UI performance

I see lots and lots of threads about how to eek out the most playback/render performance, but very little about the performance of the actual user interface.

Coming from FCPX, Resolve's UI is painfully slow. For example, switching screens, even with an empty project, takes uncomfortably long. Many controls noticeably lag, and the whole app just, well, drags on a top of the line 2018 MBPr.

Adding a powerful graphics card via eGPU made a wonderful improvement to playback/render performance, but the Ui performance is still mired in molasses.

Anyone have any tips to improve the situation? Is the situation meaningfully better on the Windows or Linux side?

There are other threads about this subject. Windows UI latency in V15 can be significant compared to V12 running on the same hardware.

Any tips or tweaks?

I find the UI performance to be much more of a drag on productivity than render performance. So much so that I continue sticking to my old "edit in FCPX and color in Resolve" workflow even though otherwise I'd prefer to do it all in Resolve.

Coming from FCPX, Resolve's UI is painfully slow. For example, switching screens, even with an empty project, takes uncomfortably long. Many controls noticeably lag, and the whole app just, well, drags on a top of the line 2018 MBPr.

This is strange. I don't see delays in switching between Edit, Color, Fairlight, and Deliver pages, even on a 2014 Mac Mini (way under-spec for Resolve); on the Mini I do experience a slight 1- to 2-second delay when switching to the Fusion page, but I never use Fusion on the Mini as there's no point. On my 2013 Mac Pro I've never experienced any UI delays in v. 15.

Which controls do you see lagging? I wonder if there's a setting somewhere on your Mac or Resolve that's causing your problem, as there's no way a 2018 Macbook Pro should underperform a 2014 Mac Mini with only 8 gigs of RAM and integrated Intel graphics. Maybe there's a memory allocation problem?

To me it's not so much that individual actions takes time, but that almost everything in the UI renders at a very low frame rate compared to other NLE:s like FCPX and Premiere. Stepless zooming and panning of the timeline on the Edit page (not using the keyboard) is horrible (https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=83106&p=461412#p461412), worse than any other NLE. I agree, it affects productivity. I do expect them to improve it though since they started animating clip movements at a high frame rate during v15.

Which controls do you see lagging?

A few examples after a clean reboot with no other apps running:

1. Click on a media source (fast SSD) for the first time in the media screen and the computer beachballs for a few seconds while the directory builds (much faster after the first time.)

2. Switch to the color screen. 3 second wait (much faster after the first time.)

3. Resizing windows windows is jumpy/laggy.

4. Editing numerical inputs is laggy and unpredictable.

5. Significant delay dragging clips on the edit timeline (the first time a given clip is clicked.)

I feel like I'm working on a 10 year old computer compared to FCPX.

Which controls do you see lagging?

A few examples after a clean reboot with no other apps running:

1. Click on a media source (fast SSD) for the first time in the media screen and the computer beachballs for a few seconds while the directory builds (much faster after the first time.)

2. Switch to the color screen. 3 second wait (much faster after the first time.)

3. Resizing windows windows is jumpy/laggy.

4. Editing numerical inputs is laggy and unpredictable.

5. Significant delay dragging clips on the edit timeline (the first time a given clip is clicked.)

I feel like I'm working on a 10 year old computer compared to FCPX.

Wow, I'm not seeing any of that, even on my Mac Mini. I just tried these (except 4, as I don't generally enter or edit timecode for navigating the timeline) and can't replicate the problems except that I do see a slight jumpiness when resizing windows on my Mini but no noticeable lag.

I also use Final Cut, mostly on my Mac Pro, and have been developing my current project in both FCPX and Resolve as an experiment to see which one works best for me; I really haven't noticed any differences in terms of UI responsiveness.

Is Live Save activated? That might increase lag for operations that require a round trip to the database. Especially if the database isn't hosted locally.

Is Live Save activated? That might increase lag for operations that require a round trip to the database. Especially if the database isn't hosted locally.

That's a good suggestion, and just as a point of reference I do not have live save activated in Resolve on either of my computers, which might explain why I'm not seeing this laggy behavior.

"Live Save" is off.

Delay when choosing a media source:
http://www.humcrush.com/grabs/delay.mp4

Delay selecting clips:

http://www.humcrush.com/grabs/delay2.mp4

Another user -- I think also on Mac -- documented much the same two or 3 months ago. I'm not sure what the solution was, if any.

*Something* is definitely wrong. On Windows, I'd suggest a video driver. On Mac, no idea.

*Something* is definitely wrong. On Windows, I'd suggest a video driver. On Mac, no idea.

What's weird is that FCPX is behaving just fine on Joel's machine but Resolve is not. So it's probably some setting in Resolve, or in Mac OSX, or something about this particular MacBook Pro that doesn't play well with Resolve.

But those are DNG files I assume you can't test in FCPX unless they are lossless. Are the files on an external SSD or media? What type of interface is it connected to? If Thunderbolt, it should be on a port that doesn't share PCI lanes with another used port.

I find the UI performance to be very snappy on Windows 10 in Studio 15.2.2, which did get a redraw boost.

I'm hard pressed to believe every Mac user is seeing the delays your video clips show. My first guess is a local issue.

But those are DNG files I assume you can't test in FCPX unless they are lossless. Are the files on an external SSD or media? What type of interface is it connected to? If Thunderbolt, it should be on a port that doesn't share PCI lanes with another used port.

Doesn't matter if they are cDNG, ProRes, h264 or just a still image. Doesn't matter if they are on the internal SSD, external SSD a spinning platter RAID or a network drive.

What's weird is that FCPX is behaving just fine on Joel's machine but Resolve is not. So it's probably some setting in Resolve, or in Mac OSX, or something about this particular MacBook Pro that doesn't play well with Resolve.

Not just FCPX. Every other app on my computer performs as expected.

I'm hard pressed to believe every Mac user is seeing the delays your video clips show. My first guess is a local issue.

Over the years, from Resolve 12 on, over several different MBPs, I've tested Resolve and found the UI performance to be dog slow. Each new update I hope that something will materially change, but little has. I suffer through it to color my projects, but there's just no way I can edit a project like this. Which is a shame, because I want to.

Every so often I debate building a dedicated Resolve workstation, but the PITA factor of 2 computers combined with the ridiculousness of having to do so (A top of the line MBPr with a Vega FE should be able to chew through my modest projects without breaking a sweat.) stops me and I slink back to FCPX.

Any tips or tweaks?

Yes. Search for the older threads here.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Joseph, I can’t see details of your system, did I miss something?

Joeseph, I can’t see details of your system, did I miss something?

I've tried recently on two different Mojave systems:

System 1:
2017 MBPr, 2.9 Ghz i7, 16GB RAM

System 2:
2018 MBPr, 2.9 Ghz i9, 32GB RAM

I've tried with and without a Radeon Vega FE (16 GB VRAM) in a Sonnet eGFX 650.

Any tips or tweaks?

Yes. Search for the older threads here.

What search terms? Because I've tried the obvious and not found anything helpful.

What search terms? Because I've tried the obvious and not found anything helpful.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=80681&p=453833&hilit=ui+latency#p446671

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=79883&p=452841&hilit=ui+latency#p442290

Coming from FCPX, Resolve's UI is painfully slow. For example, switching screens, even with an empty project, takes uncomfortably long. Many controls noticeably lag, and the whole app just, well, drags on a top of the line 2018 MBPr.

This is strange. I don't see delays in switching between Edit, Color, Fairlight, and Deliver pages, even on a 2014 Mac Mini (way under-spec for Resolve); on the Mini I do experience a slight 1- to 2-second delay when switching to the Fusion page, but I never use Fusion on the Mini as there's no point. On my 2013 Mac Pro I've never experienced any UI delays in v. 15.

Which controls do you see lagging? I wonder if there's a setting somewhere on your Mac or Resolve that's causing your problem, as there's no way a 2018 Macbook Pro should underperform a 2014 Mac Mini with only 8 gigs of RAM and integrated Intel graphics. Maybe there's a memory allocation problem?

On Windows, there is definitely a delay in switching screens; and it is noticeable. Maybe something to do with the framework they use for the UI...

Does this application use Qt for UI? This is something I tend to notice with Qt applications.

on Windows - 0 delay. Resolve is like butter.

Many controls noticeably lag, and the whole app just, well, drags on a top of the line 2018 MBPr

No issues related to the performance of Resolve and its responsiveness on my systems, even without an eGPU on the 2018 MacBook Pro.

Which macOS version is installed?

Delay selecting clips:

http://www.humcrush.com/grabs/delay2.mp4

Unless you have 'show mouse clicks' enabled when taking screen recordings, then these videos aren't much use

What search terms? Because I've tried the obvious and not found anything helpful.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=80681&p=453833&hilit=ui+latency#p446671

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=79883&p=452841&hilit=ui+latency#p442290

Thanks, but neither of those threads are relevant.

Many controls noticeably lag, and the whole app just, well, drags on a top of the line 2018 MBPr

No issues related to the performance of Resolve and its responsiveness on my systems, even without an eGPU on the 2018 MacBook Pro.

Which macOS version is installed?

10.14. But, again, I've noticed similar issues since Resolve 12 going back to whatever OS versions were current at the time.

Here's another Mac-specific thread on the issue, FWIW:

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=74785

Also try downloading the new 15.2.3 update released today; it says there are a number of performance and UI speed improvements...

Some progress...

- 15.2.3 made no difference

- A new database made no difference

- Switching GPU from "auto" to "Metal" made a noticeable difference in edit performance. Clicking and dragging in the timeline is now bearable. (Still a short lag, but maybe half as much as on auto.)

- Turned down every setting i could think of that would impact performance (10-bt display off, etc.) and that seems to have made a small improvement, as well.

- Nothing seems to impact the whole UI locking when choosing a given directory for the first time while browsing media.

- Nothing seems to impact the delay switching from one screen to another, especially the first time.

No UI latency improvements for me in 15.2.3. Windows 10. 2x GTX Titan X.

Just another datapoint -- I experience no delays in switching tabs (media/edit/color/deliver) but I don't use Fusion in Resolve, I use VFX connect.

[Anish Prithviraj]

Some progress...

- 15.2.3 made no difference

- A new database made no difference

- Switching GPU from "auto" to "Metal" made a noticeable difference in edit performance. Clicking and dragging in the timeline is now bearable. (Still a short lag, but maybe half as much as on auto.)

- Turned down every setting i could think of that would impact performance (10-bt display off, etc.) and that seems to have made a small improvement, as well.

- Nothing seems to impact the whole UI locking when choosing a given directory for the first time while browsing media.

- Nothing seems to impact the delay switching from one screen to another, especially the first time.

Hi Joseph,

Can you please check your messages. I PM'd you for some additional information.

- Nothing seems to impact the whole UI locking when choosing a given directory for the first time while browsing media.

- Nothing seems to impact the delay switching from one screen to another, especially the first time.

These two points sound like the application is generating cache.

Does your cpu, gpu, or I/O load spike when you do this?

Does your cpu, gpu, or I/O load spike when you do this?

Watched the activity monitor while launching, changing screens and browsing media. Nothing saturates CPU, GPU or disk. Not even 50%, and nothing is a heavier process than the application launch itself.

Does your cpu, gpu, or I/O load spike when you do this?

Watched the activity monitor while launching, changing screens and browsing media. Nothing saturates CPU, GPU or disk. Not even 50%, and nothing is a heavier process than the application launch itself.

I don't know if it's the same thing on Macs, but on Windows at least you don't want to look for the overal CPU figure, but how much a maxxed-out CPU core would take up. For example with a quad-core processor (and no virtual cores), a maxxed-out core reads as 25%. This matters because while some parts of most applications can use multiple cores, many jobs in an app can only run on a single thread/core. The UI for example might be on its own thread.

So if you're seeing an app's CPU usage of exactly 1 or 2 cores maxxed-out (eg. 25% or 50%) continuously, there's a good chance the app is going flat out in 2 or two threads, and that's your bottleneck.

I'm on Windows 10, ever since using Resolve (from v14 or 15 IIRC) I've had appalling UI performance. Even just selecting or moving clips is laggy as hell, and I'm also seeing the super-slow mode switches. I'm on a Wacom tablet which may be part of the reason (will need to investigate), sorry to say I just got used to it. Persisted over several Nivida drivers. It's completely not normal though, no other app does this on my setup:

Dell XPS 15 (9560 model), i7-7700HQ (4 real/8 virtual threads), 32GB RAM, built-in Intel HD 630 graphics and Nvidia GTX 1050, 3 monitors.

I'm on Windows 10, ever since using Resolve (from v14 or 15 IIRC) I've had appalling UI performance. Even just selecting or moving clips is laggy as hell, and I'm also seeing the super-slow mode switches. I'm on a Wacom tablet which may be part of the reason (will need to investigate), sorry to say I just got used to it. Persisted over several Nivida drivers. It's completely not normal though, no other app does this on my setup:

Dell XPS 15 (9560 model), i7-7700HQ (4 real/8 virtual threads), 32GB RAM, built-in Intel HD 630 graphics and Nvidia GTX 1050, 3 monitors.

I'm not convinced Resolve is going to perform well on a laptop, especially if you're trying to drive 3 displays. It's going to be slow, pretty much as you describe. With tons of RAM (say, at least 64GB or even 128), lots of cores, and multiple GPUs, performance will skyrocket quite a bit.

I'm on Windows 10, ever since using Resolve (from v14 or 15 IIRC) I've had appalling UI performance. Even just selecting or moving clips is laggy as hell, and I'm also seeing the super-slow mode switches. I'm on a Wacom tablet which may be part of the reason (will need to investigate), sorry to say I just got used to it. Persisted over several Nivida drivers. It's completely not normal though, no other app does this on my setup:

Dell XPS 15 (9560 model), i7-7700HQ (4 real/8 virtual threads), 32GB RAM, built-in Intel HD 630 graphics and Nvidia GTX 1050, 3 monitors.

I'm not convinced Resolve is going to perform well on a laptop, especially if you're trying to drive 3 displays. It's going to be slow, pretty much as you describe. With tons of RAM (say, at least 64GB or even 128), lots of cores, and multiple GPUs, performance will skyrocket quite a bit.

It works pretty well on the whole (the GPU is pretty good) unless you start piling heavy effects on (Glows etc) - I do . Just the UI performance is abnormally bad.

But I will have to drill down and report back (may be a few days). Things like running on a single monitor to check if it makes any difference.

But I will have to drill down and report back (may be a few days). Things like running on a single monitor to check if it makes any difference.

Increasing the number of displays and the screen resolution will always tax the system more.

It works pretty well on the whole (the GPU is pretty good) unless you start piling heavy effects on (Glows etc) - I do . Just the UI performance is abnormally bad.

Yes, OFX effects are definitely taxing. You can try Caching those and see if it helps. There are certain OFX operations I have to cache even on a fairly full-tilt Trashcan (12-core/64GB/dual D700s), particularly Deflicker, but glows and I think Face Refinement are typically realtime. Lens flares can be tough, and of course NR is challenging.

I can attest to the very laggy interface since Resolve 11 when I started using it.

Today I came across this post after working for a while and getting bummed down by the lagginess.

Decided to switch off "Use display GPU for compute" on preferences (I have two Nvidia cards on OSX 10.13.6. It improved significantly including playback speed! Still it takes like 2 seconds to switch between edit and color pages.

Increasing the number of displays and the screen resolution will always tax the system more.

Sure, but I don't think that's my issue. Verify soon ...

Came here to say the same thing. My UI is extremely laggy. i9 10core with 128GB ram and 2x 1080Ti. Other slower machines in the building exhibit much slicker performance connected to the same project and database which is on my machine. Must be a preference thing or plugin on something which is causing the lag but god knows what. It's extremely frustrating.

Usually when changing from edit page to color page takes a long time, but only when i use the shortcut. When i select the page from the bar, it's instantaneous. Don't know why.

Did anyone figure out a problem for the UI performance? I have tried a lot of different things and I still can't get my Resolve to function properly. The next thing I'm planning on doing is going back to Davinci 17. I have had UI problems in the past on my laptop and then got a desktop and it was working for a year and then it started having the same problems as my laptop. I don't know what to do. Every click is 5 seconds to perform and everything else on my computer runs fine. I've done benchmarks for my CPU and GPU and they both were fine.

Specs:
Davinci Resolve Studio 17.2.1
Windows 10
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 3000Mhz 8 cores
GPU: GeForce GTX 1070
Ram: 32GB RAM 3200
PSU: 700w
Mobo: X470 Gaming pro carbon

I'm using a SSD to run Davinci, but files are in 5TB HDDs

Did anyone figure out a problem for the UI performance? I have tried a lot of different things and I still can't get my Resolve to function properly. The next thing I'm planning on doing is going back to Davinci 17. I have had UI problems in the past on my laptop and then got a desktop and it was working for a year and then it started having the same problems as my laptop. I don't know what to do. Every click is 5 seconds to perform and everything else on my computer runs fine. I've done benchmarks for my CPU and GPU and they both were fine.

Specs:
Davinci Resolve Studio 17.2.1
Windows 10
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 3000Mhz 8 cores
GPU: GeForce GTX 1070
Ram: 32GB RAM 3200
PSU: 700w
Mobo: X470 Gaming pro carbon

I'm using a SSD to run Davinci, but files are in 5TB HDDs

Do you have Live Save turned on?

Did anyone figure out a problem for the UI performance? I have tried a lot of different things and I still can't get my Resolve to function properly. The next thing I'm planning on doing is going back to Davinci 17. I have had UI problems in the past on my laptop and then got a desktop and it was working for a year and then it started having the same problems as my laptop. I don't know what to do. Every click is 5 seconds to perform and everything else on my computer runs fine. I've done benchmarks for my CPU and GPU and they both were fine.

Specs:
Davinci Resolve Studio 17.2.1
Windows 10
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700 3000Mhz 8 cores
GPU: GeForce GTX 1070
Ram: 32GB RAM 3200
PSU: 700w
Mobo: X470 Gaming pro carbon

I'm using a SSD to run Davinci, but files are in 5TB HDDs

Do you have Live Save turned on?

I turned it off and still slow. It also happens in project manager before I even choose a project to go into.