-
buying a new system for realtime 4k in davinci resolve
Looking to buy a new machine and really need some advice on where to start. Firstly, I’m an editor not a Computer wiz. I’ve never built a computer in my life and have no idea how to or even where to start. My ignorance of the inner workings of the machine has made my life as a video editor and part time colorist a challenge indeed. So, I need help. On my new machine I will be running Adobe Premiere and resolve 11.. Productions will have final deliveries of both 1080p and occasionally 4k. the footage I edit is primarily 5k R3d and sony xavc 4k but need to be prepared for whatever’s thrown my way. for the past 4 years, I’ve been banging my head against the wall with a mid 2010 dual 6 core mac with only one quadro 4000 and an oldschool red rocket (lack of GPU being due to pcie slot limitations). This system never lived up to my expectations and has never given me close to real time playback of anything 4k in resolve and had mixed results in premiere. a lot of hanging on clips, choppy playback and frequent crashing.. Let me be clear, first and foremost I need a system that WORKS! Does this exist? Every machine I’ve had thus far has worked about 30% of the time. The rest of the time was spent scouring through forums at 3am.. I need my computer to work and to be lightning fast and able to handle multiple nodes of intense grading while maintaining realtime 4k playback. I need the ability to SEE what I’m grading and editing move in realtime (for God’s sakes!) My understanding is that speed has less to do about CPU and is almost entirely about GPU and raid speed. So my main question is what platform?
Macintosh, Hackintosh, Windows or Linux?
I’ve always worked with macs but I’m willing to make the switch if I have to. At this point I just want the smoothest and fastest system possible at my budget which I’d like to keep under 8k if possible.. Ive seen mixed reviews online about the new Mac Pro but I’m skeptical firstly because of the GPU limitation, is the dual d700 enough juice for what I need? and secondly, I went that route in 2010 coughing up thousands of dollars on a machine that in my opinion greatly underperformed.. If the new Mac Pro is what i need to get realtime 4k playback in resolve with heavy processing applied then this makes my life very easy. I like the idea of a Hackintosh because i could beef up the GPU and stay on the familiar platform at a fraction of the cost but I dont know anybody who can do this for me and frankly like I said earlier I need a system that WORKS.. My fear is that I wont know how to troubleshoot it and if its not set up properly I could have another 6000+ dollar paper weight on my hands with no support. Windows seems like a decent idea on the GPU side but what I heard from Larry Jordan is that you need at least a thunderbolt 2 8 raid in order to get realtime full quality playback of 4k footage. Does thunderbolt 2 operate with windows? I dont even know this! will Resolve work well with Windows? Finally, Dont know anything about Linux or what it costs but it sounds like a good move for optimization and stability purposes which is what I’m mostly interested in..just dont know that I will have any idea how to move around or how to troubleshoot when the time arises… Thing is that I’m very busy with work and relearning things will definitely slow me up.. Any advice on this is greatly appreciated.
-
26 Replies
-
bump
-
-
yes I have.. I guess what I’m looking for is some examples of systems that people are using in the real world that are working well. I’d like to hear what people are experiencing before I jump in and start making decisions.. I read the mac configuration guide that gave the thumbs up on the new mac pro and then went online and read post after post of people having problems with the d700 cards.
-
Well keep on bumping, maybe something will turn up. 😉
-
I have to see that there are many different ways for 4k.
4k in red file that you use on HD timeline and 4k in DPX or some sort of raw.
The workflow determines what kind of machinery you need.
First option you could do on desktop level so to say but real full 4k need more kick in the machine,
array and budget.Resolve guide is really good starting point as Juan pointed.
All the way 4K is expensive.
—
Margus
https://iconstudios.eu
https://vimeo.com/iconstudioseu/videosDaVinci 10, OSX 10.8.5
MacPro 5.1 2×2,93 24GB
GUI 4000 / GPU GTX 780
DL 4K
Eizo Color
Scope Box
Full Ligthspace CMS -
The only true 4k system, IE something that can do 4k DPX in realtime, in Resolve, has been on LINUX. Quantel and Baselight do 4k, but use a little DIFF technology to do so.
You can’t just go buy a Resolve LINUX system, it has to be build for you. And with TESLA and INFINIBAND, your price went up to about 150k+++ depending on storage.
If you did want to be a Maverick, for an off shelf system, it would be Windows Only with 4+ of whatever the fastest cards you could fit in there, TITAN BLACK, whatever, faster=better, and the fastest CPU chips possible. Even then I would imagine lots of hiccups and bumps if you where truly doing 4k, which means 4k timeline and 4k monitoring and lots of grades and OFX fx, and doing it with 4k DPX.
Just put it this way, buy the fastest PC computer on the market today, with four+ of the fastest video cards that exist, a true 4k monitoring card, and you should be good to grade in Uncompressed 4k timelines, a bit, but imagine a big growing curve with lots of hiccups.
Or wait??
Personally, I don’t think 4k is there yet, their are LOTS of limitations, CPU limitations, bus and storage limitations in current Desktops. ALso lots of codecs do not work correct or at all in 4k.
Anyway this is all changing.. but if you are super eager to really have a stable 4k system, you would have to experiment with your own build or go big with a 200k custom system like Resolve Linux.
I wouldn’t trust someone saying they have a really stable 4k resolve Mac or PC system, its all just tooo buggy at the moment.
but don’t take my word for it, prove me wrong, I honestly would love to see the build.. if I didn’t have to pay for it.
-
Thanks for this. I feel like it’s the most honest and knowledgeable advice I’ve heard. They really have created a mess with this 4k shit haven’t they? My company bought right into the hype buying all the latest 4k cameras and now post production has gone down the toilet. I feel pretty confident in going forward and building a monster PC. either that or we may just have to put our 4k cameras up for sale and come running back home to good old 1080p. Thanks!
-
[sean pollaro] “My company bought right into the hype buying all the latest 4k cameras and now post production has gone down the toilet. I feel pretty confident in going forward and building a monster PC. either that or we may just have to put our 4k cameras up for sale and come running back home to good old 1080p. “
There are ways to handle it, but you have to have reasonable expectations. A lot depends on your final delivery and the types of programming you’re working on. If it’s commercials, it’s not that hard; if it’s half-hour episodic TV shows, it’s doable. If it’s complex two-hour features, it’s a lot harder.One of the big tripping points is just the output renders. If you have a fast network and fast drives, it would be possible to share projects on the network and just make one workstation nothing but a rendering/delivery machine. This would free up your color-correction station from rendering, and allow you to move on to new projects (assuming access to the same files and duplicate projects on the network). Even if the 4K render took 10-12 hours, you could use that time by moving on to other work and not be delayed at all.
I’d look very carefully at the need for 4K delivery and find out if this is something actually being requested by your clients and distributors. This may be a case where what they want today is just 1080, but there’s a chance of a UHD delivery a few years from now. If they absolutely must have 4K today, then you’ll need to implement a much more complex (and expensive) solution to handle it. It’s possible to do it at an affordable cost, but I’d say an 8-GPU Linux box would be the best way to go.
-
As per the resolve config guide, the d700 / 12-core MacPro, can get it done. Particularly with none raw formats, like prores 4K files. OTOH, those would likely not perform as well and be more troublesome on a windows system. But as per the resolve config guide, something like a 24-core z840 with a few Titans/cubix, would certainly fare extremely well with most raw formats, including red, sony, alexa. But not particularly well with quicktimes. Linux can be configured to do well with all of them, but is MUCH more expensive. There’s also a resolve config guide for linux as well… I think my point here is that these and many other questions have been helpfully answered for you, in the Resolve Config guide.
-
this really helps Juan. Thanks for the advice
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up