Blackmagic Forum

Hello all,

Need some tech help/guidance for a question that I am having difficulty finding answers to on the forums.

I have a powerful workstation that, on paper, should be playing back native UHD/4K resolution media files without any issues. Despite my computer specs (below) plus a fiber connection to the server where all the media lives, UHD/4K playback is not as smooth as it deserves to be and performance in Resolve is overall a bit spottier than normal. I'm getting low fps playback, I have small blips in workflow jumping around the sequence in any workspace (edit, color), grabbing stills and exporting them from powergrade folders is taking longer than it typically should, exports are taking longer from the Deliver workspace (a 30 min sequence is taking longer than 30 mins to export, it varies depending on the filetype) and I'm ultimately not getting the smooth experience I know I should be getting.

System specs:
Windows 10
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2696 v4 @ 2.20GHz (2 processors)
RAM: 128GB
GPU: FIVE (5) NVIDIA 2080 TITANS
Resolve: 16.2.7
Memory: 850 EVO M.2
Storage: Server connected via fiber cable

On paper, I should be scrubbing through the timeline, playing the sequences, and making adjustments to the sequence rather quickly and without any frames dropping or sluggish response time. I shouldn't need to set my resolution playback to Half or Quarter Res... I shouldn't need to set/generate any proxies for render caching, or change my render cache to Smart/User... and I shouldn't need to change my sequence settings to 1080 if I want to be working in UHD. Or am I completely wrong with any of these points?

Certain files are able to play "well enough", but only after playing a long clip for a few seconds. After a 1-3 second buffer, the playback is smoother and usually constant. In my testing, I've found that these clips are usually UHD ProRes 4444 and they are longer than 5-10 seconds. But if I have a sequence with multiple edits, every time the shot changes to the next, the buffer occurs and I ultimately get stuttering playback.

I've already confirmed that the server I am connecting to is working as intended. It is not full and hasn't hit its 80% threshold that we all know is recommended. Resolve is linking to a myriad of filetypes depending on the project... the current project I'm working on is mostly using UHD/4K ArriRAW.

The sequence is not color node heavy. General color correction with no more than 4 nodes on a clip at a time. No NR is applied to any node as of yet, which I know can slow playback.

If the problem was attached to one particular project/sequence, I would be more convinced that the issue had to do WITH that itself. But the issues are occurring on various projects, connected to multiple PostgreSQL server databases, working with multiple filetypes.

I'm happy to provide more information and hope you can help.

Thanks!

Can you detail the resolve version, and GPU driver version?

Hey Peter,

Sorry, can you clarify what you mean by "detailed Resolve version" and where I might find that info? All I could quickly find was that I'm running 16.2.7 via the splash page/about Resolve.

Nvidia drivers for all graphics cards are the following:
Drive date: 03/25/2021
Driver Version: 27.21.14.6589

Thank you.

Best,
Michael

Hi.

I wonder if you use the Studio version of Resolve?

Quote: 'DaVinci Resolve 17 only supports a single processing GPU on Windows and Linux and 2 GPUs on the latest Mac Pro.'

From: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/suppor ... 07a5270d2a

Regards Carsten.

Your system has way more compute power than mine, but I've no problem playing back 4k any kind of clip.

What you can do, besides updating the drivers, is checking windows/ control panels / power options. And check high performance mode.

Probably not your problem, but you can increase the cache memory. It helped me.
-- https://ccm.net/faq/7106-windows-7-incr ... disk-cache

If you have done all that, I should just test how a tiny project (4-5 clips) plays back from your C drive.
If that doesn't work you might have some issues with the connection to your server.

Hope it helps

Forgot to mention some other quick solutions that might help

Connect all monitors to one graphics card. (this is an important one I heard)

Reinstall Studio Version.

And try removing all but one graphics card and test playback speed. For arriraw and some nodes you don't need all that GPU power
( probably graphics card no. 4 & 5 only function as electric heaters , see pugetsystems.com)

I';m curious..., is this a hardware issue like the motherboard is not playing nice with Resolve?
BTW: Can you sell me one of those cards if you don't need all five??