Skip to content

Main Navigation

Puget Systems Logo
  • Solutions
    • Recommended Systems For:
    • Content Creation
      • Photo Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe Lightroom Classic
        • Adobe Photoshop
      • Video Editing
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Adobe After Effects
        • Adobe Premiere Pro
        • DaVinci Resolve
        • Foundry Nuke
      • 3D Design and Animation
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk 3ds Max
        • Autodesk Maya
        • Blender
        • Cinema 4D
        • Houdini
        • ZBrush
      • Real-Time Engines
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Game Development
        • Unity
        • Unreal Engine
        • Virtual Production
      • Rendering
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • OctaneRender
        • Redshift
        • V-Ray
      • Digital Audio
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Ableton Live
        • FL Studio
        • Pro Tools
    • Engineering
      • CAD
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • Autodesk AutoCAD
        • Autodesk Inventor
        • Autodesk Revit
        • SOLIDWORKS
      • Photogrammetry
        • Recommended Systems For:
        • ArcGIS Pro
        • Agisoft Metashape
        • Pix4D
        • RealityCapture
    • Scientific Computing
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Data Science
      • Machine Learning / AI
      • Scientific Computing
    • More
      • Recommended Systems For:
      • Compact Size
      • Live Streaming
      • NVIDIA RTX Studio
      • Quiet Operation
      • Virtual Reality
  • Products
    • Intel Core i7 & i9
      Workstations with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 & i9 processors on Z690 and Z790 chipsets
    • AMD Ryzen 7 & 9
      Workstations with AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors on B650 and X670 chipsets
    • AMD Threadripper PRO
      Workstations with AMD Threadripper PRO 5000 WX processors on the WRX80 chipset
    • Intel Xeon W
      Workstations with Intel Xeon W 3300 processors on the C621E chipset
    • Rackmount & Server
      Servers and workstations in rackmount chassis
    • Custom Computers
      Customize a desktop workstation from scratch
    • Custom Servers
      Customize a rackmount server from scratch
    • QNAP Network Attached Storage
      Check out our external storage options as an authorized reseller for QNAP
    • Recommended Third Party Peripherals
      View our list of recommended peripherals to use with your new PC
  • Publications
    • Articles
    • HPC Blog
    • Blog Posts
    • Case Studies
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Support
    • Contact Support
    • Support Articles
    • Warranty Details
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Press Kit
    • Testimonials
    • Careers
  • Talk to an Expert
  • My Account
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Hardware Articles
  4. /
  5. DaVinci Resolve Studio: AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPU Performance

DaVinci Resolve Studio: AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPU Performance

Posted on November 5, 2020 by Matt Bach
Always look at the date when you read an article. Some of the content in this article is most likely out of date, as it was written on November 5, 2020. For newer information, see our more recent articles.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Test Setup
  • Benchmark Results
  • Benchmark Analysis: AMD Ryzen 5000-series vs Intel 10th Gen
  • Are the AMD Ryzen 5000-series or Intel Core 10th Gen/X-series better for DaVinci Resolve Studio?

TL;DR: AMD Ryzen 5000 Series performance in DaVinci Resolve

AMD has been a strong choice for DaVinci Resolve Studio ever since the launch of the 3rd generation Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs due to their higher core counts and inclusion of PCI-E gen 4. Interestingly, the new AMD Ryzen 5000-series processors are not much faster than the previous generation. But, it is enough for AMD to extend their lead over Intel.

At the bottom end, the Ryzen 5 5600X beats the Core i5 10600K by 14%, and the Ryzen 7 5800X sneaks by the Core i9 10900K by 5%. Further up the stack, AMD does even better with the Ryzen 5 5900X and 5950X beating the Core i9 10900X and 10940X by 29% and 22% respectively. This means that depending on your budget, an AMD Ryzen 5000-series CPU can be anywhere from 5% to a staggering 29% faster than a similarly priced Intel processor.

Introduction

Ever since the launch of their 3rd generation Ryzen and Threadripper processors, AMD processors have been a strong choice for DaVinci Resolve Studio. Not only is Resolve able to utilize a decent number of CPU cores, but because of how heavily it leverages the GPU, having a platform with PCI-E 4.0 can make a measurable impact on performance. Since Intel CPUs tend to have fewer CPU cores and are still using PCI-E 3.0, this means that any performance gain we might see with AMD's new Ryzen 5000-series CPUs should only serve to further AMD's lead.

These Ryzen 5000-series processors do not have any more cores compared to the previous generation Ryzen 3000-series, but among other things, AMD is touting a 19% IPC (instructions per clock) improvement. In theory, this could translate to almost a 20% performance increase over the previous generation, although it will likely heavily depend on the application.

AMD Ryzen 5000-series for DaVinci Resolve Studio
Image
AMD Ryzen 5000-series for DaVinci Resolve Studio

In this article, we will be examining the performance of the new AMD Ryzen 5600X, 5800X, 5900X, and 5950X in DaVinci Resolve Studio compared to a range of CPUs including the Intel 10th Gen, Intel X-10000 Series, AMD Threadripper 3rd Gen, and the previous generation AMD Ryzen 3000-series processors. If you are interested in how these processors compare in other applications, we also have other articles for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and several other applications available on our article listing page.

If you would like to skip over our test setup and benchmark sections, feel free to jump right to the Conclusion.

CTA Image
Looking for a DaVinci Resolve Workstation?

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Test Setup

Listed below are the specifications of the systems we will be using for our testing:

AMD Ryzen Test Platform
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 5950X ($799)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X ($549)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X ($449)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X ($299)


AMD Ryzen 9 3950X ($749)
AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT ($499)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT ($399)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT ($249)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA
RAM 4x DDR4-3200 16GB (64GB total)
Intel 10th Gen Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 10900K ($488)
Intel Core i7 10700K ($374)
Intel Core i5 10600K ($262)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S
Motherboard Gigabyte Z490 Vision D
RAM 4x DDR4-3200 16GB (64GB total)
AMD Threadripper 3rd Gen Test Platform
CPU AMD TR 3990X ($3,990)
AMD TR 3970X ($1,999)
AMD TR 3960X ($1,399)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U14S TR4-SP3
Motherboard Gigabyte TRX40 AORUS PRO WIFI
RAM 4x DDR4-3200 16GB (64GB total)
Intel X-10000 Series Test Platform
CPU Intel Core i9 10980XE ($979)
Intel Core i9 10940X ($784)
Intel Core i9 10920X ($689)
Intel Core i9 10900X ($590)
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12DX i4
Motherboard Gigabyte X299 Designare EX
RAM 4x DDR4-2933 16GB (64GB total)
Shared PC Hardware/Software
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB
Hard Drive Samsung 970 Pro 1TB
Software Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (version 2004)

*All the latest drivers, OS updates, BIOS, and firmware applied as of October 26, 2020

In order to see how each of these configurations performs in Premiere Pro, we will be using our PugetBench for DaVinci Resolve V0.92 benchmark and DaVinci Resolve Studio version 16.2.7. This version of the benchmark is not yet available to the public, but since the tests are much better than the version that you can currently download, we opted to go ahead and use it for this comparison.

One thing we do want to note is that the pre-launch BIOS that is available for Ryzen motherboards is using AGESA 1.0.8. Soon after launch, there should be an update that adds support for AGESA 1.1.0 which is supposed to increase the performance of each Ryzen CPU by another few percent.

Benchmark Results

While our benchmark presents various scores based on the performance of each test, we also like to provide the individual results for you to examine. If there is a specific task that is a hindrance to your workflow, examining the raw results for that task is going to be much more applicable than the scores that our benchmark calculated.

Feel free to skip to the next sections for our analysis of these results to get a wider view of how each configuration performs in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

AMD Ryzen 5000-series DaVinci Resolve Studio Benchmark Results
Image
AMD Ryzen 5000-series DaVinci Resolve Studio Benchmark Results

Benchmark Analysis: AMD Ryzen 5000-series vs Intel 10th Gen

Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next
System Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Gallery Image
Previous Next

In many of our other articles (especially those for Photoshop and After Effects), the new AMD Ryzen 5000-series CPUs simply blew away everything else. However, those applications are very lightly threaded, making the 19% IPC improvements AMD is touting with these new processors extremely valuable.

DaVinci Resolve Studio is a very different situation. Not only can it take advantage of more CPU cores, but it leverages the GPU significantly more which can make the entire platform (specifically the supported PCI-E generation) a much bigger part of the overall performance picture.

Overall, this results in a pretty big win for AMD over Intel with the Ryzen 5000-series out-performing every similarly priced offering from Intel. The exact amount varies depending on which model you are looking at, but ranges from a small 5% to nearly 30%!

Starting at the bottom of the stack, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a very solid 14% faster than the Intel Core i5 10600K. Moving up one step is actually where AMD is "weakest" with the Ryzen 7 5800X only beating the Intel Core i9 10900K by about 5%. Further up the stack, however, AMD's lead widens with the Ryzen 9 5900X beating the Core i9 10900X by 29%, and the Ryzen 9 5950X beats the Core i9 10940X by 22%.

AMD Ryzen 5000-series vs 3000-series in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Image
AMD Ryzen 5000-series vs 3000-series in DaVinci Resolve Studio

Versus the AMD Ryzen 3000-series CPUs from the previous generation, the new Ryzen 5000-series are anywhere from 2% to 8% faster than the CPUs they are replacing. That might not look great since they also have a 10-20% higher price tag as well, although in terms of absolute cost that works out to only a $50 increase which is fairly small if you look at it as a part of the overall cost of a computer.

This makes the performance of the new Ryzen 5000-series a bit mixed. Yes, AMD is easily dominating Intel across the board, but AMD was already very strong even with the previous generation Ryzen 3000-series. More performance is always great, but the 2-8% improvement over the last generation is very lackluster compared to the 20%+ gain we saw in some other applications like Photoshop.

Are the AMD Ryzen 5000-series or Intel Core 10th Gen/X-series better for DaVinci Resolve Studio?

AMD has been a strong choice for DaVinci Resolve Studio ever since the launch of the 3rd generation Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs due to their higher core counts and inclusion of PCI-E gen 4. Interestingly, the new AMD Ryzen 5000-series processors are not much faster than the previous generation. But, it is enough for AMD to extend their lead over Intel.

At the bottom end, the Ryzen 5 5600X beats the Core i5 10600K by 14%, and the Ryzen 7 5800X sneaks by the Core i9 10900K by 5%. Further up the stack, AMD does even better with the Ryzen 5 5900X and 5950X beating the Core i9 10900X and 10940X by 29% and 22% respectively. This means that depending on your budget, an AMD Ryzen 5000-series CPU can be anywhere from 5% to a staggering 29% faster than a similarly priced Intel processor.

This it doesn't affect CPU performance directly, AMD also currently has the benefit of PCI-E 4.0, whereas the Intel platforms are all still using PCI-E 3.0. Since Resolve makes such heavy use of the GPU, this gives AMD an extra little boost to the overall performance in DaVinci Resolve Studio. If/when Intel updates their products to support PCI-E 4.0, that alone should remove around 5-10% of AMD's performance advantage.

AMD Ryzen 5000-series vs Intel in DaVinci Resolve Studio
Image
AMD Ryzen 5000-series vs Intel in DaVinci Resolve Studio

Another factor that has changed recently is that the Gigabyte B550 Vision D motherboard – with fully certified Thunderbolt support – has launched and passed our internal qualification process. Thunderbolt has been one of the reasons we have had to maintain an Intel-based platform for DaVinci Resolve since more than almost any other industry we target, Thunderbolt is incredibly important in the video editing/grading world. Until now, only Intel platforms had Thunderbolt support that met our standards. With this motherboard, Thunderbolt is no longer as much of a factor when choosing between Intel 10th Gen and AMD Ryzen CPUs in our workstations.

Since we have not yet found a Threadripper motherboard with fully functioning Thunderbolt support, this also makes Ryzen a strong choice versus Threadripper. The fastest Ryzen 5000-series CPU may still be ~10% slower (or more, depending on the workload) than Threadripper, but for many that is a small price to pay to be able to use all their existing external drives.

Keep in mind that the benchmark results in this article are strictly for DaVinci Resolve Studio and that performance will vary widely in different applications (or even versus the free edition of Resolve). If your workflow includes other software packages (we have similar articles for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom Classic, and Photoshop), you need to consider how the system will perform in those applications as well. Be sure to check our list of Hardware Articles to keep up to date on how all of these software packages – and more – perform with the latest CPUs.

CTA Image
Looking for a DaVinci Resolve Workstation?

Puget Systems offers a range of powerful and reliable systems that are tailor-made for your unique workflow.

Configure a System!
CTA Image
Labs Consultation Service

Our Labs team is available to provide in-depth hardware recommendations based on your workflow.

Find Out More!

Related Content

  • Puget Systems Hardware Trends of 2022
  • Intel Xeon W-3400 Content Creation Preview
  • NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada vs RTX A6000 for Content Creation
  • DaVinci Resolve Studio: NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Performance
View All Related Content

Latest Content

  • Puget Systems Hardware Trends of 2022
  • Guide To Removing Instapak Foam
  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
View All
Tags: 5600X, 5800X, 5900X, 5950X, AMD Ryzen 3rd Gen, AMD Ryzen 5000 Series, AMD Threadripper 3rd Gen, DaVinci Resolve, i5 10600K, i7 10700K, i9 10900K, Intel 10th Gen, Intel 9th Gen, Intel X-10000, Intel X-series

Who is Puget Systems?

Puget Systems builds custom PCs tailored for your workflow

Extensive in-house testing
making you more productive and giving you more performance for your dollar

Reliable workstations
with fewer crashes and blue screens means more time working, less time waiting on your computer

Support that understands
your complex workflows and can get you back up and running ASAP

Proven track record
check out our customer testimonials and Reseller Ratings

Get Started

Browse Our Workstations

Fractal Design Define 7 Chassis with Puget Systems Logo

Select your workflow:

Content Creation
Engineering
Scientific Computing
More

Latest Articles

  • Puget Systems Hardware Trends of 2022
  • Guide To Removing Instapak Foam
  • Basic Guide to Identify and Remove Malware
  • Should I Upgrade My Gpu
  • Case Study with Lost Boys Interactive
View All

Post navigation

 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB, RTX 3080 10GB & RTX 3090 24GB Review RoundupUnreal Engine: AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPU Performance 
Puget Systems Logo
Build Your Own PC Site Map FAQ
facebook instagram linkedin rss twitter youtube

Optimized Solutions

  • Adobe Premiere
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Solidworks
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • Machine Learning

Workstations

  • Content Creation
  • Engineering
  • Scientific PCs
  • More

Support

  • Online Guides
  • Request Support
  • Remote Help

Publications

  • All News
  • Puget Blog
  • HPC Blog
  • Hardware Articles
  • Case Studies

Policies

  • Warranty & Return
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Delivery Times
  • Accessibility

About Us

  • Testimonials
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

© Copyright 2023 - Puget Systems, All Rights Reserved.