Resolve causing graphics glitches on MBP

The latest version of Resolve (16.2.1) appears to be doing weird things to my graphics system/GUI.

When running and I access the menu bar, I get a series of chunky purple blocks down the screen and garbled bits and pieces of different menus, parts of the screen disappear, etc. If I move to a different menu, it changes.

I've tried to take a screen shot of it, and was surprised to see that the screen shot shows something quite different from what I'm seeing. Maybe there is a software layer above where the screen shot function captures. It still gives an idea of the problem, even though looking much less severe.

This happens with any app including Resolve when Resolve is running. As soon as I quite Resolve, everything goes back to normal. So I'm surmising it's a Resolve issue. I did not see this in version 16.2 or before.

Is anyone else seeing this?

My system:
15" Retina MacBook Pro late 2013
Quad i7 CPU
16GB RAM
NVIDIA GT 750M 2GB RAM & Intel Iris Pro GPU 1500MB RAM
1TB SSD internal

Screenshot 2020-05-17 at 21.44.15.png

Are you using the Nvidia only?

Hi Uli,

tbh I'm not sure, checking now it says NVIDIA, yes, everything set to auto.

System Prefs is set to always use the NVIDIA card.

It worked before 16.2.1, I haven't changed anything on my computer, which is why I was asking.

Set it to Metal, not Auto and take care that the Nvidia is used for compute.
Did you activate it in the system settings?

switch increase contrast and reduce transparency off in accessibility of system preferences

and sorry uli +g*, better use cuda on this computer

Set it to Metal, not Auto and take care that the Nvidia is used for compute.
Did you activate it in the system settings?

It is set to Metal (auto, but it shows as using Metal) and the Nvidia card.

Yes, it is active and being used in System Prefs, as well as in Resolve.

switch increase contrast and reduce transparency off in accessibility of system preferences

and sorry uli +g*, better use cuda on this computer

I will try that Mark, thanks. Should I switch to CUDA as well, or leave it on Metal for now?

No, Mark is right, try CUDA.

Call me crazy, I think a 7-year old laptop is gonna be rough with Resolve. It can work if you have very light-duty files and don't push it too hard. My guess is the added stress of Resolve 16.2.x is too much for it.

I can get Resolve to work adequately on a 2018 MacBook Pro, but only if I beat it with a whip and a chair. In truth, for a lot of stuff (even doing a quick H.264 conversion from a flattened ProRes file), it's fine. A lot depends on your expectations. On a big, heavy-duty laptop, Resolve can fly pretty fast in a lot of situations.

Ok, so I chose CUDA in Resolve, restarted the app, and it complains that "Resolve has not found the CUDA driver".

I headed over to Nvidia, downloaded and installed it, but it complained that it isn't supported under Mojave. It finished installing just the same, but I expect that the kext is or will be blocked by the OS.

Did some Googling and found that CUDA support ended with Mojave, the drivers will not work.

What now?

Big problem, blame Apple or Nvidia! The only way to use this machine with Resolve might be going back to High Sierra.
It is not officially supported for Resolve 16, but we are using it with old MPs and it works (fingers crossed).
Another solution might be version 15 under High Sierra.

But the war between Apple and Nvidia made your machine pretty much EOL (for Resolve).

Thanks Uli.

I've been debating whether to get a new laptop or not, it seems Apple fixed a lot of mistakes in the latest revision, and they offer pretty decent performance.

We'll see. It may be easier to just downgrade, depending on how many apps will need re-installation to do so.

At least now I found the problem!

I have the same machine at home and there is no problem running Resolve 16. It is fine with editing and a bit of grading. No machine for heavy grading with a lot of node-trees or for Fusion effects.

CUDA is obsulet since Apple switched to metal for every older MBPs with NVIDIA cards. The CUDA Driver is now only important for the GPU support of the Trashcan MacPro. All other machine don't need it any more.

I had a lot of trouble with CUDA installed running an OS with metal. There were issues with resolve and with Playback Pro Plus, which I use at lot for screening ProRes File during festivals.
So I deleted all CUDA components and activated metal in every software using GPU computing.

Maybe your trouble will be caused by a setting in the Energy Saver tab of the system preferences: the automatic change of graphics. Disable this feature and try it again.

Good luck
Michael

Thanks Michael,

I've been trying to use my machine to run Resolve for Fairlight audio editing only, no video present in my timeline at all, and more than a few tracks or a single plugin and the machine starts glitching, dropping audio and becomes unusable.

I do primarily audio/music mastering and for immersive/surround needed a new system that would also work for lighter post jobs. Pyramix is an obvious option, but I really like how Resolve is as far as workflow and layout, but am getting frustrated that it's unable to play back even a few tracks without some serious issues.

I've now ripped out all CUDA drivers and files in the system and will try some more to see if I can get it to work reasonably well. 6-12 tracks of 48/24 audio should be child's play for Resolve, but it brings my machine to it's knees.

Energy Saver prefs are set to manual and to always use the GT 750M.

Fwiw, 16.2.2 shows the same GUI glitchy behaviour.

Helped a few people with a similar issue (unexplained grapic glitches) lately and disabeling GPU scopes in the prefereces helped them. So worth a try

Helped a few people with a similar issue (unexplained grapic glitches) lately and disabeling GPU scopes in the prefereces helped them. So worth a try

Thanks!

I just tried that now, it didn't help.