Specifications

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DAVINCI RESOLVE FOR MAC - CERTIFIED CONFIGURATION GUIDE
DaVinci Resolve on Mac Pro
Recommended for HD and 2K
3 Great for HD and 2K in real time
3 4K playback performance depending on configuration
3 Internal, external and SAN storage options
The 2012 Mac Pro offers four PCIe slots for installation
of cards and therefore there are many possible
configurations to consider. The resolution, type of
source files and complexity of your grades will have
a significant effect on the system demands. We
recommend you should build your DaVinci Resolve
on the 2012 Mac Pro based on your expected
operational requirements.
With the appropriate GPU configuration Resolve
works in SD and HD in real time and full quality on
any certified Mac Pro. Resolve software can easily
work in 2K and even 4K although some older Mac
Pro models do not have sufficient performance
to work in 4K at full quality and in real time. There
are configurations listed below specifically for 4K
operation if most of your work is in 4K.
DaVinci Resolve on 2012 Mac Pro configurations
are in two basic groups. The first performs all the
processing within the Mac Pro chassis, the second
uses a PCIe expander chassis to increase the number
of PCIe slots. Note that the increased number of
slots does not increase the PCIe capabilities of the
slots nor the machine speed capabilities so card
selection and placement within all the available slots
is important.
When using the 2012 Mac Pro, significantly f aster
overall performance can be obtained using the
12-core model with a PCIe expander that's fitted
with multiple image processing GPUs. This leaves
the Mac Pro motherboard to hold the GUI GPU,
expander HBA, DeckLink video I/O card and a
storage RAID controller or interface to the SAN.
Older Mac Pro systems
Just as there are limitations in performance with
all older platforms, older model Mac Pros have
limitations which ultimately restrict the number
of real time color correction nodes, the timeline
resolution and even debayer and decompression
speeds of source media.
The DaVinci Resolve application can work with the
2010 and 2009 series Mac Pro for uncompressed SD
and HD in real time and full quality. When working
in HD, you may need to set the "Video bit depth" to
"8 bit" in the Video Monitoring preferences of the
Project Settings screen.
You may see references on the internet indicating
the ATI Radeon HD 5770 card requires a Mid 2010
Mac Pro for compatibility despite many customers
successfully using this card with 2009 series Mac
Pros. This card is suitable for the GUI GPU but not
recommended for image processing.