AV1 / Davinci Resolve / 4070Ti

[drumn_bass]

Hi everyone,

 

I searched and read some conversations on this topic from a few months ago, but with no definitive answer. It was my understanding that Davinci Resolve 18 Free (18.5b2 right now) will support AV1(one) encoding with Nvidia 40 series cards. There are YouTube videos showing it working, in the mp4 container, with 4080s, and 4090s. I just got a new 4070Ti yesterday, and was excited to try it out, but the option is not there. I tried the latest stable release of DR, and the beta, as well as the latest Nvidia drivers, and it's still not available. I had a Radeon RX 7900 XT before, and the AV1 export was available and working for me with the DR 18.5 beta, and it was pretty impressive, but Resolve itself had a lot of lag and severe stutter with that card for me.

 

Does anyone know if it's supposed to be supported? And if it's not in there, is there anything I can do to add it?

 

I keep seeing some conflicting answers, mostly guesses. Like the AV1 is only available in the Studio version vs free, but others say it's listed in the features of the free version, and I definitely had it with an AMD card. Or that Nvidia only supports AV1 decoding, not encoding, but this also doesn't seem right, as there are videos of people outputting AV1 media with Nvidia cards. 

 

My only other suspicion is that it works with 4080 and 4090 level cards, but not cheaper ones, but Nvidia states that lower level cards have all the same encoding/decoding features. They specifically pointed it out with the 4070 release? 

 

I use a free version of Resolve

Asus Tuf Z690 D4 motherboard
Core i7 12700K
64GB of DDR4 RAM 3200 MHz
Nvidia RTX 4070Ti (Asus Tuf OC)
Gen4 NVMe SSD WD sn850x
850W Corsair PSU RM850x

[OddOod]

Assuming that you've fully updated to the latest release, it's likely that AV1 is just not included in the free version. 

 

[Paul17]

1 hour ago, OddOod said:

Assuming that you've fully updated to the latest release, it's likely that AV1 is just not included in the free version. 

 

Yeah,  the OP needs to try the 'Studio' version.   

[drumn_bass]

Thanks guys. Well, it was definitely included when I used an AMD card, in the free version, but IDK, maybe some special treatment for AMD vs Nvidia.

 

And yes, I tried both the latest stable release of DR, and the latest beta. The AV1 support for AMD was added in the beta. Nvidia was supposedly supported for a few months, and Intel Arc for about a year, from what I can see.

 

At the end of the day, it's not that big of a deal, just something I assumed would be there, and it's not:( You can't be too picky about the free software, that is already so powerful, it's hard to believe they're giving it away.

[Paul17]

7 hours ago, drumn_bass said:

Thanks guys. Well, it was definitely included when I used an AMD card, in the free version, but IDK, maybe some special treatment for AMD vs Nvidia.

 

And yes, I tried both the latest stable release of DR, and the latest beta. The AV1 support for AMD was added in the beta. Nvidia was supposedly supported for a few months, and Intel Arc for about a year, from what I can see.

 

At the end of the day, it's not that big of a deal, just something I assumed would be there, and it's not:( You can't be too picky about the free software, that is already so powerful, it's hard to believe they're giving it away.

If you want the issue cleared up, you might consider asking in the Davinci Resolve (Black Magic) forum or the DR reddit site?  

I don't think AMD is 'favoured.'    Nvidia 40 series & AMD 7900 series support both encoding and decoding with AV1 but the 30 series and AMD 6000 series only support AV1 decoding.

Why you're having trouble with your 4070 Ti is a mystery since it should work.   You could be missing something (in the software/files) or there's some sort of conflict, who knows.   With all that said, I'm sticking to you probably need Studio.   

[drumn_bass]

@Paul17

 

I did try posting on BMD forums, about 8-9 hours ago, it said my post needed to be approved by moderators first, and it's still not there. Their forum is kind of weird to be honest, they insist on using real names, and apparently the content is curated, so they may or may not allow it, and if they do, god knows when.

 

I'll be surprised if it does in fact require a paid version of software, because it's available in the free one with an AMD gpu. I tested it again, replaced the 4070Ti with the 7900XT, and the AV1 option appeared under MP4. Back to Nvidia... it's gone.

 

(But, I guess it may be possible that it's enabled in the beta for AMD for testing purposes, and once it moves into a stable version, it will become a paid version feature. There is no trial, the free DR is the trial, so idk, may be a way to test, but I probably can't talk about it here, you know what I mean?)

 

I also posted on Nvidia forums 8 hours ago. Silence.

 

It was a clean Windows 11 installation last night when I first tried it, there should be no driver conflicts, it's just not there, while both BM and Nvidia say it's supported.

[drumn_bass]

@Paul17

 

You were right, it seems. Thank you! Don't ask me how I know, but yeah, it is in fact available in the Studio version. So odd... open source codec and all. Oh well. At least I know now.

 

Does AV1 even worth it? I see some people say since it's in the MP4 container, the sound quality can be bad, especially when uploaded and re-converted by YouTube. Smaller file size is nice, but it is basically the only advantage over H.264?

[Paul17]

1 hour ago, drumn_bass said:

@Paul17

 

You were right, it seems. Thank you! Don't ask me how I know, but yeah, it is in fact available in the Studio version. So odd... open source codec and all. Oh well. At least I know now.

 

Does AV1 even worth it? I see some people say since it's in the MP4 container, the sound quality can be bad, especially when uploaded and re-converted by YouTube. Smaller file size is nice, but it is basically the only advantage over H.264?

It sounds good - you are on the path to solving it.     Yeah, I agreed with your other post - the site is strange.   Also, it's not uncommon to not 'get help' in forums but what else can we do, right?   

Honestly, I'm just starting to learn about this stuff - AV1, H.264, H.265 - maybe google search something like, 'AV1 vs H.264?'   I think AV1 will be the 'future' or become more prominent since it's royalty-free - more companies will using it - it's just a matter of time before it becomes more commonly used?   

 

At least, until there's another alternative - but, it's one reason I was looking at getting a 7900 XT in the future - both encoding/decoding AV1 - it kind of sucks in Blender at the moment but when HIP-RT is implemented, it should be no worse than a 3080?    But, yes, right now, Nvidia is better to use in Blender and most video editing software - e.g. DR.   I am a bit concerned about low VRAM though - so, I wish I got a 3090 instead of my 3080 but I'll see how an Nvidia card is in Linux, DR and Blender for now.   It's an Asus Tuf Gaming, too - those Tuf Gaming cards are really great in any series - good coolers, quiet cards - I'd get any in any series or tier with no hesitation.   

[drumn_bass]

@Paul17

 

I like this 4070Ti TUF I got here. It matches my TUF Gaming motherboard (which is OK, I guess, I had my fair share of issues with it too, had to replace it once, I have a thread on that here somewhere). There is a bit of coil whine under full load, but it's actually quieter than the XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT, and much quieter than the MERC 6950 XT I tried before it. I returned them both. 20 gigs of VRAM and performance closer to 4080 than 4070Ti looked good on paper and in benchmarks, but in 2 weeks or so, I've experienced several driver and hardware related issues with both AMD cards. Computer was sometimes failing to go into sleep, and I had to manually shut it down by holding the power button, others are seeing it too, and it's still unresolved. Removing Adrenalin and using a driver only may be a workaround, but not confirmed. I've experienced a memory leak issue with Davinci Resolve, causing it to crash after about a minute of use. This issue went away with a beta version of DR, 18.5. In general, Resolve was laggy while editing, frequent playback freezes, but exports were great, very quick.  Forza Motorsport 7, which should be easy to run, had a stutter once every second. I fixed it by disabling ULPS, but later tried again after a clean W11 install with no Adrenaline, and it worked better, but still had a stutter here and there. Other games had crazy stutter too, even when they displayed high FPS, it was just very noticeably not smooth. Might be a Freesync issue, I don't know, I gave up and exchanged it for 4070Ti. 7900 XT uses about 10 times (!) more power on idle, with 2 monitors, one being a high refresh 1440p, and the second a standard 60 1080, it was drawing 85W, on idle! While 4070Ti draws 8-9W. I had several game freezes and crashes. It made my computer boot slower, by about 12-15 seconds. And I'm sure there is more, it's just what I ran into, so idk if I can recommend the 7900 XT to anyone. People often talk about AMDs terrible drivers, and I thought by now, they would surely have it figured out, but it was definitely not my experience.

 

I figured I'll just go with 4070Ti for now. I don't have any issues with it so far. Not a fan of only 12GB of VRAM, but I will probably swap it with something better in a couple of years and pass it down to my kid (who just got my older 3070 upgrade from 1070). Lots of people say Nvidia got too greedy, and I get it, 4080 is too expensive, 4070s have only 12GB of VRAM, so people look at AMD as the better option, and on paper they look like it, but in real life, for me at least, it was nothing but a pain in you know what... Just thought you should know if you're considering it.

[Paul17]

5 hours ago, drumn_bass said:

@Paul17

 

I like this 4070Ti TUF I got here. It matches my TUF Gaming motherboard (which is OK, I guess, I had my fair share of issues with it too, had to replace it once, I have a thread on that here somewhere). There is a bit of coil whine under full load, but it's actually quieter than the XFX MERC 310 RX 7900 XT, and much quieter than the MERC 6950 XT I tried before it. I returned them both. 20 gigs of VRAM and performance closer to 4080 than 4070Ti looked good on paper and in benchmarks, but in 2 weeks or so, I've experienced several driver and hardware related issues with both AMD cards. Computer was sometimes failing to go into sleep, and I had to manually shut it down by holding the power button, others are seeing it too, and it's still unresolved. Removing Adrenalin and using a driver only may be a workaround, but not confirmed. I've experienced a memory leak issue with Davinci Resolve, causing it to crash after about a minute of use. This issue went away with a beta version of DR, 18.5. In general, Resolve was laggy while editing, frequent playback freezes, but exports were great, very quick.  Forza Motorsport 7, which should be easy to run, had a stutter once every second. I fixed it by disabling ULPS, but later tried again after a clean W11 install with no Adrenaline, and it worked better, but still had a stutter here and there. Other games had crazy stutter too, even when they displayed high FPS, it was just very noticeably not smooth. Might be a Freesync issue, I don't know, I gave up and exchanged it for 4070Ti. 7900 XT uses about 10 times (!) more power on idle, with 2 monitors, one being a high refresh 1440p, and the second a standard 60 1080, it was drawing 85W, on idle! While 4070Ti draws 8-9W. I had several game freezes and crashes. It made my computer boot slower, by about 12-15 seconds. And I'm sure there is more, it's just what I ran into, so idk if I can recommend the 7900 XT to anyone. People often talk about AMDs terrible drivers, and I thought by now, they would surely have it figured out, but it was definitely not my experience.

 

I figured I'll just go with 4070Ti for now. I don't have any issues with it so far. Not a fan of only 12GB of VRAM, but I will probably swap it with something better in a couple of years and pass it down to my kid (who just got my older 3070 upgrade from 1070). Lots of people say Nvidia got too greedy, and I get it, 4080 is too expensive, 4070s have only 12GB of VRAM, so people look at AMD as the better option, and on paper they look like it, but in real life, for me at least, it was nothing but a pain in you know what... Just thought you should know if you're considering it.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and personal anecdotes.   It really sucks that you had trouble with it.   Btw, I have the same parts/setup except for a different SSD and gpu (obviously).   Although, I don't know what brand of RAM you got...  - I got 64gb in anticipation of potentially needing that much for video editing and it can't hurt (for anything else).

 

The new gen of AMD cards - 7900 series - seems to be a mixed bag although the high idle power consumption with 2 monitors seems to impact everybody - especially, if the refresh rates of the monitors are different.   I don't know if it's a driver issue but AMD better hope it is because at least that can be fixed at some point in the future - a hardware reason would need a refresh or firmware update (if they're lucky)?

 

I've read about coil whine with both nvidia and amd cards - and occasionally, with the Tuf series but the 40 series - but, I think it's applicable to most cards - if the fps are excessively high - 300+?   Although, I don't know enough about coil whine.   I want a quiet card so it does concern me.   AMD has notoriously been slow to fix issues and this can include stuttering, power consumption issues, anything - look at how long they've taken to implement raytracing with HIP?    I don't currently use 2 monitors or displays (my current display is a 4K TV) but I empathize with those who do and have the high power consumption with their 7900 series of cards - because, it shouldn't be doing that and Nvidia cards aren't - so, AMD needs to rectify that and really soon!   Nvidia cards are currently 'better' for what I want to do and they're sufficient in gaming so I'll see how my 3080 does - and I'm not reluctant to go with Nvidia again but I am curious how the experience with an AMD card would be - so I'll keep an eye out for 'feedback' regarding users.   Hopefully, AMD can iron out these issues and some are pretty prevalent and disconcerting.   At least, your 4070 Ti is working out pretty well for you so far.  

 

[drumn_bass]

@Paul17

 

I use Crucial Ballistix Ram. Nothing fancy, but reliable.

 

Since we both use Asus products, what's going on with them? Why are big YouTubers are talking about dropping them as sponsors and stuff like that? Like Jays2cents and Gamers Nexus. I didn't have time to dig into that. Sounds like it has something to do with bad BIOS updates, which I'm kind of familiar with, and I swore I'm not touching BIOS on this TUF z690 board unless I absolutely have to. Still on August 2022 BIOS.

[Paul17]

1 hour ago, drumn_bass said:

@Paul17

 

I use Crucial Ballistix Ram. Nothing fancy, but reliable.

 

Since we both use Asus products, what's going on with them? Why are big YouTubers are talking about dropping them as sponsors and stuff like that? Like Jays2cents and Gamers Nexus. I didn't have time to dig into that. Sounds like it has something to do with bad BIOS updates, which I'm kind of familiar with, and I swore I'm not touching BIOS on this TUF z690 board unless I absolutely have to. Still on August 2022 BIOS.

My RAM is Team Group but Crucial Ballistix is really good.   I got mine a while ago and it was 'on sale' but a horrible price compared to now.

 

I actually only had a slight idea of what this 'Asus backlash' was about but I hope it's not impacting our boards - currently, it appears to be limited to X670/AMD boards and processors.   Probably a bios problem and it's the way ASUS is handling it that is is irking the tech reviewers.    It's good that Steve and Jay are calling ASUS out on it.   All these companies are really shady - all they care about is the $$ and there's less and less QC and CS with tech/computer hardware these days.   ASUS has a really good cooler for their video cards - overkill on most pcb/series of cards but their business practices are really questionable and they are only causing more bad PR and hurting their rep.   They already had a bad rep for their dealings with their RMA process.   I bought my board because my brother got the same board and I found it online for a good deal - I was really hesitant to buy it - it was open box and although it was considerably reduced in price, I wasn't sure about it because if the board was bad - it would be a major pita to return it.   I was looking for a sale on an MSI Gaming board - because that is what I wanted.   But, I missed the only sale - there was at my local store - and it wasn't really that much off the usual price.   

 

Anyway, I digress and I will cross my fingers that this issue doesn't impact Intel boards and the BIOS for the Z690 chipset.   I think I updated to the most recent BIOS or at least it's pretty recent but I won't do anything with that, for now, too.