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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 :)

Single GPU Recommendation with Resolve?

J

James P. Wong

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We have a system at work that is setup to use DaVinci Resolve, however it is used for several tasks that prevent it from being dedicated (with more open PCI slots).

My question is:
1. Is there a specific NVidia model that you recommend that will work with both Resolve and Lion given this single slot/single GPU limitation that I have with our Mac Pro's configuration?

The goal is to be able to grade R3D Epic 4K footage natively within resolve. NOTE: I'm not expecting real time performance with just one GPU (and am aware that when color correcting/grading 4K footage on a high end Mac Pro, Resolve should be set to Half-Res Good or such)

Using DaVinci Resolve currently gives me (expectedly) subpar performance because I don't have a second GPU/video card installed to do the heavy lifting. HOWEVER, I am currently doing basic grading on 2K ProRes 422 HQ transcodes of Epic footage (not at realtime, mind you, but acceptable to preview, color correct, use the tracker etc with several nodes).

The current GUI/video card installed is the ATI HD 5770 that came built-to-order with the system.

Here are the system specs:

Mac Pro 5,1
OS X Lion 10.7.2
24GB of RAM

Slot 1: ATI Radeon HD 5770
Slot 2: RED Rocket Card
Slot 3: Empty (houses the back ports that complement the RED Rocket card, however)
Slot 4: RAID Card

Slot 3 is unavailable since the RED Rocket Card and RAID Card take up space over the slot.

That said, I've only got room to replace the card in Slot 1 only
(PCI extender is out of the question right now)

I read the Davinci Resolve Config Guide but can't implement two video cards since the slot are all taken up currently in this Mac Pro system.

I've seen several models mentioned and am wondering if the Quadro 4000 will play nice with Resolve, Lion and FCP 7 or if you have a better recommendation to replace the 5770.

Thanks in advance for any insight you have,
James
 
Doug Beatty said:
edit- I see an expander is out of the question.

I was under the impression that you couldn't get Resolve up and running on a Mac Pro with only 1 GPU?

I'm in the process of upgrading to a combo of GT 120 and GTX 285, FWIW. I have heard that the 285 is the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip :) If we had the extra slot available I would go with the two-cards (GUI and GPU) route, but unfortunately this isnt the case for this tower. So I'm wondering if any single GPU card (to replace the 5770) would be able to crunch better with Resolve...
 
Hi James,

We don't test or recommend single GPU card systems, because the performance is so poor. I would GUESS that a high end CUDA card, such as a Quadro 4000, would work better in a single card situation than the HD5770.
 
Doug Beatty said:
edit- I see an expander is out of the question.

I was under the impression that you couldn't get Resolve up and running on a Mac Pro with only 1 GPU?

I'm in the process of upgrading to a combo of GT 120 and GTX 285, FWIW. I have heard that the 285 is the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

It is.
 
Dwaine Maggart said:
Hi James,

We don't test or recommend single GPU card systems, because the performance is so poor. I would GUESS that a high end CUDA card, such as a Quadro 4000, would work better in a single card situation than the HD5770.
Click to expand...

Understood. I'm wondering if anyone reading this thread has a Quadro 4000 for their single GPU setup for Resolve and can provide some info on how many FPS they are getting correcting 4K footage (if even possible)?
 
Dan Kanes said:
GTX 480 FTW.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation, Dan ;) We have a GTX 480 that we'll be putting into the Mac Pro to replace the 5770 next week, and I'll let folks know of my findings/performance with it.
 
Hi, Maximus is about running two GPUs in the one system and as Resolve has been doing this for many years the prime benefit of Maximus would be the discounted purchasing option for the packaged cards, thus for new users only.

Resolve will work in a single shared GPU config, just like a iMac or MBP but not at real time in HD which is our benchmark. If you use a Q4000, set the red decoder to 1/4 res and timeline to 720P you should get reasonable playback speed, then set to higher res and decoder settings for render.
Peter
 
Doug Beatty said:
edit- I see an expander is out of the question.

I was under the impression that you couldn't get Resolve up and running on a Mac Pro with only 1 GPU?

I'm in the process of upgrading to a combo of GT 120 and GTX 285, FWIW. I have heard that the 285 is the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...


How are you going to do that GTX 285 need two power inputs and nothing left for GT120...
I have the same problem need 3 power inputs for my GTX 286 and 4000, now I am just using 4000 as a single gpu which sucks.
 
Koray Birand said:
Is it Cuda ??
Click to expand...

Koray.
I understand it is easier to just ask here, but how about a little research, before asking?
Both your questions can be answered very easily with minimal research or if you just read the Resolve installation manual.
 
In fact, it IS CUDA capable. You can run Resolve on a system with JUST a GT120. Not very well though. The point is, the GT120 is being used to drive the GUI display. On Resolve with multiple GPU cards, the card driving the GUI display is not involved in the CUDA GPU processing. Leaving the other card available to fully process only GPU data, which will make your Resolve performance a lot better.
 
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