Upgrading DaVinci Resolve Workstation

[mflo78]

Hi guys,

I built my first workstation back in 2017 and after a month of enduring Windows I decided to convert it into a customac. This forum and people here were incredibly helpful and i couldn't have done it without your help. The workstation served me well over the years but it maxed out its OS at Sierra 10.12. The newer version of macOS and the newer version of Resolve require a different architecture and I am a bit lost as to what I need to upgrade. My gut feeling points to the motherboard, CPU and the GPUs but I have no clue what to choose for a 4K workflow and not break my bank due to upgrade. Ideally I'd like to keep the same performance as now, just with the ability to run the latest os and Resolve.

Any recommendations would be most helpful.

My current setup:

2x NVidia EVGA 8G GTX1080 SC V2
4x 16GB Ram
Rampage V Extreme motherboard
Intel Core i7 6950X
Corsair H80i V2 CPU Cooler

 

[P1LGRIM]

2x NVidia EVGA 8G GTX1080 SC V2

Will my Nvidia Graphics Card work with macOS ? List of Desktop Cards with Native Support

Preamble for those new to Nvidia graphics card choices for a Hackintosh 1. You will only have success choosing macOS compatible graphics if you remember that: macOS is not Windows 2. Apple incorporates all their graphics drivers into the Mac Operating System. There are only drivers in macOS...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[mflo78]

Will my Nvidia Graphics Card work with macOS ? List of Desktop Cards with Native Support

Preamble for those new to Nvidia graphics card choices for a Hackintosh 1. You will only have success choosing macOS compatible graphics if you remember that: macOS is not Windows 2. Apple incorporates all their graphics drivers into the Mac Operating System. There are only drivers in macOS...

www.tonymacx86.com

That's interesting, it would seem, based on the link you provided, that my NVidias could work with High Sierra. What about the PCU and the motherboard? Do I need to upgrade those?

 

[trs96]

My gut feeling points to the motherboard, CPU and the GPUs but I have no clue what to choose for a 4K workflow and not break my bank due to upgrade. Ideally I'd like to keep the same performance as now, just with the ability to run the latest os and Resolve.

For video editing with a hackintosh you certainly want AMD graphics for future macOS compatibility. The problem is the high prices. High Sierra is an option with what you've got but eventually that will become obsolete in the not too distant future.

 

[trs96]

What about the CPU and the motherboard? Do I need to upgrade those?

If they work with Sierra they should work well with High Sierra too. The web drivers for Nvidia cards are not as good as using an AMD card with native support though.

 

[mflo78]

Thanks guys, and if I wanted to upgrade to AMD, which model would be reasonable? Would I need to touch the CPU and the board or will upgrading the GPU be enough?

 

[trs96]

Rampage V Extreme motherboard

I have no personal experience with X99 boards. It would be best if you read User Builds that utilize X99 and see what they have found when trying newer macOS versions like Catalina and Big Sur. From some reading I've done, they don't seem to be the best choice for the latest macOS versions. High Sierra or Mojave might be the better options.

If you could still find a Z490 Designare Board that opens up all your options for the latest Big Sur and Monterey later this year. If I were a Pro video editor, that's what I'd be using for the next 3-4 years.

 

[trs96]

if I wanted to upgrade to AMD, which model would be reasonable?

If you can budget this in, it's the very best AMD choice right now. One of these will outperform your two 1080s in Resolve. You must be on Big Sur 11.5 though to use it. You should be able to get a minimum of 4 years of use out of this. A good investment for Pro video editing. IMO it's crazy to be paying $700 + today for an older RX 580 that underperforms the 6800xt by a large margin. New Nvidia RTX 3000 series cards like the 3070 outperform this in Resolve but they cost more and are unsupported in macOS. They never will have support either, you'd have to go back to Windoze 10. We all know how painful that would be.

Amazon.com: Sapphire 11304-03-20G Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT PCIe 4.0 Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6 : Electronics

Buy Sapphire 11304-03-20G Pulse AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT PCIe 4.0 Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6: Graphics Cards - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

Outside of a few cases like Fusion, the new AMD Radeon 6800 and 6800 XT are a good amount faster than the older Radeon 5700 XT and Vega 64. In GPU bound tasks like noise reduction and OpenFX, these new cards as much as 83%(!) faster than the 5700 XT. Unfortunately, that isn't enough for them to catch up to the NVIDIA 3000 series cards.

from: Pugetsystems.com

 

[mflo78]

Thank you trs96! Seems I need to be at least on Mojave to install Resolve 16 or 17 so most likely I'll have to bite the bullet and get the AMD you recommended... plus the motherboard - the Z490 goes under the name Vision now, from what I can see. Will be on the lookout for one.

 

[etorix]

You have not mentioned your bootloader. An old Clover, I suppose? Then you'll need to upgrade to a recent version, or switch to OpenCore to boot BigSur.
On the other hand, you may not need to upgrade the CPU (and motherboard) if performance in Resolve depends on GPU rather than on CPU. (With respect to PCIe lanes—NVMe storage for temp files, maybe?—, going Z490 would be a downgrade from X99.)