Graphics card compatibility Davinci Resolve 15

Dear users,

I am looking for a new laptop for music production with Ableton Libe as well as for video editing with Davinci Resolve 15.
As I am relatively inexperienced when it comes to graphics cards, I would like to know what graphics card would be suitable for Davinci Resolve 15.

I really like this the Dell XPS 15 i7 8750H FHD 16 GB Ram 512 SSD which has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050ti. I also consider getting the Lenovo ThinkPad T580 20L90026GE i7 8550U which has similar specs as the Dell but has a NVIDIA GeForce MX150. Does anybody know whether any of these products (or similar ones) are going to work with Davinci Resolve 15? If you can recommend any other laptops around that price range (around max 2000 €/2300 USD) that have more suitable graphics cards, please let me know.
Also important to consider: I want a portable laptop (max 2,5 kg) with around 8-10 hours battery life.

I am looking forward to hearing from you guys.

- Kat

Hi.

In Resolve the CPU is used to run the app, disk I/O and compression and decompression of codecs.
Resolve does all its image processing in the GPU on the graphics card. More CUDA/OpenCL Cores are better.

The needed Graphics Card will also depend on your resolution. Do you edit HD videos only or do you also want to edit 4K/UHD?

I am sorry, but I can not recommend the Dell XPS 15 9570 with Core i7-8750H. According to this link is it not optimized for max performance.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS- ... 738.0.html

What the link is telling that customers buying the Dell with the i7-8750H think that they buy the performance of the i7-8750H, but they don't. The pay the price of the i7-8750H, but got less performance.

The problem is the cooling of the tiny laptop. DELL upgraded the mobile CPU to a 6 core version that uses more power and therefore need more cooling, but without upgrading the cooling system.

Normally I recommend laptops in a medium to large size to get reed of the generated heat.

Here is a link to Notebookchecks 'Best Slim & Light Gaming Laptops as of July 2018'

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Notebookc ... 456.0.html

And a German language version with a September 2018 update. It can be translated by using Google translate:

https://www.notebookcheck.com/Top-10-Th ... 228.0.html

If you click on the brand and type will you come to a detailed review of that particular laptop.

For Resolve 15 will you like one with i7-8750H and a GTX 1070 or GTX 1070 Max-Q. The Max-Q make the laptop less noisy.

You write: 'Also important to consider: I want a portable laptop (max 2,5 kg) with around 8-10 hours battery life.'

I expect most of the laptops on the list is under 2,5 kg. But High performance laptops normally uses a lot of power. You can under the different reviews read how long the laptops battery last. But don't expect 8-10 hours.

As I see it, is there several different ways to increase the run time on batteries. You can have a spare charged battery and swap battery, when the first is empty. Or you can buy a laptop that can swich between the internal graphics card in the Intel CPU and the built in more power full graphics card from nVidea. It is called Nvidia Optimus. But then you can't use Resolve at the same time you use the power saving Intel GPU. It works as more power full graphics function is draining the battery faster or if switching to the less power full graphics in the Intel Graphics card, then the battery last longer.

Regards Carsten.

Hi Carsten,

Thank you so much for your advice and the links. I definitely won’t buy the Dell cause everyone (!!!) seems to have audio issues with it anyway - so that’s that.
I will have a look at the laptops in the links.

Thank you,
Kat