide a significant step-up in performance for Resolve?

Except for the video card, your system is totally adequate, though more system ram could be the next thing. Buy the best 8gb video card your budget allows. That starts with a gtx1070. Maybe an 11gb ti. Go for vram over speed. Radeon 8gb cards are less but I'm not familiar with them. Nvidia cards don't spin the fan unless they are warm and the fans are quiet. You'd really have to push it. I've never heard mine.

Check your power supply for an 8 pin GPU supply as your existing card is powered off the pci bus. Otherwise you'll need a sata to 6+2 adapter. Check your case to see if it will accommodate a full length card and the motherboard doesn't have connectors blocking the path. Otherwise look for a mini version that's shorter. The mini has one fan, for better or worse instead of 2 or 3. You can't overclock them due to the reduced cooling. Remember the cards take two slots spaces.

The studio version will help with that h264 GoPro footage. Render speed will be 10x faster.

I've used resolve with a gt430 gt640 gtx960 gtx1050 gtx1060 gtx1070 in various ordinary PC's.

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Radeon RX570 with 8 GB of VRAM.

Radeon RX570 with 8 GB of VRAM.

So it looks like these are going for $150 - $200.
Can you confirm the fans don't run unless you're rendering?

You could also look into getting a silent case. Fractal Design makes super quiet cases.

You could also look into getting a silent case. Fractal Design makes super quiet cases.

Loud fans will easily breach a FD "super quiet" case. I know, I have one. And AMD GPUs are not known for either being quiet or running cool, with the added noise of the CPU cooler revving up, when the GPU increases case temperature (and sets all the other fans running on high). The promoters of AMD GPUs here never seem to take these issues into account. What's good for gaming, with a blasting soundtrack, may not be what's good for editing and color correction.

Radeon RX570 with 8 GB of VRAM.

Has anybody tested this card with Resolve? This card looks good on paper, but is OpenCL on this card as good as CUDA for similarly priced cards?

I currently use GTX 770 with only 2GB of memory. It is sufficiently fast for my needs, but so little memory prevents me to make 4K projects, and RX570 8GB would be a nice upgrade if it is as fast or faster than GTX 770 in Resolve.

Radeon RX570 with 8 GB of VRAM.

Has anybody tested this card with Resolve? This card looks good on paper, but is OpenCL on this card as good as CUDA for similarly priced cards?

I currently use GTX 770 with only 2GB of memory. It is sufficiently fast for my needs, but so little memory prevents me to make 4K projects, and RX570 8GB would be a nice upgrade if it is as fast or faster than GTX 770 in Resolve.

This card is way slower than a RTX titan X, it is also a lot cheaper.

For Resolve the fp32 and the memory bandwidth is important (Cuda, metal, OpenCL etc.. is not relevant).
Here you can find the specs of the different GPU's https://videocardz.com/

I managed to find my gtx1070 for $200 on ebay. Lots of scams there so be careful that the seller has good feedback.

Tried Resolve Studio on a RX580 with 8GB of VRAM and it was running flawlessly playing 10 bit GH5 4K DCI footage without any framedrops.

So the RX570 should be ok as well. A used GTX1070 should be faster though. Also 32GB help a lot. Will upgrade my system to 64GB of ram soon actually since my system keeps swapping (to a nvme drive atm so it's not too bad at least).

Tried Resolve Studio on a RX580 with 8GB of VRAM and it was running flawlessly playing 10 bit GH5 4K DCI footage without any framedrops.

That's great, thanks for the info.

Rendering speed was also OK? Also, did you use it on dual-monitor configuration? I saw a post where some person complained that RX570 had an issue when playing footage in dual screen mode, but footage played fine on single screen.

So the RX570 should be ok as well. A used GTX1070 should be faster though.

I'm not too keen on buying used graphics cards because of the risk of buying a card than has been "revived" in oven.

Also 32GB help a lot. Will upgrade my system to 64GB of ram soon actually since my system keeps swapping (to a nvme drive atm so it's not too bad at least).

Nice.

I am using a powercolor 8GB RX580 on a x99 6 core i7 5820k, 32GB of Ram hackintosh OSX High Sierra. Resolve studio 15.2.3. Just did a project with 8k RED footage and played back mostly real time on a HD timeline at half res good. Then bump to 4k and full res premium for render and it’s around 5-9fps. But it completes the job. Not the fastest or the newest but it gets the job done.

...

That is good to hear, thank you. I will invest in some RX5_0 8GB card in near future, 2GB VRAM is just too limiting.

I'm getting back to finding an upgrade to allow Resolve to run without GPU errors all the time.

It looks like the GTX1070 are still as expensive as they were in February. Are there other options I should consider in term of value and usability in Resolve? I.E. it will not be used for gaming.

What's wrong with a RX580 8GB? These are listed below $200.

If it should be an NVIDIA card, you can go with the 1660super. Less Ram though.

Just wondered if you have tried the non-hardware workaround of using the proxy and render cache settings.
Here is a description of how to set up Resolve on lower specced hardware:

Here is a description of how to set up Resolve on lower specced hardware:

Thanks for the tip. That does help. I am now able to render my video, where before rendering would fail after a few seconds. It takes 1.5 hours to render 16 minutes of 1080 video, but it does complete.

For anyone who likes to read rather than watch videos, here are the 5 steps:

1) Settings / Master Settings / Optimize Media and Render Cache

○ Optimize Media Format --- select DNxHR SQ
○ Render Cache Format -- select DNxHR SQ
○ Enable Background Caching after - change from 5 to 1 seconds

2) Menu / Playback / Use Optimized Media if Available ---> Be sure it is checked
3) Menu / Playback / Render Cache ----> Change from None to User
4) Go to Timeline. Select video clip(s) to optimize. Right click, choose "Generate Optimized Media"
... (Wait a while…)
5) If you are using Color Effects: Select clip(s), right click, select "Render Cache Color Output"
... (Wait for progress bar above clip to change from red to blue)

I completed the system upgrade, and have installed the NVIDIA RTX 2060 Super with 8G of VRAM. I was ready to buy the 2070 super, but it turns out the power requirements exceed my 550 W supply. The 2060 was the highest I could support without a new supply. I also added another 32G of system RAM, bringing it up to 48G.

I'm no longer getting errors about GPU RAM, and I can now render 1080 MP4 video at roughly real-time - e.g. 30 minute render for 30 minutes of video.

I was concerned about the large fans being noisy, but even when rendering they don't spin up at all. I was surprised, because I'd expect the rendering process to be the most GPU intensive.

Here is a description of how to set up Resolve on lower specced hardware:

Now that I've got upgraded hardware, should I roll back those changes? I forgot to record what the Media Format options were originally before I changed them to DNxHR SQ.

If you turn off Optimized Media, the codec setting is moot.

Another factor is whether you have the free or Studio version, as the Studio version will allow the use of the NVIDIA decoder and encoder for many h.264 and h.265 codecs. https://developer.nvidia.com/video-enco ... ort-matrix

Given similar hardware (see my sig), I am able to transcode GoPro h.264 2160p media to .MP4 1080p at around 40 fps with the NVIDIA decoder and "native" CPU encoder. Switching the encoder to NVIDIA mode performs at around 180fps. This is a simple transcode with no corrections or effects. Again, you have to have the Studio version to be able to do this.

I'm no longer getting errors about GPU RAM, and I can now render 1080 MP4 video at roughly real-time - e.g. 30 minute render for 30 minutes of video.

You're using the studio version?
Because real time is quite slow for just HD video. Would expect like 100-150fps instead.

You're using the studio version?
Because real time is quite slow for just HD video. Would expect like 100-150fps instead.

Not studio - the free version. 16.1.2.026.

.. the Studio version will allow the use of the NVIDIA decoder and encoder for many h.264 and h.265 codecs. https://developer.nvidia.com/video-enco ... ort-matrix

Interesting - from the main site, the description of Studio is "DaVinci Resolve Studio 16 includes everything in the free version plus DaVinci Neural Engine features, multi user collaboration, stereoscopic 3D tools, dozens of ResolveFX and FairlightFX plugins, HDR grading, film grain, blur and mist effects, and more."

I guess the NVIDIA decoder/encoder falls in the "and more" category. If I was BlackMagic Design, I'd make that distinction more prominent. Based on the listed features of Studio, I was under the impression they wouldn't provide any compelling benefit for me, since I don't need the listed features. But from what you are saying, significant rendering speed improvident is a very tangible benefit, even for someone with rather simple requirements otherwise.

There is more description here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=90190#1. While the linked PDF is in need of updating, it should hit most of the highlights.