[John Pilgrim]

I’m curious what was your drill on the Mac side…
I’ve graded many many FCP7 projects consisting of mixed XDCAM-EX footage (MOVs from XDCAM Transfer) and ProResHQ footage (VFX renders from AFX), in ProResHQ sequences sent via XML directly to Resolve 8.x on the Mac without any problems.
I’m curious what you anticipate the differences in workflow might be, having just set up Resolve 9 on a new Windows machine myself.
The first that I can think of is that I’ll have to render from Resolve to DNxHD instead of ProRes. Not a biggie for most of my clients. For those that really want ProRes, I figure I’ll render DPX and convert to ProRes with ffmbc or ffmpeg.

Thanks!
John

[John Pilgrim]

Here are standard candle (8.2) tests for the P9X79 Pro system running R9.0beta

V1 2 nodes : 24 fps
V2 4 nodes : 24 fps
V3 6 nodes : 24 fps
V4 12 nodes : 17 fps
V5 NR 4 : 24 fps
V6 NR 4 : 24 fps
V7 NR 4 : 16 fps
V8 NR 4 : 4 fps

Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard
single 3.2GHz Intel i7 3930K 6-core CPU
64GB RAM
nVidia Quadro 4000 for GUI (at true x16 lanes)
nVidia GTX580 3GB for GPU (at true x16 lanes)
Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
nVidia 301.42 drivers

[John Pilgrim]

Just revised it online.

[John Pilgrim]

You’re right Simon. Sorry!
The 1card 2cards 3cards should be treated as column headings.
Pick the appropriate column and then read down.

[John Pilgrim]

I just built a P9X79Pro system. It’s a good board.

[John Pilgrim]

SuperMicro has better boards (and board/case combos) than the Z9PE-D8 WS, plus it’s a bit of a pain to find a case to fit the EEB form factor of the Z9PE-D8 WS.

[John Pilgrim]

One thing to remember is that any CPU you plug into a P9X79 series motherboard is going to have a maximum of 40 PCIe lanes. Various version of the P9X79 motherboard distribute those 40 lanes to the various physical slots differently, but on a single processor system that’s the limit.

On a dual CPU system, one can get 80 lanes or in some cases 84 lanes.

I think SuperMicro cheats to get 84 by taking some ‘lanes’ from another motherboard function.

John

[John Pilgrim]

Specs fro the P8Z77V from from the Asus website
2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black)
2 x PCIe 2.0 x1
2 x PCI

While the ‘black’ slot is physically x16, it only has x4 lanes, meaning a GPU in that slot will be restricted, if not starved, getting its data to/from the CPU.

The ‘blue’ and ‘white’ slots share x16 lanes, so if one were to put two GPUs in tho slots, they would each get x8 lanes, which will be reduced compared to a different motherboard that provides X16 to both slots, such as one from the P9X79 series.

As Juan Salvo pointed out in another thread, x8 might be satisfactory, but it’s certainly not going to maximize the potential of whatever GPUs you’re using.

Why skimp on the motherboard, especially if you can afford 3 GPUs?

John

[John Pilgrim]

Good to know Juan.
I stand corrected.
———
I have an extra GTX580, so maybe I’ll try

Q4000 GUI x16
GTX580 GPU x8
GTX580 GPU x8

in the P9X79Pro

and see how that compares to the current

Q4000 GUI x16
GTX580 GPU x16.

——–

The downside is that I’m also using this system for Houdini 12, which only uses one GPU, and probably expects it to be have x16 lanes.

——–

John

[John Pilgrim]

I’m sure the BMD reps will chime in, but I doubt you’ll get much Resolve performance out of GUI or GPU cards in x8 slots instead of the X16 slots the require.
Resolve is a different graphics process than gaming, and the spec that the cards are 16x isn’t flexible.

On the Mac side, I tried
GT120 in PCIe x4
eSATA in PCIe x4
Q4000 Mac in x16
Q4000 Mac in x16
and ran into performance issues b/c the GUI card was in x4 instead of x16.
My Standard Candle tests in that config were good, but I dropped frames with HD footage if my video monitoring was at 10bit (as it needs to be) as opposed to 8-bit.

John