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2 graphics cards for DaVinci?

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2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Jan Becker on Jul 23, 2011 at 9:22:22 pm

Okay - I have to admit, I'm a total hardware retard.

So - because of CS5 and DaVinci I bought the NIVIDIA Quadro 4000 for my Mac.
I also have the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT.

Should I use both - can I use both? I really don't know.

Help!

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Christopher Tay on Jul 23, 2011 at 11:39:40 pm

Hi Jan,

The Geforce 8800GT is not officially supported for DaVinci Resolve but I do believe some users have successfully used it as the GUI display card and this is where you connect your computer monitor. This card will be installed in the default slot 1 in the Mac Pro.

The Quadro4000 will be the GPU card for DaVinci Resolve's real time image processing and this card will go into slot 2 and you do not connect any monitor to this card.

For video output, you will need the Blackmagic Design Decklink HD Extreme 3D+ card and you will need a video monitor to connect the SDI output from this card for the fullscreen video display. There are many options in this area depending on the display size and how much you want to spend. The Decklink card goes into slot 3.

Slot 4 is where your storage controller card goes in.

Hope this helps.

-chrispy

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Jan Becker on Jul 23, 2011 at 11:51:32 pm

Thank you very much.
This makes sense.
Does DaVinci recognize the card by itself or is there anything I have to do?

Also, do you know if this setup world for CS5 AE and PR?

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Christopher Tay on Jul 24, 2011 at 3:03:21 am

Hi Jan,

Resolve will automatically use the Quadro4000 for the GPU processing, provided you don't connect any monitors to it. If you need dual GUI monitor setup, connect both to the Geforce 8800GT card instead.

To confirm how many GPU is running, once you are in Resolve, go to the Apple menu and select About DaVinci Resolve and the splash screen will tell you that.

Your setup will be good for Adobe CS5 PR and AE.

-chrispy

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by David Smith on Jul 24, 2011 at 7:12:27 am

Jan, I'm only a small step ahead of you here. I just put a Quatro 4000 in my Mac to set up Resolve.

A few things that might help:

- Blackmagic has a configuration guide on their website separate from the regular manual. It's very useful.

- The 1 slot is on the bottom and the 4 is the one on the top.

- I "downgraded" my GUI card from a Radeon 4870 to a GT 120 because the 4870 used 2 of the power connectors leaving none for the Quatro 4000. The GT is also like the Quatro using only 1 slot width. This gives you 1 more opening for the HDMI in/out connectors for the Decklink. Eventually I will replace the GT 120 with another Quatro. The GT 120 is under $150.

- If your monitor does not have HDMI or SDI you may need a Blackmagic HDLink Pro as an SDI to Display Port adapter for your monitor. They are about $500 dollars and there does not seem to be any other option - if there is another option someone please let me know as I have not bought the HDLink yet :)

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by David Smith on Jul 24, 2011 at 7:24:41 am

Christoper,

I had been wondering if my Quadro was being used by Resolve. Under "About DaVinci Resolve" is says:

Version 8.0 1 GPU

Does that mean it is using the Quadro?

If there was only 1 graphics card in my computer (say just the GT 120) would it say 0 GPU?

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Sascha Haber on Jul 24, 2011 at 8:26:02 am

Basically, yes.
It would say, "UI card being used for processing" or something.
This means, inbetween doing color calculations, the card also has to redraw the UI, display the images and maybe even the scopes.
This will take up to 50% of your theoretical performance.
It sounds your main focus is actually CS5.
This means, you NEED to have the Quadro 4000 connected as your main display, forget the GT120 then, it has like 10% of the power.
But if you can live with the old card as your main card, the Quadro 4000 will do a proper job driving davinci and davinci ONLY.

A slice of color...

DaVinci 8.0.1b3 OSX 10.6.8
MacPro 5.1 2x2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE

http://www.saschahaber.com

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Clayton Burkhart on Jul 25, 2011 at 10:11:34 am

So basically what you are saying Sascha is that if one uses CS5 and Davinci equally, the best configuaration are actually 2 Nvidia Quadro 4000 cards, one for driving cpu permutations for Adobe 64bit + UI and the other for driving Davinci?

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Sascha Haber on Jul 25, 2011 at 2:51:42 pm

Yeah

A slice of color...

DaVinci 8.0.1b3 OSX 10.6.8
MacPro 5.1 2x2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE

http://www.saschahaber.com

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Jan Becker on Jul 25, 2011 at 4:26:03 pm

"the best configuration are actually 2 Nvidia Quadro 4000 cards"

...or you have to flip the cards :-(

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by David Smith on Jul 26, 2011 at 2:12:29 am

With the 2 card set up discussed in this thread. DaVinci seems to automatically use the 2nd Graphics card.

Just curious... What about other applications? Like Maya, Photoshop, FCP, etc? Do they also automatically take advantage of power of the second card?

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Sascha Haber on Jul 26, 2011 at 6:29:16 am

no

A slice of color...

DaVinci 8.0.1b3 OSX 10.6.8
MacPro 5.1 2x2,4 24GB
RAID0 8TB eSata 6TB
GTX 285 / GT 120
Extreme 3D+ WAVE

http://www.saschahaber.com

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Clayton Burkhart on Jul 26, 2011 at 6:50:22 am

Does anyone know if Resolve can be run on an Quadro FX 5800 card? I know it is not in the configuration guide, but wondering if it wouldn't be compatible anyhow...

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Eric Fiegehen on Jul 28, 2011 at 4:50:17 am

Hi David,

Maya 2012 does and (i think)anything Adobe with Mercury Engine will.

Eric F

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Cris Baltazar on Aug 25, 2011 at 12:05:38 am

so just to understand this I have 2 Quadro 4000 and DaVinci will recognize only 1 GPU? Thanks

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Re: 2 graphics cards for DaVinci?
by Eric Fiegehen on Aug 25, 2011 at 5:53:53 pm

Hi Cris,

I think what they're getting at is you need an OpenGL 2.0 GUI card, and another 1 or more DaVinci-certified graphics cards for GPU acceleration purposes. For example, if you have 3 NVIDIA graphics cards installed in your computer, 2 will be used by Resolve for hardware acceleration purposes.

For Adobe products which feature Mercury Engine hardware acceleration (CS5 included, of course), you need an OpenGL 2.0 GUI graphics card plus another Adobe-certified NVIDIA graphics card specifically for hardware acceleration purposes.

For Autodesk Maya 2012, the recommended graphics configuration is an NVIDIA graphics card for the OpenGL 2.0 GUI plus an additional card (NVIDIA GeForce 330m, Quadro 4000, or Quadro FX 4800 for OS-X) specifically for hardware acceleration purposes. In this case, it would be for Autodesk's Viewport 2.0 feature.

Eric

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