On August 19, Blackmagic Design announced the newest version of DaVinci Resolve – DaVinci Resolve 17.3 that will now support an all-new processor engine that will make the application run three times faster on M1-chip Apple Mac models.
Until recently, DaVinci Resolve was running on the processor optimization set for the Intel chipsets on the new M1 MacBook range and was not making full use of the new Apple chip. Now, the 17.3 update changes everything.
Users can now enjoy enhanced speeds to play, edit and rate 4k projects faster and unlocks the capabilities of working on 8K projects on an Apple M1 MacBook.
The new processing engines utilize tile-based rendering that will provide customers with up to 30% more battery life on the laptops DaVinci Resolve operates.
What’s New?
The new version of DaVinci Resolve is an update to improve performance against the Apple Silicone M1 chip allowing customers who use Macbooks or Mac computers to get the advantage from the processor.
DaVinci Resolve will now support a new option allowing Mac computers with the M1 chip for H.265 hardware encoding. Customers now have the opportunity to choose whether to prioritize speed against quality when rendering, which will further improve render times up to 65%.
DaVinci Resolve will also decode AVC Intra files using the media engine built into the Apple M1 chip, making decoding and playback faster when working with such formats.
New Resolve FX controls are added, with new grid shapes and greater control given to the user using mosaic blur that will benefit customers to more precisely adjust the amount and appearance of pixelation.
Keyer garbage mattes now come equipped with rotation controls that will ease removing unwanted items for view.
The glow plug-in now comes with new saturation and gamma control to provide greater control and subtlety over lighting effects.
Aperture diffraction now comes with new anamorphic aperture controls that allow a more comprehensive range of lenses to emulate
There are significant improvements to Fairlight audio when it comes to latency with new drivers that allow adjustments to the input buffering and processing latency. This improvement will enable customers to optimize the processes to suit specific hardware, making recording and playback easier and smoother.
The improvement will also mean that customers can export selected clips or tracks directly from the Fairlight page, include clip levels, fades, EQ, and effects or iXML metadata, and normalize clips to match different loudness standards.
Fairlight improvements make it faster to pass on audio for further procession or inclusion when you handle a larger project.
Overall, DaVinci Resolve 17 comes with over 300 new features and improvements, including HDR Grading tools, redesigned primary color controls, the next-gen Fairlight audio engine with the Fairlight audio core, and support for 2,000 real time audio tracks.
Additionally, it is packed with dozens of time-saving tools that include a redesigned inspector, new bin sorting, and metadata clip views to streamline the editing process.
Speaking about the newest update, Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty added that the update would give customers the advantage of the performance and power efficiency that the M1 chip brings to the computer.
“This is truly an amazing update that gives customers huge performance and power efficiency gains on Mac models with M1, and it totally transforms your computer, simply by downloading this free of charge DaVinci Resolve software update.”
Grant was astounded by the performance improvements that the Apple Silicone chip brought to the table and compared the progress to that of the 1990s where the original 68000 switched Power PC.
“This speed increase is stunning, and it’s hard to believe. I have not seen a speed improvement this large since the original 68000 to Power PC transition back in the 1990s, and it is just amazing.
Who would have thought just a year ago that multiple 4K streams could be played back and edited natively on a MacBook Air, but it’s easy now on DaVinci Resolve with M1.
The engineering team has worked so hard on this new image processing engine for DaVinci Resolve, and it is an incredibly exciting time to be developing software for the Mac!” he further added.
Price & Availability
The latest version of DaVinci Resolve is available as a free download from the Blackmagic Support center. The complete Studio license for DaVinci Resolve 17.3 is also available on this page, but you will need to purchase an activation code to make it work.
The full license for two computers costs $299 that comes with a free Blackmagic Speed Editor.
The Studio license also comes with all new Blackmagic Design cameras.
