I am considering buying a Ryzen 5 Framework 13 32GB RAM 2TB SSD with an eGPU (AD LINK POCKET AI) for DaVinci Resolve. My current laptop takes an hour to export videos. Would this be better? Also, what would temps be like? My current laptop averages around 75° C during an export.
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Welcome to the community!
What are the specs of your current laptop? Ultimate performance and certainly thermals are going to be tough to say for sure since the AMD machines aren’t into people’s hands yet. It might be possible to make a rough guess at performance, but we’d need to know your current setup to have any chance.
Also, if the eGPU you are using would be the same between both machines, then it would come down to CPU performance, which will definitely make a difference on export, but it’s only part of the story, with the GPU being the other side. So it may not be a dramatic difference.
I used Davinci Resolve on my 12th gen Framework Laptop i7-1260p and it ran well. I did not encounter issues but I don’t judge myself a heavy and intense user but it works.
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@BigT
I have a 2017 HP Envy 15 with an i7 7550U, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB SSD. I’m not currently using an eGPU, so I don’t know if that will improve performance. I’m just getting it for the AI features.
I can’t seem to find that exact CPU. I can find i7-7500u and 7560u, but not 7550u. Assuming it’s similar to the 7500/7560, the Ryzen 5 in the new Framework 13 would be dramatically faster. The iGPU in the Ryzen is also much faster than the one in your current computer. Also, 32GB vs. 8GB of RAM is a big step up as well. I can’t put exact numbers on it, but it should render substantially faster.
Having newer specs will help with exporting for sure, but the real game changer is the eGPU. Hardware encoding on GPU’s is tons faster than on the CPU. You’ll also benefit from faster scrub times as well as more consistent timeline playback with higher resolutions. Temps will be dependent on if you play with the fan curves at all as thermals are really load dependent, but honestly its not really a factor to consider.
Laptop temps always tend to be on the high side and modern chips tend to boost as long as they have thermal and power headroom. I would be surprised if the CPU temp stayed below 60C under a sustained, 15 minute load.
The computer I normally use Davinci on isn’t really a proper analog for your current laptop or the AMD Framework 13. But to know whether that’s realistic, it would depend on the type of project you are exporting. What codec, what resolution, what length, how many and what type effects/noise reduction/etc.?
@BigT I’ll be making 2-10 min videos, at 4K 30FPS resolution, with minimal effects and transitions. I use the free version of DaVinci Resolve.
I used to render videos like that on an Apple M1 processor (not pro, Max, Ultra, etc.), which seems to be somewhat similar in performance to that Ryzen (roughly, as they say the 7840u should be similar to the M2). If I applied temporal noise reduction, it would probably take double the run time to render a 4K video in H264 (which would mean 4 minutes for a 2 minute video, 20 minutes for a 10 minute video). Without noise reduction, it took a bit less than the run time. In other words, a 2 minute video would render in under two minutes. If you have an eGPU as well, that time may be even better.
I have a faster desktop now and with a basic video render with minimal transitions and no noise reduction, it’s more like 1/3-1/4 the run time. In other words, a 10 minute, 4K, 30FPS video renders in 2-3 minutes.
Keep in mind, I’ve heard that the free version of Davinci Resolve isn’t as fast as the full version, but I don’t know that for a fact. I’ve only used the full version.
Yeah, you will fly through those with the eGPU (it’s a little bit slower with the internal graphics but not too bad)