Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

Get answers to your questions about color grading, editing and finishing with DaVinci Resolve.
  • Author
  • Message
Online

danielpanev

  • Posts: 184
  • Joined: Sat May 25, 2019 11:59 am
  • Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Real Name: Daniel Panev

Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostMon Jul 27, 2020 10:13 pm

Hi all,

Currently I'm running a 13" 2016 MBP for my business (IT consultancy, nothing to do with Resolve, which is my hobby) and I'm thinking of getting a 16" MBP as a replacement - main concern is better battery life of the 16" compared to 13". I'm using iTerm/Terminal and MS Office as a main tool for business so every laptop will suffice, I'd guess, so this is not a concern.
As a hobby I am shooting with BMPCC4K (maybe I'll get a 6K in the near future, but again - this is just a hobby) so I'm thinking if getting a "maxed-out" MBP 16" for my daily work as well as an offline editing machine (final rendering will be done on my wife's HP Z8).
The question is if there's a big difference in performance between AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 va AMD Radeon Pro 5600M с 8GB HBM2 (in terms of Resolve) that will justify the price difference of ~805€=USD950? As you can imagine I'm used to offline editing but if I can get a "near real-time" one I'd be very happy.
Apple Silicons will come later in the picture when the warranty period of this 16" MBP will be over, so this is not a concern...
Online

danielpanev

  • Posts: 184
  • Joined: Sat May 25, 2019 11:59 am
  • Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Real Name: Daniel Panev

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostMon Jul 27, 2020 10:31 pm

OK, my main concern is the performance gain... That 805€ will not break the bank but if the performance gain will be less than 10% I would hardly justify the purchase with my wife...
Offline

jallen0

  • Posts: 1002
  • Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 7:04 pm
  • Real Name: Justin Allen

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostMon Jul 27, 2020 11:33 pm

Here is some data to help you make that decision. This site measures the newer laptop against Resolve, as well as other machines.

https://barefeats.com
2019 MacPro OS 12.1, 3.2GHz 16 Core, 160GB Mem, 4TB Drive, 8TB Internal Sonnet Raid, Dual Radeon Pro W5700X 16GB
LG UF 5k, 27" Tbolt Display, 55" LG C8
Resolve Edit Keyboard, Mini Panel, US 4K Mini
Resolve Studio Ver. 17.4.3
Desktop Video 12.1
Offline
User avatar

Eugenia Loli

  • Posts: 352
  • Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 6:47 am
  • Location: Spokane, WA, USA

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostMon Jul 27, 2020 11:48 pm

You can keep your current Macbook Pro for all other work, and get an MSI laptop for $1100 with 32 GB RAM, and a 6 GB GTX nvidia card (it should run 4k BRAW fine, even with grading and plugins on top). I bet it'd be faster for Resolve than your current Macbook just because you get an nvidia card that Resolve generally prefers to get accelerated fully. The MSI laptop I saw earlier used an Intel Core i7-9750H @ 2.60GHz that has a passmark for 11500 points, which while it's not really fast compared to newer CPUs, it's much higher than my 8000 points CPU that I use without problems with BRAW 4k. And especially the new BRAW version, in the new SDK currently in beta, decodes faster. So I don't think you need to spend much to have good performance with BRAW 4k.

And if you can spend a bit more, consider the Lenovo Legion 7 laptop, for $1700, because it comes with a faster CPU, 8 GB RTX 2070-Qmax, 32 GB RAM, and most improtantly: 100% SRGB screen color gamut (most cheaper laptops barely touch 50%).

So if something like that does the job and helps you save money in this economy, you should consider this solution, even if it's not a sexy one.
Collage artist, illustrator, filmmaker: https://vimeo.com/eugenia
Offline
User avatar

Eugenia Loli

  • Posts: 352
  • Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 6:47 am
  • Location: Spokane, WA, USA

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 12:33 am

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I just came across the best deal on the internet just an hour ago, and I already purchased this laptop for myself (I'm not affiliated btw, this is simply what I bought with my own money): https://deals.dell.com/en-us/mpp/productdetail/52g5

As I write this, the price for this laptop was only $1550 (plus another $130 on B&H to manually upgrade the RAM to 32 GB).

For that price it's unbeatable, because not only it has the highest end GPU for laptops (8 GB nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q), but it also comes with a 4k OLED DCI-P3 100% screen, which is almost unheard of on a laptop. This is the best screen anyone can get for color grading on a laptop today, miles better than the 120 hz or 240hz full HD 72% SRGB screens that are usually found on other gaming laptops.

The rest of the specs are normal, nothing extraordinary, but nothing is really missing either (you still get a 4k/60hz on external monitor, if you so desire). I think the only thing missing is the backlit keyboard (but not sure if it has it or not, it doesn't specify, it's optional).
Collage artist, illustrator, filmmaker: https://vimeo.com/eugenia
Offline
User avatar

Marc Wielage

  • Posts: 10901
  • Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 2:46 am
  • Location: Hollywood, USA

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 4:56 am

Eugenia Loli wrote:For that price it's unbeatable, because not only it has the highest end GPU for laptops (8 GB nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q), but it also comes with a 4k OLED DCI-P3 100% screen, which is almost unheard of on a laptop. This is the best screen anyone can get for color grading on a laptop today, miles better than the 120 hz or 240hz full HD 72% SRGB screens that are usually found on other gaming laptops.

I think it's a very, very bad idea to try to color-correct on a laptop. Read pages 2362-23633 of the Resolve 16.2 manual, "Limitations When Grading With the Viewer on a Computer Display." This explains why it's unwise to try to use a computer display for final color correction. The same problem exists with the "Clean Feed" output, since it's not color managed.
marc wielage, csi • VP/color & workflow • chroma | hollywood
Offline
User avatar

Eugenia Loli

  • Posts: 352
  • Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 6:47 am
  • Location: Spokane, WA, USA

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 7:08 am

Normally I'd agree with you. But this is an OLED 100% DCI-P3 monitor. It's as good as it's going to get on a laptop today. A lot of people prefer laptops, even if they won't get super-accurate colors. Besides, many pro colorists are using OLED TVs to grade. Not special monitors: TVs.
Collage artist, illustrator, filmmaker: https://vimeo.com/eugenia
Offline
User avatar

iddos-l

  • Posts: 798
  • Joined: Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:55 pm
  • Real Name: iddo lahman

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 9:19 am

Eugenia Loli wrote:Normally I'd agree with you. But this is an OLED 100% DCI-P3 monitor. It's as good as it's going to get on a laptop today. A lot of people prefer laptops, even if they won't get super-accurate colors. Besides, many pro colorists are using OLED TVs to grade. Not special monitors: TVs.

Yes but these OLED goes through calibration and a view lut.
And still they are not perfect.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Offline
User avatar

Uli Plank

  • Posts: 21280
  • Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 2:48 am
  • Location: Germany and Indonesia

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 10:38 am

It all depends who you are working for. If it's only YT, nobody really cares.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

Studio 18.6.5, MacOS 13.6.5
MacBook M1 Pro, 16 GPU cores, 32 GB RAM and iPhone 15 Pro
Speed Editor, UltraStudio Monitor 3G, iMac 2017, eGPU
Offline

Howard Roll

  • Posts: 2506
  • Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 7:50 am

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 10:42 am

For the same money you can get a mid spec mbp every three years or a high spec model every five. With Apple moving to ARM it might not be the time to double down on a premium machine.

My 2016 mbp is chugging through the 12k Braw demo files at 12k and cruising through them at 2k. If you’re at the threshhold of performance a 20% faster gpu isn’t going to make a significant contribution. If you’re getting 9fps you need 300-500% improvement which means workflow changes not a moderately faster machine.

I’d take extra space over the gpu, having a couple TBs of screaming fast storage is never a bad thing.

Good Luck
Offline

Berlin

  • Posts: 46
  • Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:09 pm
  • Real Name: Martin Lehmann

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostThu Jul 30, 2020 12:51 pm

danielpanev wrote:Hi all,
The question is if there's a big difference in performance between AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 va AMD Radeon Pro 5600M с 8GB HBM2 (in terms of Resolve) that will justify the price difference of ~805€=USD950? As you can imagine I'm used to offline editing but if I can get a "near real-time" one I'd be very happy.

I can tell you that the 4GB memory of the 5300 is the first thing that hits the ceiling on a MPB 16". So 8 instead 4 is well worth it for €120. But I would not spend another €730 for the 5600 instead of the 5500.
Macbook Pro 16" i7 - DaVinci Resolve Studio 17, After Effects, Motion
Offline

Dave Pitman

  • Posts: 138
  • Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:52 pm
  • Location: Olympic Peninsula, Washington

PostSat Aug 01, 2020 4:11 am

Eugenia Loli wrote:As I write this, the price for this laptop was only $1550 (plus another $130 on B&H to manually upgrade the RAM to 32 GB).

For that price it's unbeatable, because not only it has the highest end GPU for laptops (8 GB nvidia RTX 2080 Max-Q), but it also comes with a 4k OLED DCI-P3 100% screen, which is almost unheard of on a laptop. This is the best screen anyone can get for color grading on a laptop today, miles better than the 120 hz or 240hz full HD 72% SRGB screens that are usually found on other gaming laptops.


The spec looks nice but only 2 days later and I don't even find one offering a 2080 Max-Q option, only 2070 Max-Q.
Resolve 18.1.4 Studio
Win 11 Home 10.0.22621 Build 22621 x64
i7-10750H CPU | RAM 32.0 GB | RTX 2070 (maxQ) 452.06 Driver
Offline
User avatar

Eugenia Loli

  • Posts: 352
  • Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 6:47 am
  • Location: Spokane, WA, USA

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostSat Aug 01, 2020 10:30 pm

The spec looks nice but only 2 days later and I don't even find one offering a 2080 Max-Q option, only 2070 Max-Q.


That laptop I linked went out of stock within a day.
Collage artist, illustrator, filmmaker: https://vimeo.com/eugenia
Offline

Dave Pitman

  • Posts: 138
  • Joined: Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:52 pm
  • Location: Olympic Peninsula, Washington

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostSun Aug 02, 2020 12:02 am

Eugenia Loli wrote:
That laptop I linked went out of stock within a day.


You should have emailed me!! Just kidding...neighbor. I'm in Sequim. :)
Resolve 18.1.4 Studio
Win 11 Home 10.0.22621 Build 22621 x64
i7-10750H CPU | RAM 32.0 GB | RTX 2070 (maxQ) 452.06 Driver
Online

danielpanev

  • Posts: 184
  • Joined: Sat May 25, 2019 11:59 am
  • Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
  • Real Name: Daniel Panev

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostMon Aug 03, 2020 8:19 pm

Thank you all for your answers. Having a second laptop is out of question - it's cumbersome enough to travel with a single laptop and the BMPCC4K alone ;) I think I'll just go with the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6...
Offline

zweiche

  • Posts: 1
  • Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 8:34 pm
  • Real Name: ziya serinturk

Re: Getting a new MacBook Pro (for DaVinci Resolve)?

PostFri Oct 16, 2020 8:36 pm

how do you like it so far? i heard horror stories on 5500m and not sure if 5600m is good enough to pay this much of money. im using bmpcc6k and i would like to edit witouth proxies . or should i wait for arm ones?

danielpanev wrote:Thank you all for your answers. Having a second laptop is out of question - it's cumbersome enough to travel with a single laptop and the BMPCC4K alone ;) I think I'll just go with the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6...

Return to DaVinci Resolve

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: axelkozber, Baidu [Spider], Bing [Bot], BloodMan, Charles Bennett, dropknox, Google [Bot], Johannes Hoffmann, Noerde, panos_mts, peeceful, The_postman and 170 guests