Specifications

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DAVINCI RESOLVE FOR MAC - CERTIFIED CONFIGURATION GUIDE
MacBook Pro
To give you some guidance on the performance of
systems, the 2012 and 2013 15" MacBook Pro with
Retina Display is supported, with some processing
limitations based on the onboard GPU capabilities,
and with its excellent portability it’s often found in
the field and used for on set work. A Thunderbolt™
connection can be used for video ingest and high
speed disk storage.
While the 13" model may appear to be suitable due
to its high screen resolution, it does not have an
appropiate GPU for Resolve. The older 2010/11 17”
MacBook Pros are also supported but these system
have quite limited GPU performance compared
to the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. The
previous 15” MacBook Pro is not supported as its
screen resolution does not meet Resolve's minimum
spec of 1680x1050.
iMac
The current model iMac can provide faster image
processing than a MacBook Pro due to the availability
of faster CPUs and GPUs in the top models.
An iMac provides a flexible and simple desktop
workhorse for real time previewing and grading
material up to and including HD video. A Thunderbolt
connection can be used for ingest of video and high
speed disk storage for your media.
The latest iMac can process images with higher
resolutions than HD but real time performance
should not be expected and at some stage your
grades will reach the limits of the GPUs/CPUs. Older
model iMacs will reach these GPU/CPU limits at lower
resolutions and with fewer color grading nodes.
Previous generation (prior to 2010) iMac computers
contain GPUs with a very small amount of GPU
RAM so these models are not recommended for use
with Resolve.
Very limited performace is possible on the 2010 and
2011 top of the line iMac's however these systems
will not be suitable for any temporal processing or
images greater than HD resolution.
Which Mac?