Blackmagic Forum

I'm grading on a Mac Mini M1 (2020) with 16GB of RAM running macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 (latest version).

Footage is from a BMPCC4K, shot in BRAW Q3.

Playback works fine with the base image (no nodes) - it plays back at 24fps (or 23.98 whatever).

But if I start to add a lot of nodes, not only does playback slow to a crawl (probably like 4 or 5 fps), but Resolve it will just get mad and stop letting me scrub footage or show me an updated image if I, say, disable a node. So I have to close Resolve and reopen and then it works fine for a while (10-15 minutes) but I mess with too much stuff it gets mad again, have to quit, reopen, and so on.

By the way, this is all without any noise reduction, or any local effects or anything that's obviously intensive on a CPU/GPU.

I've attached a pic of an example of my node tree. My timeline is set to 2048x1024 (it's a 2.0:1 aspect ratio project) and not the full 4K resolution. Image scaling is bilinear. Deinterlace quality is "Normal." And I've attached examples of some of my other settings.

Any suggestions that might help, or is this just a case of need more computing power? I'm planning to get a Mac Studio this summer but wanted to see what I could do in the mean time, if possible.

Thank you!

Dehancer can add a significant amount of GPU load. Especially Film Grain, Bloom, Halation are heavy effects.

You also could try to get rid of the layer nodes, it might be they also slow down your Mac.

And check with Activity Monitor what happens to memory when the machine slows down.

Uli Plank wrote:And check with Activity Monitor what happens to memory when the machine slows down.

During playback with all nodes active, CPU seems to jump to about 50% (Resolve alone) but doesn't go much higher, and memory never seems to go past 6GB of RAM.

Robert Niessner wrote:Dehancer can add a significant amount of GPU load. Especially Film Grain, Bloom, Halation are heavy effects.

You also could try to get rid of the layer nodes, it might be they also slow down your Mac.

Yeah if I disable the Dehancer node it plays back almost fine (maybe 18-20 fps) so that's definitely taxing it more.

I'll try the layer nodes and see.

I feel like more than likely I'll just have to live with this until I get my Mac Studio. It's fine, I'm just doing base color grading while the director finishes editing and does VFX and the sound guy does the sound, so it's not like I NEED this to work perfectly right now - but needing to close and reopen Resolve is really annoying. That's actually the worst part.

pixelpreaching wrote:is this just a case of need more computing power?

I think that's usually the right answer to the question in the thread's title.

pixelpreaching wrote:

Robert Niessner wrote:Dehancer can add a significant amount of GPU load. Especially Film Grain, Bloom, Halation are heavy effects.

You also could try to get rid of the layer nodes, it might be they also slow down your Mac.

Yeah if I disable the Dehancer node it plays back almost fine (maybe 18-20 fps) so that's definitely taxing it more.

I have a Nvidia RTX A6000 48Gb GPU together with AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz and 128 GB RAM. In a 2k 24p timeline I can playback a Dehancer node in HQ mode and with its Film Grain active, but if I activate also Bloom or Halation - then playback drops significantly.

pixelpreaching wrote:I feel like more than likely I'll just have to live with this until I get my Mac Studio. It's fine, I'm just doing base color grading while the director finishes editing and does VFX and the sound guy does the sound, so it's not like I NEED this to work perfectly right now - but needing to close and reopen Resolve is really annoying. That's actually the worst part.

Put Dehancer onto an adjustment layer and only activate it for export.

pixelpreaching wrote:I'm grading on a Mac Mini M1 (2020) with 16GB of RAM running macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 (latest version). Footage is from a BMPCC4K, shot in BRAW Q3. Playback works fine with the base image (no nodes) - it plays back at 24fps (or 23.98 whatever). But if I start to add a lot of nodes, not only does playback slow to a crawl (probably like 4 or 5 fps), but Resolve it will just get mad and stop letting me scrub footage or show me an updated image if I, say, disable a node.

Unpopular answer: I would not try to use 27 nodes on a 4-year-old Mac Mini. Try to find a way to work more simply, something that can keep up with your system.

I've done something like 35-40 feature films in the last year, and it's rare that I ever needed more than 20 nodes. (But I admit there have been very complicated projects where I had 45+ nodes, plus some fairly tweaky Post-Clip Grades for look.) I would curb your expectations with a system like this. 10 nodes should be fine. Don't assume that more nodes makes you a better colorist; often simpler is better (and faster).

I can "generally" run Dehancer as a look on my 2019 Mac Pro, but if I throw something else at it -- glow diffusion, multiple streams of 4K, blur nodes, etc. -- it won't play at speed. If I cache those shots, they play back fine in real time. Neat Video NR brings everything to its knees: I've never seen a machine that could do more than 12fps with Neat, especially in 4K.

And finally: while we both like Macs for stability, a strong desktop PC will cost you less than the same power in a Mac Studio. Something to consider.

Robert Niessner wrote:Put Dehancer onto an adjustment layer and only activate it for export.

Thank you, I will give this a try!

Uli Plank wrote:And finally: while we both like Macs for stability, a strong desktop PC will cost you less than the same power in a Mac Studio. Something to consider.

Oh yeah, I know, I've thought about it, but I just simply hate Windows very very much. Other stuff like lack of or very little Thunderbolt 4 support is also irritating, among other things. I don't do this for a living, I'm mostly a photographer.

Uli Plank wrote:And finally: while we both like Macs for stability, a strong desktop PC will cost you less than the same power in a Mac Studio. Something to consider.

I'm with Matt: Windows is zero fun. I concede that PC hardware is cheaper... but if you throw enough money at a Mac system, it can be screamingly fast. Just not cheap.

Didn't write it's fun. Not at all