Mac Pros or HP Workstations working with 4K Davinci Resolve

[Erik Lindahl]

For what the Mac Pro 2013 is you get a lot of bang for the buck I’d say. I would however suggest looking at the 6-core machine with dual D700’s and at least 16GB of RAM as a “base” 4K system if looking at realtime performance.

BMD recommends this but the 8-core system as a base. More RAM and fast I/O would also be a bonus of course given the internal drive is blazing fast (950 MB/s give or take).

[Toby Tomkins]

12-core MacPro if working with RAW formats, or HP Z820, both are 4K capable, especially with DaVinci 11’s new caching. CPU grunt is still important for RAW formats and encoding.

[Margus Voll]

I would also wore for 12 cored machine.

—

Margus

https://iconstudios.eu
https://vimeo.com/iconstudioseu/videos

DaVinci 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

[Ryan Holmes]

I’m assuming you already fast storage of some sort?

If realtime is your concern, why are looking at the base model of either line – Mac Pro or Z820? While capable today, by tomorrow (i.e. in a few years) those will be struggling. If you’re clients demand realtime 4K and you already have the storage, and I/O to back those speeds up then why not spend the money on a higher end Mac Pro or Z820? Guarantee performance for today and tomorrow….

You also didn’t mention what type of 4K you’ll be dealing with? Blackmagic 4K ProRes? Blackmagic 4K RAW? RED? Canon C500? Arri Alexa? Panasonic GH4?

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Jordan White]

Actually, all of the cameras you mentioned would be what my 4K would be dealing with. $7,000 is a lot to spend on one computer. Computer stuff was never really cheap in the first place. A decent system for home use, my Dad says, would cost around $2,500 or less, so yes, this computer stuff is not cheap, and neither is the Mac Pro or the HP Z820. It would be hard just to save $7,000 for one computer, mind you.

[Ryan Holmes]

[Jordan White] “A decent system for home use, my Dad says, would cost around $2,500 or less, so yes, this computer stuff is not cheap”

A decent system that runs 4K in realtime for $2.5K or less…?!! If you find it sign me up. You also haven’t mentioned how you plan to store all your data? The internal drive on a Mac Pro is fast, but it won’t store much 4K footage. The reason the Mac Pro’s and Z820’s cost so much is because they’re built to move data and move a lot of it. Yes, the base system will probably work for 4K provided you have fast storage (RAID). But next year there will be new cameras with new formats, and the year after that, and the year after that and on and on….So my advice is to always buy the most computer you can possibly afford…..even if that means waiting a little longer while you save. That will serve you better in the long run.

If you have clients today that are demanding this, then do what you have to do. But it sounds like from this post and other posts you’ve made that you’re thinking about building something up. Save your money up and get a system that will last you for several years, not just a couple.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Peter Chamberlain]

Jordan, you might wish to consider the top of he line iMac as I listed in the config guide. Its a lot less expensive than the MacPro or HP configs and while performance for 4K is not stellar it sounds like its more in your budget. Have a look at the guide for details in our new support page.
Peter

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/10

[Ericbowen]

$2500 to $4000 puts you in the budget range for 2 platforms on PC that would handle the 4K media atleast at /12 resolution preview with those applications. The 4790K with 32GB of ram, 770GTX 4GB card, with a raid 0 media drive would be the solution in the $2500 range. Clocked at 4.5 to 4.7GHz this configuration can playback 4K full res with the GPU accelerated debayering. Adobe has that now but Davinci doesn’t yet.

The workstation X79 system with the 4930K, 32GB to 64GB of ram, SSD OS, 770GTX 4GB card and a raid 0 media drive would put you in the upper range of the budget listed. However with the Asus boards or Asrock Extreme 9, you have the ability to upgrade to a E5 V2 Xeon CPU such as the 10 or 12 Core without changing the board out. This configuration at 4.4GHz can easily playback 4K at full resolution preview and even 6K with the GPU accelerated debayer. It will also handle Davinci along with the other apps better than the Quad Core Desktop listed above.

The others are correct though regarding the nMPro. The budget needs to be higher to get the config required for the same performance with 4K media as what I listed above. That is the trade off for Mac and OSX.

Eric-ADK
Tech Manager
support@adkvideoediting.com

[Ryan Holmes]

What Eric is proposing is a build-your-own system approach or DIY (do-it-yourself). That has it’s pros and cons. You can typically purchase the components you want, but support/troubleshooting is entirely on your own. You’ll need to consider your chassis, power requirements, and cooling needs if you go this route. Additionally, raw clock speed isn’t the only measure of performance when dealing with a CPU. Things to also look at are cache size, QPI links, QPI speed, etc.

The benefits of a pre-configured system from HP or Apple is typically time and ease of use (i.e. support). But you’re also getting components in those computers that are geared specifically at audio, video, and graphics professionals. The 4790K and the 4930K, while theoretically capable, are not technically designed for heavy lifting. In fact HP still uses older chipsets in the Z-series specifically because of how they were engineered for heavy lifting applications – Avid, FCPX, Nuke, Premiere, After Effects, Resolve, etc.

I’m not against building your own system, because it is fun and you can learn quite a bit. But it’s not just a walk in the park either. I think you should investigate further if that’s a route you want to go down.

[Peter Chamberlain] “Jordan, you might wish to consider the top of he line iMac as I listed in the config guide.”

I think Peter is exactly right. That may be a better compromise for your needs…

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Jordan White]

All of you. I would like for you to hear me out. I know how to build my own computer. I’m majoring in Computer Science at Kennesaw State University. I fix computers for a living. I’ve extracted hard drives from other computers before. I often keep up with the latest news regarding computers. My computer works well. Turns out that when you convert a 4K RAW file to a DPX or an image sequence, and then import it into Adobe Premiere Pro, and then render the timeline, it plays quite well. I have the ability to upgrade my own system. What I need to do would be to extract both the hard drive and the optical DVD and Blu-ray drives and place them in a new system. Heck, my system is a tower, and that’s the beauty of towers, they can be easily customizable and upgradable because of their modular components. I can replace the motherboard. I can definite go from 1 GB graphics to 4 GB graphics from AMD Radeon to NVidia GeForce. I had a computer hardware class in high school where I examined internal computer components. I even graduated with honors in high school because I took every technical course the school had to offer. Adobe Premiere Pro, if you may have forgotten, is starting to add file format support for so many digital cinema cameras, including the top cameras in use, Red Epic and Arri Alexa. Also, Intel is going to have like 8 or 10 core desktop processors in early 2015. Reports show that they may be working on an 18 core processor. Of course, DaVinci Resolve runs on my system, but it’s a true combination of hardware and software that helps the footage to play back realtime. What I would usually do would be to take the files off of the camera, put them on the hard drive, and play them in the editor. In case you were wondering, my computer is a Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000 system from 2009 with Intel 1st gen i7 3.2 Ghz Quad Core processors, 12 GB RAM, AMD Radeon 5800 1GB graphics, 2 TB hard drive, and is all in a tower for easy customization. I also hear that Intel is starting to integrate graphics capabilities in their processors. Combine this with the graphics cards from NVidia or AMD, then you have a great combination. I hear Intel Iris Pro graphics has the ability to handle 4K displays, but according to my theories, not necessarily able to handle realtime digital cinema camera footage playback. One more thing. I don’t work in visual effects or post production yet. I’m just starting to experiment with this stuff on a personal level and not a business level.