Question
Notes and restrictions related to performance regarding differences between paid/free versions of DaVinci Resolve, APIs such as hardware encoders/decoders for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, Apple silicon and Intel CPUs, and operating systems such as Windows and Mac. Do you have?
Answer
The order of GPU APIs that DaVinci Resolve can optimize and expect high-speed processing is Metal > CUDA > OpenCL.
Windows environment
Metal cannot be used due to OS specifications.
Metal, which is a relatively new API of AMD Radeon, is not supported in the Windows environment and is processed by OpenCL.
So the general order is:
(High speed) NVIDIA (CUDA) > AMD Radeon (OpenCL) > Intel (CPU) (Low speed)
Additionally, the DaVinci Resolve specification has limitations regarding H.264 and H.265 encoding/decoding.
In the free version, there is a limitation that API of H.264 hardware encoding/decoding and H.265 hardware decoding cannot be used. (From version 17.4, H.265 hardware encoding is supported, so the description has been changed.) Even in the free version, CUDA and OpenCL are used for effect processing.
| DaVinci Resolve (free version) | DaVinci Resolve Studio (paid version) | |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA | CUDA (H.265 hardware encoding, various effects) | CUDA (H.264/H.265 hardware encode/decode, various effects) |
| AMD Radeon (including Ryzen-powered GPUs) | OpenCL (H.265 hardware encoding, various effects) | OpenCL (H.264/H.265 hardware encoding/decoding, various effects) |
| Intel (CPU) | Intel QuickSync (H.265 hardware encoded) | Intel QuickSync (H.264/H.265 hardware encoding) |
This is an overview of the Windows environment, but even if the product is from the same manufacturer (brand), whether or not it can be encoded/decoded by hardware differs depending on the generation. For more information, please also check "Hardware support" below.
mac environment
There are no restrictions directly related to performance in the paid version and the free version as follows.
| DaVinci Resolve (free version) | DaVinci Resolve Studio (paid version) | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple M1/M2 | Media Engine / Metal | Media Engine/Metal |
| AMD Radeon | Metal | Metal |
| Intel (CPU) | Intel QuickSync | Intel QuickSync |
The above is an overview of the mac environment, but whether or not it can be encoded/decoded by hardware differs depending on the generation, even for products from the same manufacturer (brand). For more information, please also check "Hardware support" below.
Supported by hardware?
As an overview, it is as described above, but even if it is a product of the same manufacturer (brand), whether or not it can be encoded/decoded by hardware differs depending on the generation. Please check the following link for details.
NVIDIA
Some chips are not listed, but I think it will be helpful. Please also check the information provided in "Information related to performance" below.
AMD Radeon
No information was found available.
Intel
I can't find anything that is officially documented. I hope the following blog will be helpful.
Information related to performance
NVIDIA
Performance of NVENC
The hardware encoder NVENC installed in NVIDIA GPUs is equivalent in GPU generations.
However, starting with the 4000 series GPUs, which will be on sale from around 2022, the number of NVENCs installed will change, and 4070Ti and above will have two installed, greatly shortening the encoding time.
NVENC Max Sessions
The maximum number of NVENC sessions is listed in the
" Max # of concurrent sessions This number of sessions will be affected if multiple videos overlap in the timeline.
If the maximum number is exceeded, further encoding processing will be performed on the CPU. Also, if there is software other than DaVinci Resolve that uses NVENC, this number of sessions will be consumed.
Previously, the GeForce series had a maximum of 3, but from the driver released in March 2023, the maximum number has been increased to 5. Also, in January 2024, the maximum number will be 8, with some exceptions.
reference
I think that the following article will also be helpful for the performance difference.
Update
2023/8/8 Added NVENC performance between generations and encoding time depending on the number of installed
2024/2/3 Added that the maximum number of sessions for NVENC has increased from 5 to 8
