DaVinci on a Macbook Pro?

[Richard Wilis]

Hi,

First post, but a longtime RedUser lurker :)

I'm looking into assembling a mobile platform for editing and grading on location.

I'm considering the new 15" or 17" 2.2GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD drive (for the OS and software), a 27" Apple Display and an external thunderbolt RAID station (once they become available).

Would this likely be fast enough to grade and process 3K Scarlet footage in DaVinci at (close to) realtime playback at a reasonable resolution?

[OlaHaldor]

I don't think the CPU would be the problem. As of today, you still need a CUDA powered GPU in order for Resolve. The new MacBook Pros don't have an nVidia GPU.

Hopefully, some smart guys will make a kick ass ThunderBolt chassis so you can place at least one GPU in it.

[OJ Jackson]

I don't think it's advisable,, especially not on the 15 inch.

[Richard Wilis]

Thanks guys, I didn't realize the new MBP's don't have the nVidia GPU's..

An external GPU chassis sounds like a solution. Are there currently non-thunderbolt devices like that on the market?

[Mike Prevette]

The App should run, just not provide realtime performance.

[jake blackstone]

The App should run, just not provide realtime performance.

I have a 15" Macbook Pro and it has no Nvidia card, so it down't run.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The only Macbook Pro I had that would run DaVinci just sold on eBay.. It was the late '09 model with the dual nVidia GPUs. 9400M + 9600GT. Surprisingly DaVinci ran pretty well on it when attached to an eSATA RAID. My late 2010 model with i7 CPU and GeForce 330M won't run it. Neither will my new 15" that just arrived (ATI GPU w/Thunderbolt).

A PCI expansion chassis with nVidia GPU is not going to help much here. At least not when using something like the MAGMA or others that run from the ExpressCard port. That is the equivalent to installing your GPU into a slightly crippled, PCIe v1.1 X1 (single lane) slot. This especially holds true for R3D workflow where the CPU isn't up to desktop specs for plowing through REDCODE without a Rocket to assist it.

Thunderbolt gives two channels in one port, each 10Gbps. That's the equivalent of 8 ExpressCard34 slots and total bandwidth is close to that of a PCIe 2.0 X4 slot (or a 1.1 X8 slot).

Thunderbolt PCIe expanders will be hitting the market in the coming months. But until then, there's not much we can do but wait. I'm not sure if I would want to run DaVinci on such a notebook system though.

[Manuel Wenger]

No matter what GPU you have you need a 17" MacBook Pro, Davinci needs a 1920x1080 minimum resolution to run.
I can start DaVinci on my MacBook 15" (NVIDA 9600M GT) but i only see a part of the GUi and it´s not possible to scale the GUI window down.
If I connect my 24" Apple Display it works fine.
But with this setup you don´t want to start seriously grading, even on set, it´s to slow, and the lag between your mouse move and DaVinci respondig is no way to work.

On Set i still prefer Speedgrade on Set.
But in the Grading room DaVinci is TOP !

[Dwaine Maggart]

You can use a 15" Macbook Pro in a pinch. Taj Jackson on the Creative Cow DaVinci forum has a solution. This link takes you to the thread:

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/277/2987#2987

Dwaine Maggart - Blackmagic Design DaVinci Support

[Manuel Wenger]

Thats an awesome solution !

Thanks :)