Upgrade my editing rig

[Brad Hurley]

As far as I know, only Thunderbolt-3 equipped Macs can run eGPUs:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208544

[Elias Gwinn]

True. I had planned to buy a PCIe card w T-3 connectors, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0722SV69N/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

If I buy this PCIe card and the eGPU, will it help my setup handle video editing, (moderate) coloring, and exporting?

[Brad Hurley]

I think you’d either have to find some intrepid soul who has performed this experiment already or else you’ll have to perform it yourself. Is your Mac running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later? If not, it likely won’t work (see the support article I linked to above).

[Elias Gwinn]

Yea, I’m on 10.13.6 (High Sierra).

Do you recommend any other approaches to upgrading w $1k – $2k?

[Brad Hurley]

It could work, but probably only a person with one of those 2010 Mac Pro cheesegraters could tell you with certainty. There are a ton of them still in use. You might want to post your question on the Blackmagic Design forum in the DaVinci Resolve section. I’m pretty sure there are some 2010 Mac Pro users on there who could give you advice.

[Elias Gwinn]

Thanks Brad. I have posted there. Haven’t received any responses yet.

Any other recommended approaches to upgrading my setup w $1k – $2k?

[Brad Hurley]

Honestly if you can wait a while longer to see if BMD and Apple make a BRAW plugin available for Final Cut, switching to Final Cut might be your cheapest option. I love Resolve and work in it exclusively but each new version seems to require a more powerful computer whereas Final Cut works fine even on my home machine, which is a 2014 Mac Mini with 8 gigs of RAM and built-in Intel graphics. I spent a lot of money on my Mac Pro (2013 trashcan model, 32 gigs RAM and the dual D700 GPUs) and it works fine with Resolve for now, but eventually it may not be powerful enough.

I think Final Cut is actually the cheapest NLE if you’re working on Mac; even the free version of Resolve requires a lot more computer than Final Cut does, and while its color correcting tools are still a far cry from Resolve’s it has come a long way in the last couple of years.

[Brad Hurley]

One other thought if you’re allergic to the idea of FCPX (which is understandable, although I’m pretty impressed with it and have decided to duplicate my current Resolve project in FCPX to see whether it’s a viable alternative for me for the future): refurbished Windows gaming PCs can be had for $2K or less with 16-32 gigs of RAM and GPUs that can handle Resolve. If I were to switch to Windows (an option I’ve considered a few times), I’d turn that PC into an appliance and keep it disconnected from the internet, no updates to the OS; this is what the Hollywood studios do with their Linux machines. Linux is of course an option as well; Resolve’s Linux version is designed to run under CentOS. Setup can be geeky.

[Elias Gwinn]

For now, I’m only allergic to restructuring my workflow. I just want to find a way to boost my throughput using my existing workflow and platforms.

But I appreciate hearing about the different platform options, and will consider them for the future.

Thanks Brad!

[Tero Ahlfors]

[Elias Gwinn] “True. I had planned to buy a PCIe card w T-3 connectors, like this one:”

Thunderbolt requires support from the chipset. The card does absolutely nothing in your current computer.