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Best Hardware config for running RED-based Resolve8 w/AE & Apple Color?
What would be an ideal hardware config if I want to run Resolve 8 with excellent performance, while at the same time maintaining good performance/compatibility with Adobe After Effects CS5.5 and Apple Color?
85% of my color correction work uses RED footage for distribution to broadcast TV. I work with a client looking over my shoulder all day, so as much realtime performance as possible is important to me.
I currently use an 8 drive Caldigit HDOne drive array in RAID5 mode, which gives me about 430 MB/s sustained read-speed (according to AJA System Test benchmarks) when about 60% full. In an ideal world, I’d like to continue to use this array with Resolve, so I dont have to buy a whole new drive system.
I also have a REDRocket card, which I would like to use with Resolve, as well.
I would like to be able to have a new system that is optimized primarily for realtime RED colorgrading in Resolve, but will also allow me to use After Effects in dual-screen mode with much better performance than my existing ATI Radeon x1900 card gives me. I would also like the ability to run an occasional Apple Color session (for the necessary legacy revisions to my existing Color projects) here or there with at least the same level of performance that the x1900 card currently gives me.
I’m so confused by the dozens of configuration options that are available for Resolve on Mac that I need some real world guidance on what to get. I have read BM’s Resolve Config Guide PDF, but it’s recommendations seem a bit generalized, and seem to differ with what a lot of people on this forum are saying works better (i.e. with flashed GTX285 cards from eBay, GTX470 etc).
If nobody here can give me specifics, can anyone lead me to a reseller who really knows their stuff when it comes to Resolve for Mac systems? I hate to buy a new Mac Pro/Cubix setup right now (i will probably kill myself if Apple releases a new Thunderbolt enabled Mac Pro in the next 2 weeks), but I really need a system right NOW, so any advice will be most appreciated.
Thank you much in advance!
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4 Replies
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You have the answers already, I would also hate to see a dual thunderbolt driven MacPro if I had just bought the old one.
You need a Quadro 4000 for AE and another one for DaVinci , With your raid and rocket in place, there is no other way then Cubix( or similar)
Wait for it, use disk caching and be sweet to your clientsA slice of color…
DaVinci 8.0.1 OSX 10.7
MacPro 5.1 2×2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 470 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE -
I tried to submit a proposal to purchase a system that would have both Avid and Resolve on the same workstation.
The boss suggested we wait till ThunderBolt is ready.
I cant wait but since Im just learning Resolve now, I guess I have too.
There is a vendor up here in Canada (Quebec) that specializes in Resolve and Cubix set-ups.
I’m sure there’s a few in the US. -
Thanks for the advice!
After many hours of digging, I think I’ve decided on a workable solution to my specific setup. Does this look like a workable system, considering my needs?:
CPU: MacPro 3,1 (Early 2008 8-Core) w/16GB RAM
MacPro PCIe slot 1: NVIDIA Quadro 4000 (for Resolve GUI and dual-monitor AE/FCP/Color GPU use only)
MacPro PCIe slot 2: Cyclone PCIe2-426 16x PCIe expansion card
MacPro PCIe slot 3: Decklink HD Extreme 3D+
MacPro PCIe slot 4: CalDigit RAID cardCyclone PCIe2-2707 PCIe Gen2 Five Slot Expansion Chassis :
Slot 1 (x16): NVIDIA GTX285
Slot 2 (x16): NVIDIA GTX285
Slot 3 (x16): REDRocketAgain, I’m hoping for a level of grading & playback performance with Resolve that allows me to grade R3D files or ProRes4444 files in realtime (or close to realtime…hopefully at a speed signifcantly faster than Apple Color running on an ATI x1900), with at least 8 levels of secondaries stacked up.
Is there anything I’m missing here?
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Good call on the 4000 as GUI for all 🙂
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