Which is the highest version of DaVinci Resolve I can run on a 2012 MacBook Pro Retina 16GB Catalina

[Robert Wilde]

I am on a 16GB RAM 2012 MacBook Pro Retina running Mac OS Catalina  and wonder what version of DaVinci Resolve I can run.

I would like to begin with the courses here and don't want to wait that the new iMac Pro is available.

I currently have DaVinci Resolve 15 and would like to get a more updated version to follow the courses better.

Version 18 requires Big Sure (which I can't run)

What about Version 17. Early versions were suggesting Catalina but I couldn't find any information if this would run on my old machine.

Your comment and advice is much appreciated!

[Bruno Mansi]

I've installed Resolve 16.2.7 on a Mac with Mojave (10.14.6) so I would imagine you would be able to install version 17 on Catalina.

If you look at the support section of the Blackmagic site, you'll see that the minimum specs for 17.4.6 is as follows...

Minimum system requirements for Mac OS

• macOS 10.15 Catalina
• 8 GB of system memory. 16 GB when using Fusion
• Blackmagic Design Desktop Video version 12.0 or later
• Integrated GPU or discrete GPU with at least 2GB of VRAM.
• GPU which supports Metal or OpenCL 1.2.

How well it would run on a 2012 Macbook is another matter!

 

[Robert Wilde]

Thank you, Bruno.

I have the intergraded Intel HD Graphics 4000 with 1,5 GB vVRam and the NVidia GeForce GT 650M with 1GB Vram.

Does this mean I have 2,5 GB Vram? 

Metal is supported.

I don't expect it to run well. I will be limiting myself to 1080p for now.

 

 

[Bruno Mansi]

Don't know if you can aggregate the memory like this in Resolve to give you the 2 Gig that's mentioned in the specs.

Normally, when you install Resolve it runs you through a quick setup which checks your GPU and gives a 'tick' if it meets the minimum specs.

I suspect you'd be fine with ProRes or DNX media at 1080p, but RAW files might not play well. 

I would always go with SSD storage for both the boot drive and media drive to maximise performance.

[Robert Wilde]

Thanks, Bruno,

Both of those drives are SSD. I only use spinning drives for backup.

I will simply give it a try. Even with v15 I could no longer play 4k files but had no problem with 1080p.

Edited April 13, 2023 by Robert Wilde