What runs Resolve better - Apple M1 vs Windows PC

This is a follow up to the most hated video I've ever made and to my CPU Scaling tests. It tests the Apple M1 in a 24" iMac to figure out if it's a good video editing machine compared to a 16 core Ryzen CPU with on 4/8/12 Cores enabled. Timeline tests with 4k and 8k footage are used in an h.265 codec on a 4k timeline. Fusion proves to exceptionally taxing...watch to see how much!

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Davinci Resolve Studio

My Editing Workstation

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[IgorDeoliMD]

Excelent review. I have an i7 10700K with 64GB DDR4 RAM and RTX 3070Ti and was considering buying the M1 or M2 just for the hype hoping that I would be able to edit 4k footage with color grading applied without a problem. I guess that is not going to be the case. Maybe I'll end up buying and M2 Pro for the portability for when I'm travelling or not home, but will stick to my PC at home.

[stopthefomo]

Non-Fusion renderings of highly compressed 4K120 and 8K codecs are about 80% faster on my MacBook M1 Pro vs 5950/3090 PC, in other words more CPU intensive renders (that’s why I have 2 systems) - for YouTubers who only use LUTs and color grading, M1 Pro is a better fit I believe

[JerryPH]

This more or less mirrors my experiences, however the MAC MINI M1 that I have is good for 90% of my video editing, while the 3070 Nvidia, 24 core, 64-gb system that runs under Win 11 does handle that last 10% of work better for me (it also cost more than double the M1 Mini, so it had better be faster!). I use it mostly for YouTube editing of 4K footage, and even at times up-rez is to 8K for extra clarity for big punch-ins. I am not a heavy fusion user, so that explains a lot... exception being using fusion to control my green screening videos when those are done. That said I am still under Resolve 17, at this point 18 is still Beta, but I will be upgrading once the full version comes out. In the end, no surprise. How fast you want Resolve to go is directly connected to how much cash is in your wallet... lol

[proteus]

Mac Pro may have a m4/8 to be released. Let's hope they make a spaceship

[fishycomics]

glad I returned my M1 16 mackpro. waiting for a Windows laptop release in 2022 that are delayed

[rano]

Thanks for comparison. Please do a comparison with the built-in Fusion templates in the Fusion page.

[abuhamzaalsafadi]

short, straight to the point, this is amazing

[AndresQuinteroPhoto]

Somehow for me when I render Fusion in PC, Davinci closes. I had to move to mac, so it does render, somehow even with a card that is less poweful.. M1 Max vs RTX 2080TI

[randyburleson]

Hey John, what do you think would be the ideal PC set up to run DaVinci Resolve? Ryzen 3950 vs Intel 12900KS ? AMD VS NVIDIA RTX GPU? How much and what speed of RAM?
What would run these tests the best? Also what PC set up is the “sweet spot” for price vs performance?

[alegions]

I was thinking to get M1 !!!
Which is more important CUDA cores or number of NVDEC CHIPs? RTX4000 or RTX A4000?

[hassanahmed]

if you are using the free Davinci you are not even using the RTX 3090, which can only be used on the studio version. and yet PC hold better using only the CPU

[gurugamer]

M2 max or AMD 5950x please advise for Davinci Resolve 18 studio

[ChibiHasan]

Apple cultists YouTubers had me legitimately questioning if my RTX 3070 build could compete with my base model M1 Air 😂😂

[fahim]

what's the model of your monitor?

[HoundDogMech]

John: Why do so many people have so much trouble running BMD's Davinci Resolve. Is it that poorly coded. I don't see people having this much trouble with the Likes of Premiere Pro Final Cut Vagus ect. Why Davinci, Other than most problems is because they refuse to READ THE BOOK and set all the parameters that Davinci needs set up in the Preferences both system & User then there is the proper setup in all the project settings.

[proteus]

Seems like the cores are faster than m1. IC ant find a computer to do full frame a7s3 files at high quality. Soon as you put titles on or grading, nothing runs in real-time in 4k timeline. Im not interested in 1080p timelines as we're in 2022 now and editing videos shod be very fast, but it isn't. Apple drag the tech out and don't optimization of their CPUs or software

[JoATTech]

That is very useful info. Looks like RTX 4090 gonna crash even M2 Max.

[adityadivine]

Johny Jonhy ?
yes papa
Buying mac?
no papa
Apple fanboys hahaha

From the kid's nursery rhyme
Johnny, Johnny.
Yes, Papa?
Eating sugar?
No, Papa.
Telling lies?
No, Papa.
Open your mouth.
Ha-ha-ha!

[markwornom]

I don't understand the reasoning or validity of performing this test on Beta software which is known to be slower for the moment. Why not try it again on version 17.4.+ where it's stable, tested and optimised for M1 silicon? That would be the fairer comparison.

[ollimustonen]

Do most people need 4k playback rendering? Probably not. If you turn playback resolution to 2k or fhd it's handling it surprisingly well.