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Minimum Hardware for Reslove 8
Has anyone ever run Resolve 8 on a Intel Mac Pro (early 2009) with a Radeon 4870 (and maybe a Blackmagic Decklink Studio) only?
All I want to do at the moment is:
1) Import DPX files and export ProRes4444 files (I don’t need to play them in real time – or all all actually)
2) Send the EDL from FCP 7 to Resolve and have Resolve conform the DPX clips (I just want to see that I’m doing everything right before editing the entire movie)
I’m months away from doing any grading on my film and I’m just trying to figure out my DPX/ProRes4444 workflow.
I want to buy Resolve 8 to test my workflow but I’m being told I need 2 new video cards and a Decklink 3D extreme and maybe a new monitor or the software wont even start up on my Mac.
I’m still spending money on the 2k scanning. I’m ready to start the offline edit but don’t want to start until I understand my workflow. I just don’t have the money at the moment to buy all the Resolve hardware.
So does anyone know if I can do what I need to do now with what have?
Thanks!
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5 Replies
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Find someone who has a working system. It would save a lot of pioneering time.
jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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You dont need a calibrated monitor to run resolve, but you will need the various cards.
However, if you do work without a calibrated monitor, and grade the entire movie on a non rec709 (or maybe even DCI compliant if your getting 2k scans, depending on your output), when you go to screen your movie, you likely to see something completely different. (too dark, deep red faces..nightmarish stuff). If I were you, I’d either invest fully into a proper system, monitors and all, or rent a suite. -
I think what you’re getting at is that you currently just want an “assistant station” set-up to transcode DPX to ProRes at slow speeds, check EDLs/XMLs while you edit with the offline media to ensure that it will reconnect later, yes? And understanding that, as John points out, you won’t have an actual grading monitor to do this?
Judging from the assortment of MacBook Pros and iMacs and Mac Pros running Resolve 8 at NAB, you can create a pretty limited configuration. You could go without the Decklink card and monitor for the moment, because you would not be capturing from tape, laying to tape, or monitoring. You can even skip the GUI graphics card and plug your GUI monitor into the card doing the grading and avoid needing two graphics cards (at a cost of performance). Look for a flashed GTX285 on ebay for Mac, for a few hundred dollars. Or perhaps you can use a stock 5770 or so for part of this.
Also, quite possibly Resolve Lite will allow you to do the transcoding before you buy a license, if you transcode to HD and don’t do more than 2 nodes of grading (with this limited set-up, perhaps best to do no grading).
However, once you finish editing and it’s time to color, this configuration would be inadequate for 2K 10-bit realtime color grading, at which point you could invest or do as Joseph suggests…
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com -
Thanks for the replies!
@Kevin, what you wrote in your first paragraph is what I’m looking to do.
From what I’m hearing I can probably do this with 1 graphics card. Since Resolve recommends the nVIDIA Quadro 4000, and since I will need that down the road, I’m thinking of getting one now to be sure that Resolve will work.
I thought about waiting for R8 Lite. But from what I understand it wont accept 2k and that is what my DPX files are.
Another question: If I replace my aging 4870 with the nVIDIA Quadro 4000 might I suddenly find applications that previously worked that will no longer work? I’m thinking about FCP 7, Maya 2011, After Effects CS4.
Thanks
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Yeah, with Lite I don’t know if it will prevent you from using media at/over 2K, or prevents you from creating sequences/outputting at/over 2K.
KC
prehistoricdigital.com
hardworkingpixels.com
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