DaVinci Resolve Minimum System Requirements
As with all things tech, change comes quickly, which means I have to revisit this article often. I originally started compiling this guide in 2015 with Resolve 11. I found that most of the resources and guides to the best hardware for DaVinci Resolve catered to the ideal, high-end, commercially professional user. This is still true. However, many videographers and creators are hobbyists, and students, exploring professional video post production, or just starting out. Most of the emails and comments I receive are from would-be Resolve users that don’t have the budget to build a monster multi-GPU workstation. The questions I get are from people that want to know more about DaVinci Resolve’s minimum system requirements rather than the ideal system we would all have if money was no object.To get more news about
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I’m a CSI (Colorist Society International) colorist and have been involved with Resolve both as a user, and consultant to post production companies for many years. I deal with high-end systems all the time. However, if you’re here wondering what are the minimum specs you can get away with, and you don’t mind being patient with your workflow, and using some of Resolve’s media optimization features when necessary, then you’ll find this article useful.
I started this article in 2015, and for many PC systems, the general points you’ll find here are just as valid as they were years ago. However, I have to point out that the Apple Silicon Macs change a lot in terms of the minimum hardware requirements and cost of entry to professional post production for creators and filmmakers. From what I’ve seen DaVinci Resolve runs happily enough on an M1 Mac Mini with only 8GB of unified memory and plays 4K media on a 4K timeline with most operations on the Resolve Color Page processed in real time. Noise reduction is one of the exceptions, at least in a 4K timeline at full resolution, but still, that kind of performance from a $699 Mac is incredibly impressive. Of course, benchmarks show the M1 is not going to hold up against a high end PC running an AMD Ryzen 5950X with a Nvidia RTX 3090, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise, and in any case wouldn’t be a fair comparison.
Please note that the minimum hardware specs you’re going to find in this article apply to DaVinci Resolve running on a PC, or an Intel Mac. The Apple Silicon Macs are different, and make far more efficient use of system resources. More on this to come in a separate article.
As significant as the Apple Silicon Macs may turn out to be in the evolution of desktop computer architecture, many users will want more, and still value the ability to upgrade, change components, and tailor a build to exact requirements. If you’re building a PC, or looking for a good (non Apple Silicon) laptop to run Resolve, then everything below still applies.First things first, you can download the latest DaVinci Resolve 17 configuration guide here. It’s a good starting point for reference when building or buying a PC.
DaVinci Resolve is available for MacOS, Windows and Linux, and will run on a mid to high level gaming laptop as well as a desktop workstation. You can buy or build depending on your budget and level of tech proficiency. The truth is, whether you want to build a custom PC workstation, or buy a laptop, it doesn’t even have to cost too much.There are two versions of Resolve. DaVinci Resolve is the free version, and DaVinci Resolve Studio adds collaborative workflow features, enables all the plugins without watermarks, and supports timelines and exports above UHD resolution. If you’re an individual creator just starting out, there isn’t really a lot of functional difference between Resolve and Resolve Studio. However, if you’re a Windows user, investing $295 in a Resolve Studio license is worth it just to enable hardware AVC / H.264 / H.265 GPU acceleration. Hardware acceleration is available in the free version of Resolve for Mac.
