CUBIX Desktop 4 or Cyclone 2707 Expander for Davinci Resolve 5K r3d

[Asif Limbada]

I have the 4-slot Cubix, 4 single-width slots. I have a RED Rocket, Quadro 4000 and CalDigit 6GU3 (USB3 and eSATA 6gbps) in the expander.

In the Mac Pro tower I have this:

slot1: Quadro 4000
slot2: Cubix x16 interface
slot3: BlackMagic Decklink HD Extreme 3D+
Slot4: ATTO H680 SAS/SATA HBA

How is the performance of Quadro 4000 in the Cubix for Davinci, especially working with native 5k r3d. FPS and node counts? The Cubix reseller said that only ATTO FC HBA is compatible in Slot 4 (cos they are the authorised resellers for ATTO here in Dubai), I am getting the QLogic (better customer service here!) Dual Channel HBA.

[Asif Limbada]

Yeah, its a weird shape and loud as hell. But Runs Like a BO$$. Like the idea of changin out the fans, what did you swap them for Jeff?

What is your slot configuration? I would like to run it like the BO$$.

[Asif Limbada]

slot 1: Gx for Gui
slot 2: Conector to Cyclone (i prefer so I can rack mount)
slot 3: Myricon 10gig
slot 4: BM i/o for monitoring (I assume this is the only what to get a HDSDI Grade 1 monitor attached

Cyclone
slot 1: Nvidia 4000
slot 2: RRocket
slot 3: Nvidia 4000
slot 4: RRocket
slot 5: Atto H680

How is the performance on Resolve in terms of FPS and node count?

[Michael Lindsay]

Thank you Jeff for your thoughtfull responce... I'll have a little think and asnwer more fully.

thanks again

M

[Michael Lindsay]

You're asking a lot in some ways... But there's a couple options. If you don't mind a bit of a hacked solution, you could replace the two Quadro cards in the expander with a single GTX480 and gain a slot that way. Or you could go with the 2710 model Cyclone, which gives you more slots.

Ok that is food for thought... my gut instict is that I would avoide a hacked card. (Over the years I have been burned a number of times from clever workarounds that ultimatly landed me in trouble). That said if BM and the guys out there pushing their systems all say go for it? Also I couldn't see anyone using the larger Cyclone expansion systems for running Davinci?

The fast local storage really needs to have its interface located in the tower. If you don't mind software RAID or don't mind connecting self-contained RAID systems via a SAS port or two, you could replace the H680 with an H6F0 and get double the number of external connections. I guess the question here is, what do you want for local storage?

Makes sense... One question? My SAN can suport 2 streams of HD RGB @ 10bit or 12bit depth. Would that be enough for Davinci? What precision files does the Davince render out for its own renders. I don't want to play out to tape from the Davinci. I want RT play back of 2 streams so I can work on and view stereo material.

The bad thing about loading up the expander in situations like this, is bandwidth. You can only push so much through that single X16 slot.

If it were me, I would probably get a good switch, if you don't have one, for the 10g card and connect a NAS device that way. Or look at an alternate card to replace the Myricon. There are some hybrid cards out there that have 10g copper/fiber along with infiniband and/or fiber-channel.

Or, if the Myricon card is fine and is a single 10g interface, move it into the expander and place the ATTO card back in the tower, consider upgrading it.

I have a 10gig switch but I can also attach direct to the SAN. If the Atto is left in the expansion for LTO5 backups and SATA drive data ingest I feel this is OK? I wouldn't be doing wither of these while running the Divinci

So my real question is if I can live without a really fast local drive setup, and instead rely completly on the SAN for disk speed could I make the system (as above) good for Davinci? Especially if I accepted no tape layoffs and staying with HD s3d work for a while?

thanks again

Michael L

[Asif Limbada]

Will using 2 Quadro on the expander boost performance even though it is connected to Mac Pro x16 slot 2?

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Will using 2 Quadro on the expander boost performance even though it is connected to Mac Pro x16 slot 2?

Yes, they will to some extent. GPU processing for nodes actually doesn't take a huge amount of bandwidth for Resolve. But it is something to consider -- as I said above, you can only push so much data through a single X16 slot. Two Q4000's and a Rocket will have you maxed out. There is the option of going with a faster GPU like the GTX480. But it involves some tweaks to get it up and running. Not a big deal overall, I personally went the Quadro route. I can understand not wanting to get involved in hacked cards and other unsupported solutions.

[Asif Limbada]

Yes, they will to some extent. GPU processing for nodes actually doesn't take a huge amount of bandwidth for Resolve. But it is something to consider -- as I said above, you can only push so much data through a single X16 slot. Two Q4000's and a Rocket will have you maxed out. There is the option of going with a faster GPU like the GTX480. But it involves some tweaks to get it up and running. Not a big deal overall, I personally went the Quadro route. I can understand not wanting to get involved in hacked cards and other unsupported solutions.

Do you think its better to get Cyclone as it has 3 x16 slots, especially helpful when using RCX converting dailies from R3Ds to other formats, because 2 Quadros wont be used during the conversion process of RCX. I am leaning towards Cyclone Expander rather than Cubix, because of this.

[Neil W. Smith]

Do you think its better to get Cyclone as it has 3 x16 slots, especially helpful when using RCX converting dailies from R3Ds to other formats, because 2 Quadros wont be used during the conversion process of RCX. I am leaning towards Cyclone Expander rather than Cubix, because of this.

Asif,

We have three DaVinci Resolve 8.1 systems at our facility ... two of them are running on the Cyclone 2707 PCIe Extender box ... one of them has 3 x GTX 285s (over clocked and 2 GBs of VRAM each) with a RedRocket card and the other has 3 x GTX 480s with a 12 TB RAID attached. If you want to run the GTX 480s you need to make sure you order the 1500 W version ... the 480 cards are beasts ... but they run like GREASED LIGHTINING ... they are also double slot cards so you will lose a slot (2707 only has two double width slots) ... Cyclone is by far the best PCIe Expansion box on the market at the moment ... we tested all the others.

We just spent the last week demonstrating the 3 X GTX 285s system at the annual SMPTE Conference ... engineers from all the studios were impressed ... imagine what they would have thought if we'd taken our 3 x GTX 480s system? ... we're in the middle of grading a Stereo 3D movie on it so I couldn't take it ... plus I'm not sure Hollywood is ready for that yet ;-) .. lots of people still prefer the expensive heavyIRON approach.

We'll be doing some benchmarking tests with nVidia and Blackmagic over the coming months to verify the optimum configuration for running Resolve 8.2 and nVidia but in the meantime 3 x GTX 480s in a Cyclone 2707 box will serve you well ... very well!!!!

Next time you're in LA come and see us ... we're on the The Lot in West Hollywood ... a couple of blocks down the road from Red Studios.

Neil

[Dustin Cross]

Thanks for the info Neil. I really like my 2707.

I have been thinking about going crazy and builing a Resolve system with two Cyclones. Each with two 480s and a Rocket. Raid in one and 10gigE in the other. That would be a smoking fast Resolve system.


Dusty