Video editing workstation for 4K and 8K: DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro

The codec rules

Editing H.264 or H.265 from a compact camera or a phone is not the same as ProRes, DNxHR or RAW. The former are small but demanding to decode, because each frame depends on others; the latter are much larger but play smoothly if the disks keep up.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series cards decode H.264 and H.265 in hardware, including 4:2:2, the format many current cameras record in. That takes a lot of load off the processor as you move around the timeline.

The GPU: decisive in DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve relies on the GPU for much of the work: colour grading, noise reduction, effects and Fusion. GPU memory matters: 12 GB is a sensible baseline for 4K and, for 8K, heavy noise reduction or Fusion, 16 GB or more gives headroom. The Studio version uses several GPUs.

Premiere Pro also uses the GPU for effects and export, but depends more on the processor and on hardware decoding.

Processor and memory

12 to 16 cores is a good spot for 4K and 8K: exporting, generating proxies and working with effects spread well across cores. For memory, 32 GB is the minimum for professional 4K work and 64 GB is recommended for 8K, heavy compositions or several applications open at once.

Disks: separate system, media and cache

One NVMe SSD for the system and applications, another for the current project’s media and the cache, and larger storage for the archive. A single disk for everything works, but it becomes the bottleneck when you play back, cache and export at the same time.

Proxies: how to edit heavy footage smoothly

Both DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro can generate lightweight copies of the clips —proxies or optimised media— so you can edit smoothly and go back to the originals only for export. It is the cheapest way to work with 8K or RAW on a machine not designed for it, at the cost of preparation time and disk space. With the right configuration, you often do not need them.

Monitor and colour

To deliver colour you can stand behind, the signal to the reference monitor should come from a dedicated video card, not from the GPU output. If you need one, we include it in the configuration.

Catalogue configurations

Prices excl. VAT. All of them can be adjusted in the configurator and paid on renting.

What we need to know to configure it

Which cameras and codecs you work with, what resolution you deliver, which software you use (and whether Resolve is the Studio version), how much footage you handle per project and how you archive it. With that we match the GPU, memory and disks to your workflow instead of oversizing everything.