[Resolved] How to Easily Solve DaVinci Resolve Laggy Issue in 2023

Why is DaVinci Resolve so laggy? If you have this question in your head, then you’ve come to the right place. This page contains 8 proven solutions to DaVinci Resolve laggy/stuttering/choppy issues, they will help your playback smoother and the video editing experience much better on Windows PC, Mac PC, and laptops.

All given methods are quite easy to get started and they have been thoroughly tested on DaVinci Resolve 17.4.4. so make sure you give them a try. Without further ado, let’s fix your DaVinci Resolve lagging issue already!

Latest Video Editing Tips: How to Add Stickers to Videos, Best Online Video Editors, How to Change Voice in Video

8 Proven DaVinci Resolve Laggy Fixes

Why DaVinci Resolve So Laggy？

DaVinci Resolve is undoubtedly one of the best free video editing software in recent years, and it has gained immense popularity with its flexible interface and advanced video editing features, such as chroma keying. It had really impressed us in our earlier DaVinci Resolve Review.

However, these features and the massive data from video editing can be overwhelming for your computer and are exactly the reasons that DaVinci Resolve can be rather laggy when you edit or preview videos.

For devices that don’t meet the basic system requirements of DaVinci Resolve, things could get worse. But that doesn’t mean you have to fork out for a much more expensive build in a bid to edit videos with DaVinci Resolve smoothly. In the following, I’ll introduce 8 easy methods to get rid of DaVinci Resolve laggy issue, and I’m sure you’ll find one that can get your problem solved.

Hot Posts: How to Do Ken Burns Effect on Windows, 10 Best Windows Movie Maker Alternatives

Proven Solutions to DaVinci Resolve Lagging Issues

We’ve thoroughly tested DaVinci Resolve on devices with different hardware conditions, and these are the most effective methods to make Davinci Resolve run faster and smoother. The given solutions have been well tested and will totally bail you out.

Before starting, you can try reinstalling DaVinci Resolve on your device first and see if the problem’s solved.

1. Upgrade DaVinci Resolve to Studio

The DaVinci Resolve free version doesn’t support GPU/hardware acceleration for decoding, which is implemented with the CPU. So if you are editing MP4 videos with DaVinci Resolve, it could get super laggy. Upgrade DaVinci Resolve Free to DaVinci Resolve Studio is a solution to resolving MP4 editing choppy issues.

This method works best in fixing Davinci Resolve laggy timeline.

2. Edit with One Layer of Video

While editing footage, you may inadvertently overlay multiple video tracks. Even if you can only see the one on the top, your computer CPU will calculate the data from them all. These mistakes will make your CPU overwhelmed and slow your DaVinci Resolve down.

3. Set Optimized Media and Render Cache

Optimized media and render settings make it possible for video editing to have better video quality and smaller file size, and the editing experiences with optimized media formats are much smoother than the old-school ones.

First, we need to change the optimized media and render cache settings. Head to Setting, go to Optimized Media, and Render Cache from the Master Settings Tab.

On Windows, change them to DNxHR SQ.

On older Mac systems, set them as ProRes 422 LT.

Once you’ve done setting optimized media, hit the Render Cache dropdown, switch the checkbox Enable background caching after _ second to on, and then input the time interval at 1 second. Click OK when it’s all done.

Lastly, go to the Playback menu and enable the Use optimized media if an available option, and switch from None to User the Render Cache setting while you’re at it.

4. Upgrade Your PC Hardware

In many cases, DaVinci Resolve playback lag is the result of inadequate hardware. Your PC hardware should be powerful enough to handle high-definition video editing in DaVinci Resolve. Notably:

At least 16GB memory or 32 GB if using Fusion.

Graphic cards (GPU) with at least 2GB of VRAM. GPU, and supports Metal or OpenCL 1.2 RAM.

If you’ve checked your hardware and some of them don’t match up the requirements, upgrade your build or try lower video quality for your video editing.

5. Disable Live Save Feature

Live Save is a DaVinci Resolve that helps save every change you make when editing videos. However, if your database is on a remote drive, then the Live Save feature may drag you down as it causes your files to write at 10 times slower speed.

If you always remember saving the project once in a while editing, then you don’t really need the Live Save feature and you can disable it to make your DaVinci Resolve run faster.

To disable DaVinci Resolve 17 Live Save, go to the User Preferences menu, hit the upper-left DaVinci Resolve button, go to Preferences, under User tab, go to Project and Load, and Disable Live Save.

6. Update Beta Version to Stable Release

Just updated DaVinci Resolve from 16 to 17 and find it laggy and crashy all the time? That could be you have just updated DaVinci Resolve to the beta version. Beta versions are for testing purposes, always upgrade (or reinstall) your DaVinci Resolve to the latest stable release when possible.

7. Plug in Your Laptop

Are your editing videos with DaVinci Resolve on a laptop? Video editing can be a really power-consuming process, the low battery life of your laptop can lead to stuttering playback, thus you should remember to plug in your laptop for sufficient power supply.

8. Lower Playback Resolution

If you have tried and found none of the abovementioned methods work, then lowering the resolution of your preview playback is the method you totally should try. It will significantly make playbacks in DaVinci Resolve smoother and faster.

Go to the Playback menu. From the Proxy Mode tab, you can adjust to Half Resolution or Quarter Resolution, which depends on how you needed. No worries, the adjusted playback resolution will apply on the preview window but not the final render, and you can set it back any time.

To Sum Up

That’ll be all the best ways to solve Davinci Resolve slow playback and laggy performance issue. As mentioned, these methods work for the latest DaVinci Resolve 17 and they should work on earlier versions like DaVinci Resolve 16, so don’t forget to give these methods a try.

Of course, there could also be some other viable solutions that we missed out on, if you have better ideas on how to make Davinci Resolve run faster and smoother, please leave us your thoughts in the comment section below!