The new Configuration Guide for the upcoming Resolve 15 gives again interesting hints how the hardware requirements will change with the new DaVinci version. For Mac shoppers, iMac Pro is recommended for the first time, with particular emphasis on the Vega64 option. Probably less because of the additional computing power, but rather because of the larger GPU memory of 16 GB (against over 8 GB with the Vega 56). With iMer Mac Pro you should always use the dual D700 version for similar arguments.
For graphics cards with 4GB Ram Blackmagic further emphasizes that this can be too little for 4K/UHD timelines when using optical flow filters (for retiming, denoising or motion blur). Even for HD editing, 2GB is no longer sufficient in all cases.
In addition to Nvidia cards, AMD cards have been recommended on the PC since the last version, but strangely enough, only Polaris models are recommended by the bank. However, we can say from our own experience that especially Vega models with overclocked HBM memory perform remarkably well on the PC. However, as in free trade, these are currently only available at moon prices.
Also in the CPU configuration AMD has now managed to get back into the recommendation list. And with the Threadripper, which is supposed to perform here quite bomb-like with its 16 threads. Only the use of a PCI extender is not recommended with Threadripper, which should not be a problem due to the opulent 64 PCIe-3.0 lanes.
And there are also new requirements for the main memory. Minimum requirements are not mentioned in the Configuration Guide (however, a Macbook with 8GB RAM for HD editing is mentioned). We now recommend 16 GB RAM. When using the Fusion features it should be at least 32 GB and 64 or even 128 are now officially recommended for use with Fusion. So it looks like the new compositing core likes to use a lot of CPU memory. Which is no different with Aftere Effects.
Thanks to Kurt for pointing that out.
