User Manual

GPU Configuration
This section lets you choose how GPU processing should be handled.
Options for configuring the GPUs on your workstation
 GPU processing mode: Lets you set DaVinci Resolve to use the OpenCL, CUDA,
or Metal GPU computing APIs for doing effects processing. Which is best depends
on the GPUs that are installed in your computer. Most users can leave this set to
Auto to let DaVinci Resolve choose what’s appropriate. Otherwise, here are specific
recommendations. If you have a macOS system, you should use Metal. Linux and
Windows users with AMD GPUs should use OpenCL. Linux and Windows users with
Nvidia GPUs should use CUDA, but make sure you have the correct drivers for your
system, and that you have the latest update to CUDA installed. Additionally, when
you manually choose an option from this drop-down menu, the GPU selection mode
drop-down also appears.
 GPU selection mode: Lets you choose between Auto, which lets DaVinci Resolve
choose which of the available GPUs on your computer to use for processing, and
Manual, which lets you choose which GPUs to enable or disable for processing from
a list that appears below. This can be useful in instances where you have multiple
GPUs installed on a machine and you want to choose only the most powerful GPUs for
processing. This can also be useful in instances where an external eGPU is connected
to a laptop or all-in-one with a weaker GPU, so you can choose the more powerful
eGPU for processing.
 Use Display GPU For Compute: By default, a single GPU system uses the same GPU
for the DaVinci user interface and also for image processing. As greater processing
speeds are achievable with two or more GPUs, if two GPUs are installed for image
processing, this checkbox enables the shared use of the display GPU instead of
dedicating it to just the DaVinci user interface. Users of the non-studio version of
DaVinci Resolve are restricted to the use of a single GPU, unless DaVinci Resolve is
installed on a 2013 or later Mac Pro, in which case both installed GPUs will be used.
 GPU selection list: This list only appears when GPU processing mode is set to either
OpenCL, CUDA, or Metal, and when GPU selection mode is set to Manual. A list of
every GPU installed in your computer appears, and you can use checkboxes to the left
of each GPU to enable or disable specific GPUs from being used for processing.
 Optimized Viewer Updates: This only appears on multi-GPU macOS and Windows
systems or on single- and multi-GPU Linux systems; enables faster viewer update
performance.
Chapter – 3 System and UserPreferences 119