Blackmagic Forum

Hello

I was introduced to DaVinci Resolve last year when I wanted a good editor for my Drone footage. But, I looked at the minimum specs and knew my laptop wouldn't handle it so I went for a variety of lightweight editors. I've been through about two dozen editors now and still have a burning desire to use DaVinci Resolve. I knew what the result would be, but I decided to download it and try it any. To my surprise, it runs, although very slow in areas. I was just surprised it would even load without crashing. I have to say I am brand new to video editing of any kind. But, having tried so many lightweight editors, I was stunned with the features and possibilities in DaVinci Resolve for a FREE program. Obviously, I don't have a clue how to use most of them at this point, but I am studying with passion and will learn.

My laptop is nowhere near the required minimum specs, but as I mentioned it is running. My hardware is:

AMD A10 9600P CPU (6 graphics cores, supposedly) 2.4Ghz
Radeon R5 graphics (very low VRAM)
16GB RAM
HP branded laptop

It is slow, but I can live with that. I have so far only experienced only one crash, and that while trying to the blur effect. The system reports that 5GB of system RAM is being used by DaVinci, leaving 11GB for the system. I am studying the different options to optimize for low spec hardware, but so far I have been using the default settings.

My question is: what issue will I likely have as I progress? Will I eventually reach a point where it will not go any further?

I realize these are elementary questions. and I apologize for that, but the web searches just give stock answers. I'd love to get a response from an in the software.

I appreciate any replies.

My question is: what issue will I likely have as I progress? Will I eventually reach a point where it will not go any further?

So as you keep working you will want to add transitions, titles and other layers of video and that will all add to the ram and CPU processing load of which are already greatly stressed. I looked up your CPU And found your system 'passmark score' to be rated at 2028 which is not quite enough in my opinion to even edit comfortably on Adobe premiere pro . Which is less hardware intensive, Davinci requires even more! I would suggest a CPU passmark score of at least 10000+. If you have the time, the ultimate solution is to mirror a custom build. Look up John's Films on YT for some ideas. BUT, before you purchase, make sure you KNOW what you are buying: look up the CPU and the video card and to see the benchmark ratings. Read Richard Lakey's website on hardware requirements for Davinci, as well as Davinci's own specifications. Oh, and I would avoid Best Buy...they tend to have very proprietary systems which are more difficult to upgrade.

Perhaps the most ambitious is to build an AMD CPU based system (good value: AMD RYZEN 5 3600 6-Core 3.6 GHz ) w/x570 chipset motherboard and a good Nvidia video card. Even if you spend $700-1000 on the whole system, you will be able to bring a ok 'basic' Davinci system to the table. Also, then you could load Linux on your laptop (perfect for learning as it now would be a 'spare' machine) For sake of keeping things 'on topic' I'm forcing myself to learning Linux. Why? Because you can customize much more and use more of the cpu power for you, rather than sending all you telementry back to a corporate giant.

But the easiest and quickest for you 'now' may be to just purchase a good used laptop/gaming pc. You could scour Ebay listings (probably the best, as the mechanism of ebay forces sellers to be realistic and on Craigslist, Facebook ads people tend to remember what they paid for it, not what it's currently worth) for used 'gaming computer/laptop' And be prepared to deal...if they don't offer a fair price, consider new.

Finally, don't get too caught up in the glamour of the ideal edit system. I've been in the business long enough to see AVID rise and fall (not off the map, but loose tremendous market share) as well as Final Cut Pro: they all are just tools and the product is only as good as the artist. Sure tools can help but it is far more important the skill, the vision and artistic ability.

Hope this helps. Take care.