PC build for editing | davinci resolve

[zerocool22]

Hi guys,

So my pc is getting old around 5 years now. Playback rate is not that great in davinci resolve to the point I am losing too much time, still running an amd ryzen 1700x and gtx1080, SSD's and 32GB RAM. 
Not sure if there are any major breakthroughs that have sped up your editing workflow through your pc hardware lately.

Thinking about getting an i9 14900k and an rtx 4070. But open to any advice!

Thanks!

[zerocool22]

Oh I do have an m1 macbook lying around, but I never use it. I prefer windows. 
But if it works better, I might need to switch.

[eatstoomuchjam]

In my experience, if you're editing on a laptop - and especially if you want to do it while not plugged in, modern Macbooks are really hard to beat.  My M2 Max is good enough that I no longer see any reason that I'd keep a desktop computer around (I still have one for gaming and if selling it wouldn't be a big pain, I'd probably do that since I boot it up about once per month).

On the other hand, if you want the highest price to performance (and absolute highest performance) on a desktop computer, PC hardware is more powerful - and in many cases, you will be able to upgrade pieces instead of needing to upgrade the entire unit.

As far as your proposed spec, I think you'll be unbalanced in favor of a very high-end processor and a mid-range graphics card.  You might consider a somewhat lesser CPU, again knowing that upgrading in the future will be an option if needed.  Do you plan to overclock the CPU?  If not, there's not much benefit to a K vs non-K variant.

One other consideration might be whether you plan to use any of the "AI" features that are being added to Resolve.  If so, it might be worth considering one of the newer Intel Core Ultra chips (if the price difference isn't huge) since the main "benefit" of them over 14th generation is that they have a coprocessor for machine learning.  I have no idea if Resolve can even use it yet, but even if it doesn't yet, it's a safe bet that BMD will add support in the near future.

Anyway, that setup will be night and day faster than what you're using now.  You definitely won't be going wrong with it.

[Yannick Willox]

The machine you are suggesting should be a lot quicker than what you have …

i have something that is 50% slower and I edit 10 cams of 4K braw. Realtime noise reduction is only 8-10 fps, but your 4070 should handle that if you need to.

your bottleneck could be the SSD. Make sure your buy a nvme M2 big enough for your working projects. SATA ssd can be too slow.

[stephen]

You can use Davinci Resolve practically with any mid range or even low specs PC or laptop and still have smooth scrubbing and editing experience by just changing a few settings. You can find which ones in Learn Color Grading youtube channel. The only difference between different PC or MAC configurations would be the export times. Faster and more powerful PC or Mac will give you shorter export times. 

In the comments of the following video you can find benchmark results from different generations and configurations of Apple Arm chips and PC builds as well, how their export times compare to each other. You can benchmark and compare your current configuration if you are curious. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aKttjfY-Og

Was in a similar position as you, considering PC upgrade. Bought second hand Mac Studio instead for several reasons

• good price - 1500 E for a well specked machine - Mac Studio M2 Max 12 Core CPU, 30 Cores GPU, 64 Gb RAM. Not willing to spend 4000-5000 E for a brand new MAC machine with similar specs. 64Gb RAM is a must. 1500E though is a very good price and I don't mind buying second hand. SSD test showed it is in really good shape with lots of write cycles left.
• get some firsthand experience with arm processors and have at least one machine running Mac OS. Always wanted to try those Apple Arm processors, they are so efficient and fast.
• VirtualBox which I use professionally can now run on Apple Arm CPUs.
• use it as a video / photo editing machine, as my PC build is relatively old - i7 9700K with Radeon 6600 8Gb.
• run some local AI models, do some research in this area, related to my professional work. Apple ARM CPUs have unified memory with fast access which makes them really good to run AI models. They can’t do AI training though.
• Mac Studio has a replaceable SSD. If at one point in time mine dies I can still buy one from Apple or from alternative source for cheaper price. It doesn't have screen, keyboard and doesn't move so in theory it should be less prone to failure.
• Apple ARM CPUs and Graphics have hardware decoding for x265, which is another bonus for video editing compared to my older PC

It is small, dead silent and runs everything so fast and smooth that I really don't need anything better. Mac OS has it quirks and if you've been a PC user for a long time, you'll need some time to adapt. Maybe in the future I still will upgrade my PC but currently Mac Studio is my main machine for video editing.

[Marcio Kabke Pinheiro]

Just passed through this, and my 2 cents:

- If you work professionally, go Mac (and yeah, I'm a windows guy). Even a M1, for video editing, run circles around any price comparable WIndows machine.
- If you are not a professional and/or Apple costs 2,5x more in your country than in US (my case are both), Windows is still good.

But there is a VERY important point the narrowed a lot my choices, and a lot of people doeas not realize it until is very late - codecs and chroma subsampling support. If you want to edit without proxies, is a must have feature.

What H.264 and H.265 Hardware Decoding is Supported in DaVinci Resolve Studio?

If you work with h.264, bad luck: only 8-but 4:2:0, except if you get an RTX 5xxx series.

If you use H.265, you have better support, but pay attention to the subsampling - the 4070 (and all the RTX 4xxx) does not decode 10 bit 4:2:2. This was my case, and that narrowed my choices (when I did the upgrade, the RTX 5xxx were not launched).

I had to buy a Intel non-f CPU (as you) to use the internal GPU enabled just to use Quicksync for decode. For encoding, I did not found a comparable table like this, but since almost all reviews test the encoding (rendering) part, is just to look for the desired card.

Ryzens are much more performant (and chepear to build, specially motherboards) but have almost nothing decode support in the iGpus. But a Ryzen with a RTX5xxx card, or an Intel ARC Card would be a choice for me nowadays.

In my case, since the money was short, went for a i5-12600k (for good decoding for editing) and a RTX 3060 with 12gb (was better than the 4060 for because of 12gb instead of 8gb - and since I have not hurries for rendering, top performance in rendering was not a problem). Works with Fuji open gate 6.2k in 10-bit 4:2:2 as champ, albeit I only do minor corrections - with a lot of effects it could not be the case.

But I saw a guy that made a system with a top i9 processor anda a 4090, but when tried to edit 4:2:2 10-bit, it was slow as hell.

But probably was the last PC that I put together - I built all my computer since the 286 days. The new Mac Mini is a steal - for video, is better than a PC costing double the price of the Mac Mini.