New to this world, excited but have a few questions

Hi All!

I'm very excited to finally delve into the world of video editing! I'm very new to this, so please excuse the potential stupid questions.

Context: I'll be mostly editing small videos, travel stuff, skiing trips etc. Nothing commercial.

I've been learning as much as I can online but still have a few question regarding Davinci Resolve 15:

Here's my setup:

i5 4690K
AMD R9 290 Gaming 4b (video card)
8GB RAM DDR3
SSD 250GB
HDD 1TB

Will this be enough to run the prog smoothely for 1080p/25fps projects? Do I need more ram?

How easy is to slow down footage from 60/120fps to 25? Just divde it by 2.4?

I'll be mostly filming with GOPRO, which has the new H265 codec. Will this be an issue importing to Resolve? Should I modify the files before hand?

As a newb, should I still try and colorgrade from the get go or should I first use the gopro colors and concentrate on the editing ?

Would you keep your file on an external SSD or HDD? Big diff?

Many thanks for all the help I could get from this forum! I can't tell you how excited I am to start this new part of my life

Cheers!

Nicolas L

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.

There is one thing I don't understand, may be because I never owned a actioncam. For me GOPRO and H265 codec is used for 4K resolution?

But I have several times read in this forum that, there is no sound when importing H265 into Resolve. So yes I will suggest you to transform it to an intermediate codec before you import it into to Resolve.

i5 4690K is 4 cores, but it don't have Hyperthreading as i7's. And you hardware is general below recommendation. But I can't see why you don't just try it and see how far you can come.

If you then find out, that you will need more power full hardware, have a I made a small guide for a recommended build. Here is a copy and paste of it to you:

'Carsten's hardware guide for DaVinchi Resolve. Version from 27. September 2018.

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.

nVidea have just introduced the new nVidea RTX 2080/Ti Graphics Card series. For 4K choose one with 8-11 GB of vRAM. And more CUDA cores is better.

Recently there have been some price drops on the previous generations GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti, but the new RTX Generation have much higher CUDA performance.

There is a maximum of one graphics card in the free version of Resolve. If you want to use Noise Reduction etc. then you probably will need 2 GPUs with 11 GB vRam each and the paid Studie version of Resolve.

In the DaVinci Resolve 15 configuration guide is one of the suggestion on page 18 the AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU.

https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/ ... _Guide.pdf

All AMD CPU's loves fast memory, and on page 36 under GIGABYTE Motherboard:

16GB (4x4GB RAM) DDR4-3200 SDRAM minimum
64GB or 128GB or more recommend for FUSION

Back in August AMD launched AMD Threadripper next generation with a little cheaper CPU's. For 4K work look at the new 16 cores 32 threads 2950X that get much better reviews than expected.

When I try to check prices don't I yet see any big price drops on the previous 16 core 32 threads Threadripper 1950X CPU's. So far for 16 core 32 threads CPU will I recommend the new 2950X.
While I currently see some large price drops on the 12 core 24 threads 1920X CPU's. It will be good as a entry level CPU for Resolve.

Both the old and new Threadrippers CPU use a TR4 socket and a X399 motherboards. Suggest you to buy one with nice reviews. If you later want to upgrade to a faster CPU will I suggest you to buy a Asus motherboard, as they can be upgraded to a TDP of 250 Watt by buying the X399 cooling enhancement kit coming later.
Make sure you inspect the Motherboards TR4 socket carefully for bent pins, before your insert the CPU into it. And for CPU's with more than 20 cores will I look for a motherboard with a 16+3 VRM circuit.

Look here for a Free NVMe RAID upgrade for AMD X399 chipset:

https://community.amd.com/community/gam ... 99-chipset

All motherboard have a QVL List you can find on the manufactures homepage. Here you can see what DDR4-Ram they have tested in that particular motherboard. The Configuration Guide recommend to use minimum DDR4-3200.

The cheapest recommended RAM is many times the G.Skill Flare X DDR4. The Flare X series is made special for AMD CPU's

The Threadripper CPU's have a 4 channel memory design. You will get the fastest system by using 4 DIMM's only, and leave the last 4 sockets empty.

Do you still have some questens you are free to ask.'

Regards Carsten.

I've been learning as much as I can online

if you have any operational queries in future, the manual will always be a better resource than videos, though you can do forum searches too.

As for the last 3 questions

- I would transcode to prores or dnxhd, better to edit with than h265
- focus on the editing
- depends on how demanding your footage is, what resolution/codec you are dealing with. Interface speed to the drive will also factor in.

Here's my setup:

i5 4690K
AMD R9 290 Gaming 4b (video card)
8GB RAM DDR3
SSD 250GB
HDD 1TB

Will this be enough to run the prog smoothely for 1080p/25fps projects? Do I need more ram?

Just getting into using Resolve myself, coming from Vegas Pro 16. In my sig you can see the relatively low spec of my PC and it was perfectly capable of full framerate 1080/24P video using H264-encoded mp4, with a couple of video tracks, many cuts and some basic LUT-based colour correction and grading. Your PC is approximately the same level as mine, with less RAM, but better graphics (and Resolve loves its GPU-based stuff - but as Carsten says it does use the CPU for a few key things), so should perform similarly overall.

I did find that Fusion-based titles, PiP with drop-shadows (hand created in Fusion - why is there no drop-shadow effect in "Edit"?! ) and some transitions would need to be allowed to pre-render before playing smoothly, but that only takes a few seconds of leaving the PC alone to auto-render.

The other suggestions here are also very valid - transcoding to ProRes or DNxHD should give your PC an easier time as it doesn't need to decode the h265 on the fly. And yes, focus on the editing first, then worry about colour grading etc. as it's a big rabbit hole to fall down .

Will this be enough to run the prog smoothely for 1080p/25fps projects?

Yes

Do I need more ram?

Although yes to the question above, also yes here. Go wherever beyond 16 Go, 32 min would be fine

How easy is to slow down footage from 60/120fps to 25? Just divde it by 2.4?

You'll find different ways to do it in Resolve. RTFM first (retiming clips, clip attributes, TL options, ...)

I'll be mostly filming with GOPRO, which has the new H265 codec. Will this be an issue importing to Resolve? Should I modify the files before hand?

Yes. Better batch convert your files to DNxHQ/D or Cineform (guessing you're on windows)

As a newb, should I still try and colorgrade from the get go or should I first use the gopro colors and concentrate on the editing ?

Edit first, you'll make better jobs. However, there are a few conditions you'll encounter later on when color correcting first may be more relevant.

Would you keep your file on an external SSD or HDD? Big diff?

Internal SSD, which doesn't exclude to also keep copies on external drives for backup sake...