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DaVinci on a Macbook Pro?

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Richard Wilis

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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?
 
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.
 
I don't think it's advisable,, especially not on the 15 inch.
 
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?
 
The App should run, just not provide realtime performance.
 
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.
 
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 !
 
Will it run good on the top spec SSD based 17-model of Macbook pro with thunderbolt?
If people are serious about post and grading on a macbook pro then they need the biggest and best of it... and it got an express card port, which is needed for many I/O's.
 
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/downloads/davinci/pdf/DaVinciResolveMacConfigGuide.pdf

look on page 4 of this. I know you mentioned 3k, and the quote below is referencing 4k, But i think you'll run into the same problem, running 3k in realtime requires a very very powerful setup unless you use a lot of compression, and in that case, what's the point, it's not really 3k quality at that point anyway.

My answer would be no, especially if you're thinking of buying a laptop for that purpose, a tower is a lot faster and even those need to be tweaked a lot to handle 2k, 3k, and 4k.

"With the increasing use of digital cameras, many colorists want to grade 4K or higher resolutions in real time. These cameras provide 4K or higher capture resolutions but store the images as compressed data. While this takes less storage space and bandwidth, the compressed data needs the full image processing bandwidth once the images are decompressed for grading. Full size RGB 4K resolution images can be played back by Resolve for Mac but the disk, GPU and Mac Pro will not provide real time playback."
 
I didnt read through all the comments but. resolve can run on 15' a macbook pro. Its slow but works. And when i say slow i mean color changes seconds after you move the mouse. switching "rooms" can lag at times. If you can deal with that you should be fine.
 
Few seconds for a color change?? With how many masks?
Sounds difficult to manage to me, in this case you may see if Apple is going to finally upgrade Color as well with the new Final Cut...



QUOTE=Yohance Brown;740358]I didnt read through all the comments but. resolve can run on 15' a macbook pro. Its slow but works. And when i say slow i mean color changes seconds after you move the mouse. switching "rooms" can lag at times. If you can deal with that you should be fine.[/QUOTE]
 
Thanks for the responses. I have abandoned the idea of running DaVinci on a MacBook. Scarlet probably won't be out untill later this year, so I'll just wait and see what hardware options are available then.
 
Macbook Pro will probably not be updated until next year, so for a good laptop, I would still suggest a Macbook Pro. It can play four streams of uncompressed 10-bit 1080 video through thunderbolt... that is still enough for most post-production.

People seriously need to look over what they are doing. How many movies are mastered at 2K and over? And how many of those who does that actually has money to master it at a post-production house rather then in someone's laptop? I would say that if you NEED to grade and finish at those high resolutions, then you're schedule must point to having a release at a 4K cinema or for when 4K get's into people's homes.
But seriously, as of now, you only need 1080p and if the new Macbook Pro can handle four streams of uncompressed 10-bit 1080p, then I would say that is enough for professional work. When we then move over to 4K, you will have the money to upgrade.

My opinion is that while I do not disagree with Jim about 4K being the future and we should aim for it, as of now people need to get a reality check punch in the face and realise that the business is still at 1080p. We JUST made it a standard, 4K is the next step, but it will take years for it to become as established as 1080p.
And during those years you will have the time and funds building a machine for it.

Also remember that shooting 3K doesn't mean 3K gives the best image. The downconversion debayering creates a much better image, so a 1080p debayering of a 3K image has much better colors and depth, stuff that also counts.

A Scarlet 3K together with the new Macbook Pro will be enough for ALOT, mark my words.
 
Christoffer I agree with most of what you say. My intentions are to grade at 1080p or 2k proxies of the 3k edit. I have never worked with DaVinci before, so I am not sure if that is possible. I'm also not planning going into business as a post-house with a laptop, but rather for cc and grading of our own Indie films.

You say you would still recommend a MB with thunderbolt, but doesn't the lack of an Nvidia card render them useless for working in DaVinci?
 
Richard Wilis said:
Christoffer I agree with most of what you say. My intentions are to grade at 1080p or 2k proxies of the 3k edit. I have never worked with DaVinci before, so I am not sure if that is possible. I'm also not planning going into business as a post-house with a laptop, but rather for cc and grading of our own Indie films.

You say you would still recommend a MB with thunderbolt, but doesn't the lack of an Nvidia card render them useless for working in DaVinci?
Click to expand...
I might get my hands on an old 17" 2009 Uni MBP. It has the 9600/9400 Nvidia. I know this is an old post but has this been answered?
 
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