Red Digital Cinema and Nvidia have released new details on a collaboration that they say will bring real-time 8K workflow to single-CPU desktop workstations via Nvidia GPU hardware.
Red’s Nvidia Cuda-accelerated R3D SDK and accompanying Redcine-X Pro software are expected to be released by the end of Q1 2019, the companies said. Meanwhile, a Redcode Raw decode SDK, first announced in August at SIGGRAPH, has already been released as a beta to “major third parties,” allowing them to develop software that offloads Redcode Raw decoding and debayering to an Nvidia GPU.
At an event in Hollywood last night, Red and Nvidia demoed 8K Redcode Raw (8192 x 4320) playback, editing, and color-grading on a single-CPU HP Z4 workstation loaded with an Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 GPU ($6,300).
In a blog post this morning, Nvidia said the same 8K performance is available with an Nvidia Titan RTX ($2,499) or GeForce RTX 2080 Ti ($1,199) card. Previously, 8K Redcode Raw workflow required a $6,750 Red Rocket-X card or a massively powerful dual-processor workstation.
Colorfront was also at last night’s event, demonstrating processed 8K video output at up to 60p via Nvidia GPUs and AJA Kona 5 video cards.
The new SDK will run on legacy GeForce, Titan and Quadro GPUs, Nvidia said, meaning less-powerful GPUs will still be able to reach new Redcode Raw performance levels supporting lower-resolution workflow.
Even as the Red user base stirred with excitement over the new 8K workflow options, there was bad news for Mac users, as Apple has essentially discontinued support for nearly all Nvidia graphics cards on Mac OS v10.14, Mojave. Twitter users have mobilized around #unblockNvidia, and a Change.org petition urging Apple to approve new Nvidia drivers for Mojave has garnered more than 4,000 signatures at this writing.
