I'm running Arch Linux with an AMD Ryzen CPU and Radeon RX 6600, and I'm trying to get DaVinci Resolve—or at least Kdenlive—to use the GPU for faster video editing. I have 32 GB of RAM dedicated to editing for my university work, but both programs currently fall back to the CPU or fail during startup. I've tried DaVinciBox, the Rocky Linux-based Resolve setup, Blackmagic's instructions, ROCm, and several community tutorials, but nothing has worked reliably. Would switching to another Linux distribution help, or am I realistically going to need Windows? Would an NVIDIA GPU make Resolve substantially easier to run on Linux?
3 Answers
Before giving up, try installing Resolve through a well-maintained Arch or CachyOS package rather than relying on a random script. There are also community setups designed specifically to handle AMD Resolve dependencies. NVIDIA cards are generally less troublesome for Resolve on Linux because CUDA support is more mature, but replacing the GPU is not necessarily required if the AMD OpenCL setup is configured correctly.
If Resolve remains unreliable, Shotcut using FFmpeg can take advantage of GPU encoding and may render much faster than a CPU-only workflow. Kdenlive is another option, although GPU support depends on the specific effect and encoding pipeline. Since you already know Resolve’s workflow and rely on Fusion, switching completely may be frustrating, but a combination of Kdenlive, Shotcut, and a separate audio editor can be a practical fallback.
I’ve been using Kdenlive with a separate audio program for now, but Resolve would still be my preferred option because I’m already comfortable with its workflow and Fusion.
An AMD setup can work, especially on CachyOS or Arch, but Resolve needs the correct OpenCL implementation. Install the AMD OpenCL package, usually called opencl-amd, and remove opencl-mesa if it is providing the slower Rusticl implementation. That combination has worked well for some people with Resolve Studio, and performance can be comparable to—or occasionally better than—Windows. Linux still has limitations, including issues with AAC audio support.
Thanks, I’ll try that combination. I’d been getting conflicting advice about ROCm and whether the RX 6600 was supported.
That’s useful to know. I’ll test the Arch/CachyOS approach first before considering a GPU upgrade or dual boot.