You can also change the quality of the 'optimized media' files in the settings so they take less hard drive space. When you export, by default Resolve uses the original clips so this won't impact your final render quality. The simplest free solution to this problem is to use the 'Generate Optimized Media' function in Resolve, which makes copies of your footage in a more editing/performance friendly codec so you'll get smooth playback. If you see close to 100% CPU usage, it's almost definitely what I've said here.

To check that this is the case, verify that you're not using the Studio version of Resolve, then open up the Task Manager while playing your clips in Resolve.

The free version of Resolve uses your CPU to decode h.264 and h.265 footage, which is much slower than the hardware accelerated decoders of the Studio version.ĭepending on your CPU and the bitrate of the footage, you may therefore encounter choppy playback. Choppy performance in Resolve is almost always the same couple things.

Why is my davinci resolve 16 lagging