Top 10 Best-Performing GPUs for DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is a powerful video editor that is used by professionals to make
high-quality videos. To make your DaVinci Resolve workflow better, you should use
a top-performing GPU. The studio version of DaVinci Resolve requires a much more
powerful GPU than the free version. A strong graphics card is needed to make the
rendering process smooth. AMD Radeon and NVIDIA are two competitors in the
market for making high-performance rendering GPUs. This article lists the top 10
GPUs for DaVinci Resolve based on how well they work.
1) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
There are two GPUS in this family: the RTX 3090 Ti and the RTX 3090. Both GPUs
have a 24GB GDDR6X memory and 384-bit memory interface. They are built on the
Ampere NVIDIA architecture. While editing and creating videos, they support up to
7680x4320 resolution. In some specs, the RTX 3090 Ti and RTX 3090 are different
from each other.
GEFORCE RTX 3090 Ti
GEFORCE RTX 3090 Ti has 10752 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a 1.67GHz base
clock speed and a 1.86GHz boost clock speed. This card operates on 450W of power.
GEFORCE RTX 3090
GEFORCE RTX 3090 has 10496 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a 1.40GHz base clock
speed and a 1.70GHz boost clock speed. This card operates on 350W of power.
2) AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT is also a very powerful GPU powered by AMD
RDNA 2 architecture. It can render videos at up to 4K resolution. The Radeon RX
6900 XT has 5120 stream processors, 320 texture units, and 80 compute units. This
GPU has a 2.25GHz boost frequency and a 2.0GHz game frequency. The AMD
Radeon RX 6900 XT has a 16GB GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit memory interface. It
requires 300W of board power.
3) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
There are two variants of this GPU: the RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3080. They are
built on the Ampere NVIDIA architecture. While editing and creating videos, they
support up to 7680x4320 resolution. Both GPUs operate on 350W of power.
However, the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3080 are different from each other in some
aspects.
GEFORCE RTX 3080 Ti
GEFORCE RTX 3080 Ti has 10240 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a 1.37GHz base
clock speed and a 1.67GHz boost clock speed. It has 12GB of GDDR6x memory with
a 384-interface width.
GEFORCE RTX 3080
GEFORCE RTX 3080 has 8960 or 8704 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a 1.26/1.44 GHz
base clock speed and a 1.71GHz boost clock speed. The RTX 3080 has two memory
variants. One variant has 12GB of GDDR6X memory with a 384-bit interface width,
and the second variant has 10GB of GDDR6X memory with a 320-bit interface width.
4) AMD Radeon RX 6800
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 also features a fast frame rate, 4K resolution rendering,
and gaming capabilities. The RX 6800 is equipped with 3840 stream processors, 240
texture units, and 60 compute units. It is built on AMD RDNA 2 architecture. This
GPU has a boost frequency of 2.1GHz and a gaming frequency of 1.815GHz. The
AMD Radeon RX 6800 includes a 256-bit memory interface and 16GB of GDDR6
memory. It needs 250W of power to operate.
5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
This GPU also comes in two variants: the RTX 3070 Ti and the RTX 3070. They are
based on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture. They support up to 7680x4320 resolution
while rendering and gaming. Both models come with 8GB of GDDR6X RAM and
256-bit interface width. The RTX 3070 Ti and RTX 3070, on the other hand, vary in
several ways.
GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti
GEFORCE RTX 3070 Ti features 6144 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a base clock
speed of 1.58GHz and a boost clock speed of 1.77GHz. It operates on 290W of
power.
GEFORCE RTX 3070
GEFORCE RTX 3070 features 5888 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a base clock speed
of 1.50 GHz and a boost clock speed of 1.73GHz. It operates on 220W of power.
6) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
GeForce RTX 2080 provides great performance and power efficiency. It is built on
Turing GPU architecture. This GPU also comes in a Founders Edition model with an
additional performance boost. Both variants of GeForce RTX 2080 have 2944
NVIDIA CUDA cores. The base clock speed in both models is 1.515GHz, but the
GeForce RTX 2080 has a 1.71GHz boost clock speed and GeForce RTX 2080
Founders Edition has a 1.8GHz boost clock speed. Rendering and gaming can be
performed smoothly at 7680x4320 resolution. These GPUs have 8GB of GDDR6
memory with a 256-bit interface width. RTX 2080 requires 215W of power, while the
Founders Edition requires 225W.
7) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
The GeForce RTX 2070 is based on the Turing architecture and offers excellent
performance while using less power. This GPU is also available in Founders Edition.
The RTX 2070 has 2304 NVIDIA CUDA cores in both the basic and Founder
editions. Both versions have a base clock speed of 1.410GHz, however, the GeForce
RTX 2070 has a boost clock speed of 1.620GHz and the GeForce RTX 2070
Founders Edition has a boost clock speed of 1.71GHz. RTX 2070 can also perform
rendering at 7680x4320 resolution. These GPUs feature an 8GB GDDR6 memory
capacity and a 256-bit interface width. The Founders Edition needs 185W of power,
whereas the RTX 2070 requires 175W.
8) AMD Radeon RX 5700
The AMD Radeon RX 5700 can also render at 4K resolution. It has a high frame rate
as well. It has 2,560 stream processors, 160 texture units, and 40 compute units. This
GPU has a boost frequency of 1.9GHz and a base frequency of 1.755GHz. The AMD
Radeon RX 5700 has 8GB of GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit memory interface. To
operate, it needs 225W of power. It has RDNA Architecture.
9) AMD Radeon RX 590
Smooth rendering is also possible with the AMD Radeon RX 590. It has 36 compute
units, 144 texture units, and 2304 stream processors. The base speed of this GPU is
1.469GHz, and the boost speed is 1.545GHz. The AMD Radeon RX 590 has a 256-bit
memory interface and 8GB of GDDR5 memory. It needs 225 watts of power to
function. It is built on 4th Gen GCN Architecture.
10) Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660
There are also three different versions of this GPU: the GTX 1660 Ti, the GTX 1660
Super, and the GTX 1660. The Turing architecture from NVIDIA is used to make
them. They support up to 7680x4320 resolution while rendering and gaming. Each
model has a 192-bit interface width and 6GB of GDDR6 RAM. Powering the
GeForce GTX 1660 series takes 450W. But there are some ways in which these three
are different.
The GeForce GTX 1660 Ti contains 1536 NVIDIA CUDA cores with a base clock
speed of 1.5GHz and a boost clock speed of 1.77GHz. While the GTX 1660 Super
and GTX 1660 feature 1408 CUDA cores with base clock speeds of 1.53GHz and
peak clock speeds of 1.78GHz.
Performance boost with multiple GPUs in DaVinci Resolve
Studio
DaVinci Resolve Studio supports using multiple GPUs. When using multiple high-
end GPUs, there will be up to 2x performance boost by parallelizing tasks. All GPUS
will divide the workload to complete a task faster than if it were done with one GPU
at a time.
But DaVinci Resolve Studio does not scale well if you use multiple low-performance
GPUs. Instead of using multiple low-end 1GB or 2GB graphics cards, use a single
high-end GPU like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, AMD Radeon RX 6800, or
others.
Conclusion
All of these GPUs are great for DaVinci Resolve Studio because they support
hardware-accelerated H.264/H.265 encoding and decoding. The rendering process
will go faster and smoother if you use a more powerful GPU. If you're using the free
version of DaVinci Resolve, a graphics card with 4GB to 8GB of memory should be
enough. But for high-end rendering in DaVinci Resolve Studio, you need a more
powerful GPU, like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT,
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, etc.
