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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Davinci for Mac Configuration Guide

Thanks Shane!

Building a Resolve Mac Pro

Recommended for SD and HD in realtime

- Great for SD and HD in realtime with lots of windows, defocus & blurs
- Good for 2K
- Grading monitor support via SDI capture card
- Internal, external and SAN storage options

Resolve on Mac Pro works in SD, HD and 2K in real
time and full quality. Resolve software can easily work
in 4K although current Mac Pro models do not have
sufficient performance to work in 4K at full quality and
in real time.

The Mac Pro should initially be set up with the NVIDIA
GeForce GT 120 (GUI card) in slot 1. Move this card to
slot 2 after configuration has been completed. The
monitor must remain connected to the GUI card. If you
connect the monitor to the wrong GPU card, Resolve
performance will be unusable.

Resolve requires the dedicated GPU performance
of the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 for Mac or the
discontinued NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285.

ProRes QuickTime files are supported if Apple Final
Cut Studio is installed. Similarly Avid DNxHD® MXF
files are supported if the DaVinci Resolve DNxHD
Update is installed.

RED r3d files, up to 2K resolution, can be played back in
realtime in full resolution and premium debayer quality
with the addition of a RED Rocket card. Only slots 3 or
4 should be used for the RED Rocket which would also
prevent the use of a HBA, RAID or capture card.

When using a multi-GPU Resolve Linux configuration, a
Resolve Mac Pro can be used to perform non-creative,
“assistant” tasks before and after a project is graded in
the suite. This maximizes the productive grading time
of the colorist.


Building a Resolve MacBook Pro

Suitable for SD and SD/HD shot preview

- Ideal for on-set, pre-grade, preview and training
- Realtime processing of SD DPX files
- Apply shot by shot ‘look’ grades to HD images
- Internal SATA or SSD storage options

DaVinci Resolve on a 17-inch MacBook Pro is fully
featured and not limited in any way. As with other
Resolve configurations, the Resolve MacBook Pro
benefits from being used with the DaVinci Resolve
Control Surface but can also be used with the
Tangent Devices WAVE. The only limitations are those
imposed by the notebook disk, GPU and CPU speeds.

The MacBook Pro is ideal for on-set, pre-grade,
preview and training. It can provide a preview of
material in SD and apply shot by shot ‘look’ grades
on HD images so the project file can be exported to a
Mac Pro or Linux system.

While external disk connections can be made via
ExpressCard34, FireWire and USB ports, the best disk
performance will be achieved by using the fastest
available internal drive, and we currently recommend
using a 7200 rpm internal hard drive. While not yet
certified, we expect the fastest disk performance will
be achieved with an internal solid state drive (SSD).

DaVinci-Resolve-Mac-Config-Guide.pdf>>>
 
It's definitely a document to start with if you're not up on a lot of the options out there. I will say it again, though. The Apple RAID Card is complete crap, don't use it. I can't believe BMD is actually recommending it as an option.

I'm curious about the comment in their about the Rocket for 4K only being half-resolution. I'm assuming they mean for monitoring purposes. Hopefully it's not limited to half resolution for output/finishing. That would be a huge kick to the groin for a lot of people who are building full 4K finish pipelines.

For people planning to use the BMD DeckLink Extreme 3D and you need HDMI connectivity. You will have to find a solution for running those HDMI cables out of your system, similar to what many of us have to do with the SDI connectors for the RED Rocket.

I'm also curious about what GPU options will be supported moving forward. For those looking to buy a new Mac Pro for Resolve, Apple currently only sells the ATI options. The GTX285 has been discontinued and is starting to become difficult to find. The Quadro 4800 is technically discontinued as well, but there are still plentiful numbers out there. No more GT120 or GT160 cards for the single-slot graphics card for the UI.

I think I'll put Resolve on my '09 Mac Pro (which already has the GTX285) and I'll try to hold my breath for the next Mac Pro iteration before I buy a new system. Only problem I have with the system is I need to add a single-slot video card, but no free slot. I'm thinking the PCIe expander is probably the only realistic solution here. The next expander I'm going to try will probably be this one: http://www.cyclone.com/products/expansion_backplanes/pcie417.php

I'm thinking this configuration for my Mac Pro:

Slot 4: ATTO R680 SAS RAID HBA
Slot 3: BMD DeckLink Extreme 3D
Slot 2: x16 PCIe Expansion
Slot 1: nVidia GTX285

In the expansion:

RED Rocket
nVidia GT120 or GT160
* maybe an eSATA card for occasional use too.

Or... I may pull the ATTO HBA from this system and place the OS and apps on a 480GB SSD and run a 4 or 5 drive software RAID. Then I can eliminate the expander. That may be less brain damage and the cheaper solution. 5 x 2.0TB in software RAID-0 would perform well. My existing backups from this system are all done over gig-e for now anyway as the backup volume and LTO are on another system.
 
Jeff Kilgroe said:
Or... I may pull the ATTO HBA from this system and place the OS and apps on a 480GB SSD and run a 4 or 5 drive software RAID. Then I can eliminate the expander. That may be less brain damage and the cheaper solution. 5 x 2.0TB in software RAID-0 would perform well.
Click to expand...

That is the route I'm going...

4x 2TB software RAID. The last drive in the stock drive tray will be a "transport" drive for when I don't have time to copy over ethernet or FW800. That way if I am in a rush I can render to the drive, and then shut down the machine and yank the drive easily.


The single-slot Quadro 4000 should solve the Decklink HDMI slot-filler problem.

Slot 4: BMD DeckLink Extreme 3D
Slot 3: Red Rocket
Slot 2: nVidia GT120
Slot 1: nVidia Quadro 4000



Jeff Kilgroe said:
I'm curious about the comment in their about the Rocket for 4K only being half-resolution. I'm assuming they mean for monitoring purposes. Hopefully it's not limited to half resolution for output/finishing. That would be a huge kick to the groin for a lot of people who are building full 4K finish pipelines.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure they are just referring to realtime playback quality. You can do everything at HD and then render 4K no problem.
 
Hopefully with some MAC OS updates, there might be new drivers integrated for the new generation video cards (which is why, i'm hoping at least, they phased out Nvidia at the moment) and will tweak drivers to accept a gtx 485, and or the quadro 5800. Dropping nvidia out of the blue like this is really worry some.
 
Anyone tested any expanders? I'm going to try to put together the various ones here. Any more suggestions?

desktop:
Magma
Cyclone
OneStopSystems
Cubix

mobile:
MAXX digital

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
I have a plan to start Resolve on MacBook Pro with Rocket card on Magma and Tangent Wave together.

And it will work for sure.

Just to remind you that I had Scratch two years ago to evaluate on MacBook Pro and then grading+conforming r3d files worked just gorgeous on Boot Camp Windows.

But Scratch didn't want to sell us software for 1000 Bucks.

In a meantime somebody had got that point.

Right now here we are to go with BM DaVinci Resolve legendary grading system.

Looking forward to get soon my hands on Resolve.
 
i'm with you sanjin:)

had also a hard time to find a price/performance software for grading the hot red stuff
like the idea to grow with a product
let the IBC show beginn . . .
 
Mark L. Pederson said:
New one coming from JMR - three 8X gen 2 PCIe slots
Click to expand...

Any idea when? Hopefully soon... Would like to take a look at it. Does it have drive bays like their 5-slot one?


albert rudnicki said:
Is there any benefit in the Davinci's performance, to place TWO nVidia GTX285 in place of oneGTX285+GT120 ?
Thanks
Click to expand...

The Mac version of Resolve is technically a single-GPU license. Not sure if you would gain by placing another GTX or similar GPU in the system. The GTX285 occupies a dual-slot space too, so the second one would really have to go in an expander. Quadro 4000 looks promising, and takes one slot space, but no ETA on a Mac version yet.
 
albert rudnicki said:
Is there any benefit in the Davinci's performance, to place TWO nVidia GTX285 in place of oneGTX285+GT120 ?
Thanks
Click to expand...

Even if you can fit two 285s in the box, if I have heard correctly there are not enough power connectors. The 285s take two each, there are three available.

Plus I think Jeff is right. Davinci Resolve for Mac will only use a single GPU for image processing. Expandability comes from the Linux upgrade, or increased performing GPUs.
 
I'm putting together a system today for a Davinci bay, while waiting for the new Quadro I have a few 285's here and will put one in. The mac is the new 12 core 2.93 and came with a ATI card that I pulled and put in a GT120 while I build it up. Once I restarted with Davinci installed it prompted me to DL the latest Cuda drivers and restart. I was surprised that Davinci seems to run OK with just the GT120. I thought it needed 2 video cards to work.

I'm about to put in 64gb of RAM and boot 64bit but now after looking at the BM site and manual, I'm now wondering is Resolve a 64bit app?

My plan is to put in
1 GTX285
2 GT120
3 DeckLink 3D
4 Rocket
but not sure how the get the HDMI from the Decklink out. Any ideas? I did not want to go to an expander but I may have to.

Thanks
 
jonnycom said:
I'm about to put in 64gb of RAM and boot 64bit but now after looking at the BM site and manual, I'm now wondering is Resolve a 64bit app?
Click to expand...

It could be. As of CUDA 3.1 on Mac OS X, it's 64-bit compatible. Before that, it was 32-bit only.
 
jonnycom said:
I'm putting together a system today for a Davinci bay, while waiting for the new Quadro I have a few 285's here and will put one in. The mac is the new 12 core 2.93 and came with a ATI card that I pulled and put in a GT120 while I build it up. Once I restarted with Davinci installed it prompted me to DL the latest Cuda drivers and restart. I was surprised that Davinci seems to run OK with just the GT120. I thought it needed 2 video cards to work.

I'm about to put in 64gb of RAM and boot 64bit but now after looking at the BM site and manual, I'm now wondering is Resolve a 64bit app?

My plan is to put in
1 GTX285
2 GT120
3 DeckLink 3D
4 Rocket
but not sure how the get the HDMI from the Decklink out. Any ideas? I did not want to go to an expander but I may have to.

Thanks
Click to expand...

It runs with just one CUDA card, but then you end up with Color performance.
There are no slots available for HDMI out. So, until FX 4000, your choices are:
1. Drill a hole for the HDMI cable
2. Use SDI out
3. Use YUV output
64Gb of RAM? Why? It runs just fine with 6 Gb
 
Has anyone know when/if 4000 will be supported on Mac?
It seams logical that demand will be high enough to lunch it parallel with resolve...
 
albert rudnicki said:
Has anyone know when/if 4000 will be supported on Mac? It seams logical that demand will be high enough to lunch it parallel with resolve...
Click to expand...

Last word was October according to an Nvidia rep in a recently released SIGGRAPH interview.

Might be some interesting announcements at IBC...

Torrey
-----------------------------------------------
Torrey Loomis
President & CEO - Silverado Systems, Inc.
(916) 760-0032 • FAX (916) 404-5258
torrey@silverado.cc
Web http://www.Silverado.cc
Blog http://silveradosys.blogspot.com
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/silveradosys

Build your own RED Rocket system: http://bit.ly/7F4QA1
 
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