Slow/Choppy Playback on Fast Computer

Hello,

I am using DaVinci Resolve 17 Studio on a Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition laptop. My laptop specs are:

GPU: NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 (16GB GDDR6 VRAM)
Processor: 10th Gen Intel Cor i7-10875H (8 Cores/16 Threads, up to 5.1GHz)
Ram: 32GB DDR4
Storage: 1TB SSD
Display: 4K (Ultra HD 3840x2160)

I recently upgraded to this from an older ASUS Republic of Gamers. I opened up a project that I used recently and tried to play it back to experience the smoothness I've heard others experience with this same system. Unfortunately, it wasn't as smooth as I thought it would be. In fact, it was very choppy in places. As a test, I even started a new project with 4K video on the timeline and put a transition between 2 clips. No color grading or other diting, just 2 4K videos with a transition between them to connect them. It was choppy until I either told DaVinci to cache the transitions and waited for it to render, or I played over the transition several times.

The timeline is set to playback in 4K at 24 fps. The footage on the timeline is the same and has had some color grading. The timeline holds some titles, fusion compositions(some of them converted into compound clips), and transitions between some clips. The GPU processing mode is set to CUDA on the Quadro RTX 5000. I updated the driver for the GPU to the latest studio version. I've checked the option to decode using hardware acceleration and chosen NVIDIA and Intel Quick Sync.

I was under the impression from my research that this laptop with its GPU and high specs would make my editing experience extremely smooth and fast without even needing to create optimized media or use other workarounds.

There's a video from NVIDIA on YouTube using the same exact laptop I have editing 8K footage and doing some advanced editing without an issue. (If you're interested in seeing it, it's called "Edit 8K Video FASTER in DaVinci Resolve w/ NVIDIA RTX GPUs")

I'm a little confused. Do I need to set up DaVinci differently to experience the smooth playback I hear others having with this same exact system?

Your GPU is still slower than a 2080 on a desktop, which is what most would probably consider the bare minimum today. Certainly nothing particular fast. Then there is this the whole Powerlimit, throttling, Max-q topic.

Run 3dmark timespy Stresstest first to figure if your system performs as expected OVER TIME, but even then it's not a fast GPU by any means today.

Also noone really works on 4k timelines. Even with my 3090 OC 1080p is what I edit in.

I think you've been fooled by Nvidia marketing nonsense and on top bought a last gen CPU / GPU machine for some unknown reason.

Laptops are fine for Resolve. In HD.

Your GPU is still slower than a 2080 on a desktop, which is what most would probably consider the bare minimum today. Certainly nothing particular fast. Then there is this the whole Powerlimit, throttling, Max-q topic.

I wouldn't say it would be that much slower, they're pretty good now with redesigning GPU's for laptops with around a 20% drop in performance from the desktop counterpart. Still with this gpu he shouldn't be getting choppy playback, I edit with a 1080 on my desktop and don't have issues with this (except for bugs on resolves end)

So, basically, it sounds like my GPU might not be powerful enough to handle what I'm expecting even though it seems like other YouTubers who have this same exact system get better results.

What's weird is that I use a desktop (ryzen 5 2600, 32gb of 3200mhz ram, rx570).
I use the studio and despite hardly ever going above 60%CPU and 4% GPU utilization I get choppy playback and an overall rough user experience whatever I do (Optimized Media etc).