Full gpu not being used when rendring.

Hello there,
I am new to configuring my system. And don't know which encoder will perform best.

I have an RTX 3060 12gb Of which hardly 6gb is being used as shown below.

https://imgur.com/a/wQnCFuk


The 3d and video encoder is being used and the render time is not what I expect.I get 1 hour render time for a 1hour video of UHD resolution

My rendering settings are as follows:
Format: mp4
Codec: h.265
Encoder: Auto (should I select Native)

In preference memory and gpu> I have CUDA selected and my graphics card selected.
I am using the free version of Resolve.

Kindly, let me know if is this normal or not? Kindly also suggest any changes to improve performance.

Thanks.

The free version does not use hardware acceleration for encoding, but the CPU.

As mentioned I think free version of resole is CPU oriented. In studio version, Encoder: Auto (should I select Native). Nvidia option is what I always use, but I'm not sure if its even there in free version of resolve. You can try third party codecs and see if that will work on your version.

I personally like using: MainConcept Codec Plugin for DaVinci Resolve Studio. Its not cheap but has some great results.

https://www.mainconcept.com/blackmagic-plugins

...but its for studio I think, also not free version. Also available is Voukoder, but again I'm not sure if it works on free version.

Voukoder is a system wide video- and audio encoding service for Windows that improves your media encoding experience. It supports various modern encoders and also provides a set of post processing filters.

Currently supported are:

• BlackMagic DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Adobe Media Encoder
• Adobe After Effects
• Magix VEGAS Pro
• and more ...


If present Voukoder can make use of hardware acceleration (i.e. Intel QSV, NVidia NVENC or AMD AMF) to speed up media encoding even more.

https://www.voukoder.org/


Also I think I saw a release note for Fusion 19:

• Up to 2x faster H.264 and H.265 native encodes in Windows.

...you can try that. Also you can try using workaround I use even with studio version if you are working in fusion page. Which is using saver node to save image sequence and than re-import that with a loader and encode that. Usually works faster, especially with Fusion effects which many of are still CPU powered.


I haven't tried it, but you can maybe export image sequence from resolve free version and re-import that for encoding with cpu, which should be faster. Replicating what I do from fusion.

Free third-party encoders, like Shutter Encoder, can leverage the hardware encoding.
Just export DNxHR or Cineform as a master file, then encode externally. Of course, buying Studio means less hassle (and many more possibilities).

Free third-party encoders, like Shutter Encoder, can leverage the hardware encoding.
Just export DNxHr or Cineform as a master file, then encode externally. Of course, buying Studio means less hassle (and many more possibilities).

Yeah, that's a good point. I forgot about that. Its a bit extra process, but it should work.

Handbrake is a decent app, Shutter Encoder as well.

The free version does not use hardware acceleration for encoding, but the CPU.

But as you can see from the attached screenshot my CPU is not being used.

Something is used and close to 100%, so, your GPU is not doing that much for rendering.

Stupid question here, but why do you think it should max out your GPU RAM?

Stupid question here, but why do you think it should max out your GPU RAM?

I don't know. But I assume it might.

Rendering in Studio will max-out your GPU, but not necessarily its VRAM.

...I have an RTX 3060 12gb Of which hardly 6gb is being used as shown below.
....The 3d and video encoder is being used and the render time is not what I expect.I get 1 hour render time for a 1hour video of UHD resolution

My rendering settings are as follows:
Format: mp4
Codec: h.265
Encoder: Auto (should I select Native)...

I am using the free version of Resolve...

On version 18 and before, Resolve non-Studio in Windows does not have hardware decode/encode acceleration. So if you are on the free version on Windows, it should not be surprising that H.264/H.265 decode/encode might be slower than expected.

The release notes for version 19 beta 3 say Resolve non-Studio on Windows had significant decode performance improvements on H.264/H.265. That implies it might be doing hardware decode acceleration. Whether it does hardware encode acceleration is less clear.

Your Task Manager graphs show Resolve using video acceleration for encoding. Whether that is correct or not, I don't know. The decode/encode acceleration is bundled on the GPU, but it has nothing to do with the traditional GPU logic.

It is completely expected that some workloads could bottleneck on video decoding or encoding (even with hardware acceleration), yet GPU texture/shading/stream processors might be unused, since those cannot help video decode/encode. That's why there is a separate graph on Windows for GPU decode and encode acceleration.

What version of Resolve are you running? Are you running a beta version of Resolve 19?