Mini PC that is known to work well with Davinci Resolve?

Mini PC that is known to work well with Davinci Resolve? Need mini PC for remote/on-site editing flexibility. Some of the beelink mini PCs for example have multiple HDMI out, so using something like ProPresenter would be possible as well, of course can't do key and fill directly (i.e. no DL), but don't need that on remote streaming per se.

Hi.

In Resolve the CPU is used to run the app, disk I/O, fusion, decode and encode of codecs.
Resolve does all its image processing in the GPU on the graphics card. Higher CUDA/OpenCL performance is better.

Resolve do all its Image processing in RGB fp32. 4K videos have 4 times the pixels of HD. And for 4K is the absolute minimum 6 GB of vRam on the Graphics Card, but more are recommended.

So for a mini PC, would I recommend one with the space, power and cooling for a full size graphics card.

Regards Carsten.

@Carsten,

Thank you for the details explanation. Several of the of the mini PCs I am looking at, seem to be sufficient and then some for CPU, memory, disk (I/O) throughput. But I need to validate the vRAM (GPU memory) capacity.

I tried resolve on an other mini I have, that is 16GB RAM/500GB SSD, 4 GHz Ryzen 7. Resolve loads but will not run the timeline or do any media play back. The integrated GPU is AMD Vega 10 Graphics, which I think only has 4 GB vRAM. So the older mini I have, seems to have that common problem with Resolve?

I have the perception that AMD GPUs have more issues, than NVIDIA GPUs, or maybe just the Google searches I have done and articles I have read, imply this.

CUDA support is only NVIDIA? The AMD GPU support for CUDA seems to be incomplete?

Sorry, but this one cries for a Mac Studio. But wait until Monday before ordering.

Oh, and for key and fill, what about OBS? Not cinema level, but good enough for streaming.

Disclaimer: if you check my messages, I'm not a naive fan of Apple or Microsoft, but a big fan of using the right tool for the job.

@Carsten,

Thank you for the details explanation. Several of the of the mini PCs I am looking at, seem to be sufficient and then some for CPU, memory, disk (I/O) throughput. But I need to validate the vRAM (GPU memory) capacity.

I tried resolve on an other mini I have, that is 16GB RAM/500GB SSD, 4 GHz Ryzen 7. Resolve loads but will not run the timeline or do any media play back. The integrated GPU is AMD Vega 10 Graphics, which I think only has 4 GB vRAM. So the older mini I have, seems to have that common problem with Resolve?

I have the perception that AMD GPUs have more issues, than NVIDIA GPUs, or maybe just the Google searches I have done and articles I have read, imply this.

CUDA support is only NVIDIA? The AMD GPU support for CUDA seems to be incomplete?

Hi

Both the AMD or Intel integrated GPUs are to weak for Resolve. For Resolve you will need a real Graphics card.

CUDA support is for nVidea GPUs. Both AMD and Intel GPUs use the similar OpenCL

Regards Carsten.

And I wouldn’t say that one is generally better than the other. AMD cards seem to have more often immature drivers, while Nvidia tend to crash with a full VRAM, if you look around here.
The main issues you’ll encounter with compact machines are heat and power supply. Both manufacturer’s cards draw immense power if the model is strong enough for DR.
That’s why I suggest an Apple machine for your specific need. They have tamed the energy consumption for decent performance in DR.
They are not on par with a serious desktop PC with 750 or 1,000 Watts of power, but that doesn’t work in a small box.

Sorry, but this one cries for a Mac Studio. But wait until Monday before ordering.

Took the words out of my mouth. The Mac Studio is really an impressive box (particularly the Ultra), and I'm positive an M2 or an M3 would be even better. I concede that the cost and the lake of upgradability are issues, and it's up to the user if this is a compromise they can live with.

I'm going to try to do some hardcore Mac Studio Ultra vs. high-end Mac Pro tests on month to have some good real-world numbers. My take is they're neck and neck, and the Mac Pro cost us $20K back in early 2021, and the Mac Studio Ultra was maybe $6K when the dust settled. Both are paid for, so cost wasn't an issue in the big picture. The user experience is absolutely a selling part for Mac: my experience is, "it just works."

And I wouldn’t say that one is generally better than the other. AMD cards seem to have more often immature drivers, while Nvidia tend to crash with a full VRAM,

Hi.

Nvidia full VRAM crash issue is easy to fix. Just buy a nVidea graphics card with more VRAM, as the RTX 4060 TI with not 8 GB, but 16 GB of VRAM is coming next month to a price of $499.
It is produced on the latest 4N process node and uses only 144 watts of power, and requires less cooling.

Here is a link: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nv ... -ti-review

AMD problem with drivers is also easy to solve. Just make sure there is no automatic driver updates on your PC. Many AMD users have driver problems when Windows Update suddenly update during a project. You can solve it by disabling your internet connection.

If you need both Internet and Resolve on the same PC, you can use dual boot with two separate hard disk partitions with two Windows installations. During boot you do choose between a normal PC without Resolve or a Resolve ONLY PC with network drivers and Windows update disabled.

This way there will be no sudden change to your tested and working graphics drivers, used by Resolve.


With a quick search I found a small aluminum computer case for a mini PC.
With the size of 9.5" x 8.5" (245 x 215 mm):

https://www.amazon.com/Connectors-Alumi ... -ITX%2B%2F%2 2BATX&qid =1685866096&sprefix=jonsbo%2Bc2%2Bmini-itx%2B%2F%2Bmicro%2Batx%2Caps%2C256&sr=8-3&th=1

Suggest you find something similar.

Regards Carsten.

That 4060 with 16 GB sounds like a good solution, if you can wait.
And when it comes to PC hardware, Carsten is the most well informed guy around here.

Yeah, I can wait, this is not urgent. I don't have a big budget, was hoping I could use resolve without a big financial sink cost. The dual boot is not problem, before I got into A/V stuff, after I retired, have 30 years IT enterprise engineering and virtualization experience, was doing virtualization, back before VMware was EVEN BUZZ word.

Just to update this thread... With a clean Windows 11 install on my mini PC 16GB/2GB VRAM, I can use Davinci Resolve 18.6(?) at 1080p60. Before the clean OS install, 18.6 would come up with no errors but the timeline would NEVER move forward. This frozen timeline issue does not seem to be hardware related by software/driver/maybe codec?

I bumped the mini PC to 32GB (I mean why not, it was only like $30 US to do it). The specification for the system is below, this of course is 'light' editing, but that is all we need typically.

AMD Ryzen 7 3750H 2.3 GHz With Vega Mobile Gfx
16 GB now 32 GB, but worked under 16 GB for the light editing test

A codec has nothing to do with it, since it comes from your source, but you may have modernized the GPU driver when re-installing.
There’s nothing wrong with doing light editing in HD on the move and finishing in UHD when coming home to a stronger machine.

Mini PC that is known to work well with Davinci Resolve? Need mini PC for remote/on-site editing flexibility. Some of the beelink mini PCs for example have multiple HDMI out, so using something like ProPresenter would be possible as well, of course can't do key and fill directly (i.e. no DL), but don't need that on remote streaming per se.

HP HP Z2 Mini G9 workstation is the most powerfull mini PC in its class with its Core i9 24 core CPU, 64GB RAM and standard size nVIDIA RTX A2000 with 12GB vRAM. Its expensive but worth it in my opinion and I am planning to buy it soon.

Check it out:
https://www.hp.com/us-en/workstations/z ... d08cf5d452

Yeah, I can wait, this is not urgent. I don't have a big budget, was hoping I could use resolve without a big financial sink cost. The dual boot is not problem, before I got into A/V stuff, after I retired, have 30 years IT enterprise engineering and virtualization experience, was doing virtualization, back before VMware was EVEN BUZZ word.

What is your budget?

The HP Z2 G9 Mini Workstation starts at $1,159 and the configuration I am getting will cost me $2,177 from B&H:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... ation.html

And at later time I will upgrade the RAM to 64GB.

HP HP Z2 Mini G9 workstation is the most powerfull mini PC in its class with its Core i9 24 core CPU, 64GB RAM and standard size nVIDIA RTX A2000 with 12GB vRAM.

Not according to the B/H website. If you get the I9 you don't get the A2000. If you get the A2000 you max out at the I7.

The box only comes with a sub 300watt PSU.

You might want to check just how powerful that A2000 is. 12GB of memory is nice but I don't think it's fast enough to be considered for Resolve.

If you need a NUC look at the Intel boxes. If you can still find one . They've been discontinued. I think

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... treme.html

Supports a full size GPU. 750watt PSU It ain't going to end up cheap. You'll also need a NAS. Likely with TB since the NUC only comes with 2.5GB ethernet.

HP HP Z2 Mini G9 workstation is the most powerfull mini PC in its class with its Core i9 24 core CPU, 64GB RAM and standard size nVIDIA RTX A2000 with 12GB vRAM.

Not according to the B/H website. If you get the I9 you don't get the A2000. If you get the A2000 you max out at the I7.

The box only comes with a sub 300watt PSU.

You might want to check just how powerful that A2000 is. 12GB of memory is nice but I don't think it's fast enough to be considered for Resolve.

If you need a NUC look at the Intel boxes. If you can still find one . They've been discontinued. I think

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... treme.html

Supports a full size GPU. 750watt PSU It ain't going to end up cheap. You'll also need a NAS. Likely with TB since the NUC only comes with 2.5GB ethernet.

I don't know what's up with B&H, but I have read and watched reviews of Z2 Mini G9 and according to the specs of the tested unites, you can get the i9, 64GB RAM and A2000 in one configuration. My guess is that maybe this configuration is out of stock at the moment in B&H!

Here is a video review with the specs I mentioned:

And here is a review from StorageReview and they also compared it to Intel NUC 12 Extreme:
https://www.storagereview.com/review/hp ... ion-review

The Mini Z2 G9 outperformed NUC 12 Extreme in many tests. And I am sure it is powerful to handle Resolve flawlessly. If my almost 5 years old Mini Z2 G5 can handle Resolve nicely and without a problem, I 100% sure G9 will be far better becouse it is superior to G5.