Davinci Resolve & Multi 3090s

[Pooh]

I've swapped from Adobe Premier to DaVinci Resolve Studio as my video editing suite of choice. Steep learning curve but getting there.

Resolve is a beast when it comes to GPU utilisation and with the Studio version you can use multiple GPUs.

I'm running with a single 3090 and was wondering if anyone had tried a 2nd GPU and if so what the real world difference was over a single GPU.

Thanks

 

[Pooh]

Should have said if anyone else it thinking of giving Resolve a go, then do it. It's so much quicker and responsive than Premier Pro, also no Adobe subscription tax to worry about.

 

[Pooh]

Thanks - I just found some of those benchmarks today as well. Interesting reading. I might just bump up to a 4090 if I can get one a reasonable price but not worth breaking the bank over. Would probably sell my 3090 if I did that rather that having two cards. Doesn't seem to be worth it the performance increase.

 

[Pooh]

My experience of Resolve - having absolutely no prior experience of video editing - is that it's easy to do stuff in, and easy to find help for on the internet. Can't compare it to anything else, and obviously it depends what you want to do.

Absolutely this.

I was not complaining about the learning curve, it's a fact of life when you come from another platform. Resolve is a very complex bit of software and extremely capable. To think you can use such software without a learning curve is crazy. There is a ton of guidance on YouTube to help you though.

If you’re doing basic stuff it’s not too bad. The free version has some limitations re the number of filters you can use etc but for throwing a couple on clips on a timeline it’s fairly easy. Watch 10 mins of YouTube and you’re off to the races.

A couple of weeks in and I’m still learning but flying compared to the responsiveness of premier.

Wish I’d taken the jump a long time ago

 

[Pooh]

Update....

I managed to get a 4090 and here's the results

I'm working on a long project, currently at 1 hour and will probably double at least. It will then be split into sections for easier consumption.

The timeline is 4K 50fps with average data rate of 150-200mbps shot in various HEVC formats ( Camcorder, GoPro and iPhone 15 Pro ) and is pretty heavy with image stabilisation, text overlays, zooms, noise reduction (crappy GoPro sensor), etc etc.

On the 3090 an export to H265, 30mbps with fairly easy settings took 45 minutes to render
On the 4090 with exactly the same settings, it took 30 minutes, reducing render time by 33%

I then did a dual card run
On the 4090 and 3090 combined, it still took 30 minutes. The killer is that when you have two dissimilar cards, Resolve goes at the pace of the slowest card, so it's like having two 3090s

Looking at the FPS during render I saw the following

3090 = 90-92 FPS
4090 = 130-135 FPS
3090 & 4090 = 132-137 FPS

So the 4090 bangs out roughly 50% more FPS