Why is my rendering so slow?

Good news! I have a shiny new Ryzen 7950x to replace my aging i7-3770k!

Bad news. It hasn't really improved rendering times.

While rendering video, CPU usage seems to hover around 30% (with the fans barely ticking over). RAM usage is low, I/O is at maybe 80MB/s on a drive which can do way more than that, I'm reading from one drive and writing to another... I think I'm doing everything right?

What could be causing the performance issues?

(Lite user, Linux.)

If you are on DaVinci Resolve, fastest GPU and lots of VRAM is necessary. CPU is inconsequential. I can’t speak for other NLE.

Sorry, yeah, Davinci Resolve.

My GPU's not so great --- an Nvidia 1060, so that could be it. But doesn't the renderer use both GPU and CPU together? I'd still expect to see 100% CPU while doing work no matter how fast my GPU.

(I did try turning GPU acceleration off in the preferences, but it didn't make a difference.)

Sorry, yeah, Davinci Resolve.

My GPU's not so great --- an Nvidia 1060, so that could be it. But doesn't the renderer use both GPU and CPU together? I'd still expect to see 100% CPU while doing work no matter how fast my GPU.

(I did try turning GPU acceleration off in the preferences, but it didn't make a difference.)

No, not at all. Unlike premiere or Vegas, Resolve is primarily GPU and VRAM dependent. The NVIDIA 1060, depending on what you are rendering, won’t cut it. You can try rendering a DNXHD and 1080 timeline and that might work.