Resolve reports 1 GPU. is this correct?

DaVinci Resolve

Resolve reports 1 GPU. is this correct?

Posted by Larry Di stefano on May 4, 2011 at 10:30 pm

Trying to figure out my configuration.

Have a GT120 and an FX4800 in my 3GHz Dual Quad core Mac Pro (2008 i believe)

When I check “about Davinci Resolve” it says 1GPU. I presume that is correct. But I’m not getting even realtime playback with no correction on clips. Media is ProRes422 on a fast array. Could it be my card configuration, which is complicated by having it on the same system as my Avid Symphony?

The Raid array gives me a reliable 2-3 streams of HD in the Avid and plays back the same media in FCP too.

Mac Pro
Slot 1 GeForce GT120
Slot 2 PCI bridge to Cubix Xpander
Slot 3 Decklink extreme
Slot 4 Atto Express SAS R380

CUBIX EXPANDER
Slot 1 FX4800
Slot 2 Blocked due to above card
Slot 3 Symphony connector
Slot 4 empty

Larry Di stefano replied 15 years ago 4 Members · 6 Replies
6 Replies

Luke Maslen
May 5, 2011 at 12:35 am

Hi Larry,

Here’s an extract from page 12 of the current Resolve for Mac Configuration Guide dated 22 December 2010:

“Resolve works with any certified 2008 series Mac Pro for uncompressed SD and HD in real time and full quality. When working in HD, set the “Video bit depth” to “8 bit” in the Video Monitoring preferences of the Configuration screen. This has no impact on render or tape quality and all SDI I/O is at full bit depth quality.”

If your Mac Pro is a 2008 model, then you are only going to see realtime performance if you work with uncompressed video. You mentioned that you are using ProRes and this is placing a significant extra load on the CPUs in your computer which is probably the main reason why you aren’t seeing realtime performance.

Secondly, make sure that you set the “Video bit depth” to “8 bit” in the Video Monitoring preferences of the Configuration screen as this will be necessary for any chance of realtime performance on a 2008 Mac Pro. I hope this helps.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design
Larry Di stefano
May 5, 2011 at 12:55 am

Yes I had the video set to 8 bit. Didn’t think that the ProRes would be a problem. The original footage is HDV. What codec should I render the files to in order to get better performance? I presume I should be looking at a faster processor too.

Thanks for the tip. I read the config guide in a hurry, while doing two other things….

Larry
Margus Voll
May 5, 2011 at 7:46 am

Make some test with uncompressed formats ?

Tiff, dpx etc

—

Margus

https://iconstudios.eu
Larry Di stefano
May 5, 2011 at 4:17 pm

Hmm. I tried .tif, BMuncompressed 10b RGB, and Uncompressed 422. and none of them played back perfectly. the BM codec worked a little better.

I also tried some dnx encoded shots that worked fine on another computer using these cards (minus the pci ecxpander) and here I only get 17fps.

any other thoughts? I didn’t try DPX cause I couldn’t export them from FCP
Joseph Mastantuono
May 6, 2011 at 2:46 am

Weird, although maybe it’s the FX4800? I have the GTX285, and I’m currently having issues trying to get a full 30fps out of that (with a GT120 as my obviously). Could it be the 10.6.7?

Joseph Mastantuono
Online Editor – Colorist – Post Consultant
Brooklyn based finishing at reasonable prices
917.969.1583
Larry Di stefano
May 6, 2011 at 8:08 pm

just swapped out the computer with a newer model with a slower processor and half the cores and it seems to play fine.

go figure

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