Hardware configuration Mac

Hi Guys,

i just got the window "Your current hardware configuration is not able to support maximum realtime performance - For the latest performance and supported GPU configurations, pleas refer to the Resolve configuration guide located in the Resolve installer"

Here is my Hardware

iMac 10.,1
Mac OS x 10.6.8
3,06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Ram: 8 GB 1067 DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 9400 - 256 MB

Cuda Driver: 5.0.37
GPU Driver Version: 5.0.37

anyway DaVinci Starts...but any chances at the wheels appears with a delay about 5-10 sec.

so whats the problem?

[Dwaine Maggart]

The problem is that your system does not meet the requirements as per the Resolve Mac Config guide. Only 2011 and later iMac systems are supported by Resolve.

I get the same error message on the NEW iMac 27" 3.4 with GTX 680mx 2GB. With that said I get STELLAR performances from Resolve with this computer using RED 4K footage at 1/4 res. 9 nodes on some shots and i'm playing everything real time like butter. Rock steady. No Red Rocket btw...

[Dwaine Maggart]

Yes, the new 2012 iMac GT650M and GTX680MX GPU's have not yet been added to the supported GPU list that Resolve checks at startup, hence the message. Hopefully this will be updated in a future software release. In this case, the message can be ignored.

Hi Dwaine, could you clarify the Graphics Card requirement for Mac Pro running Davinci Resolve? The Black Magic web site mentions that Resolve 9 runs fastest on NVIDIA CUDA-based GPUs, but Mac Pro's are now shipping with ATI Radeon HD 5770 or 5870 graphics cards.
Thanks,
Simon.

The Black Magic web site mentions that Resolve 9 runs fastest on NVIDIA CUDA-based GPUs, but Mac Pro's are now shipping with ATI Radeon HD 5770 or 5870 graphics cards.

The mac pro is terribly out of date.
It is true that Nvidia CUDA enabled GPUs seem to run fastest in my experience. AMD/ATI cards work with OpenCL, and so far the performance has been limited. For instance I get ~30FPS on an nvidia GTX660TI through CUDA, only about 8FPS with an nvidia GT640 and under 4FPS with an AMD 6850 through OpenCL. Obviously this will depend on what you are doing in the software but that should be a good point of reference for performance differences. The 6850 is one of the faster AMD cards recognized by OS X. The 5870 might be a bit faster but as you can see none of them are performing as well as similarly priced nvidia cards using CUDA.

You can put an nvidia 600 series card in to a mac pro as a secondary card and use it as a CUDA engine for software like resolve. You need to be running 10.8.2 though and you will need to download the latest (quadro) drivers from nvidia for proper performance.

s

wow. Thanks sincohen. That's a little shocking how out of date Mac Pro seems to be. In the US. the Mac website doesn't even offer any of the cards you mention, just the ATI 5770/5870 cards. Do you think perhaps it's better to go with a PC?
thanks,
Simon.

In the US. the Mac website doesn't even offer any of the cards you mention, just the ATI 5770/5870 cards.

You do not buy them at the apple store. You buy them from newegg, amazon, best buy, or wherever you want and install them as a SECONDARY card (leaving the 5770 as the output for the monitor(s)). The 600 series card is used only for acceleration. This is the way resolve is designed to work best, along with some sort of decklink card for output to a reference monitor or projector.

Do you think perhaps it's better to go with a PC?

Not really.

s

Hi Dwaine, could you clarify the Graphics Card requirement for Mac Pro running Davinci Resolve? The Black Magic web site mentions that Resolve 9 runs fastest on NVIDIA CUDA-based GPUs, but Mac Pro's are now shipping with ATI Radeon HD 5770 or 5870 graphics cards.
Thanks,
Simon.

Hey Simon

Have you checked out the config guides? It explains many options to get resolve working:
viewtopic.php?t=931

You do not buy them at the apple store. You buy them from newegg, amazon, best buy, or wherever you want and install them as a SECONDARY card (leaving the 5770 as the output for the monitor(s)). The 600 series card is used only for acceleration. This is the way resolve is designed to work best, along with some sort of decklink card for output to a reference monitor or projector.

sincohen: Excellent, thanks so much for that. I haven't needed such powerful graphics processing before, so this is a bit new to me. Much appreciated.
Two further questions:
1. Does a Decklink Card connect to my grading monitor and my computer monitor as well?
2. We'll be grading footage from the BMCC, so will expect files in ProRes as well as RAW. Is a 12 core
processor advised, or would a Quad-core, or 6-core do the job?
thanks,
Simon.

1. Generally the decklink card only drives the grading monitor(s). The 5770 will drive the UI (computer monitor(s)). The 600 series will provide acceleration. It is also possible to drive a UI monitor off the 600 series card if for some reason that is desired. I have never noticed any performance degradation from doing this despite the documentation that seems to advise against this.

2. In resolve most of the work is done by the GPU (600 series card) and having tons of cores is not essential. Other programs however tend to be heavily CPU dependent. If this is a resolve dedicated system 6 cores should be fine. For doing other pro work you may consider the 12 core.

Be careful, the mac pro has only 4 card slots. The 5770 takes 1. the decklink will take at least 1 or 2 more depending if it has a daughter card for HDMI for instance. the 600 series card will take 1 slot on the low end (gt 640) or 2 slots on the high end (660ti and up). As you can see this becomes quite an issue when designing a very high end grading station around the mac pro and is another reason the current mac pro is disappointing hardware. Its also why it is often desirable to use the 600 series card to drive UI as well. And this is before you even think about adding a local high speed external raid or 10gig ethernet card for network workflows.

For you it sounds like you could get away with:
slot 1: 5770
slot 2+3: 600 series
slot 4: decklink without a daughter card.

please see blackmagic's documentation for other possible configurations. If you need a 2slot decklink or a raid card you can remove the 5770 and just use the 600 series for both UI and accel. Please note that you wont have any video output until OS X fully loads in this case (no boot up logo, etc). For prores a raid is not necessary. However it is very much needed if you work in uncompressed, arriraw, etc.

Another option is to buy the imac with 680MX, a thunderbolt decklink, and possibly a thunderbolt raid. The BMCC also can attach via thunderbolt so there is some advantage to doing things this way. The new imac has two channels of thunderbolt so its not a bad way to go to do everything over this interface.

s

Thanks sincohen,

very, very helpful to me. I'll mull all this over, and check out your suggested iMac configuration.
thanks again for your time and detailed reply.
Simon.