M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

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Adriano Castaldini

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M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostThu Aug 04, 2022 3:46 pm

Time to switch from my Hackintosh to…???
Please, I'd avoid the usual “Mac vs Win” holy war. I would like simply to share thoughts and conditions, asking for your advices in order to take the best possible decision.

I'm leaving Hackintosh mainly for Davinci 18 Studio (and future releases). It seems that, on Win, Davinci still takes advantages mainly of CUDA, whilst in Mac it seems more and more oriented to takes advantages of the new M1 (Max/Ultra/Mighty...) processor and its neural engine.
Unfortunately nowadays Hackintosh has the worst of the two worlds: a NON-M1 CPU and a NON-CUDA GPU. Up to now (DR16-17) my Hackintosh worked very well with its couple of Radeon VII cards, and still now I could upgrade the CPU or add some ram (I have only 64GB), but Davinci will be increasingly optimised for other hardware.

I have two options now:
1. 9300 € for a 32-core neural engine Mac Studio with a single 8TB SSD;
2. 8300 € for a Ryzen 3975WX + RTX 3090 Win machine (where I can mount my current HighPoint 8TB internal 4xM2 raid0).

Roughly the same price, so my only concern is where does Davinci's Neural Engine (and Depth map and subject separation...) WILL work better?

Mac choice's main advantage to me is staying in my well-known habitat-system without touching my two old tb2 HFS+ G-Speed Studio&Shuttle. Davinci's evolution on M1 seems to be in continuous improvement, and Davinci seems to “fit” perfectly to M1 Macs (well, Blackmagic IS a Mac-oriented ecosystem). On the other hand a Mac Studio is a closed box without upgrading possibility, and equipped with an SSD that at his best is drastically slower than the one I currently use.

Win choice's main advantages are the largely greater computational power (good for every aspect of Davinci), hardware upgradeability, many slots for my HighPoint, my Decklink and other PCIe stuff. But Windows is unknown to me, and the worst thing is that my old HFS+ G-Speed RAIDs (that contains ALL my videos) are no more supported by G-Technology (no drivers nor utilities for Windows 11) so I don't even know if Windows 11 will be able to handle my aged RAIDs, transfer all the 96TB of RAW videos, format the raids in NTFS, and then safely transfer back the files without losing them (my death...)

Obviously this is a one way choice (since the price target) and I can't go back. So I'd appreciate VERY much every advice you would share with me. And I hope this thread will be useful for all the other guys those are now in a similar situation.

Thanks in advance.
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phoexander

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostThu Aug 04, 2022 4:07 pm

Hello,
I preffer Windows set up but I have to say that Davinci and Mac Studio works really great. Maybe save some money, do not buy Threadreaper and buy 2x RTX4090 48GB instead.
The render will be much faster than Threadreaper and Mac Studio. And of course buy QNAP extended HDD storage for source files and SSD NVMe PCI-E 4 for proxy.
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Jack Fairley

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostThu Aug 04, 2022 4:19 pm

I wouldn't build/buy a PC just yet, NVidia's 4000 series GPUs are expected to launch at least the flagship card October, and AMD's Zen 4 processors in November, and both are going to be significantly faster than their current offerings.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostThu Aug 04, 2022 4:43 pm

I would be surprised if Windows didn't have support for the G-Tech raids, but what a pain the conversion. The work of it for 97 TB would be enough for me to consider how I could keep the Hackintosh around just for that role.

Otherwise, it's sort of a toss up. I'm Intel PC, RTX3090, it's doing everything I need well, 12K60FPS/8K120FPS, NR, Nodes, OFX. And for PC you need the Decklink for HDR and thus PCIe slots for that and the 3090. Uses lot of power too, needs 1000 watt power supply. But the case, PS and fans are very quiet, the fans are bearing-less, spin in a magnetic gap.

It would be nice to export in Prores like the Apple version can do, but I still get that handled with ffmpeg, as well I love all the command line tools, x265/AVISynth/Virtualdub and ffmpeg.

The Apple version of Resolve supports HDR from the viewer, the PC version you need Decklink for that.

I just never have to worry about what Apple will do next, deprecating software or hardware, can expand any time.

I assume there are apps for everything with Apple, can't say without owning one but having the PC as HTPC is lovely for watching and mastering 8K content and multi-channel sound, watching YouTube content on my 8K SUHDTV, watching my own 8K content from the Ursa12K, streaming HDR content from Netflix, AppleTV, Vudu, Amazon Prime, music from Tidal and Pandora, it's just a lovely environment for work or play. Gaming too. The RTX3090 has HDMI full 2.1 ports, making possible nice things. Getting an NAS would be a nice upgrade too.
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Adriano Castaldini

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 1:27 am

Thanks Jack and Tom for your kind replies.
Jack Fairley wrote:I wouldn't build/buy a PC just yet, NVidia's 4000 series GPUs are expected to launch at least the flagship card October, and AMD's Zen 4 processors in November.
Well, we saw - at least here in Europe - what happened after 3000 series' launch: few units, barely findable at insane prices for about one year. Now 3090 cards are findable at a more reasonable price. For 4000 series will be the same story: we will wait another year before the “value for money” ratio will be reasonable, but at that point Nvidia will announce the imminent 5000 series... And so on.

Technology goes a step forward every year, but my point is not where hardware is going.
My point instead is where DAVINCI is going!
In other words: I wonder if the next development of Davinci 18.x.x will favour CUDA cores or Apple stuff?
As I wrote in my former post, from many details Blackmagic seems to me a Mac-oriented ecosystem, and I suspect that M1-Ultra is the guy that will see the most significant performance improvement with Davinci 18 this year. If it's true - and I hope not - a Nvidia PC would not be the way to go, since a 300W grey closed Apple box could drain all the Blackmagic developers' efforts for the next year, perhaps arriving to beat a 1200W noisy PC monster in the next future. Possible?
Well, we know that after Apple dismissed Nvidia cards, Nvidia-PCs had a robust performance advantage over Macs (both in video and in 3D stuff). But now I have the suspect that something could change because Davinci could now be optimised more for the new Apple boxes than for PC. Even so, I wonder how a powerful 3090 card might realistically (not youtubistically) lose any M1-Ultra challenge in the next future?

So this is roughly my doubt: do you think Davinci 18/19 will benefit Apple machines over Nvidia machines? And even so, do you think this could reduce (or reverse!) the current Nvidia advantage?

Thanks for sharing your advices.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 5:55 am

I think that’s an urban legend. Im sure BM is investing as much into PC versions as into Macs. It’s just more difficult to test out PCs, since there are too many possible configurations.
A 3090 will be at least as fast as the Ultra for most tasks, often faster. The only limitation will be hardware decoding of H.265 in 10 bit 4:2:2, you don’t get that from AMD right now (Intel can).
And then, energy efficiency of a current Mac can’t be beaten.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 6:17 am

As Jack said, I wouldn't go buying anything until we see the next Ryzen CPUs from AMD and the 4000 family from NVIDIA. Chances are that an equivalent solution will be cheaper than the one you've priced for the Windows option right now.

Also, if you use a lot (or even a moderate amount) of Fusion then I understand that the Windows platform will eat the Mac's lunch and deliver much better performance. Can someone confirm that?
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 6:54 am

3080/ti's don't have enough VRAM for Resolve in certain situations, which is why 3090's are popular, but with 4070/4080 having 16GB ram, people may not need to buy 4090's which are rumoured to sell for $US1500'ish, while 4080's sell for around $US800

Last I heard there was no confirmation of a 4080 release this year, shortly after 4090. 4070's to be released next year. There is also hope that 40 series have an AV1 encoder and can decode 4:2:2 10 bit HEVC. That's me hoping, haven't read anything about the decoder.

There is advise not to buy 2nd hand 3090's due to it's hot Vram problems, which is expected to shorten it's life. Debate about 3090 mining cards concludes it's good due to less thermal shock, but bad because it's working environment could be constantly hot and located in less than ideal areas such as garages or attics.
Last edited by CougerJoe on Fri Aug 05, 2022 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 6:58 am

To me it feels like BMD are favoring Apple, just things like how the Apple viewer can support HDR but the Windows viewer cannot. I think there's more support in the Apple version for Dolby Vision and of course Prores output, but I think we can all understand why Prores output isn't going to fly on PC. I'd like to believe what Uli said and he may be right, but it does feel as a PC user, getting short shrift.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 7:01 am

I've had out of memory errors with the 3090 too, you could not persuade me that less than 24GB would be enough.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 7:18 am

And Fusion is slow on any platform :-(
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 7:48 am

I also think that Blackmagic is favouring Apple.
It is conspicuous that Blackmagic official post in this topic titled Release of DaVinci Resolve Studio 18 only talks about minimum requirements for Mac. Anyone not versed in the program would think it would only be for Mac.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 7:51 am

Tom Roper wrote:…I think we can all understand why Prores output isn't going to fly on PC.

Resolve is more or less the last one that doesn’t write official authorized prores on Win, so it has nothing to do with PC.
I do stuff.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 11:42 am

Tom Roper wrote:It would be nice to export in Prores like the Apple version can do, but I still get that handled with ffmpeg, as well I love all the command line tools, x265/AVISynth/Virtualdub and ffmpeg.

I run the AMD 3990X and the RTX 3090 on Linux to get ProRes rendering. Except a few bugs to deal with, it's stable and damn fast.

Anyway, like already said, I'd also wait for the RTX 4090.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 12:51 pm

It really depends what else you might use it for.

I’ve found resolve considerably more stable on my Mac than my Windows PC. I tend to use my Mac more for day to day editing even though my pc is considerably more powerful, such is the better experience with Resolve on Mac.

But if there’s other post workflows etc you use a pc might be the better option.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 3:30 pm

Lucius Snow wrote:
Tom Roper wrote:It would be nice to export in Prores like the Apple version can do, but I still get that handled with ffmpeg, as well I love all the command line tools, x265/AVISynth/Virtualdub and ffmpeg.

I run the AMD 3990X and the RTX 3090 on Linux to get ProRes rendering. Except a few bugs to deal with, it's stable and damn fast.

Anyway, like already said, I'd also wait for the RTX 4090.


I'm waiting on the RTX 4090 too but using the RTX 3090 until I get one. It's silly to have a project on hold waiting on the future to arrive when there are options in the present. The 3090 is here and now and works great at 4K-8K-12K but just because it has 24GB doesn't mean it can't run out of memory. And speed is not the issue, having enough memory is.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 3:30 pm

Adriano Castaldini wrote:
On the other hand a Mac Studio is a closed box without upgrading possibility, and equipped with an SSD that at his best is drastically slower than the one I currently use.



What SSD have you got? The SSD in my MacBookPro M1 Max is lightening fast and I would guess that the Studio has something similar. Maybe I've missed something in the high speed SSD arena but >5000 MB/s is fast in my world.

DiskSpeed.jpg
BMD Speed test screenshot
DiskSpeed.jpg (246.99 KiB) Viewed 13618 times


You could save yourself quite a bit of money by using fast external SSDs, as Apple charge a fortune for the internal ones. The Sandisk SSDs are extremely fast and reliable (were G-Tech now branded Sandisk). You could put some of the money you would save toward a fast Thunderbolt 3/4 dock would give you lots more ports.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 3:48 pm

mickspixels wrote:What SSD have you got? The SSD in my MacBookPro M1 Max is lightening fast and I would guess that the Studio has something similar. Maybe I've missed something in the high speed SSD arena but >5000 MB/s is fast in my world.
The OP noted he was currently using a 4 (M2) drive array (RAID 0), Mick, so potentially 4x faster than that. Who doesn't need 20 GB/s? :)
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 4:20 pm

Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 looks set to beat the RTX 3090 Ti as updated hardware specifications of the GPU surface


Rumor so take it with a dose of salt.. and with caveat it will have less memory, but if true will mean 4080 will be enough good for some here.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-Ge ... 772.0.html
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 4:32 pm

Andy Mees wrote:
mickspixels wrote:What SSD have you got? The SSD in my MacBookPro M1 Max is lightening fast and I would guess that the Studio has something similar. Maybe I've missed something in the high speed SSD arena but >5000 MB/s is fast in my world.
The OP noted he was currently using a 4 (M2) drive array (RAID 0), Mick, so potentially 4x faster than that. Who doesn't need 20 GB/s? :)


OK Andy. I missed that :)
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostFri Aug 05, 2022 9:36 pm

Tom Roper wrote: And speed is not the issue, having enough memory is.

Exactly why I went for the 3060 rather than 3070 or 3080. Slower for sure, but that extra VRAM can be a life-saver.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 3:01 am

Wow guys, so many interesting replies, thank you all so much.
OK, I'll follow your advice of waiting to see the new 4000 series and evaluating the cost, but generally I'm with Tom:
Tom Roper wrote:It's silly to have a project on hold waiting on the future to arrive when there are options in the present. The 3090 is here and now and works great.
Same wavelength here.
Beside that, I found very interesting what Jake wrote:
jiiiitro wrote:I’ve found resolve considerably more stable on my Mac than my Windows PC. I tend to use my Mac more for day to day editing even though my pc is considerably more powerful, such is the better experience with Resolve on Mac.
That's very important to me, so could you elaborate more specifically, please? What do you mean for «more stable» on Mac than on Win? Crashes on Win? Or it's a sort of feeling?

I agree about «the better experience on Mac», in the sense that to me MacOS itself is so easy, so well organized, so beautifully designed and then so relaxing, like your favorite chair at home (except they gently force you to buy a new one every year to stay relaxed...) Windows instead to me is more like a messy office desk on Wednesday: not really comfortable, but at least you are not forced to change your desk to continue working. And even if Blackmagic seems to flirt with Apple shamelessly, I see anyway many 3090 users here in this thread (and a 3090 machine is not a cheap option at all).
So here my question: let's say that you don't use HEVC but only CDNG and BRAW, that you prefer to work without proxies but directly with CDNG/BRAWs, that you often use Magic Mask, Halation and Depth Map... then would you prefer to be in front of a 3090/threadripper machine or a current Mac Studio?

Thanks in advance.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 4:58 am

I would go PC in that scenario.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 8:07 am

I made a benchmark project with Depth Map, temporal NR, Magic Mask, and I can add some Halation. Sources are everything from ArriRAW, Venice, Canon RAW and Red all the way to HEVC 4:2:2 10 bit.
I can only say that it's running stable on my hardware, which is much less than a Mac Ultra.

I don't have access to a PC with a 3090, the best we have here is a 1080Ti, which always gets killed by that project. So, if somebody is willing to compare on an up-to-date PC, please raise your hand and I'll send you the links.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 8:27 am

Uli Plank wrote:
I don't have access to a PC with a 3090, the best we have here is a 1080Ti, which always gets killed by that project. So, if somebody is willing to compare on an up-to-date PC, please raise your hand and I'll send you the links.


You should post the link here, unless you have data quota restraint. I'd like to try it with my 10GB Vram, I hope someone else could do the same with 16GB, and also 24GB
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 9:29 am

CougerJoe wrote:You should post the link here
https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=162987
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 9:55 am

Thanks, yes, it's already there with explanations (I was on my phone when posting today). Not many asked for it, so I'll have to later add two clips which I took down already to my Dropbox again.

Please add halation at your discretion, I didn't change it to keep render times comparable.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 12:12 pm

I bought a Studio Max when they first came out. I would have upgraded my 1080Ti to a 3090 if I could have got one but it would have been more expensive than getting the Studio Max and at the time there were NO GPU for sale. I have not regretted getting the Studio Max. It is silent and runs with native files from my GH6 5.7K 60P and GH5S C4K 60P in multicam with no problems. The Threadripper 1080Ti will not run with the GH6 files ! I prefer the WIN OS though as I know how to get what I want from it after so many years. I have taken to editing with Resolve on the Studio Max then moving to the PC for authoring/ encoding etc.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 7:37 pm

This is the clip that would be missing for the project above:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lojaqoe049pml ... s.MP4?dl=0
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Aug 06, 2022 11:34 pm

6:36 on my PC. It looked like everything was GPU bound except for the last 8K RED clip, which I did a GPU debayer and CPU decompress that immediately sent CPU usage to 100%, though that was still enough for ~21 FPS. Would probably be real time on a Ryzen 3950X or good 5000 series.
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Adriano Castaldini

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSun Aug 07, 2022 1:38 am

Guys, thank you ALL really much for your help (and a special thank to Uli for having generously shared his precious project).

I think I should have made a decision (until proven otherwise…) that is:
Jack Fairley wrote:I would go PC in that scenario.
Sharing my reasons…
To me, there are two different comfort zones in using a computer: the OS vs your work-software. Having a comfortable OS (how you can see/organize your files, your daily utilities, a clean install/uninstall apps method, an easy/clear system panel…) is great for your life, specially if you use a computer for general purposes. But if you dedicate a machine to a very specific workflow or software, the comfortable use of that specific software should become a priority, right?
Now, honestly I HATE Windows: his messy control panel, his dirty install/uninstall process, the viruses, the exe files… Far from being comfortable, it’s a fakir’s bed! BUT in a video comparison [https://youtu.be/CYIZ1Fw_-Tw?t=741] at 12:21, a simple denoise node makes the Mac preview laggy/choppy (confirmed by other recent “PC vs Mac” comparisons). So I wonder: which is my priority comfort zone on a Davinci dedicated machine? To me, Davinci preview itself, way over any kind of OS facility. So finally I think I’d go for a Win PC.
As I wrote, I don’t use H.26x and I can live without Prores. Even delivery/conversion speed is not my priority. But what I’d try to preserve (when it’s possible) is a real-time preview in a GPU computational demanding scenario.
I also forgot to mention that I use Neat Video and Topaz stuff, where CUDA cores should make a huge difference (they say).

Anyway, since the budget involved, I strongly-strongly hope this will be the right choice for me. Back to Windows after twenty years… I’m so damn stupid…
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSun Aug 07, 2022 4:50 am

Probably a good decision because the other benefit of a Windows machine is that you can upgrade it as/when necessary. A new GPU -- no problems. More RAM -- no problems. A Faster MB and CPU when they become available -- no problems.

One of the big downsides that I see with the M1 is the lack of upgradeability and what effectively becomes designed obsolescence.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSun Aug 07, 2022 6:54 am

Nothing so precious about my small benchmark. Just a few massive sources with very different demands.
And as I keep saying, if you need massive power, go PC. If you need a laptop for DR, go Mac.

Upgrading, though, is not always the better business. You may end up with a new GPU, new power supply, more RAM and a lot of time you spent making it all run smoothly. In a few years, it might be cheaper to sell the old machine and buy a new turnkey system from an experienced integrator.
No, an iGPU is not enough, and you can't use HEVC 10 bit 4:2:2 in the free version.

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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSun Aug 07, 2022 7:00 am

I think Macbook PRO 16" or Mac Studio is absolutely beast for editing. But I do not like MacOS (it is individual) and most important reason why I choose PC is customize options and no SSD swaping. I absolutely hate SSD swaping at Apple computers. If you have Mac Studio with 128GB RAM maybe that is ok. But less RAM does it mean swapping to SSD. Dependence what you do in Davinci and other apps. Heavy swapping = your SSD will be dead very soon. Next reason why PC can be better choice is if you work in Fusion/After Effects I 100% recomend PC. Apple PC has amazing performence in timeline, but for Fusion and After Effects, PC with RTX3090 or new upcoming 4 series will absolutely destroy any Mac Studio.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSun Aug 07, 2022 7:37 am

phoexander wrote:Apple PC has amazing performence in timeline, but for Fusion and After Effects, PC with RTX3090 or new upcoming 4 series will absolutely destroy any Mac Studio.

Note that Fusion is said to use CPU power much more than the GPU:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=105590

That's a discussion from a couple of years ago, but I think it's still accurate. BMD has said you get better Fusion performance by adding system RAM, so that's another clue.

I think it's possible to do great work in Resolve in Windows or Mac, but for me, Mac OS "gets out of the way" better than Windows. I don't even see the operating system -- I'm not aware of it. With Windows, I feel like I'm fighting the OS when I have to jump out of Resolve and do something in the background. I concede this is totally a personal preference, and I also think Apple's pricing is often overblown, and the company generally doesn't treat users well. But I like their products, and we just bought our second Mac Studio Ultra because we're busy. It was a business decision, based on "it just works."
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSun Aug 07, 2022 12:13 pm

I am not a big fusion user just titles including some graphics but I think my old Threadripper 12 core is faster than my Studio Max for the same scrolling titles. The Studio Max has the advantage of hardware decode for the video files and is silent so if the title is overlayed h265 10bit from the GH6 it has the advantage . However for pure power I think the Win PC will always be faster and cheaper. Noisier and use more power.

If you can wait a few months there are new CPU's from AMD and Intel as well as new GPU's
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostTue Aug 16, 2022 4:18 pm

.
Last edited by phoexander on Tue Aug 16, 2022 7:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostTue Aug 16, 2022 5:10 pm

I think everyone here has made great cases and you're going to wait -- which is wise!
I have a 2021 M1Max MBP and a custom built PC with a 3080Ti, 96 GB Ram, and a 10940x 14-core cpu.
I'm the opposite of many here in that I prefer Windows to Mac because Mac tends to get a little too 'out of the way' for me, and I prefer the customization of Windows.
But, I learned CPU matters more than I thought it would. Even though in most ways my PC set up is better, my M1 MAX can play some FX clips in real time that my PC can't because of (I believe) the igpu of these newer chips like the M1 MAX that help in decoding and probably other things.
Newer AMD and Intel CPUs have similar technology I believe, but upgrading those will require me to get a whole new motherboard and ram and that's just not in the cards at the moment. Hopefully soon!

All that to say, I don't know exactly how much of a difference that makes, but I've certainly noticed it and maybe consider that in your CPU choice.
Last edited by Timothy Clark on Tue Aug 16, 2022 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostTue Aug 16, 2022 5:47 pm

Timothy Clark wrote:Even though in most ways my PC set up is better, my M1 MAX can play some FX clips in real time that my PC can't because of (I believe) the igpu of these newer chips like the M1 MAX that help in decoding and probably other things.

The hardware decoding on the M1 Pro/Max is very good. It supports 10-bit 4:2:2 h265, which NVidia can't do, at least for now. I believe the Intel iGPUs can handle that, but many people are using AMD processors now. Another example of how if your workflow falls within the right parameters the hardware is designed to accelerate, they are extremely powerful. If not, they are still very good, but a PC can go faster.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostTue Aug 16, 2022 7:40 pm

Marc Wielage wrote:
phoexander wrote:Apple PC has amazing performence in timeline, but for Fusion and After Effects, PC with RTX3090 or new upcoming 4 series will absolutely destroy any Mac Studio.

Note that Fusion is said to use CPU power much more than the GPU:

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=105590

That's a discussion from a couple of years ago, but I think it's still accurate. BMD has said you get better Fusion performance by adding system RAM, so that's another clue.

I think it's possible to do great work in Resolve in Windows or Mac, but for me, Mac OS "gets out of the way" better than Windows. I don't even see the operating system -- I'm not aware of it. With Windows, I feel like I'm fighting the OS when I have to jump out of Resolve and do something in the background. I concede this is totally a personal preference, and I also think Apple's pricing is often overblown, and the company generally doesn't treat users well. But I like their products, and we just bought our second Mac Studio Ultra because we're busy. It was a business decision, based on "it just works."


You probably do wrong my friend.
Fusion 100% handle with GPU and is much much more faster than CPU usage.
Make sure that your nodes in fusion are turn on to use GPU (and all davinci settings set to GPU).
You are welcome... I saved you a hundreds hours from now if you have powerful graphic card like me.
For example. CPU rendering 60 seconds what my GPUs handle in just 3-4 seconds. And I use GPU for everything in Davinci.
Attachments
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fusion 3Drenderer node setting
Snímek obrazovky 2022-08-21 193626.png (6.06 KiB) Viewed 5303 times
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fusion merge node setting
Bez názvu.png (5.89 KiB) Viewed 5508 times
Last edited by phoexander on Sun Aug 21, 2022 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostWed Aug 17, 2022 11:13 am

Adriano Castaldini wrote:To me, there are two different comfort zones in using a computer: the OS vs your work-software. Having a comfortable OS (how you can see/organize your files, your daily utilities, a clean install/uninstall apps method, an easy/clear system panel…) is great for your life, specially if you use a computer for general purposes. But if you dedicate a machine to a very specific workflow or software, the comfortable use of that specific software should become a priority, right?
Now, honestly I HATE Windows: his messy control panel, his dirty install/uninstall process, the viruses, the exe files… Far from being comfortable, it’s a fakir’s bed!…


Interesting! I perceive it exactly the opposite :) I guess it's just a matter of taste. Personally, I've never had a virus, I think that's a very old superstition attached to Windows. If you're not careful, you can catch a virus on any OS.
I think you can pretty much customize Windows to look and act similar to OSX if you prefer that.

Windows 10 is still supported until October 2025. So you could go without Windows 11 for now until you have a new RAID.

Thanks to all for the input. It was a very interesting read!
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostTue Sep 27, 2022 9:38 pm

Hi all,

great forum and interesting messages, but I do think that you're missing one OS that works wonderfully with resolve Linux.

I'll try to run the performance test and post the results to compare.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostWed Sep 28, 2022 10:27 pm

nico.navarrete wrote:Hi all,
great forum and interesting messages, but I do think that you're missing one OS that works wonderfully with resolve Linux.
I'll try to run the performance test and post the results to compare.
Well, there's an old comparison made by Puget guys about Davinci 14 on Windows vs Linux. The results were almost identical and their conclusion was: «While Linux is not at all bad and in some situations is completely the right choice, for most DaVinci Resolve users Windows is the better option. [...] Given that Windows is actually slightly better for performance overall, Linux and CentOS in particular is something we are not going to recommend for most of our customers at this time.»
Said that, I've personally tested Linux in these days and it has many drawbacks:
1. Having only AMD GPUs at the moment, I tried to install Davinci Linux on that, but AMD installation was very frustrating: the ONLY distro on which I successfully installed a working AMD-Davinci was Arch Linux (Manjaro actually). Not Fedora, nor Ubuntu;
2. Davinci Linux can't work properly without the en_US keyboard layout, so I was forced to buy an American keyboard;
3. Davinci Linux can't see the cheap and compact Tangent Ripple, so you are forced to buy the bulky 1000€ original "Micro" (sic) controller;
4. Davinci Linux can't output audio via my RME card (that's connected to my 5.1 system), but only via pcie Monitor card;
5. On a Davinci Linux machine, ONLY Davinci Linux can run: no Photoshop, nor Audition, nor Topaz (goodbye my dear workflow...)
And so on...
I like Linux (I'm writing on Linux right now, and I've installed Linux on all my Macbooks!) but honestly there are too many limits for a "serious" machine.

I've tested Windows 10 too (always on my old hardware). Another little nightmare (not to mention the double-articulation of the Settings panel that is one of the most stupid thing I ever saw in my life). But at least I've installed everything and everything is now working.

I will surely do other tests on Linux, and surely my new machine will be NOT the one on which I'll do audio stuff, infact I'm going to assemble a secondary audio-dedicated fanless machine, but obviously this won't be a Linux machine (Audition' spectral restoring tools are unique, and I need them). So, in order to favor the dialogue between the two machines and a common NAS (for the contents) it's much better if they run the same OS and the NAS has a FileSystem recognizable by both.

The only possibility I can see to use Linux on these machines is to virtualize Windows on both in order to run all the Windows-only software. This setup would give the advantage of formatting the NAS with ZFS. This is the only advantage I can see.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostWed Sep 28, 2022 11:36 pm

I retired my Hackintosh and replaced it with the Mac Studio Max.

It works very well and I have no regrets.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostWed Sep 28, 2022 11:51 pm

Adriano Castaldini wrote:I agree about «the better experience on Mac», in the sense that to me MacOS itself is so easy, so well organized, so beautifully designed and then so relaxing, like your favorite chair at home (except they gently force you to buy a new one every year to stay relaxed...) Windows instead to me is more like a messy office desk on Wednesday: not really comfortable, but at least you are not forced to change your desk to continue working.

I can tell you this: two years ago, we priced an HP z8 PC, a comparably-equipped Puget Sound PC workstation, and a top-of-the-line 16-core Mac Pro with dual Radeon Pro Vega Pro Duo IIs, and they all came out at $20,000:

Image

Even with discounts, the Mac was about 10% more (out the door). Given the ease of use, and the fact that we wouldn't have to shop around to re-acquire certain plug-ins and 3rd-party software, we just spent the money and went for the Mac Pro instead. We just bought a Mac Studio Ultra as a second machine, mainly for conforming, transcoding, uploads, and renders. It's a more productive experience for us.

I totally concede that it boils down to what you're used to, what your past experience is, and what you expect out of the system. There is no wrong answer. If you can be productive with the system, and your clients are happy and the results are good, then buy whatever you want. It's an individual choice.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostThu Sep 29, 2022 12:32 am

Adriano Castaldini wrote:the ONLY distro on which I successfully installed a working AMD-Davinci was Arch Linux (Manjaro actually). Not Fedora, nor Ubuntu;

This is extremely funny. When Arch is the only stable/working option, something has gone off the rails....
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostThu Sep 29, 2022 1:19 am

Jack Fairley wrote:
Adriano Castaldini wrote:the ONLY distro on which I successfully installed a working AMD-Davinci was Arch Linux (Manjaro actually). Not Fedora, nor Ubuntu;

This is extremely funny. When Arch is the only stable/working option, something has gone off the rails....

Ahah... :) Well, the problem - in my case - was the AMD drivers. AUR has the only drivers (and installing procedure) that worked into forcing my GPUs to work with Davinci Linux.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Oct 08, 2022 7:51 pm

I don't hear too much about the Arri Raw, Redcode Raw or BRaw settings with any of the new macs. The articles and reviews I find are all about H26X and non-raw performance.

I only shoot Braw at Q0 for narrative shorts so those reviews are not that helpful to me. There is also no mention I can find for the M1 Ultra performance with other raw codecs at the high end of bitrate scale....,
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Oct 08, 2022 8:12 pm

A 3090 with Intel 12th Gen CPU to cover the 4:2:2 chroma should be faster.
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Re: M1 Ultra vs RTX 3090 for Davinci 18+

PostSat Oct 08, 2022 9:23 pm

I made a little benchmark project with high-end RAW formats:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=162987&p=861598
(Scroll down a few entries for the links that work)

BTW, I'd still think that you are better off with a desktop PC, but an Apple laptop can't be beaten for DR at this point in time.
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
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Speed Editor, UltraStudio Monitor 3G, iMac 2017, eGPU
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