Ma35d Accelerator Card in Resolve?

Can the AMD/Xilinx MA35d Accelerator Card be used in DaVinci Resolve to render out a video in AV1?

I am aware of the target market for this card, and have watched the EposVox video on this card. Everything points towards video transcoding for live streaming and there is little to no information on whether this card can be used for simple encode exports (video rendering).

The price of the card, and its very specific target market, makes me hesitant to simply go get one and try to make it work. It costs as much as an RTX4090 24GB card up here in Canada, with only a handful of options for resale if it doesn’t work out.

The reason I am asking, is because I am looking to build a Render Server in my rack. I have all the components, I just need to choose an encoder solution.

It is a 2U dual socket XEON that would pair very nicely with a LP 8X Pcie card that sips power and is only asked to do 1 thing. Encode video from Resolve.

If not I will look into the Intel ARC cards or something.

Any help/insight on this is greatly appreciated.

Hi @PlanetPost, welcome to Level1Techs!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any information on the AMD/Xilinx MA35d Accelerator Card and specifically its performance in DaVinci Resolve. To me this seems to be an expensive option for a specialized use case. Asking for data is wise.

Are you aware of the Puget analysis of consumer cards?
While not exactly what you’re asking for it documents that specific use cases within DaVinci Resolve are supported differently by consumer cards. It may inform you in which areas you need to look closer.

Good luck!

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Hello, years ago (2016) I built video rendering server systems to transcode all kinds of videos to different codecs and qualities for a small streaming plattform. At that time we used Nvidia GPU which typicaly could encode two videos at the same time. To be able to do that I had to comile ffmpeg with the SDK of NVIDIA. At that time I did compile ffmpeg on ubuntu 16.04

In the year 2022 I compiled ffmpeg new on ubuntu 22.04.

A year ago I learned about MA35D Card. Unfortunately I did not have time to try to use the MA35D Card for video transcoding.

The owners of the small streaming plattform asked me to do some tests if we can integrate the MA35D in our transcoding servers. Today I did a small search and I am positive, that this would be possible.

Some Links and Info:

  1. Getting Started with AMD AMA Video SDK Cards — AMD AMA 1.2.1 documentation
  2. Using FFmpeg — AMD AMA 1.2.1 documentation
  3. Tutorials and Examples — AMD AMA 1.2.1 documentation
  4. Using FFmpeg — AMD AMA 1.2.1 documentation

So to your question:
I’m pretty shure that with ffmpeg and the MA35D and it’s software development kid you can build a very strong transcoding server using ffmpeg.

But what I do not really understand is the link to Davinci Resolve. I of course would find it very nice, if Davinci Resolve could utilize the MA35D.

Now questions from my side:

  • has anyone made some experience with MA35D and the SDK with ffmpeg on linux?
  • has anyone made some experience with MA35D and Davinci Resolve? I am interested too.

thanks for sharing your experiences,
online78

https://amd.github.io/ama-sdk/latest/using_ffmpeg.html#rebuilding-ffmpeg

https://amd.github.io/ama-sdk/latest/examples.html

https://amd.github.io/ama-sdk/latest/using_ffmpeg.html

Thanks for the reply.

I was aware of the Puget Systems benchmarks. However, they are what I would consider candidates for “workstations”. Not really a server specifically.

They also benchmark what I would have to consider a dysfunctional workflow, which is why I am so interested in a quasi-dedicated Encode/Decode card.

I don’t want to work with RAW. I want to encode it to a working codec for use on my workstation.
I don’t want to work with h.265/264/AV1… those are delivery codecs, not working codecs. I will want to render the finished timelines out to those codecs, preferably on the server, while I start organizing the next project.
The 5-600Watts and 4 slots also puts the consumer cards in the no-go column.

I am at peace needing the 4090 on the workstation. Along with the power requirements.
But not on my server. I am not really processing much during export/import.
The Ma35d checks all the boxes on the surface. All the function where its needed, none of the extra fluff where its not.

Just need to get it working with a Resolve Render Server. I’ll investigate the FFMPEG route.

Thanks for reply,

Thanks for the links. I had already read them, but appreciate the effort nonetheless.

It’s pretty straightforward (easy and awesome!) if you just want to take one delivery codec and transcode it to another format/res/etc., or even to stream an existing delivery codec file over the web. Multi-card allocation and VM support is quite simple and robust. I get the hoopla for streamers…

However, the trick I am trying to accomplish is to get a Resolve timeline to a delivery codec without needing 4 slots an a kW of power.

I have an Intel A380 I am going to try out. The drivers are robust enough on Linux and Windows. Sips power. AV1 support. Only question is performance. Was really hoping to tag-team the A380(or other as the processing unit) and the Ma35d as the encoder.

Maybe next XMas.