Poor playback performance

DaVinci Resolve 17.1.1 Build 9

Specs

OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit (Build 19041)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
System Model: GL502VS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.6GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
Display Memory: 24432 MB
Driver Version: 27.21.14.6172
Hard Drive: DaVinci Resolve stores its files on an SSD, but the video files I am working with are on a regular old hard drive.

Program logs attached.

Background

I am trying to edit some game footage: H.264, 1080p, 30fps. No effects or anything, just really standard stuff - some cuts, a few fades, some music, and the occasional text overlay.

I thought my computer was fairly powerful, but DaVinci seems to be really struggling. To be more specific, when I try to play back my video, it stutters a lot and the playback is not smooth at all. This is extremely frustrating, to the point where the program is almost unusable.

In the past I have used MAGIX Video Pro and the performance has been generally good, but it suffered from a very clunky effects UI so I really want to start using DaVinci instead.

What I have tried

Render Cache (Render Cache Color Output option, user mode, DNxHR LB): This DOES actually seem to fix the issue, more or less, but it comes with a number of downsides. First, it takes a long time to generate the render cache, and my CPU goes crazy while it's doing it. And whenever I start cutting a clip, its render cache gets scrapped and has to regenerate, so my CPU is working flat-out almost continually. Also, the render cache is enormous - 79 GB for 40 mins of footage, and my SSD is only 256 GB so it fills up really fast.

Timeline Proxy Mode - Quarter Resolution: This helps a little, but the preview looks like garbage and I still get quite a lot of stuttering. It also doesn't seem to play nice with the render cache (not sure if that's by design).

Generate Proxy Media (DNxHR LB): I tried this a few times, but it takes a really long time and, more importantly, it was filling up my entire SSD (literally, completely full).

One option I haven't (yet) tried is "Generate Optimized Media". I am not too sure how this differs from Proxy Media; I need to do some more research.

---

I would really like to be able to use DaVinci, but right now it just isn't working. I feel like my system shouldn't be the issue here since I haven't had these performance problems with other video editing software. Am I missing something here? Are there other options I can try?

I have tried to research the problem but it seems like there are so many different suggestions that it's a little overwhelming. The general advice seems to be to use the options I described above, but these don't seem to be working too well for me so far.

I am aware that the paid version of DaVinci Resolve comes with some performance boosts such as decoding H.264 on the GPU - but how much will this really help? Is this where the performance bottleneck lies or is it somewhere else, and how can I be sure?

I am still struggling with this.

In fact, it is not just playback performance - other aspects of the program are also very slow at times. For example, sometimes when I right-click on a clip, it freezes for about 5 seconds before bringing up the context menu.

At this rate I am going to have to consider alternatives for my next project.

You only have three possibilities:
- Get Studio for better H.264 performance
- Transcode to an easier codec (as you tried)
- Switch to another NLE

One question, though: do your clips have variable frame rates, as game recordings often do?
ShadowPlay is notorious in this respect. I wouldn’t use Resolve then.