DaVinci Resolve 16 - Free vs Studio performance compared (H.264/265 4K footage incl. nvidia encoder)
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- čas přidán 4. 08. 2024
- The free version of DaVinci Resolve from Blackmagic Design is an excellent option for video editing. But is it worth upgrading to the Studio version? I'm comparing the performance of the free and Studio version so you can decide if that's worth it for you.
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00:00 - Intro
02:15 - Playback Performance
07:50 - Render Performance
10:38 - Conclusion
** Patreon is a platform where you can voluntarily choose to support the channel by purchasing a monthly subscription. - Jak na to + styl
FINALLY! Thank you so much, i was on the search for this exact information for so long! Timeline performance in free vs studio version! Everybody always tests rendering but you're the first who really tested timeline performance. Great video! Thanks!
Great video Julian, I appreciate the time you’ve spent pulling this together
Wow great video. I was searching for this and you answered my question. Thanks.
Just wanted to second how much I appreciate your comparing both render *and* timeline performance between the two versions. As I'm once again mulling the upgrade with Resolve 17 and all it's zesty new "pro" features, I still hadn't found someone who'd answered the question of what baseline editing performance between free and Studio was, so thank you!
Julian, thank you so much for putting all of this together, this was exactly what I needed to know!
Ditched Adobe Premiere last week, and will order Davinci Resolve Studio next month!
Dein Video ist die beste Erklärung des Unterschieds zwischen beiden Versionen das ich in YT gesehen habe.
Very helpful, Thank you! This just made up my mind about upgrading to the studio version.
Thanks for the video. This is I was looking for.
Thanks for this video buddy - i have been using the free version for a few years now and honestly am very happy with it but have been quite frustrated with its performance with 4k footage, especially since i have a powerful rig but can't really tap its power. So I think i am upgrading to the studio. Thanks again for your help in this.
Awesome comparison!
Perfect comparison. Great Work! Thx so much.
Have u ever tested Davinci with 2 GPUs? I am wondering, if I should buy a 3090 or 2 x 3080 in my new computer next year.
Thanks for the great info.
Thanks really helpful video, thanks for taking the time to make it, I really want to purchase the studio version as I love the program and want to support the team, just saving up still! Using Davinci is really a joy compared to other software.
Very nice video. I will definitely keep the differences in mind, and there might be a day when they will feel like they're worth $299.
At the moment, the slow scrubbing when the feed is buffering is a minor annoyance and not really a big problem for the relatively simple CZcams videos I make, and with usually no more than 5-6 hours worth of finished video a week, the rendering time is also not an issue.
Such an excellent video. Thank you. Now considering buying the studio version.
Check with a local reseller - they just announced Resolve 17 and for a short time you can get Studio with their new Speed Edit interface for the normal price of Studio :)
Hi Julian. This has been REALLY helpful. Thank you. I'm looking to move into H265 10 bit 4:2:2 - yes, I know - and it's quite clear that I will need the Studio version. Subscribed for the audio info. BobUK.
Blackmagic Design is a serious contender for AVID's Media Composer.
Good video 👌👌👌
God damn, it wasn't easy to find this video. Perfect comparison.
Great testing.
Very helpful. Thank you very much :)
Answered every question I’ve had about this topic, thanks.
True
Very interesting thanks. Will upgrade to Studio one of these days!
I wish you didn't have to order a key, I thought you could just buy through them and they email you a key, instead they have to ship you one. I was thrown off by that.
@@Harvester88 me too, can understand for the USB dongle option but not for a key you type in!
Excellent comparison
Thank you very much.👍
Thanks for the video! It answered most of the questions I had about this topic. I usually use native rendering which is already really fast using Ryzen 7 3700X & RTX 2060 Super & 32 GB RAM. I’ll try the Nvidia Encoder and I’m looking forward to the quality comparison of both encoders! Liebe Grüße aus Salzburg :)
Edit: I tested nvenc versus native with my configuration (I turned off audio plugins as they highly influence render/encoding).
Results: file size of native encoding is only 40-50% of the nvenc encoder (!). But the fps of nvenc is not much higher.
Example: ca 1,5h video 1080p -- nvenc 335 fps, 88% gpu, 30% cpu, 7 mins // native 300 fps, 50% gpu, 100% cpu, 9 mins.
So there's no advantage to use nvenc with DaVinci Studio 16 on my config, especially considering the much bigger file sizes.
I have a Ryzen 9 4900HS with RTX 2060 Max Q and last night I decided to test a cracked version of Studio to see if it was really worth the $300 and I have to say it wasn't at all. Render times were just a few seconds faster. The file size stayed almost the same though.
I'll just stick with the free version for now as it seems the studio version's performance beast reputation is based on individual system specs.
P.S: I didn't uninstall the Free version when testing this....I hope that doesn't affect the results
Thanks for the information. It`s weard, that there is hardly anyone talking about this. I used resolve for some time now and even got a better laptop with a good graphics card, but it still didn`t scrubbed and behaved like I expected it to. Now I know why :) Cheers vom Cologne
could you share the clips you used here for us to try out and also experiment with different editing software?
Hey Julian, thanks for this! I'm new to video editing and Davinci Studio.
I am running it on a 3 years old Windows 10 PC (16gb ram) with a GTX 1060. Most of my videos will be 1920x1080p for now.
Do you reckon the upgrade to studio will make the timeline performance better? It stutters 30% to 40% of the time right now.
Finally the video I was looking for...
If you right click Task Manager you can 'show graphs' which makes it more obvious what's going on.
Thnks for that
By any chance has anymore rendered using opencl in free and studio?
Dear Julian,
Thanks for great Info on Davinci resolve!
May i ask you,
Q1) is it possible to work with gopro hero9 and DJI mini2 HVEC/H.265 files now with Davinci Resolve 17 free version now?
Q2) Does Davinci Resolve 17 free version use GPU while editing or rendering?
What is the difference using a fusion clip. I would like to know if using Fusion with Deltakey and clean plate would render cache the timeline any quicker. It's extremely slow on my version running ryzen 1700 and open CL GPU mode.
hi , I have a Fujifilm X-T3 and a xt4 I like the function of making SlowMo videos at 240 FPS but recording in H.265 full HD 24 FPS davinci (studio) cannot read the files (* .mov), it shows me a warning red "Media Offline". Strangely I have no problems with the 4k h265 of both cameras, so If I want to use Slowmotion, I have to film in h264.
why?
Could you just use an optimized media workflow with h.265? (Within the free version) - I’m trying to learn the best file type to use I just bought an xt4
Hey! I upgraded to Studio a while back and compared it to the free version in a similar fashion. However, in my tests the differences were much greater - specifically for H.265, I gained over 400% rendering speed. I think this is highly hardware dependant - the new Turing GPU's seem to handle this much better (I run RTX 2080). I also tested for quality differences, and yes, NVIDIA H.265 output is very slightly lower quality (and larger file size) but it's minimal. If the difference doesn't bother you (e.g. not production-grade source footage) I recommend transcoding your footage to H.265 first (I use handbrake), the time savings are enormous in both editing and rendering and your source file backups will be much smaller. :)
P.S: And/or especially for editing just use optimized media like DNXHR, doesn't get faster than that ;)
P.P.S: Still would love to see you do a complete test and review of the Komplete Audio 6 MK2!!! :P
Hi, I've got Resolve Studio 16.2.3.15 (latest)
I've got no issues with playback, but resolve just randomly crashes for some reason... especially when i just play through the timeline at 2x or 4x speed. I've asked on the forum but no response. Please help me :(
My specs
i7 7700hq
GTX 1050
16gb ram
128gb ssd
solid
I've got Da Vinci Resolve 17 and every time I drag my Sony A7SIII footage over to the timeline it only plays the audio?? The video never shows up or plays in the timeline? Please help, also it is H.265.
Great video, but how it's now with davinci 18.5.1? Should I upgrade from 17?
even for a mid-tier machine like mine (4 years old) the switch to Studio was night and day difference playback on 4k h264, well worth it
Is Fuji 10-bit footage different to Panasonic's? As the 10-bit GH5 footage doesn't work in the free version of Resolve, so I don't get how you're using 10-bit footage from the Fuji.
I have the same issue. No 10-bit video works in the free version.
10-bit is not supported in the free version. As well as any GPU usage, 4K video and higher and some other (AI) features.
Hi, what audio interface around $100 would have the better headphones output for 32ohms impedance headphones ?
🦉 Save up & get the new SSL audio interface. It does 4K (lol).
thanks for the public good of this comparison. I was looking for one. do you know if there are any plans to support AMD encoder of H264/H265?
Google it man, there is support, you just need the GPU that has a hardware encoder included (Nvidia 1050 or higher, AMD I don't know which ones have this)
@@piciu256 Thanks, actually since the month I wrote that comment,. Premiere has now hardware encoding for AMD for H264 and H265, so back to premiere for me.
Never had Studio version but I used free version and texts are a little bit blurry after rendering. Is that blur happening in Studio version too?
I never noticed blurred text, neither in the free nor the studio version. At 1:14 you can see some text. Does that count as blurry for you?
@@JulianKrause It looks sharp for you. I've noticed it's because of rendering format and codec. I don't have x264 and x265 in my settings:
i.imgur.com/eRZ1AjT.png
What happens when you select the CZcams preset? This should be rendered as H.264.
@@JulianKrause Still no x265 and x264 i.imgur.com/svO3Qep.png
During edit in DR Studio which part of GPU is used NVEnc or Cuda/3D ?
CUDA, there is no NVEnc or nvidia option.
@@JulianKrause Thank You for very good video. Yoor video helped me to made my decision. I'll wait for DRS 17 and buy it :)
Someone maybe will have commented this here already, but since I didn't find the info I'll leave it here in case it helps someone.
You shouldn't use only the percentage number on task manager to compare utilization, because that doesn't properly show the clock speeds of the parts (cpu and gpu). They both have variable clock speeds that change due to many factors, like load itself, temperatures, power target limitations, among others.
Example: you could have a laptop showing 100% cpu usage, but throttled to below 1ghz due to thermal constraints. In this situation, a 70% usage without throttling would be a lot more computational power than 100% at low clocks.
This is also applicable to gpu. It could show the same "around 30%" in two different scenarios, but one being 30% at 800mhz and the other at 1900.
H.264 and H.265 are end user formats. They were never intended for editing, and that's the reason they are so heavy for the editor.
Recording in another format, such as Blackmagic RAW, ProRes, XAVC etc. (basically any other formats than H.264 and H.265), will make editing much faster.
If you don't have any other option, than to record in H.264 and H.265, then enabling cache is the way to go. Depending on the OS you use and the cache settings in DaVinci Resolve, the cache will be in ProRes, DNxHR or DNxHD, which are all low compression, high file size professional formats, and are therefore much easier to edit in. It's the same reason why it's much easier to edit in pro video formats. They are low compression, but huge in file size.
remember virtual dub? you could HOLD SHIFT while scrubbing and it would show ONLY 'I' frames and made scrubbing a joy! I wish modern programs could implement something simple and good like that was.
Hi Julian, I love the video, very insightful.
I hope you want to help a fellow creator out.
I bought a new computer with a 10th gen i9 10900K 10 cores, 32GB Ram and a temporary GT660ti GPU (with CUDA support).
1) My CPU in DR (free version) won't get passed the 6%-21% or so when rendering optimized media or exporting.
But is EXTREMELY slow compared to other software:
- a 2 min. 1080p x264 clip = > 6 min
- the same clip in Vegas = 10 seconds and maxes out the CPU (no GPU acc.)
2) I see also that CUDA is mentioned in your config, not in mine.
GPU drivers are up-to-date. Why is that?
I'm pulling my hair out - that's why I have none :).
Have you any idea what the problems could be?
Super thanks
Hey Dexxter, sadly that issue doesn't sound familiar. I can only recommend to try a clean install of the newest GPU driver. At this time I would stay with the 16.2.7 version of resolve because it is very stable. Btw. In the deliver tab in the advanced options the is something called "render at" where you can set a Max fps for the render. Make sure this is set to "maximum". Hope that helps!
Thanks a lot, Julian! I even wondered if my RTX 3090 FE is still mostly unused in the free version (GPU about 20%, CPU 100% utilization). Can somebody report about using RTX 3090 with 24GB VRAM in free and studio version 17?
Davinci Resolve free doesn't support GPU at all. That's what you pay for, in the Studio version.
Wow.. New idea
So this is only possible for PC users, right? Is there such a thing as an AMD encoder for Mac users stuck with AMD GPUs?
resolve is highly GPU optimized on mac
This is one, but not the only reason, I gave up on AMD video cards because they have the best CPUs for the price but for video cards they should have left them with ATI. I will also say I had nothing but issues for the 11 years I used various team red video card's with their drivers. Cuda rocks and they are doing so much with CUDA now I am amazed and the newer card (RTX series) has even better improvements. In my chain I now no longer use noise removal and instead have the nvidia program for that so less CPU load there. For the nvenc (nvidia encoder) that is what OBS studio, et. al., offers and nothing for AMD so AMD screwed the pooch it appears.
@@thebeststooge In OBS you can use AMD AMF (advanced media framework) to get HW accelerated encoding. Especially on lower bitrates the quality isn't as good as nvenc though.
@@thebeststooge what you say is not wrong, but in obs you can use Radeon cards to stream or record h264 hardware accelerated encoded video like others said.
Using rtx voice for noice removal, its not optimal from a audio quality point of view and it uses some resources, so its not as free as you may think.
And now days almost every mayor editor or stream software or format conversor like handbreak has amd hardware codec to accelerate the encoding.
@@terry- Sure, but the sheer power goes to Nvidia hands down. Besides drivers from hell with AMD video cards so I no longer even glance at them. Try and do a deep fake (any ML/AI) on AMD then go do the exact same on an Nvidia. When you are done you will understand.
I'll translate the subtitles in Dutch for you, because I published this video on my Dutch and my Belgian website. (No links because I think it is not appropriate to stuff your work with my links.)
One important question is whether the studio version support H.265 encoding, as the free version seems to be missing this feature.
Yes it does. My final render is usually in H.265.
The reason H.265 is not supported, is because it's only supported with a GPU. And the free version doesn't support any GPU functionality.
My version of Resolve does NOT let me encode 265 at all.
Came here to see if there is a difference in the timeline performance. I'm sick and tired of the laggy timeline when editing h.265 4k drone footage with the free version. I'm also using a rtx 3080 ti, 3900xt and 32gb 3600mhz memory so that shouldn't be the problem, heh.
Seems like I am going to have to make the purchase of the studio version..
Just enable caching, and you don't need the Studio version.
can you output 4k from the free version...?
No.
So maybe the studio version would work with a computer/laptop with good CPU and integrated GPU. Plenty of these around.
Does this difference still apply in late 2021?
Yes, and in 2024.
@@akyhne lol, thx. I can confidently buy the studio after 3 years of waiting in the comments 🫠🤣
I'm thinking to upgrade. My laptop has this i7 7700HQ shitty CPU, and not using its GTX 1060 6gb GPU, is a mess. Thanks for clearing things out.
My head always reads the title in the thumbnail and then 'Just kidding'. And then I tell my head: Nooooo, *J*ulian *K*rause!!!
Plz test Zoom F6 plz plz plz plz plz 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
Honestly I don't think Blackmagic are doing themselves any favours with the abysmal performance of the free version. Even for programme that should be considered low-effort by today's standards (1080p60 h264) it struggles to provide a somewhat pleasing experience. Fusion completely tanks performance without even showing up as system load; there was a bug that broke renders of longer-lasting Fusion clips even if you simply put a straight in→out effect on a clip and that was only fixed recently, I reported that through several betas ever since Fusion became part of the deal, and nobody cared. On top of that, if it doesn't simply crash, the program still occasionally stops rendering if you have the audacity to do anything else on the system that may be using graphics hardware, like watching a tutorial video. Why? Nobody knows, it's not like Resolve itself was using any advanced acceleration features. Documentation of what is and isn't supposed to be hardware accelerated is vague or misleading, and there is no chance to know how the paid version will behave on your particular system short of buying it.
@Shadowdncer. So the free version of Adobe premier pro or other free software.
No need to buy new CPU.. I just need Studio version. good to know.
and you get free studio versions if you purchase any blackmagic camera
But first, what specs
If your desk is against a wall, not a window, your eyesight is going to suffer.
What are you talking about?!
Oh so I'm better off upgrading to studio and buying a high end gpu than upgrading my CPU. Haswell forever! 4770k for lyfe.
if a regular video player can play a video smoothly why couldn't a video editing software do it.... makes no sense
Well, a video player buffers the video first. An editing program has to decode the video in real time and the playback performance heavily depends on the video format and PC compute power.
H.264 and H.265 are end user formats. They were never meant for video editing. Enable cache, if you're having issues.
yes - just to piss off Adobe...
The free version is unbearable for me and I have 5950x GTX3080...They are basically holding HW acceleration hostage until you pay $300 but it is still better than paying Adobe every month forever...
You can put the playback to have 1/4 of the real resolution while editing. I have no issues on my i7-9700k / GTX 1070
The free version now include the H.265 codex
That’s why I bought the Studio version. I use an i7-4790K so it’s not the best for video editing but since I also have a GTX 1070 the Studio version really made things better.
Occasionally I do generate optimized media depending on the effects and cuts I use or if I want an even smoother scrubbing experience.
I still want a new Ryzen CPU though...or an iMac. Oh that’s another reason I like DaVinci. It’s cross platform. 😄
I just build a Hackintosh with my AMD build - the performance difference is just amazing :D
@@PixelSheep Hi, can you share your hardware specs and overall toughts abouth "ryzentosh"? Thanks!!
i downloaded so many free app video most r confusing and deleted them no patience with these dont use alot anyway 🤥
if Mark Zuckerberg had a younger brother.