DaVinci Resolve v17.1.1 Painfully Slow and Stutters

I've been using Davinci Resolve for a few months now, just got the Studio version recently, but I noticed that when I try to do any 'complex' work like adding a few Nodes in the Colour Page, and/or do something with Fusion, the playback gets painfully slow, sometimes playing at around 5 frames per second, which makes it hard to do any editing. I've been using the Proxies / Optimized Media etc, and maybe the only thing that helps sometimes is "Render in Place", but it's hard to test things like a Fusion clip without spending ages rendering etc.

My PC specs are fairly good:

DaVinci Resolve Studio v17 (latest build)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 -core processor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with the Studio driver (latest version)
32GB RAM
SSDs x 2

I noticed yesterday that the SSD, CPU and GPU were hardly being used much, maybe around 20%, when trying to play a Fusion clip (which was heavily stuttering), although the RAM used was around 28GB.
Otherwise I don't have a clue why it stutters and plays at around 5 fps?

I haven't noticed much of a performance differences between the Studio version and the Free version either...hoping someone can shed any light on this?

It may just be that's how fast your chosen effects can process.

My PC specs are fairly good:
DaVinci Resolve Studio v17 (latest build)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 -core processor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with the Studio driver (latest version)
32GB RAM
SSDs x 2

I'm sad to hear that. I have been disappointed with the Apple M1 16GB RAM for Fusion where, for very complex compositions, it grinds virtually to a standstill. So I had resigned myself to having to get a PC. But a 3080 is all sold out here, but the 3070 is for sale at double the MRP price.

So I had thought of getting a 5900X and 3070, with 64GB RAM - but from your anecdote, it seems even that might not be enough.

I wonder what is the configuration needed to zip through complex Fusion compositions?

I would want to get a 3080, but those are sold out everywhere.

The current M1 machines are entry-level and impressive for editing and mild grading in Resolve, but too weak for Fusion.

But you'll find nothing anyway that 'zips' through Fusion. It's a compositing software, not an editor. Use caching and patience. But before further investments into RAM, wait what Apple has up their sleeves on Monday.

Wish list for Monday

Let's hope for at least 10 cores and 16 or 32 GPU cores.
And for good measure M1X should have access to 64GB of RAM.

Are u experiencing any UI lag, like takes time when you click any of the items the menu list when you're in the color or fusion tab ?
Is the lag only there when you're on complex nodes?

are you on windows 10 or 10 pro? if yes
which build of win10are you on?

any panels? speed editor?

You might want to try running an experiment on Linux. With Windows my fusion effects would take ages. On Linux I get almost realtime. I had a thread somewhere with benchmarks. Mac / Linux is great as in sometimes 2x-5x faster than Windows. Sadly most websites benchmark Davinci with Windows only and Windows really is a second class citizen performance wise.

Are u experiencing any UI lag, like takes time when you click any of the items the menu list when you're in the color or fusion tab ?
Is the lag only there when you're on complex nodes?

are you on windows 10 or 10 pro? if yes
which build of win10are you on?

any panels? speed editor?

No UI lag whatsoever. Windows 10 (home) with latest build. Use speed editor, but I have now un paired it from Windows to try and solve these performance issues. The lag is only on complex nodes.

I've tried creating another project, a few videos taken on my phone, created optimised media (set to Dnxhr 444 ) and created proxy media, also render the colour cache. The clips are grouped, and have about 3 nodes in the group pre clip section, also 1 node for each clip, and two or three nodes for the group timeline section. I haven't done much complex things with the nodes, and also set the proxy media to half resolution for playback, yet the FPS isn't steady at all on playback, changes from 25fps to 30 something FPS (timeline FPS is 29.97), and is noticeably not smooth at all. When setting the playback resolution to a quarter, it looks absolutely crap, and playback still stutters !!!

What puzzles me even more, is that the CPU/GPU/SSD are hardly being used according to the task manager ??

You might want to try running an experiment on Linux. With Windows my fusion effects would take ages. On Linux I get almost realtime. I had a thread somewhere with benchmarks. Mac / Linux is great as in sometimes 2x-5x faster than Windows. Sadly most websites benchmark Davinci with Windows only and Windows really is a second class citizen performance wise.

Thanks, good idea, and if I had Linux installed I most certainly would try it, and I'm sure it would be a lot less problematic than windows !

My PC specs are fairly good:
DaVinci Resolve Studio v17 (latest build)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 -core processor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 with the Studio driver (latest version)
32GB RAM
SSDs x 2

I'm sad to hear that. I have been disappointed with the Apple M1 16GB RAM for Fusion where, for very complex compositions, it grinds virtually to a standstill. So I had resigned myself to having to get a PC. But a 3080 is all sold out here, but the 3070 is for sale at double the MRP price.

So I had thought of getting a 5900X and 3070, with 64GB RAM - but from your anecdote, it seems even that might not be enough.

I wonder what is the configuration needed to zip through complex Fusion compositions?

I would want to get a 3080, but those are sold out everywhere.

I have seen other people saying that they have no performance issues with the 3070, so I'm not sure what the problem is with mine, if it's the GPU (even though it's hardly used) or if it's something else?